Wall-to-wall Olympics

I’m not a fan of competitive sport - or any other type of competitive pursuit, so watching the Olympics is not my thing, but I couldn’t help noticing these Olympics-related stories. 

Obviously, there’s the bus war. 

 

Proud to be Lebanese. No normalization with Israel in any form!

The Lebanese contingent refused to let the Israeli contingent board ‘their’ bus. (Or perhaps it was just a bus that the organisers had laid on for -  you know - athletes)

Well, the BBC did at least report this incident , and what’s more they gave it a reasonably fair headline.

Lebanese athletes refuse to travel with Israeli team. 

It’s better than “Israeli athletes invade Lebanese bus” or some such. After all, aren’t Israelis renowned for Jewifying everything? “Judaisation”, Yolande Knell calls it.

The main body of the article dives straight into a kind of justification for the Lebanese contingent’s appalling behaviour:

 “Lebanon and Israel are officially at war and have no diplomatic relations.”

So that’s okay then?

The BBC didn’t include any of the Lebanese team leader’s gloating:

“Lebanese Minister of Youth and Sport Abdel Motaleb Hannawi told a Lebanese news site that this was not the first time Israel has attempted to embarrass a Lebanese delegation in this kind of circumstance. He praised the delegation’s behavior, Nakoula’s specifically. “His stance was principled and patriotic,” he said. 

Nakoula became the hero of the day in Lebanon after the incident was publicized. The Al Mayadeen and Al-Manar news networks, both associated with Hezbollah, gave Nakoula praise, with the latter also interviewing him. Hezbollah supporters and officials praised him on social media, with one Al-Manar broadcaster tweeting, “The Israelis were sent away from the bus because normalization (with Israel) is not to be had in any  form, and because the Lebanese identity (is that of) resistance. Be proud to be Lebanese.”

 …… and left the impression that Israelis should, once again, be regarded as interlopers on ‘other people’s’ buses. 

Another story caught my eye, this time about problems concerning swimming pools. 

" The Palestinian Olympic Swimming Pool-Sized Lie."

“Introducing the Palestinian swimmer Mary al-Atrash, media outlets were quick to note that the young athlete was challenged not only by the rigors of training for the Olympics but also by the fact that the occupation had cut off her access to a proper 50-meter-long pool, the standard Olympic size. Such stately facilities, the media informed its outraged viewers, were simply not available in Palestine.”

According to ‘Tablet’, this wasn’t quite the case, as she could have had access to a number of suitable pools. But Palestinians never miss an opportunity to blame Israel for all their woes, especially when there’s a sympathetic ear to hear it and a willing voice to spread it around. 

Oddly though, certain women in Luton, yes, that’s Luton UK., are denied access to their Olympic size pool  (for cultural reasons) but not to worry. It’s only on Fridays.

Update:

It seems that the IOC has reprimanded the head of the Lebanese delegation, Al-Haj Nakoula, who apparently responded that the whole incident was the result of a misunderstanding.

Doesn’t say precisely what the nature of the misunderstanding was, but a separate source said that Lebanese athletes are "committed to the national position in refusing to be in the same place as the Israelis." He added that Lebanon will remain part of the resistance against Israel. 

I fail to see where a misunderstanding comes into the picture. Am I missing something?

Am I Bovvered?

‘Why oh why’ are we so worried about the families who go to Syria allegedly to join Islamic State, (ISIL, ISIS, and/or Daesh)? The UK is still a free country isn’t it? 

If they want to join a Caliphate that’s their business and I don’t care. As long as they aren’t allowed come back as though nothing has happened, should they be in a position to try.

“A family of 12 from Luton, including a baby and two grandparents, could have travelled to Syria after going missing, police have said. They have not been seen since 17 May after visiting their home country of Bangladesh. It is believed the family stopped in Turkey on their way home before entering the war-torn country. Our reporter Sima Kotecha has been to Luton.”

(Today programme)

Feared missing

Sima Kotecha always gets these assignments. Her high-pitched laborious diction is irritating. One Luton shopkeeper is angry and sad about the family’s baffling departure. Sima wonders what’s going on. 22 year old Ali Khan is in a car with loud Bangladeshi style music playing in the background. He is indignant that we’re not concerned enough about the family’s welfare, and wants to know why everyone assumes they’ve gone to Syria.

     

Why have they gone?  (If they have.) Is Islam incompatible with the West? Some people are struggling with their identity, announces another Muslim spokesman. Lots of Muslims don’t know where they belong. (Obviously some of them believe they’d be more at home in Syria than Luton)

Should Mosques be doing more, Sima wonders. The mosques don’t push the argument that says life under I.S. might not be all that attractive, says a man. 

Bangladesh has a huge Muslim majority, but secularism - the separation of the state from religion - was one of the founding principles of the country that split from Pakistan in 1971. Now a shocking series of murders has raised concerns that a dangerous strain of fundamentalist radical Islam is rising in Bangladesh. Our South Asia correspondent Justin Rowlatt has been investigating.

(Today Programme, an item or two after the previous one.)

A dangerous strain of radical fundamentalist Islam is flourishing, says Justin Rowlatt.  A Bangladeshi Blogger has been killed (with meat cleavers) for questioning the role of Islam in Bangladeshi society. The message is clearly  “Don’t criticise Islam!”

Some bloggers have posted offensive material though.  An ultra conservative organisation runs many hundreds of schools in Bangladeshi. 

A man says: 

“It is clear in the koran that those who insult the prophet should be killed.The death penalty is not enough. They should be hanged a hundred times! 

One of the organisation’s leaders says

 “The law in Bangladesh is not strong enough. Because of this, these bloggers and the atheists are getting too bold.”

He thinks the answer is to create a Islamic State here in Bangladesh. 

“It is very near I think, inshallah.   

Many schools in Bangladesh are receiving funds from the Middle East. This is helping propagate more conservative forms of Islam, Justin tells us.

The editor of an English language newspaper says

 “this is still very much in the minority here.” “To say Bangladesh is travelling in that direction I would say is an overstatement of fact.”

Some bloggers meet at night, in secret. One says he get death threats every day but he will not be deterred. It doesn’t matter, he says if I or my fellow bloggers are killed, we are upholding the flag of peace, democracy and justice. It’s a battle to protect Bangladesh’s secular heritage against a new, more fundamentalist strain of Islam. A battle he is willing to lay down his life for.

Reporting like this makes the BBC's attitude more and more baffling. Why should I be worried about the well-being of these Luton fugitives, as the BBC keeps telling me I should. 

Please let them go, and let them get on with it, if it floats their boat, and I use that phrase deliberately.