The Iranian Official Perspective

A reader, who apparently did some work for Iran some years ago, now regularly gets missives from the Iranian embassy, and he forwarded this one to me. It’s about Iran’s official response to the proposed Koran burning in Florida.

I’ve checked out the email headers and can verify that at least it came from the purported source and there is an Iranian embassy at that address, but I can’t vouch for the full legitimacy of the email.

Subject: Supreme Leader’s Message

Dear Sir/Madam

Please find attached the text of the message of the Supreme Leader of the
Islamic Republic of Iran on the desecration of the Holy Quran in the United
States.

Regards

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

“It is we who sent down the Koran, and we watch over it,” says God

the Mighty, the Wise [Holy Quran, 15:9]

Great Iranian nation, great Islamic Ummah!

The insane, revolting insult to the Holy Quran in America, an incident
occurring under the security provided by the US police, is a major tragic
event that cannot be considered merely as the foolish act of a few worthless
mercenaries. This is a preplanned act by those who since years ago have put
Islamophobic and anti-Muslim policies on their agenda and have tried to
combat Islam and the Quran in numerous ways resorting to a myriad of
propaganda means and campaigns. This is another link in a chain of shameless
measures launched with the blasphemy of Salman Rushdi, the apostate,
followed by the insult of the base Danish caricaturist, tens of anti-Islamic
movies produced in Hollywood and now crowned by this disgusting show. Who
and what is behind such evil acts?

Looking into this trend of evil, as manifested in recent years in atrocious
operations in Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine, Lebanon and Pakistan, leaves no
doubt that it is designed and masterminded by heads of world imperialism and
Zionist think tanks which have the highest degree of influence in the
government, the military and security agencies of the United States as well
as Britain and some other European countries. These are those at whom the
finger of suspicion of independent truth-finding groups and individuals is
pointed in the case of the attack on the Twin Towers on September the 11th.
The then-president of the US, a criminal, was provided with the pretext to
invade Iraq and Afghanistan; he declared a Crusade and, reportedly, has said
yesterday that with the Church entering the stage the Crusade has truly
begun.

What is aimed at through the recent repulsive incident is, on the one hand,
to take the confrontation with Islam and Muslims to the populace in the
Christian community, to give it a religious coloring and entrenching it with
religious zeal and sentiment by involving the church and, on the other, to
divert the attention of the Muslim nations, enraged and hurt by this hideous
effrontery, away from the issues and developments in the Muslim world and
the Middle East.

This vengeful act is not the beginning of a trend but another stage in the
long history of antagonizing Islam headed by Zionism and the US government.
Now all the heads of world hegemony and impiety are ranked against Islam.
Islam is the religion of human liberation and spirituality, and the Quran is
the book of compassion, wisdom and justice. It is incumbent upon all
free-spirited people of the world and all the followers of the Abrahamic
religions to side with the Muslims in countering these heinous anti-Islamic
policies and acts. Empty, deceitful words cannot exonerate the heads of the
American government from the charge of involvement in this ugly phenomenon.
For years those things held sacred by millions of oppressed Muslims in
Afghanistan and Pakistan, in Iraq, in Lebanon and Palestine have been
desecrated, all their rights and their dignity trampled on. Hundreds of
thousands killed, tens of thousands of men and women captured and tortured,
thousands of children and women kidnapped, and millions injured and made
homeless – all victimized for what? And with these wrongs, why does the
Western media represent Muslims as violence incarnate and Islam, and the
Quran, as a menace to humanity? How can one believe that this vast
conspiracy could be made possible without the support and involvement of the
Zionist circles in the US government?!
O Muslim brethren and sisters in Iran and all over the world!
It is necessary to draw the attention of all to the following points:
First, this incident and similar ones show that what is now being targeted
by the global hegemony and world Imperialism are the very foundations of the
dear Islam, and the Holy Quran. The manifest enmity of the arrogant world
powers towards the Islamic Republic of Iran is because of the manifest
resistance of Iran against them; the claim of these powers in not being the
enemies of other Muslims, and of Islam, is a big lie, a satanic deception.
They are the enemies of Islam, whoever believes in it, and whatever
signifies it.

Second, these spiteful acts against Islam and Muslims stem from the fact
that since a few decades ago the light of Islam has been shining brighter
than ever, its grip on the hearts and souls in the Muslim world and even in
the West has been stronger than ever before. It stems from the fact that the
Islamic Ummah is now more awake than ever and is determined to free itself
of the shackles of two centuries of colonialism and interference. The
incident of insulting the Quran and the Great Prophet of Islam despite all
its bitterness bears great tidings. The bright sun of the Quran will shine
brighter than ever.

Third, we should all know that this incident has nothing to do with
Christianity and the Church; we should not regard the puppet-like acts of a
few idiotic and mercenary priests as those of Christians and church men. We
Muslims will never commit similar acts against what are held sacred in other
religions. Conflict between Muslims and Christians, on a popular scale, is
what our enemies and the stagers of this insane show are after. What the
Quran teaches us is diametrically opposed to this.
Fourth, today the protests of all Muslims are directed at the US government
and American politicians. If they are honest in their claim of not being
involved in this, they must duly punish the main planners and operators of
this heinous crime who have hurt the feelings of one and a half billion
Muslims the world over.

And peace is on him who follows piety.

Sayyed Ali Khamenei

September 13, 2010

I found two things very funny.

They say they’ll never commit similar acts, i.e., desecrate holy books, as if that makes them better people. But instead, they issue fatwahs demanding the death of people like Salman Rushdie, and riot with signs advocating violent acts against other people! I’m not exactly dazzled by their standards of morality. I’d piss on a thousand holy books before I even consider advocating beheading someone.

That last line slays me. One and half billion people are “upset”! It sounds to me like one and a half billion children need to get a life.

Molly Norris in hiding

The cartoonist who created the idea of a “Draw Mohammed Day” (and then retracted it after receiving many death threats) has had to drop out of sight because of continued threats to her life.

The gifted artist is alive and well, thankfully. But on the insistence of top security specialists at the FBI, she is, as they put it, “going ghost”: moving, changing her name, and essentially wiping away her identity. She will no longer be publishing cartoons in our paper or in City Arts magazine, where she has been a regular contributor. She is, in effect, being put into a witness-protection program–except, as she notes, without the government picking up the tab. It’s all because of the appalling fatwa issued against her this summer, following her infamous “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day” cartoon.

Come on, Islam. Targeting defenseless cartoonists is your latest adventure in bravery? That’s pathetic. It’s bad enough to be the religion of hate, but to be the religion of cowardice ought to leave you feeling ashamed.

The Pope has landed, immediately recites anti-atheist canard

Well, what can we say? I thought Catholics were supposed to be scholarly, but Pope Ratzi babbled out a lot of ahistorical nonsense in his first speech on his UK tour.

Even in our own lifetime, we can recall how Britain and her leaders stood against a Nazi tyranny that wished to eradicate God from society and denied our common humanity to many, especially the Jews, who were thought unfit to live. I also recall the regime’s attitude to Christian pastors and religious who spoke the truth in love, opposed the Nazis and paid for that opposition with their lives. As we reflect on the sobering lessons of the atheist extremism of the twentieth century, let us never forget how the exclusion of God, religion and virtue from public life leads ultimately to a truncated vision of man and of society and thus to a “reductive vision of the person and his destiny”.

Britain is now one of the most secular countries in the world, and yes, they stood up bravely against the Nazis…we cannot say the same about the Catholic Church, which had a complicated relationship with Nazi Germany that can’t be called quite collaboration, but also can’t be called opposition. The Nazis did not try to eradicate God from society — read Mein Kampf. It is not an atheist tract at all. The population of Germany was largely Catholic and Protestant, with very few open atheists.

Oh, well, we knew he was going to spew lies. That’s nothing new. He’s the pope — he doesn’t care much about truth.

Ah, but it’s only a few bad apples

That’s the usual excuse we here from defenders of Catholicism — that the accusations of pedophilia and sexual abuse are only the work of a tiny minority of rotten people. I can accept that it’s a small minority that are the actual perpetrators, but the culture of the church protects its own…and the privileged, special, precious people aren’t the congregation, it’s the priesthood.

Belgium has plumbed the depths of its own local apple barrel, and made a horrifying discovery.

“We can say that no congregation escapes sexual abuse of minors by one or several of its members,” the commission concluded.

The 200-page report, published on Friday, contains testimonies from some 124 anonymous victims, revealing that abuse for most began at the age of 12.

It noted a “high number of suicides” with 13 deaths and six attempts attributed to “sexual abuse by a cleric”.

Every congregation has a horror story about an abusive priest. That says something. This isn’t about a rare event — it’s about a common risk associated with growing up Catholic in Belgium.

The Catholic Church: Sowing grim joylessness wherever they go

The Catholic church has announced a few requirements for the papal visit to the UK:

The 100,000 Roman Catholics expected to attend the pope’s open-air “great mass” in Glasgow have been urged by their cardinal to endure the “sacrifices” the event will involve. Tens of thousands of pilgrims in Glasgow will have to get to next Thursday’s event at Bellahouston Park on public transport after their private coaches were cancelled.

Umbrellas have been banned, there will be no seating provided, and pilgrims will have to stay in the park for at least five hours on security grounds.

…

“At the great mass at Bellahouston, you’re there for a serious purpose, to join in the celebration of mass, to listen to the word of God, to listen to the teaching of the church being proclaimed by Pope Benedict XVI, and that is a serious business,” he said.

“You’re not sitting back at the beach relaxing: it’s something serious and obviously there’s something penitential. There is penance involved in it, just sacrifice; sacrificing of time, sacrificing of comfort, sacrificing of your energy and so on, to be involved in all that’s going on. And I see great benefit from that as well.”

Well, that sounds like great jolly good fun. I think they’re going for the Woodstock vibe, only without the talent, the weed, and the free love.

So get this: not only do you have to be very serious when you’re alive, but the Australian Catholic church wants to suck all the fun out of death, too.

Footy club songs and popular music have been banned from Catholic funerals under strict guidelines sent to priests and funeral directors.

The guidelines for Catholic funerals, sent by Archbishop of Melbourne Denis Hart, also declare that a funeral should not be a “celebration” of the deceased’s life.

“Secular items are never to be sung or played at a Catholic funeral, such as romantic ballads, pop or rock music, political songs, football club songs,” the guidelines say.

…

The new guidelines say a Catholic funeral should never be “a celebration of the life”.

Jebus, what a bunch of dour old grannies those priests are.

Oh, yeah, there’s a poll:

Has the Catholic Church gone too far by banning footy club songs at funerals?

Yes 87.85%
No 12.15%

I’m surprised there are 12% of Australians who think this isn’t an unreasonable ban.

Setting the Koran on fire, vs. setting personal liberties on fire

You know, I’m something of an expert in the public desecration of sacred objects, and I’m seeing the same madness going on right now with Terry Jones and his plan to burn copies of the Koran that I saw in the response to throwing a cracker in the trash — only amplified to a ludicrous degree. People just aren’t getting it; they’re so blinded by an inappropriate attachment to magic relics that they’re missing the real issues.

I publicly destroyed a communion wafer once (OK, a few times). There was a simple reason for it: a few Catholics had responded hysterically to a student who didn’t swallow a wafer with harrassment and threats, and I was demonstrating that that was not acceptable — religious believers may not demand that non-believers grant the same reverence to their rituals and beliefs that they have. Jones’s motivation seems to be more of a fundie head-butt to Moslems while expecting a greater respect for his Bible, but he’s still right — Moslems cannot demand that Christians love their doctrines (and vice versa).

Now what I expected in the wake of my cracker-killing was that Catholics would be annoyed, but that it would be easily rationalized — I’m an unbeliever, their rituals have no meaning to me, Jesus can’t be harmed by some stunt with bread…what I expected was a combination of “tut, tut” and “so what?” and the cleverer Catholics announcing that their faith was too strong to be shaken by a raspberry from an atheist. That’s what I expected; it would have put the poor student’s actions in context and made people step back from the screaming that was going on.

It didn’t work out that way.

The lesson of that incident wasn’t that you can find some jerk somewhere who will disrespect what some group finds holy — that was trivial and uninteresting, and I actually had to ignore many of the elaborate suggestions for cracker disposal sent my way to emphasize the absolute triviality of tossing a cracker/piece of Jesus in the trash. No, the real lesson was that mobs of people will react with irrational freakish hysteria to the idea that other people don’t believe as they do.

The problem isn’t the desecrators. The problem is the people who have an unwarranted sense of privilege, that their beliefs will not be questioned or criticized, ever, by anyone. What I was saying was that it was crazy to believe a cracker turns into Jesus, and what all the outraged Catholics were doing is confirming to an awesome degree just how mad their beliefs were, with their prolonged and excessive outrage.

So I’m looking at this recent episode with Terry Jones — a fellow I don’t like at all, and I think he’s a fanatical goofball — and I see that the serious problem here isn’t Jones at all…it’s all the lunatics who are insisting that burning the Koran is a major international catastrophe.

It’s just a frackin’ book, people.

I am simply astounded at the catalog of high-ranking personages who are contributing to this new frenzy of foolishness.

US President Barack Obama says plans by a small church to burn copies of the Koran on the anniversary of 9/11 are a “recruitment bonanza” for al-Qaeda.

Mr Obama said that if the Florida burning went ahead, it could endanger US military personnel serving in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

…

Malaysia called it a heinous crime, while Indonesia said it would damage relations between Islam and the West.

In the UK, Downing Street said it would not condone the burning of any book.

“We would strongly oppose any attempt to offend any member of any religious or ethnic group. We are committed to religious tolerance,” said a spokesman for Prime Minister David Cameron.

The plan has also sparked condemnation from Iran, the Vatican, Nato and the top US Afghan commander.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called it “disgraceful”.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki warned that the burning could “provoke the reaction of all Muslims as well as that of the faithful of other religions”.

“American statesmen should carry out their obligations in providing the basic and fundamental rights of American Muslims and should prevent the promotion of such obscene and indecent plans,” the official Irna news agency quoted him as saying.

On Monday General David Petraeus, the top US commander in Afghanistan, had warned troops’ lives would be in danger if the church went ahead with its bonfire.

President Obama, you’re a damned fool.

What are you going to do, send in the national guard to prevent Terry Jones’ congregation from destroying their own private property? Will there be new legislation to list items that may not be treated disrespectfully? Shall we surrender a few more liberties because religious zealots are threatening us? Obama can do nothing and should do nothing; he accomplishes nothing by complaining about it, other than being part of the mob confirming the madness of the defenders of faith.

And to suggest that some guy burning a book in a remote land will incite more anti-American sentiment is absurd. We’ve got drones buzzing over Iraq and Afghanistan killing people with a push of a button; we’ve got an armed force occupying those countries; we have bombed their infrastructure into rubble. We’ve killed hundreds of thousands of Muslims. And now we’re to believe that their love of the West will be suddenly devastated by a video of paper burning on youtube? Get a grip, man.

The United States does have an obligation to protect the basic and fundamental rights of all Americans, and that includes allowing them to burn their own property, in addition to allowing them to practice the religion of their choice.

Here’s a hint for appropriate responses. When someone tells you it’s an outrage to burn a bible or a Koran, shrug your shoulders and say, “So what? It’s their own book.” When someone announces that they are going to riot and murder because they are offended, look at them like they’re insane, and explain that offending someone is not a capital crime.

The problem isn’t a few books being burned; that’s not a crime, and it doesn’t diminish anyone else’s personal freedoms. The problem is a whole fleet of deranged wackaloons, including the president of the USA in addition to raving fundamentalist fanatics, who think open, public criticism and disagreement ought to be forbidden, somehow.

And seriously, this whole silly contretemps would have evaporated if a few people learned to shrug their shoulders and react rationally instead of feeding the fury with Serious Pronouncements and Reprovals.

Now we’re leading an onslaught!

It has become quite amusing to watch the Defenders of the Faith reach for increasingly more hysterical phrasing to describe what the Gnu Atheists are doing. I thought we were writing and talking, but according to William Oddie, we’re carrying out a distressing onslaught.

The atheists’ utter loathing, all the same, is at times a little frightening in its sheer vicious irrationality. These people are in the grip of a barely restrained hysteria. Take the current issue of the New Humanist, subtitle: “Ideas for godless people”; this issue gives a good idea of what it must be like being godless, and at least it makes you grateful not to be godless yourself. “If you were invited to address Benedict XVI during his UK visit,” the New Humanist introduces its special issue, “what would you say to him? Richard Dawkins, Philip Pullman, Claire Rayner, Ben Goldacre and many more take part in our Pope quiz.”

Ah, yes, the fellow who believes in angels and miracles and magic crackers finds it irrational that people look at his beliefs and point out how silly they are, and even worse, looks at the faith-based bloody-minded malfunctioning policies promulgated by the Pope and criticize them as nonsensical and counter-productive and damaging to humanity. He’s upset now because the New Humanist was insufficiently reverent and loving towards the Pope; in the Catholic World Order, after all, we must ignore the real effects of his ideas and instead adore him and kiss his ring.

This is all horrible for anyone who regards Pope Benedict with the admiration and love most Catholics feel for him; and I find myself almost wishing that the decision had been taken to beatify Cardinal Newman in St Peter’s Square and not a muddy field, and for the Pope to be spared this dreadful business of a state visit.

Someday, they’ll explain to us what there is to admire and love about an old conservative dogmatist who clawed his way up the rigid hierarchy of an ancient institution like the church. I get the impression we’re supposed to love the guy simply for the fact that he is a pope.

And oh, yes, that dreadful business — he’s getting millions thrown away on the pomp of his visit, will be treated like a king, and only simpering lackeys will be allowed anywhere near him, while his critics are held off…and for that, his critics are deranged monsters because they don’t love the narrow-minded old man enough.

Another reason you shouldn’t attend a religiously-affiliated university

Universities are supposed to be places where students are free to think and argue…but too often, if a student says something that contradicts the religious dogma of the institution, it’s an excuse to be censored. Here’s an example: a Mormon student at BYU wrote a letter for the school newspaper criticizing the LDS position on gay rights while still supporting Mormonism as a religious belief.

It is time for LDS supporters of Prop 8 to be honest about their reasons for supporting the amendment. It’s not about adoption rights, or the first amendment, or tradition. These arguments were not found worthy of the standards for finding facts set up by our judicial system. The real reason is that a man who most of us believe is a prophet of God told us to support the amendment. [This is a privately held religious belief that we are using to support legislation that takes away a right from a minority group. If our government were to enact legislation based solely on such beliefs, it would set a dangerous precedent, possibly even more so than allowing a homosexual to marry the person he or she loves.] We must be honest about our motivation, and consider what it means to the delicate balance between our relationship with God and with His children here on earth. Maybe then we will stop thoughtlessly spouting arguments that are offensive to gays and lesbians and indefensible to those not of our faith.

It got pulled. Why? I don’t know. It’s still crazy pro-mormon gushy baloney, but it is simply saying that everyone should be honest about their motivations.

Oh, wait. I forgot. Honesty is one of those sins in these goofy cults.

The Jehovah’s Witnesses redefine irony

You can now download the latest issue of Awake, the Jehovah’s Witness’s strange little magazine. The theme of this issue is those marching militant atheists, so it’s a little bit personal.

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Unfortunately, I was only able to read as far as the second sentence before I was blinded by the irony.

A new group of atheists has arisen in society. Called the new atheists, they are not content to keep their views to themselves.

That’s right. The door-knockin’, rabidly proselytizing cult is rebuking atheists for not keeping their views to themselves.

I guess that’s fair. Twice now I’ve watched in anticipation as the local JWs do their thing, working their way up the street, only to see them look at my house, check a piece of paper they carried with them, and turn around to leave. There was also a third time when a couple actually knocked on my door, started their little spiel, and I interrupted them to tell them I was an atheist, would they like to come in and talk about freedom from religion? And they ran away.

So it’s true, I suppose, that they do have limits on the expression of their views.

Amateurs!

No, no, no. This is doing it all wrong. A young man in Valencia received a communion wafer at Mass, took it out of his mouth, and broke it in front of the priest (google translation), and then a scene from the Three Stooges erupted, with slapping and kicking and random cartoon violence in which no one was hurt, except for their dignity.

While I applaud the young man’s irreverence, by making it a scene in a church he was making a serious error, for two reasons.

  • People have a right to do whatever silly, harmless rituals they want. Start disrupting church services, and next thing you know, people will be shouting out of dialect at Renaissance Fairs or hiding your bag of Dungeons & Dragons dice or tossing stink bombs into the Halloween costume store. Don’t disturb the seance.

  • As we can see from this and other incidents, Christianity is a violent and vindictive faith. While it may be just a cracker, fanatics will respond with totally inappropriate physical viciousness, and it’s simply not worth getting hurt over a ‘magic’ cookie.

Get it? You may express yourselves freely, but you ought not interfere with other people’s right to also indulge their own silly beliefs.