Iran is discussing the possibility of boycotting the 2012 Olympics, which are to be held in London. Their reasoning is based on the notion that there are racist ques directed towards them. The secretary-general of the Olympic Committee of Iran, Bahram Afsharzadeh, claims that the logo for the 2012 event, which was first revealed 4 years ago, resembles the Muslim’s biblical term for Jerusalem, which is “Zion”. One needs to rotate the logo a bit to reveal the word, but Bahram Afsharzadeh and other Muslim countries are convinced that this subtle attack was intentional. Afsharzadeh is trying to gather as many Muslim countries as he can to support his claim, take a stand against, and possibly boycott the logo of the future Olympics. When asked, the International Olympic Committee stated that the logo is nothing more than a pattern of numbers that represent the year of the next Olympic games. Iran and other Muslim countries are standing strong with their belief that the logo means much more, and that the Olympic Committee is just choosing to avoid the controversy.
This is the link for the article: http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/blog/fourth_place_medal/post/Iran-threatens-London-boycott-over-racist-Olym?urn=oly-327678
Very interesting. Apparently the International Olympic Committee didn’t put much stock in this. ZION is not a Muslim term for Jerusalem, but a Jewish term (and for some Christians also). So, the message is really that Iran is complaining the logo is pro-Jew and particularly pro-Israeli. Hence the comment on the article that Iran has refused to compete against Israeli athletes. Some of Iran’s political leadership has been notoriously anti-Semitic. The logo is klunky/ugly if you ask me!
Mimi
I feel that an event as big and as hyped-up as the Olympics, there will always be scrutiny about one thing or another. This time around, it happens to be the logo. When the Olympics were held in Beijing not long ago, there were complaints of the large amounts of pollution in the country and that it would effect the athletes performance. The Olympic games are a world-wide event. Disputes will happen. Unfortunately, this time around it is the logo and it’s possible resemblance of this pro-Israeli term.