By Ghada Ramahi

Officially, Faisal Ben Fahad was grieved as the champion responsible for "developing" the Saudi sports and athletic enterprise. Eulogies surveyed his contribution and boasted his accomplishments in this regard. His international status and achievements were reviewed by most Arab satellite stations. Is all of this really important? The Prince's passing offers an opportunity to investigate the importance of such enterprises. While sports serve to portray a good innocent cause, which develops the youth and keeps them from drugs, and for the luxury of the citizens, there is another side.

While the Kingdom was often at the forefront of sporting development, the phenomenon is not limited only to Saudi Arabia. It has mushroomed worldwide into all "developing" countries, specifically, in countries with oppressive regimes like those of the Arabs and Muslims. Extravagant athletic "cities" were established in the "third world countries." This involves constructing giant sporting facilities, building state-of-the-art athletic centers, allocating extravagant budgets for Olympic representatives, establishing youth centers, and, more recently, instituting sports for the physically handicapped. While oil rich Muslim countries with financial clout are able to absorb such extravagances, others, which live on international charities and funds from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, had to endure the monetary drain. Jordan, for example, which survives on international donations, with the majority of its people cannot find running water, and where the Palestinians are still in refugee camps under poverty level, built the Hussein Athletic City with exorbitant capabilities. A project is now in the works to build fancy quarters for the cadres of Western journalists sent to cover the new sensations.

To have despotic regimes concerned about the "athletic development" of their deprived and crushed nations does not sound convincing. Should a thirsty country have expensive athletic centers with fancy swimming pools and lavish shower facilities? One imagines that the citizens would have asked for more pressing needs than Olympic-size stadiums. This sports obsession might be more than just a modernizing necessity, and has serious repercussions that should not be underestimated.

There are local as well as global economic considerations. Building such an enterprise presumes a huge budget, which has to come from somewhere. This in turn might drain other social institutions. The local cronies of the ruling elite are sure to benefit from the lucrative business deals and transnational corporate sponsorship. There is no infrastructure to support such a project; expertise, material and maintenance need to be imported. Foreign, and particularly Western, companies seize such opportunities to implement their own agenda. Globally, the sports and athletic culture constitutes a market. This culture is a milieu for advertisements, and corporate sponsorship; one cannot imagine any sport activity without a Nike logo or without drinking Pepsi. The athletic arenas would not be conducive without Swiss timing gadgets, nor without glittering billboards flashing from all directions. The "Third World" countries are doubly exploited: once for being cheap labor to produce sporting goods, as the case of Indonesia and the Nike factories, or Pakistan with game balls, and another time for being markets for these finished goods. Sadly enough, the goods are not sold at their cost and somebody is cashing in the outrageous difference.

Recently, there has been a tremendous acceleration of sports coverage in the Muslim and Arab media. Sports news is now a necessary daily component of Muslim life, especially for young men. The prominent international Arab satellite channel Al-Jazeera, which is based in Qatar, broadcasts at least fifteen minutes of sports bulletins every hour, on the hour. Arab television stations are soaking the Muslims with superfluous nauseating detail of sports news that should be of no immediate consequence to the Muslims or to their more urgent social issues.

The political implications of sports are usually ignored. International Arab tournaments, such as the recent Pan Arab Games, are a ruse for Arab unity. Such tournaments are more political than admitted. During Iraq's war against Iran, the Iraqi team championed all Arab tournaments. Nowadays, the participation of the Iraqi athletic team causes controversy and is not politically correct. The infamous soccer match between Iran and the USA took on a much bigger political dimension than athletic. A country's athletic importance goes hand in-hand with its political potency. The choice of the hosting country is also subject to political favoritism. Recently, the sports enterprise has been used to mitigate international discords and promote peace and tolerance between conflicting countries. Under the pretext of the Asian Tournaments, the Israeli athletic teams are allowed in and participate with Arab and Muslim teams.

From a technical point of view, the athletic enterprise is no longer a reflection of the sportsmanship of the competitors. It is a reflection of the technology that prepares for and records the performance. Computerized and digital results highly automate the athletes. Technologically disadvantaged countries need not participate; instead, they can only sell potential champions to other countries. North African players are often bought for huge monetary figures by European teams. One can imagine the confusion in loyalty this might cause the fans; it also inadvertently exposes the fallacy of national attachments.

One athletic fad seeping into the Muslim countries now is sporting events for the handicapped. While this might appear as a humanitarian concern, in reality it is nothing but a public relation ploy that the oppressive regimes exploit to divert the public's attention from questioning important issues, such as the legitimacy of importing the enterprise. Another fad is the frenzy to participate in the Olympic Games where the Arabs can assert their international presence by brandishing their national costumes in the opening and closing ceremonies. More tragically, like their steroid-bloated Western counterparts, there is an emerging illicit drug problem in the Arab Games.

One wonders why Muslims find it extremely essential to participate in international functions and galas about which they understand little or nothing. Naively, many Muslims have been justifying their involvement in the sports industry by misconstruing the hadith of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), which advise teaching children swimming, shooting and horseback riding. The modern sportsmania should not be misunderstood for youth development; citing hadith in this context is to turn tradition into clichÈ. Rather, it is designed specifically to control the youth and keep them busily addicted to a self-perpetuating institution of which they cannot get enough or get anywhere. The aim is to control the youth by dissipating their energy and zeal; their fervor is wasted to no use. Sports sedate the youth and give them false allegiances. Official national athletic teams became the only patriotic manifestations allowed. Encouraging immorality is another consequence of the enterprise. Increasing tolerance of permissiveness, through co-ed activities, and the un-Islamic clothing codes for men and women, will assure the breaking down of the Islamic boundaries.

Ideologically, the Western way of doing sports, which is imbedded in Graeco-Roman traditions, became the only valid option for physical fitness. Meanwhile, the Eastern sports, which are deeply rooted, time-tested, and parsimonious-such as yoga and tai chi-have become reduced to forms of meditation to relieve stress, which is no surprise since such sports are individually practiced and require no special gear. That the colonized peoples are perpetuating their own colonization is a sad reality of the contemporary Muslim situation. The question is not really whether sport is an article of the "Protocols of Zion" or not; rather, this is about the psyche of the Muslims that makes them susceptible to this style of sport. It is becoming detrimental for Muslims to keep track of the fads and waves that seep through their culture. The assault is on all fronts and certainly not only limited to political issues.