Should the United States be denied chance to host 2016 Olympics?
By Ray Hanania
Some argue that the International Olympics competition, held every four years, is about the spirit of humanity. After all, the sporting contests represent a tradition dating back thousands of years.
But we all know that the International Olympics are as much about politics as they are about sports.
That is why as an American, who seeks truth, justice and fairness in this world, I urge the International Olympic Committee to reject the submission by the United States to host the 2016 Olympics.
Recently, the U.S. Olympic Committee named the city of Chicago as the city they believe will best represent the United States in the bid to win the IOC’s approval to be the host city in 2016.
I know Chicago would be an excellent representative, and a beautiful backdrop for the Olympics, if they were held here. I was born in Chicago and have lived my entire live within the “second city’s†enormous shadow.
But that is also why I know that behind the veneer of impressive architecture, beautiful landscaping, and all the happy-talk boosterism that went into Chicago’s Olympic pitch are more important principles involving the absence of civil rights and the presence of American misconduct.
Chicago Mayor Daley and the IOC board said that bringing the Olympics to the United States “will help improve how the international community views this country.â€
That is politics, of course.
Before the United States can expect to host an International Olympic event, this country should change its policies and correct a slew of injustices that make a mockery of the American claims of freedom.
Americans must begin to think about how they can change and earn the respect of the international community.
Americans, and especially Chicagoans, have time to remedy themselves. They have time to change their ways and remold themselves as the true icons of freedom and democracy in the world.
Although the United States has picked a city as their entrant to compete for the IOC designation, the actual decision will not come for about two years.
Chicago is now in competition to be named the “2016 host city†by the IOC with other great cities including Madrid, Spain; Prague, Czech Republic; Rome; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; and Tokyo, Japan; and Doha, Qatar.
The last time the U.S. hosted an Olympics was in 1996 in Atlanta. Those were different times. Much has changed in America since.
On March 19, 2003, the United States illegally invaded Iraq, murdering thousands of innocent civilians. It violated international laws, threw out the foundation of international conduct, the 4th Geneva Conventions, and occupied a nation without international sanction.
The invasion was built on lies that Americans accepted and never questioned, until only in the past year when the cost of the lies started to accumulate American fatalities.
President Bush and his White House accomplices should all be brought before the International Court of Justice and charged with War Crimes. Designating the U.S. as the host country for the Olympics will only serve to mute the legitimate outcries against these American foreign policy abuses.
America is supposed to also be about “freedom and Democracy,†yet if you live in America and happen to have olive skin, are of Arab heritage, or believe in Islam, you know the words ring hallow.
Since the terrorism of Sept. 11, 2001, America has engaged in a campaign of racial and religious discrimination, not crime fighting. The War on Terrorism is built upon the denial of the civil rights to Middle Easterners, Arabs and Muslims.
More than 14 people who looked “Middle Eastern†were murdered in the weeks after Sept. 11, 2001 and yet Americans refuse to give those murder victims the same status given to the nearly 3,000 Americans murdered on Sept. 11.
That must be changed before the U.S. can host the Olympics.
Since Sept. 11, individuals who are Arab or Muslim, or who look Middle Eastern, have been arrested, detained, harassed and unjustly accused of crimes.
In Chicago, Mohammad Salah, a victim of Israeli persecution who opposed Israel’s illegal occupation policies not the United States, was persecuted for years and held up as the poster child of the American war on terrorism. The terrorism charges were dropped, and he was acquitted of the only remaining serious charge of “racketeering,†found guilty only of “perjury†in another, unrelated civil case.
Mohammad Salah is a poster child, but not of a just fight against terrorism, but rather the American abuse of its own Constitution, the denial of justice, and the persecution of people based on ethnicity, race and their faith.
Thousands of Arab Americans have been unjustly fired from their employment, denied basic human rights, and many live singled-out as “suspects†because of unjust American policies and paranoia.
Arab and Muslim Americans are patriotic, even more so than many of the Americans who criticize them. Tens of thousands of Arabs and Muslims served in the U.S. armed forces in Vietnam, the Korean War, World War II, and even in the Gulf War and this war in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Doors of American “equality†are shut to Arab Americans, including in Chicago. Arab Americans have lived in Chicago since the 1860s, yet this city doesn’t have one building, one major holiday, one parade, one celebration, one major icon that honors or celebrates their many contributions.
Yes, I want the United States and Chicago to be the host country and city for the 2016 Olympics.
But I also want the United States and American cities like Chicago to start acting like the champion of world Democracy, freedom, justice and principles that they insist they are but their practices expose as seriously deficient.
(Ray Hanania is an award winning Palestinian American columnist, author and standup comedian. He can be reached at www.hanania.com.)
Join the Conversation
1. The US hosted the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City.
2. The invasion of Iraq was not illegal. The UN sanctions against Iraq allowed for it and the US Congress approved it.
3. Salah was charged and then acquitted. To me that shows the American system works far better than you give it credit for. People are charged with crimes frequently and found not guilty. The system is not perfect. However, I will take it over sharia any day.
4. So if Chicago would just honor Arabs you would be okay? Sounds like you want a payoff.
5. What is a Palestinian anyway?
6. Name the Arab Americans fired from their jobs?
7. Were the people who killed the Arabs (or those looking like Arabs) prosecuted and sent to prison?
8. The US is NOT and should NEVER be a democracy. Democracy is mob rule where the majority determines what is going to happen. Do you really want that? I do not. I want a country with the rule of law.
9. What are your thoughts on the Palestinians who blow themselves up in crowded public places and killing innocent folks?
Sam, your points:
2) The UN sanctions did not have anything to do with illegally invading a country without the UN’s full approval. What was Iraq’s threat to the U.S? There was no direct threat and this was hardly done in the name of self-defense. Invading a country, killing its leader (no matter how brutal that leader is), and claiming to know what’s best for the country by crowding more and more soldiers is nothing to be proud of. It was a grave error and the Bush administration, while knowing this very well, is still in denial.
5) Someone who in many ways is denied basic human rights, perhaps.
9) What are your thoughts on the U.S forces who blow things up in crowded public places killing hundreds if not thousands of innocent civilians in the process, from Iraq to Afghanistan to God knows where else? You are speaking as if Palestinians are the only ones committing these crimes, when in fact there are much bigger crimes that are taking place. Bombs, air missiles, much bigger technologies and military facilities are being used against such innocent civilians and you are complaining about kids blowing themselves up in cafes? This was a reaction. I am not justifying it because it’s wrong and just as disgusting as killing and humiliating Palestinians but it IS a reaction to the violence that these children are being subjected to on a day to day basis. Find the source, don’t take everything at face value and assume that these children were born hateful. War is what leads to a culture of hatred. And certainly not most Palestinians are guilty of these violent tactics, so don’t listen to the bad news and generalize claiming that they’re all just as bad as the ones we hear about.
It goes both ways, please do not justify murder as if it’s done in the name of self defense. Palestinians dying still counts as the murder of “innocent folks.” And there are innocent folks in Iraq, both American and Iraqis, who are also dying, and innocent folks in Israel and Palestine, who are also dying. All equally deserving of life. No one should justify any of these deaths.
SC has to approve of an invasion if it has to be legal. Since it didn’t it wasn’t. Come on try a little harder.
Democracy is not a fixed word. Democracy comes in many variaties. The current representitve kind works well, that’s all.
This is direct democracy. I am strongly oppose to this.
South Africa was under the rule of law during the apartheid period. I want rule of law only if it’s just law that rules.
Terrorists. What is your thought on Israelis who empty entire cartridge into a 10 year old or those who steal Palestinian land by killing them or burying them alive with their houses they demolish?
I passionately desire summer olympic 2016 to be hosted in Chicago. I opposed invasion of Iraq and I call for immidiate withdrawal of US forces from Iraq right now. For invasion of
Iraq I equally blame President Bush, senate and congress
who overwhelmingly supported the invasion. After fall of Sadam
who marched in victory rally in Detroit, Michigan? It is the Iraqis.
Who participated in the US backed government in Iraq? It is Sadarist, secularist to islamist sunnis. Who is engazed in bloodbath
in Iraq? It is sunni islamist against shia, and vis a vis shia islamist
against sunnis. You talking about religeous discrimination? You are a muslim that’s why. It is the muslims mostly arabs complain about
religeous discrimination whereever they migrate. No where in the
world they live in peace. Recently I visited in Baha’s temple in
Chicago. I talked to many Baha followers. Everyone is a convert
from islam. I asked them about religeous freedom in USA. In chorus, they expressed gratitude to the religeous freedom they enjoy in America. Rather they complained how they were persecuted in Arab muslim countries as heretics. About
myself, I am very happy with religeous freedom and freedom from
religeon in United states.