Iran's President Launches Blog 472
02bunced writes "The BBC is reporting that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has started his own blog, the launch of which was announced on Iranian State TV. This is perhaps slightly ironic, given that the Iranian Government actively censors blogs on the Internet."
Not surprised (Score:5, Informative)
Mirror of the text from the blog (Score:5, Informative)
In the Name of God, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate Oh Almighty God, please, we beg you to send us our Guardian- who You have promised us- soon and appoint us as His close companions.
During the era that nobility was a prestige and living in a city was perfection, I was born in a poor family in a remote village of Garmsar-approximately 90 kilometer east of Tehran. I was born fifteen years after Iran was invaded by foreign forces- in August of 1940- and the time that another puppet, named mohammad Reza - the son of Reza Mirpange- was set as a monarch in Iran. Since the extinct shah -Mohammad Reza- was supposed to take and enter Iran into western civilization slavishly, so many schemes were implemented that Iran becomes another market for the western ceremonial goods without any progress in the scientific field. Our Islamic culture would not allow such an infestation, and this was an impediment in front of shah and his foreign masters' way. Thus, they decided to make this noble and tenacious culture weak gradually that Iran be attached strongly to the west as far as its economy, politics, and culture was concern. After the implementation of this policy and the unreal and outward of upswing, the villagers began to rush to the cities. Upon the enforcement of the land reform, the status of the villages became worst than the past and villagers for earning some breadcrumbs, they were deceived by the dazzling look and the misleading features of the cities and became suburban and lived in ghettos.
My family was also suffered in the village as others. After my birth -the fourth one in the family- my family was under more pressures. My father had finished 6 grade of elementary school. He was a hard-bitten toiler blacksmith, a pious man who regularly participated in different religious programs. Even though never the dazzling look of the world was appealing to him, but the pressure of the life caused that he decided to migrate to Tehran when I was one year old. We chose to live in south central part of Tehran where is called Pamenar.
My father used to buy newspaper all the time. I remember one day, when I was in first grade, by looking through a newspaper - with the help of the adults in our house- I read the news of the capitulation passage by the shah's so called "parliament." Even though I did not understand the meaning of that issue at that time, but due to the protests and the objections of the religious schools of thoughts with the leadership of Imam Khomeini -Almighty God bless his soul- and the relentless reaction of the extinct shah, I realized that Mohammad Reza attempted to add another page to his vicious case history which was the humiliation and indignity of the Iranian people versus Americans. That was the year that the extinct shah slaughtered many followers of Imam Khomeini.
Imam Khomeini was released from prison. I never forget Imam Khomeini's speeches during those years which was very persuasive and appealing. You would hear the strong faith to Almighty God in his orations. He invited the people to pure Islam. His message was invitation to the belief of monotheism- Unity and Oneness of God- and also justice, elimination of oppression, injustice and sedition in the world. He was courageous and had a valiant heart. He spoke firmly and securely. His orations were simple and honest. The people accepted his guidance sincerely. Due to these characteristics, he was a beloved leader for every individuals-young or elderly. Of course he was a disgrace for shah's regime and his Americans masters. Notably, even among his enemies, he was respected with a special honor.
Eventually, the existence of Imam Khomeini was unbearable for the extinct shah and he could not tolerate him any more. Since they knew if they kill him-as they did a great number of his followers- the bloody uprising can not be controlled. Consequently they decided to exile him in order to separate the leader from his followers and to restrain th
Re:Governmentisement? (Score:2, Informative)
Fiendster (Score:2, Informative)
Whois infomation (Score:3, Informative)
Re:He Had No Choice (Score:4, Informative)
Ahmadinejad, like many people in the middle east, believes that the number of Jews killed by Germany during WWII is frequently greatly overstated. While, in the opinion of most (including myself), this is an unjustified viewpoint, it is certainly much more defensible than the "there is no holocaust" claim that a lot of people think he made. He talks about the "myth of the Holocaust" in reference to the claim that "six million Jews" were killed. His comments were that people have created this myth of six million Jews being killed and then using it to justify everything that Israel has done ever since, and that even if that was true, this is an unfair line of reasoning.
Oh, and as per the "wipe Israel off the map" comments, that's a much worse mistranslation. He never used any language even close to that. He talked about his hope that the "occupying regime" would fall, akin to how the Shah fell, Saddam fell, and the Soviet Union fell. His speech was completely passive (didn't discuss any involvement from Iran) and spoke nothing of harm to the people in the state of Israel.
Anyways, my point is... you don't have to agree with him, but it's only fair to accurately represent what he says.
Start a World War? (Score:3, Informative)
Malhmold is not the only person who thinks the goals were larger than humiliating Hezbolla. Some say the Bush administration wanted Syria and Iran [consortiumnews.com]. Conquering that much of the middle east might indeed have triggered a war with Russia, Turkey and even China and Europe. It's a good thing that did not happen, but there's still time for Israel's incompetent and murderous military leaders [gush-shalom.org] to blunder themselves into a wider conflict. All they have to do is provoke Syria on the new border.
Re:He Had No Choice (Score:5, Informative)
Whether or not there was a holocaust is wholly dependent on the "number" of Jews killed. That's the whole point. If six Jews were killed instead of six million, that's not exactly a holocaust, is it? Playing this sort of numbers game is what the holocaust deniers do to try to get you to admit that there was no holocaust.
I just saw Mike Wallace's interview with this guy last night. While he didn't say the holocaust was a "myth" this time, he did say "if there was a holocaust, where did it take place?" as if he's just throwing the idea out there for the sake of argument. He also played the same numbers game that all of the holocaust deniers play. And there is no point in debating the translation - he has a personal translator with him at all times so that the translation cannot be argued.
as per the "wipe Israel off the map" comments, that's a much worse mistranslation. He never used any language even close to that. He talked about his hope that the "occupying regime" would fall, akin to how the Shah fell, Saddam fell, and the Soviet Union fell.
The guy is a master of double-speak. Mike Wallace directly challenged him on this "wipe Israel off the map" comment and he never once denied it. Wallace asked him what he meant by that and he refused to answer, repeatedly, basically saying it was a 3 page answer and Wallace wasn't giving him the time he needed. Eventually he did say that Israel should not be located where it is - that sounds a lot like "wipe Israel off the map" to me.
Whenever he was asked an uncomfortable question, this was basically how he responded - Wallace also asked him yes or no if he'd like to re-establish a relationship with the United States, and his initial stab at it was "well, let us ask first who broke off ties in the first place?" Wallace asked him again, regardless of who broke off ties, yes or no would he like to re-establish them? He then launched into another history lesson. Wallace interrupted - "yes or no, why won't you answer the question?" Then he got mad - "is this multiple choice? These are complicated questions!" This is basically the guy's MO - say all kinds of crazy things, then when he's pressed for clarification, launch into a life story that's got nothing to do with the issue at hand in an attempt to confuse.
Re:You want his words, here they are (Score:2, Informative)
The Jew-hating terrorists (Hamas, Hesbollah, Iran, etc) also think of them in terms close to those of Nazis and the holocaust. Their teachings and proclamations are filled with references to the inferiority and moral failings of Jews as a whole (and as individuals), without regard to "Western"-ness. The Palestinian government, as such, was closely allied to actual Nazi Germany during the 1940s.
"Back in the middle ages european crusaders created a Kingdom of Jerusalem. This kingdom was purged from the Islamic world without the use of genocide"
That's because there were only a few for the Muslims to murder. That Kingdom was a colony with a few governors, so to speak. It wasn't an entire nation living there. This is much different from the Israel situation, where they'd have to murder millions of Jews in order to "get rid of" the nation of Israel. The genocide by which the Arab invaders came into possession of Jerusalem in the first place (way before the Crusades) should be mentioned too (as long as you are going back in history)
Re:You want his words, here they are (Score:3, Informative)
The anti-Zionism found in the Arab ME does not follow the pattern of a Nazi ideology that was racially motivated - nothing but the destruction of the inferior race will do in the mind of a convinced Nazi. The Qur'an on the other hand recognizes the other theistic religions - Judaism and Christianity - and mandates tolerance towards them.
Re:You want his words, here they are (Score:2, Informative)
It was a big problem at that time, going all the way back to when the Arabs invaded and conquered the place. There were numerous pograms in the area in the first half of the 20th century.
" simply because there was no single ethnic group that claimed _exclusive_ ownership of the area that is now Israel."
Well, the British claimed ownership. Before them, the Ottomans, and before them the Arab empire.
Why wouldn't he? All they have done is fight back against numerous ongoing genocide attempts.
Re:Israel sholuld be in Germany or Poland (Score:2, Informative)
The Palestinian governing authorities at the time of Hitler strongly supported the Holocaust, even to the point of sending Arabs into Europe to wipe out European Jews. More recently, when Israel was founded, nearby Arab countries forced their Jews to leave (to go to Israel)
" but an atheist from a country in Central Europe"
I won't hold your religious faith against you. They should just leave Israel right where it is. The Arabs and Muslims just have to let go of their age-old hatred of Jewish people. Then there will be no problem. To move Israel would be to institute ethnic cleansing/genocide.
Re:Informative??? FLAMEBAIT!!! (Score:2, Informative)
I believe the native American tribes should be given a better deal. Not giving back all their former territory, because there are people there with claims to it, but at least allow more rights to the current areas that are their "reservations". Look into vital statistics like infant mortality and living expectancy of people living in the reservations to see what I mean. The same discrepancy occurs between Palestinians living in refugee camps and Israeli citizens. Both situations are wrong, IMHO.
The Babylon culture is extinct. If you mean the genetic heirs, that's all of us. It can be easily demonstrated that in a few centuries every person who leaves descendants will be an ancestor to every living person.
there's more usable, unoccupied land in Brazil than in the middle east.
Google maps show otherwise. Look around southern Lebanon, the Golan heights and Galilean panhandle. You can easily see what is Israel and what is either Syria or Lebanon. Clue: Israel is green. The same can be seen in Israel's borders with Jordan and Egypt. Every land is "usable" if you care to go the effort that the Israelis go to grow things in the desert. Now take a look at Brazil. All the land that isn't the Amazon forest is divided into land plots. You cannot find any area the size of Israel inside Brazil that isn't either part of someone's land or a natural preservation area. If you take the care to follow news from Brazil, you will realize that land ownership is a very delicate issue, with many conflicts between land owners and landless peasants.
that wouldn't satisfy the people who believe, rather irrationally, that the Jews *need* a state
But it would satisfy the people who believe, rather irrationally, that the Palestinians *need* a state? Granting that they really need a state, and I believe they do, why cannot they resolve their differences with the government of their state, which is Jordan? They tried to bring down the Jordan government in the 1970 "black september" and failed. I don't know the exact proportions, but not all Palestinian refugees came from Israel, or from the West Bank. Many came from Jordan after the failed coup against king Hussein.
Re:Poll on the blog (Score:3, Informative)
Hmmmm....., I wonder what happens when you drill down into one of your bland assertions?
June 23rd: Tensions on the northern border escalate when violence expands in Gaza when the Israeli army invades and siezes two sons of Palestinian activist Ali Muamar to put pressure on him.
You find something interesting about that here [huffingtonpost.com]:
I wonder if there is more?
June 24th: In retaliation, Hamas sneaks into Israel via a tunnel, kills two Israeli soldiers, and captures a corporal. They seek a prisoner exchange (Israel holds about 10,000 Palestinian prisoners, including many women and children)
Women and children? Hmmmm... Here [ujcfedweb.org] is sonething about that....
I guess you're right, things aren't that simple.
Re:You want his words, here they are (Score:5, Informative)
Compare that with the USA. The first ammendment alone forbids such laws. So the USA is secular, while Israel is not. This isn't talked about much in the West, because criticizing Israel is not politically correct in many Western nations, especially the USA.
Re:Informative??? FLAMEBAIT!!! (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Informative??? FLAMEBAIT!!! (Score:3, Informative)
Von Braun? He wasn't Jewish, he was a German.
Or do you mean another Von Braun?
Re:He Had No Choice (Score:3, Informative)
Every history of the period I've ever read puts the figure at just over one million - both the postwar books by Hilberg etc and the more recent stuff. The four million figure was invented by the Soviet Union (and used in its museum at Auschwitz) to maximise the number of Soviet (non-Jewish) victims. This figure was not, to my knowledge, ever given any credence by Western historians. So it is a lie to claim that the number of estimated deaths has gone down.
I am assuming that you did not know the background - however, if you really want to learn some history, read Gilbert, Noakes and Pridham etc and take dubious unsourced websites with a huge pinch of salt.