Iran has threatened to boycott the 2012 Olympics in London over the logo for the event, which it claims secretly spells out the word “Zion.” Iranian leaders have called for the logo to be redesigned, and for the designers of the current logo to be “confronted.”

They cited “Internet documents” as proof that the logo, when rearranged, spells “Zion.”

Several videos have been posted to YouTube purporting to show that the logo, a jagged “2012,” actually spells “Zion.” One anti-Semitic video, with more than 50,000 views, claims the logo was designed by “the men who rule the world from the shadows,” and that “the shadow government of Zionists will be coming out of the closet in 2012” to rule the world.

Other claims abound as well, with some comparing the 2012 logo to a swastika, while others say it looks like the Waffen SS logo, and still others say it secretly depicts a sexual act. In Britain the logo was controversial primarily due to its cost – approximately $800,000.

Olympics officials said in response to the Iranian threat, “The London 2012 logo represents the figure 2012, nothing else.”

Officials noted that the logo was revealed to the public in 2007, and said they were “surprised” at the timing of the Iranian complaint.(© IsraelNN Syndications 03/01/11)