Thursday
May062010
Mahmoud's Iran Wonderland: Ahmadinejad "I'm in Favour of Protestors"
Thursday, May 6, 2010 at 9:37 
Oh, if only this exchange with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had been televised, instead of the President's dismissals of Charlie Rose and ABC's George Stephanopoulos. The Boston Globe, after going over the nuclear question and US-Iran relations, dared to bring up and to persist with questions on the domestic situation. Under pressure, Ahmadinejad gave answers which verged from the disingenuous --- "Nothing to do with me" --- to the fantastic, "Everyone is free; everyone is happily protesting in my country":Iran Snap Analysis: Ahmadinejad’s Nuclear Roadtrip
Iran Follow-Up: Ahmadinejad “Bin Laden Lives in Washington DC!”
The Latest from Iran (6 May): Rattling the Cage
Q: You say you the people who protested your election are very unpopular... if so then what is the harm in allowing them to gather? Why put them in prison?
A: All the leaders of the opposition are free. All my competitors in the elections are free. They actually hold positions in Iran. They head organizations, institutions. They have a life. I ask you, if someone goes out into the street, sets a car on fire, breaks windows, what would you do?
Q. How about people like Saeed Laylaz? He is a prominent economist, but he has been sentenced to nine years in jail. Is he violent?
A: These are affairs of the judiciary... The law applies to everyone and it has nothing to do with the political circumstances of the country. Whoever commits a crime...
Q: Can you guarantee the safety of peaceful protesters?
A: Iran is the land of protest. In Iran, there is a protest of some sort every day.Millions of people pour on the streets here and there. On the anniversary of the Iranian revolution 40 million people were on the streets. In all cities, everywhere, everybody pours on the streets. Really, the bottom line is that there is not much to be concerned about in Iran. There are larger world issues at stake here. Iran is still standing strong, despite it all. Still strong. And at the end of the day, people accept the government they have, the government is around, they are friends and that's it. We also are friends with those who oppose us. We live together. There is a law. The judiciary will deal with it. I don't really see a problem.
Reader Comments (25)
RE "The law applies to everyone and it has nothing to do with the political circumstances of the country."
As I reported yesterday in a comment, Mohammad Oliyayeefard, one of the most prominent and active human rights and children’s rights lawyers was arrested for the second time in recent months and taken to the notorious Evin Prison in northern Tehran. Four well-known Iranian lawyers, including Ms. Nasreen Sotoudeh and Mr. Abdolfatah Soltani have agreed to represent him.
Aside from not having visitation rights with his wife, Oliyayeefard is not allowed to meet with his lawyers either. Nasreen Sotoudeh says, “In POLITICAL cases, we are not allowed to meet with our clients.” [emphasis mine].
More: http://www.roozonline.com/english/news/newsitem/article/2010/may/06//another-victim-of-judiciarys-revenge-machine.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.roozonline.com/english/news/newsitem...
More quotable quotes - this time on the fair sex.
Found on http://rediff.com" rel="nofollow">rediff.com - probably from one of AN's US interviews
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said that rights of women and girls in his country are highly respected unlike the West where, he claimed, women had 'no dignity'.
Human rights groups have rallied against Iran's election to the UN Commission on the Status of Women on the grounds that the Islamic Republic is oppressive when it comes to women's rights.
"What is left of women's dignity in the West? Is there any generation left? Is there any love and kindness left," Ahmadinejad told reporters.
"Tell me exactly how women's dignity is upheld in West, especially in Europe. Woman is a symbol of beauty of God on Earth," he said, noting that women in Iran were far better off than women in Europe where almost seventy per cent housewives were beaten by their spouses.
Ahmadinejad also asserted that his country would never join the Committee to Eliminate All Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) treaty.
"We will never accept CEDAW," he said, noting that certain provisions of the treaty were undesirable.
"Our culture is our own. Our belief system is our own. We will never (follow a) basic criterion that leads to the destruction of women," the Iranian leader said.
Ahmadinejad noted that in Iran women were given a great deal of respect in politics and academia research but noted that "menial jobs" were not meant for women.
"In Iran, our women refuse to be drivers of trucks or to clean streets or do hard and burdensome tasks that you and I, in other words, men, do... An Iranian woman would just not agree to those kinds of jobs," he said.
In AN's interview with Charlie Rose he kept insisting on how President Obama represents America's greatest and only and even last opportunity to improve its ties with the rest of the world: "I think that with Mr. Obama in office the United States has a great opportunity in its hands, perhaps a historical opportunity, perhaps even the last historical opportunity so that the United States starts improving its relationship with the world. ... Mr. Obama is the biggest and the only and the last opportunity America has for itself"
But just a few weeks before, AN was ranting about how "Obama can't do anything" and IRAN is his/America's only chance to "create change".
The Christian Science Monitor has noticed his constant contradictions and compliled a list of 7 major issues that the leader of Iran has contradicted himself on: http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Global-News/2010/0505/Iran-s-Mahmoud-Ahmadinejad-in-his-own-contradictory-words" rel="nofollow">http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Global-News/2010...
Is there any way of briefing some of these interviewers before they sit down with Ahmadinejad. Or is the any way of having a Iranian living abroad interview Ahmadinejad so he can actually use facts to discredit Ahmadinejad's broad statements.
Someone like a Maziar Bahari
Catherine,
I am sure you caught the use of the word "dignity" Well this is the position all Islamists argue from with regards to womens rights. For them its not about rights but only about the dignity Islam grants them period. This is why the Cairo Decleration of Rights does not gurantee equal rights for women but instead only dignity. Technically he is right from an Islamic standpoint but it does not absolve the fact that Islam clearly does not gurantee equal rights for women. To nitwits like him the West is harming the dignity of women by letting them work together with males, not dress conservatively(cover their hair), and god forbid allowing them to run for positions in the government. Sadly from my persepective people like him tend to view women as their own personal property than anything else. Until the Islamic world recognizes equal rights for all regardless of geneder and faith the conflict with the west will only continue!!! Note: I was quite succesful this time in not writing a novel which I very much wanted to do!!! :) HA HA
Thx
Bill
All I have to say about Ahmadinejad's statements--Taqiyya which "refers to a dispensation allowing believers to conceal their faith when under threat, persecution or compulsion." Translation: he will lie right through his teeth to anyone who difers from his worldview!! However I do get a laugh out of it when his bumbling regime so often contradicts themselves clearly proving to all they are lying!!!
Mehrdad,
"..having a Iranian living abroad interview Ahmadinejad so he can actually use facts to discredit Ahmadinejad's broad statements. Someone like a Maziar Bahari"
That would be my dream! But Amadinejad (or any other high-ranking member of his admin) would never agree for obvious reasons. :-(
Bill,
"For them its not about rights but only about the dignity Islam grants them period. This is why the Cairo Decleration of Rights does not gurantee equal rights for women but instead only dignity... Islam clearly does not gurantee equal rights for women. "
Thanks to a couple of posts by Maria and a book or two by you :-), that is now crystal clear for me and I'm quick to notice which tern is used by participants in women's rights discussions.
Btw - if you've claimed your old posts in Disqus you needn't re-write any of your books by memory. All you have to do is look them up with a search term and voila! Copy-paste :-).
Ahmadinejad is the fungus in a rat's ass!
Catherine,
I doubt I will go back into Disqus to reclaim my posts. Not because I am lazy but simply because I like regurgitating stuff over and over!!! :) HA HA I'll check it out and if it's not to much work I will try to claim them. Thanks for the suggestion.
On rights it is important to note the Iranians and Islamists truly believes the West is the worlds worst human rights abusers. That is the paradox of this whole situation. Ironically it has nothing to do with morals. They are just following a meme and the prescriptive edicts of it. It is just a question if Allah says this is right its all good but if say no then its all bad. Morals or critical analysis usually does not come into play and thus the moral conflict with the West will continue until we submit to their world view. An example of this is when Tariq Ramadan was confronted by President sarkozy on stonning of adulterers the best Tariq could offer was that Muslims should observe a "moratorium" on it in the West. For Tariq the issue was not about the moral virtue of stonning(which he condones because Allah said so) but about whether it can be done in Western society today. Wow!! It is also interesting to note the use of "moratorium" because it denotes the mindset that when Muslims have power stonning will commence if Tariq has his say.
Thx
Bill
Catherine,
You wrote a novel!!!!! I am pinching myself now!!! :) On Tariq(thanks for the video I had not come across that one) view this viedo six part debate on the BBC titled "Europe is failing its Muslims:"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4M-whjJs10&feature=related" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4M-whjJs10&feat...
What I find incredulous about this debate is the fact no one bothered to place any context around it. For if they had they would clearly find the Islamic world has clearly failed its religious minorities for decades(and the reason many in the west are up in arms is the oppression our coreligionists face in almost all Islamic states.) Nor did they note the hypocricy of such a debate respective to the fact a debate like this would never even be possible in an Islamic state. Sadly it is symptomatic of the politically and multiculturally correct mindset run amoke in the West. Tariq is a big proponent of this because it shifts the burden to the West not the Islamic community--ie its always the fault of the West an Islamist mantra(note I do believe the West is partially to blame as well.)
Personally this debate left me quite upset because it demonstrated the continual inability of the Islamic community in Britian to be introspective. It never seemed to enter into anyones mind that they just might be the root of some of the issues. Instead it was the other guys fault as it always is throughout much of the Islamic world. As I have mentioned before it is largely due to the prescirptive nature of Islam, its obstinance towards man made rights, it unyielding stance on what they deam right or wrong, and most importantly its overall lack of critical thinking. Instead they use our democracy, tolerance, and our acceptance to critique ourselves offering nothing of the kind from their side. Any interesting sidebar to this is Obama's appointment of Dalia Mogahed as Muslims liason for the US who described her job as articulating "What do Muslims want." Note it was not what can you do to serve your country but instead what Muslims want!! Yikes!!!
Further on Tariq I noted you mentioned the idea of "debate within the Islamic community." This is a clever trick because it gives the impression of conceding while in reality not. It doesn't because Tariq being a Salafist(even calls himself this) knows the Quran and Islamic scripture is inviolate and thus even under debate any true Muslims knows the outcome will always be stonning is a good thing! He knows the debate can reach no other conclusion than accepting stonnig because to do otherwise would mean you were an apostate. Sadly many fall for this simply because they do not know the Quran and the fact it cannot be changed nor that anyone is allowed to question it.
Thx
Bill
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