Sunday, 14 August 2016

Nothing to do with Islam


When Egyptian judoka Islam El Shehaby broke judo rules by refusing to shake the hand of Israeli judoka Or Sasson, the crowd understandably booed. 

But why did Islam El Shehaby behave in the way that he did? According to BBC Sport, it's because "the Egyptian had come under pressure from some conservative voices in his homeland to withdraw from the bout".


Here the word "conservative" appears to be a cover for more appropriate words like 'hardline', 'Islamist', 'racist' or 'antisemitic'. 

Moreover, by other accounts, Islam (living up to his name) is quite the 'conservative' himself, being regularly described as a "Salafi" or a "Salafi Muslim" - a point missing from the BBC article.

The Egyptian has now retired from judo. The Israeli went on to win an Olympic bronze.

Or Sasson and his Olympic medal
******

Also - as BBC Watch has just noted - this same BBC article manages to spell Or Sasson's name wrong: