Iranian judoka loses to avoid match with Israeli

Iranian judoka Wahid Sarlak lost his match against a competitor from Azerbaijan on purpose Sunday in order to avoid a showdown with Israeli judoka Gal Yekutiel at the world judo championships in Cairo.

After the match, a sobbing Sarlak revealed that heads of the Judo federation in Teheran had instructed him to lose the match.

Yekutiel is now two victories away from clinching a bronze medal, Army Radio reported.

Iranian officials had originally requested Sarlak kill himself in order to avoid living on the same planet as Israelis. However, a fatwa issued by Iranian clergy in Qom ruled that such a request was un-Islamic.

The proper Islamic response, said a spokesman in Qom, was not to commit suicide to avoid contact with Israelis, but rather to kill every Israeli on the planet. An atomic weapon, he said, will make that easier to accomplish. In the meantime, said the spokesman, suicide is only sanctioned by Islam if an Israeli is killed in the process.

Semite1973 Wire Service contributed to this story