| IRAN Day of Judgment Ian McEwan, The Guardian, May 2008 (Excerpt) His (Ahmadinejad) much reported remark about wiping Israel off the face of the earth may have been mere bluster of the kind you could hear any Friday in a thousand mosques around the world. But this posturing, coupled with his nuclear ambitions, becomes more worrying when set in the context of his end-time beliefs. In Jamkaran, a village not far from the holy city of Qum, a small mosque is undergoing a $20m-expansion, driven forward by Ahmadinejad's office. Within the Shi'ite apocalyptic tradition, the Twelfth Imam, the Mahdi, who disappeared in the ninth century, is expected to reappear in a well behind the mosque. His re-emergence will signify the beginning of the end days. He will lead the battle against the Dajjal, the Islamic version of the anti-Christ, and with Jesus as his follower, will establish the global Dar el Salaam, the dominion of peace, under Islam. Ahmadinejad is extending the mosque to receive the Mahdi, and already pilgrims by the thousands are visiting the shrine, for the president has reportedly told his cabinet that he expects the visitation within two years (2010). The pressing question is: when does Ahmadinejad now expect to meet with the Mahdi? 2012 Putting out Fires Feb 20 - Will Allah again put out the fire and give Ahmadinejad time to bring on the Day of Resurrection, if that is his intention? 5:64 The Jews say: “Allah’s Hand is tied”; may their own hands be tied and may they be damned for what they say... And We have cast in their midst animosity and hatred till the Day of Resurrection. Whenever they kindle a fire for war, Allah extinguishes it... (click here for context and the full revelation) 2010 March 16 - A Sunday Afternoon With Sohrab Sohrab is not a fan of Salmon Rushdie. He is of the opinion that you can’t get people to listen to what you have to say if you start the conversation by ridiculing their beliefs. We spent Sunday afternoon together sipping hot tea and shelling and popping pistachios. After Days of Pain and Madness he did not want to talk about it anymore. When I got to his house he showed me a picture he had discovered on the internet of Adelabad. He pointed to a wall next to a guard tower and in a mournful voice said “on the other side of that wall is where they shot all the people.” Adelabad housed both men and women. On the website were posted pictures of many of the young people murdered there, most were pictures of young women. I asked him if he wanted to talk about it. He said yes. Sohrab spent more than a year at Adelabad (one of four prisons in which he would be a guest of the Ayatollah Khomeini, the others being Bosher, Ahwaz and Kerman). It was while trying to help a young woman who was about to be arrested by Islamic Revolutionary Guards, (Hezbollah) at a bus station that he was hustled off to Shiraz’s infamous prison. It was at Adelabad that he said he met one of two of the cruellest men it would be his misfortune to cross paths. One of them was the brutal compassionless boss of Adelabad. A few months after Sohrab’s incarceration, the boss left to fight in the Iranian/Iraq war only to return three months later in a wheelchair having lost both legs, and the prisoners of Adelabad would be made to pay for the lost of his limbs. Sohrab did not want to talk about it anymore, and our discussion turned to the situation in Iran. He did not hold up much hope. He said that a popular uprising could only lead to a countrywide massacre. The Ayatollahs, he said, murdered to get the power and are ready to commit mass murder to keep it, and have the means to carry it out with, at their disposal, more than a million Islamic Revolutionary Guards and young people who have only known an Islamic regime. Khamenei has set the stage by claiming that opposing the rule of the Ayatollahs is like opposing Allah and His Messenger. In Islam, to oppose Allah and the Prophet means death. Allah in the Koran is quick to exterminate those who would deny His Rule or His Existence after receiving what He calls "the clear proofs" e.g. the Koran. Popular dissent or "sedition" in the Koran is also justification for mass murder: "Kill them wherever you find them and drive them out wherever they drove you out. Sedition is worse than slaughter… [2:191]" With Allah as a role model for the Ayatollahs, I share Sohrab’s uneasiness. The issue, as Sohrab framed it, is not the Prophet but the Koran. At the risk of putting words in his mouth – which, as a prominent Muslim whom I asked to review Pain, Pleasure and Prejudice warned me, for a Muslim to even express a mild criticism of the Koran is a very dangerous thing – the Koran is not about peace and love, it's about submission and domination. Whether you think this is a good or a bad thing, you should at least be honest about it. Sohrab actually thinks my layman's guide to the Koran is a good place to start being honest about it; not that he agrees with everything I wrote, of course, and that is the way it should be. (to be continued) February 11 - On the occasion of the 31st anniversary of the revolution that gave birth to the Islamic Republic, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced that Iran has produced its first package of highly enriched uranium. For suicide bombers the bigger the bomb the better, and now the President of Iran has the potential of being remembered as the biggest suicide bomber of them all. Perhaps the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei should remind his puppet about the Koran's prohibition against committing suicide and save his sociopath’s life and perhaps the lives of millions of his countrymen and neighbours downwind on whom the radioactive rain and dust of a retaliatory strike in kind will fall. 4:29 O believers, do not consume your wealth illegally, unless there be trading by mutual agreement among you; and do not kill yourselves. Allah is indeed merciful to you! Yes, I know, verse 4:29 could also be interpreted as “don’t kill each other fighting over material possessions.” Change in Islam starts with the Koran. You can not change the Koran but you can seek an interpretation of its meanings, even if it appears like your taking a phrase out of context (remember, the semicolon is also used to separate independent clauses), if it will lessen the violence. It's not unusual for Allah to make two revelations in the same verse, although the following are separated by a period: 2:189 They ask you about the crescents (the new moons) say: “They are times fixed for mankind and for the pilgrimage.” It is not righteousness to enter houses from the back; but the righteous is he who fears Allah. Enter then the houses by their front doors; and fear Allah that you may prosper. 2009 September 22 - Hafez June 30 - A Rage From Hell Speaking In God’s Name June 27 - ‘I want the judiciary to ... punish leading rioters firmly and without showing any mercy to teach everyone a lesson,' [Ayatollah] Ahmad Khatami told worshippers at Tehran University. Tehran — Reuters, June 26 You can not be an Ayatollah if you have not received the equivalent of a doctorate in Islamic studies. One hundred and twelve (112) of the one hundred and fourteen (114) chapters of the Koran begin with the invocation In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful. All through the Koran, Allah brags about His compassion and mercy. The Ayatollahs have to be aware of this, so why the complete lack of compassion and mercy? The Ayatollahs understanding of compassion and mercy may be the same as that of their idol, it’s of the conditional type, and obviously those who oppose their autocratic rule don’t deserve any. To understand what Allah means by compassion and mercy we invite you to read Getting to Know Allah. June 25 - Excerpt from an email from David Kilgour: The ayatollahs' election monitors this week admitted that the number of ballots cast in fifty cities on June 12th exceeded the number of eligible voters, although they insisted lamely that this affected only three million votes. Adding to the mounting scepticism is an analysis by the respected Chatham House and Institute of Iranian Studies at St. Andrew's University, which challenged the official results, based on a comparison of the 2009 votes with those of 2005. The study also showed that in a third of all provinces the official results, if accurate, would have required Ahmadinejad to win not only all 'conservative' voters, all former centrist ones and all new voters, but up to 44 percent of formerly 'reformist' voters despite a decade of conflict between the two groups. Among numerous other indications of ballot stuffing are reports that before the election a number of officials in the Interior ministry (where the votes were counted) were fired because their loyalty to Ahmadinejad was questioned. Overall, the incumbent's declared victory by eleven million votes now looks fabricated. David Kilgour is co-chair, Canadian Friends of a Democratic Iran, a member of the Muslim-Christian Dialogue of Ottawa and a former MP. June 24 - If conditions in Iranian prisons are even remotely the same as when Sohrab was a prisoner of the Ayatollah Khomeini, you have to admire even more the courage of those who take to the street in protest. June 23 -They hang them, and now they shoot them in the street. Insecure men these Ayatollahs. Rest in peace Neda. June 14 - Both Ayatollah Khamenei, the all-powerful leader of the Guardian Council, and Ahmandinejad have demonstrated a pathological hatred of Israel, and an inveterate hatred of America for its support of the Jewish State. Both would, given the opportunity, wipe it off the map. Does the re-election of an admitted sociopath as President of The Islamic Republic mean that Khamenei, the man most responsible for Ahmandinejad’s electoral successes, believe that this is still a worthwhile goal to pursue? If this is the case, then a solution to MAD Checkmated must be found, and soon. February 13 -The Company We Keep February 22, 2006 - A thief with a gun was threatening…
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