Saudi Arabia is hosting a sports championship held according to religion. Nashwa Abdel-Tawab looks at the Islamic Solidarity Games The first Islamic Games began in the holy city of Mecca on Friday with an Olympic-style tournament aimed at showing Muslim sports prowess and featuring 6,000 athletes -- none of them women. The 55-nation tournament is dubbed the Islamic Olympic Games and is hosted by the Saudi cities of Mecca, Medina, Jeddah and Taif. Mecca hosted the opening ceremony and Medina will host the closing. Prince Abdul-Majid Bin Abdul-Aziz, the prince of Mecca, opened the Games in a ceremony in which more than 2,600 students participated at King Abdul- Aziz Stadium. Competition began Saturday and the tournament ends 20 April. Saudi officials say the Games are the second largest sports gathering after the Olympics. The athletes will take part in an array of sports, with the mentally and physically challenged competing in special events. The Games were announced after a meeting of Muslim sports federations officials in Riyadh in 2001. The next Games are in Iran in 2009 and Syria in 2013. Saudi Arabia, a regional sports power, competed in soccer's World Cup three times. The Kingdom also hosted the FIFA World Youth Championship in 1989. After a day of competition, Iran topped the standings with two gold medals, ahead of Egypt with one gold, two silvers, and three bronzes, followed by Kazakhstan and Saudi Arabia. The Saudi Arabian delegation is the largest, followed by Algeria with nearly 250 athletes, Iran with 246 and Egypt fourth with 180 players. No new facilities were built for the Games, with the athletes being housed in 18 hotels for their duration. The Games consist of 13 male-only events including soccer, basketball, tennis, and swimming. Mecca plays host to football, taekwondo and handball, while karate, basketball, weightlifting, and football are the disciplines in Medina. Volleyball, swimming, and equestrian are held in Jeddah while Taif holds track and field, table tennis and tennis. Organisers hope the events will give a new image of life in Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Islam, than what is being presented in the Western media as well as projecting a more positive image of Islam to the world. "We hope the Games will show the truth of Islam, which is that it is a religion of peace," said Games director Saleh bin Nasser in Jeddah. "Mecca and Medina were chosen from the start because of their significance to Islam," Nasser said. "We then had to expand to Jeddah and Taif because we needed more room." "The groundbreaking multi-event gathering has the potential to become one of the most important fixtures in the world of sports," said Abdul-Khaliq Khan, acting secretary-general of the Pakistan Olympic Association. "Many international athletes are participating in the Games in which athletes from African Muslim countries have an upper hand," said Khan. Saudi Arabian Airlines provided 50 free return tickets to each participating country, in an attempt to strengthen Muslim unity and encourage Muslim youth to put in their competitive best. The Kingdom is meeting the cost of staging the event, estimated at 80m Saudi riyals ($21m), and entrance will be free. Nasser admits only a "small number" of spectators will be attending from outside Saudi Arabia because of the Kingdom's strict visa requirements. "But there are still many nationalities living inside Saudi Arabia who will be there to support athletes from their home countries," he said. The Games are under the umbrella of the 57-nation Organisation of the Islamic Conference, the world's largest Muslim group. Some 1,200 Saudi volunteers are expected to join in the organisation of this mega event. These are the first Islamic Solidarity Games but not the first games confined to Islamic nations. In 1980 Turkey hosted the first Islamic Games in Izmir, contested by Algeria, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Libya, Malaysia, Morocco, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the Turkish Federated State of Cyprus. The event, however, could not be staged again, although the Islamic Women's Games were held in 1993, 1997 and 2001. A total of 407 athletes in eight different sports took part in the first edition of the Games from Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Maldives, Malaysia, Syria and Iran. IOC representative Mary Alison Glen Haig supervised the Games and ensured the smooth running of the competition. Athletes from Kyrgyzstan, Iran and Azerbaijan took first, second and third place.
