The Athens Olympics have already descended into a moral morass. Iran's world judo champion Arash Miresmaeili has refused to compete against an Israeli Sunday, explicitly violating the Olympic ethos, which bans race, creed or color from interfering in sport. The International Judo Federation has so far failed to do anything about it, and has scheduled another meeting for Monday.

The only question should be whether the individual athlete or the entire Iranian team should be disqualified from Olympic competition and sent home immediately. Perhaps the Judo Federation and the International Olympic Committee should take note of the statement made back in Teheran:

...in Tehran, the Iranian National Olympic Committee said in a statement: "This is a general policy of our country to refrain from competing against athletes of the Zionist regime and Arash Miresmaeili has observed this policy."

That seems to pretty much cover it. Iran should be thrown out of the Olympics.

Hat tip to Ethel Fenig

Posted by Thomas   8 15 04