Sports Jihad

Perhaps you heard the weird story of the Iranian weightlifter who refused to shake his Israeli counterpart's hand on the podium of the World Masters Weightlifting Championships in Poland. Apparently, that unsportmanlike conduct just wasn't good enough for his masters in Tehran. Just for standing by the Israeli gold medal winner while the Hatikvah played, the regime ended his career. But Iran's weird jihad on international sporting events doesn't end there.

After the Iranian Judo federation forced national team member Vahid Sarlak to refuse competition with Israeli athlete, he announced his intention to seek asylum  in Germany.

Sarlak added: “Avoiding confrontation with the Israeli Judoka, they forced me to intentionally lose a level. If we refuse to compete with the Israeli judo team, the Iranian Judo federation could be disqualified or banned from joining other international competitions. They (the Iranian government) promised me a house and car. But they didn’t keep their promises and I got nothing after I returned to Iran...”

An Eastern proverb has it that nobody believes liars except the greedy.

Adam Balmoral is a Contributing Writer for The Propagandist