“Me? Anti-Semitic? You’re the one who’s showing me the Jew pictures.” Here’s the statement, from the Iranian Students News Agency, a site backed by the Iranian government(emphasis added):
National Olympic Committee of Iran sent a letter to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in opposition to the logo of 2012 London Olympic Games.
The letter calls for designing a new logo and confronting the symbol’s designers.
The letter which was signed by Head of Iranian Olympics Committee, Mohammad Ali Abadi and the Secretary General of Iran’s Olympic Committee Bahram Afsharzade addressed to the president of IOC Jacques Rogge.
“We appreciate the committee’s efforts in line with developing the spirit of Olympism all over the world. We ask for your consideration of the following issue which if neglected, may have destructive effects on the future of sport, especially London Olympic Games in 2012,” the letter said.
“Highlighting the values of Olympic, which ban any sorts of partiality, political, religious and racial measures in this field, may have a leading role to hold London Games better,” he added.
“We have two years ahead to the opening of the games and unfortunately we see the games face with a critical challenge at the beginning which is raised by the racial attitudes of some individuals.”
“As internet documents have proved, using the word Zion in the logo of 2012 Olympic Games is a disgracing action and against Olympic’s valuable mottos.”
“There is no doubt that negligence of the issue from your side may affect the presence of some countries in the games, especially Iran which abides by commitment to the values and principles.”
Iran is the first Islamic country which has officially expressed its opposition to the logo.
Soon after the logo was unveiled, some Muslim graphists objected to it, saying the logo reminds the world “Zion”.
But their objection was snubbed by the local officials in charge of hosting the games who showed no reaction to the oppositions.
IOC and the hosting Committee in London have not showed any reaction to Iran’s oppositions yet.
There’s more at the Guardian (UK); thanks to InstaPundit for the pointer.
Here’s the 2012 logo, for you to examine for yourselves. But watch out: Maybe you’ll see a man and a woman having sex. In Zion.
The original joke, for those few who don’t know it, is here.