Why we should avoid watching the Olympics.

With hours away from the London 2012 Olympic opening ceremony, i thought this would be a befitting moment to dig up a long forgotten and buried myth about the origins of the Olympic. That being, its links with, or rather the origins of its pagan beginnings. A festival which was based on the veneration of the Greek GOD Zeus.

With me, the fascination of the Olympics grew not because London is the host of this years Olympic, or the fact that it is a ‘great sporting occasion’. But, it began with a curious thought. Why do the Olympics center around a flame? what has a flame to do with sport? and more importantly, why do they spend millions and in some cases billions protecting the flame from going out? Is there purely a logistics reason behind it? Or, is it just a tradition of the games? Something which has been happening during every Olympics. It started back in may when i was amazed to see how much veneration they (the people) carrying it and protecting the flame, give. The hours of strict security protocols they go through to maintain a ‘risk-free’ country tour of the flame, before it reaches the pen-ultimate location. That is, the city which is to kick-start the games. My inquisitive nature and the love of history pushed me on to do a little research and to find out frankly speaking, ‘what all the fuss was about’. Much to my already formed idea about the origins of the Olympics, i came across one ‘myth/legend’ which caught my attention immediately. There are no real or ‘factual’ evidence of the origins of the Olympics.

However there are several, if not many myths which surround the beginnings of the Olympics. One legend about the origin of the Olympic Games revolves around Zeus, (one of the strongest God amongst the plethora of Greek GODs). It was said Zeus once fought his father, Kronos, for control of the world. They battled atop a mountain that overlooked a valley in southwestern Greece. After Zeus defeated his father, a temple and immense statute were built in the valley below to honor him. This valley was called Olympia, and soon religious festivals developed there as people came to worship Zeus and to try achieve gaining as much strength as possible to match the strength of Zeus. It is believed that these religious festivals eventually led to the famed Games of the Olympics. Where the The Statue of Zeus – the father of the Gods and one of the Seven Ancient Wonders of the World, was housed in a temple at Olympia – the site of the Ancient Olympics. This is not the only idol worship/cultist origins we find.

It is also believed that the Greek tradition of athletic nudity started at the games in 720 BC, and it was most likely introduced by the Spartans or Megarian Orsippus. It is from this practice that we have our word “gymnasium” – derived from the Greek word “gymnos” meaning “naked”. Competing naked was meant as a tribute to the gods and to encourage aesthetic appreciation of the male body. So far we have seen how the whole shenanigans of the Olympics are interconnected and shrouded with dark idol worship, basically. Although one may argue, modern Olympics has moved away from such fanciful ideas. We nonetheless, find religious dogma being the bedrock for a modern activity, a modern standard of ‘momentous’ occasion. Just like Christmas and many of the other pagan celebrations that have been hijacked by the money-hungry secularists, for commercial gains. Who have hidden the dark origins of these celebrations have to dark idol worship. It has led to many people being completely unaware of the links these celebrations, and many others, have with pagan ideology.

I am not trying to ‘be a kill joy’ for everyone. As a Muslim we are told to stay clear of any action, or any celebration which has a deep-rooted religious/pagan foundation based on Kufr, Shirk and Blasphemy. Muslims don’t celebrate Christmas because of this simple reason. That, Christmas like other religious/pagan celebrations, birthdays for example, is based on Kufr and Shirk. Not only that, but because Christmas has nothing to do with the birth of ISA (as), prophet Jesus. Read here for more information: Uncanny similarities between Mithraism & Christianity This is the blessed month of Ramadan. No Muslim needs to be reminded how sacred this month is. We should try to avoid ourselves from watching/viewing/participating or even celebrating the Olympics this summer. Just as we avoid celebrating or watching or participating in Christian or Jewish celebrations.