Is Israel the only country in the Middle East that allows it's people to compete in the olympics?

Question

I ask because I've seen Israelis compete but no people from any of the Arab nations of the middle east.

Is that because of their laws or religion or something? I'm not surprised the arab women don't compete (def. has to do with their laws/religion) but how come the guys can't compete?

If they DO compete however, let me know I haven't noticed any.

Please no hate comments against Israel, I'm not in the mood for that c**p and because this question has nothing to do with their current situation, just the olympics.

Thanks.

Answer 1

Other Middle Eastern nations are also currently participating in the Summer Games.

Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Syria, Oman, Pakistan, Kuwait, Palestine, Lebanon, Bahrain, Turkey, Qatar, and the UAE are competing.

If you're interested in looking at the nationalities/profiles of the athletes, check http://results.beijing2008.cn/WRM/ENG/BI...

Answer 2

Arab nations do compete in the Olympics.  They can be missed depending on television coverage, whether they happen to be competitive in a given sport, the popularity of the sport, etc.

Yahoo's olympic coverages seems to be the easiest navigate if you want to check on other counties.

http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/beijing