on political Islam, "Ahmadinejad's World"

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on political Islam, "Ahmadinejad's World"

Postby wordspeak » Sun Oct 08, 2006 10:02 am

<!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://emperors-clothes.com/analysis/ahmadine.htm">emperors-clothes.com/anal...madine.htm</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br>Nightmare in Iran...<br><br>Ahmadinejad's World<br>By Matthias Küntzel *<br><br>Comment by Jared Israel<br><br>[25 September 2006]<br><br>==============================================<br><br>Why TENC is Posting “Ahmadinejad's World”<br>by Jared Israel<br><br>I see two main problems with the extensive media coverage of Iran's President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. One is the media's tendency to accept Ahmadinejad's preferred self-image, that of a third world populist, albeit with Islamist views, regarding whom the media celebrates supposed signs of moderation. This approach avoids examining Ahmadinejad's ideology and its roots in the political life of post 1979 (i.e., Islamist) Iran. <br><br>Matthias Küntzel's piece, “Ahmadinejad's World,” goes a long way towards filling the void of ignorance about how this man thinks. It turns out that not only does Ahmadinejad deny the Holocaust, sponsor Hezbollah, and incite the murder of Jewish people around the world, but he took part in the government-organized murder of untold thousands of Iranian children, and is now promoting a state cult glorifying that murder.<br><br>The second problem is that the media - mainstream, extreme right, extreme left, alternative, pro-Israel, anti-Israel - unquestioningly propounds the view, fostered by the US and Iranian governments, that they are what they appear: fierce opponents. Evidence contradicting this view is disregarded; for example, I could find no English language newspaper or TV news program that even noted the following remark, which Ahmadinejad made during his UN speech a week ago:<br><br>“The occupiers are incapable of establishing security in Iraq. Despite the establishment of the lawful Government and National Assembly of Iraq, there are covert and overt efforts to heighten insecurity, magnify and aggravate differences within Iraqi society, and instigate civil strife.” (My emphasis - JI)<br>--Transcript of Ahmadinejad's UN speech<br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.un.org/webcast/ga/61/pdfs/iran-e.pdf">www.un.org/webcast/ga/61/pdfs/iran-e.pdf</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br>Two things are noteworthy here.<br><br>First, Ahmadinejad did not, in this quote or anywhere else in his speech, demand that the US get out of Iraq. Rather, he criticized the occupation forces for being “incapable of establishing security.” <br><br>Second, Ahmadinejad referred to the current Iraqi government as “the lawful Government and National Assembly of Iraq.” But said government is the creature of the occupation forces, first and foremost the US. For example, US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad oversaw the writing of the Iraqi constitution.<br><br>For three years we have been told that the US is on the verge of a military assault on Iran. Yet here is the Iranian President, commenting on the presence of massive US and allied forces in Iraq, and instead of denouncing this multi-national attack force on his doorstep, instead of saying, “Of course we need nuclear weapons; thousands of US and other infidel troops are poised on our border!” - instead he chides the US for not being tough enough and commends the US-created Iraqi government as “lawful.” Doesn't this suggest that the US-Iranian relationship is different from what it appears? That mutual denunciations and threats made by the Bush and Ahmadinejad governments may be political theater? But this and much other evidence that, as Emperor's Clothes predicted before the US went into Iraq, Iran has gained from the invasion and has in crucial ways supported US efforts - this evidence is simply ignored. <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em><br><br>Food for thought, about which more later. First, here is Matthias Küntzel's account of what President Ahmadinejad has done and what he stands for. As you read, consider what it means for Ahmadinejad to say the Iraqi government is “lawful.”<br><br>Jared Israel<br>Editor, Emperor's Clothes<br><br><!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em> See “Emperor's Clothes Articles on US strategy towards Iraq and Iran,” at<br> <!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://emperors-clothes.com/iraq-iran.htm">emperors-clothes.com/iraq-iran.htm</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--> <br><br>***<br><br>Ahmadinejad's World<br>By Matthias Küntzel *<br><br>In pondering the behavior of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, I cannot help but think of the 500,000 plastic keys that Iran imported from Taiwan during the Iran-Iraq War of 1980-88. At the time, an Iranian law laid down that children as young as 12 could be used to clear mine fields, even against the objections of their parents. Before every mission, a small plastic key would be hung around each of the children’s necks. It was supposed to open for them the gates to paradise.<br><br>“In the past,” wrote the semi-official Iranian daily Ettela’at, “we had child-volunteers: 14-, 15-, and 16-year-olds. They went into the mine fields. Their eyes saw nothing. Their ears heard nothing. And then, a few moments later, one saw clouds of dust. When the dust had settled again, there was nothing more to be seen of them. Somewhere, widely scattered in the landscape, there lay scraps of burnt flesh and pieces of bone.” Such scenes could henceforth be avoided, Ettela’at assured its readers. “Before entering the mine fields, the children [now] wrap themselves in blankets and they roll on the ground, so that their body parts stay together after the explosion of the mines and one can carry them to the graves.”[1]<br><br>The children who thus rolled to their deaths formed part of the mass “Basiji” movement that was called into being by the Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979. The Basiji Mostazafan – the “mobilization of the oppressed” – consisted of short-term volunteer militias. Most of the Basiji members were not yet 18. They went enthusiastically and by the thousands to their own destruction. “The young men cleared the mines with their own bodies,” a veteran of the Iran-Iraq War has recalled, “It was sometimes like a race. Even without the commander’s orders, everyone wanted to be first.”[2]<br><br>The western media showed little interest for the Basiji – perhaps because journalists could not be present during the hostilities or perhaps because they did not believe the reports. Such disinterest has persisted to this day. The 5000 dead of Saddam Hussein’s poison gas attack on the Kurds of Halabja have remained in our memory. History has forgotten the children of the minefields.<br><br>Today, however, Ahmadinejad appears in public in his Basiji uniform. During the war, he served as one of the Basiji instructors who turned children into martyrs. The generation that fought in the Iran-Iraq War has come to power along with Ahmadinejad. He owed his election in Summer 2005 to the contemporary Basiji movement. In Fall, he announced a “Basiji Week.” According to a report in the newspaper Kayan, some 9 million Basiji heeded the call, “forming a human chain some 8,700 kilometers long… . In Tehran alone, some 1,250,000 people turned out.”[3] In his speeches, Ahmadinejad praises the “Basiji culture” and the “Basiji power” with which “Iran today makes its presence felt on the international and diplomatic stage.” Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, Chair of the Guardian Council, goes so far as to describe the very existence of Iran’s nuclear program as a triumph of those Iranians who “serve the Basiji movement and possess the Basiji-psyche and Basiji-culture.”[4]<br><br>Far from being the subject of criticism, the sacrifice made of the Basiji in the war against Iraq is celebrated nowadays more than ever before. Already in one of his first television interviews, the new President enthused: “Is there an art that is more beautiful, more divine, more eternal than the art of the martyr’s death?”[5] The Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, held up the war against Iraq, on account of the fearlessness of the Basiji, as a model for future conflicts.<br><br>This would already be reason enough for us to be interested in the history of the Basiji. But there is another reason. The deployment of the Basiji in the Iran-Iraq War is the primordial crime of political Islam: here the cult of the religiously-motivated suicide attack finds its origins. If we want to understand why a woman sits in the Palestinian parliament who is honored, above all, because she sent three of her five sons to martyrs’ deaths, if we want to know why still today 50,000 young Iranians volunteer for suicide missions – there is no avoiding the Basiji.<br><br>The Child-Basiji in War<br><br>In 1980, the Ayatollah Khomeini called the Iraqi invasion of Iran a “divine blessing.” The war provided the perfect opportunity to Islamize both Iranian society and the institutions of the Iranian state. Within no time, Khomeini’s fanatically devoted Revolutionary Guard – the Pasdaran – had been transformed into a proper army in its own right, complete with navy and air force. At the same time, the regime hastened to develop a popular militia: the Basiji Mostazafan.<br><br>Within just a few weeks, teenage boys between 12 and 17 – as well as men over 45 – had been prepared for war. During training, lack of weaponry was compensated by a surplus of religious propaganda. When their training was done, each Basiji received a blood-red headband that designated him a “Volunteer for Martyrdom.”<br><br>On the battlefield, the Basiji, representing 30% of the armed forces as such, constituted the greater part of the infantry. The Pasdaran represented some 40% of the armed forces and the regular army the remaining 30%.[6] The members of the Pasdaran had generally obtained a higher level of education than the Basiji, who mostly came from the countryside and were often illiterate. While the Basiji were sent to the frontlines, the Pasdaran brought up the rear. As a rule, the Pasdaran would be sent into battle when successive waves of Basiji had already been killed off.[7]<br><br>The human wave tactic was implemented as follows: the barely armed children and teenagers had to move continuously forward in perfectly straight rows. It did not matter whether they fell as canon fodder to enemy fire or detonated the mines with their bodies: the important thing was that the Basiji continued to move forward over the torn and mutilated remains of their fallen comrades, going to their deaths in wave after wave.[8] The tactic produced some undeniable initial successes for the Iranian side. “They come toward our positions in huge hordes with their fists swinging,” an Iraqi officer complained in Summer 1982, “You can shoot down the first wave, and then the second. But at some point the corpses are piling up in front of you, and all you want to do is scream and throw away your weapon. Those are human beings, after all.”[9] By Spring 1983, the Pasdaran had sent some 450,000 Basiji in shifts to the front. After three months, whoever survived his deployment was sent back to his school or workplace.[1<!--EZCODE EMOTICON START 0] --><img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/alien.gif ALT="0]"><!--EZCODE EMOTICON END--> <br><br>How were the Basiji recruited? Principally, in the schools: the Pasdaran sent “special” educators who hand-picked their martyrs from the obligatory paramilitary exercises. Propaganda films – like the 1986 television film “A Contribution to the War” – praised this alliance between students and the regime against those parents who tried to save their children’s lives.[11]<br><br>Secondly, the regime employed incentives. Thus, in a campaign called “Sacrifice a Child for the Imam”, every family that lost a child on the battle field was offered interest-free credit and other generous benefits. Moreover, enrollment in the Basiji gave the poorest of the poor a chance for social advancement. Basiji reservists are still today treated as protégés of the Mullah-regime.[12]<br><br>Thirdly, the regime employed coercive measures. The following story of young Hossein, which was documented by the German weekly der Spiegel in 1982, is merely one among thousands:<br><br>[Excerpt from der Spiegel starts here]<br><br>“Why did you enlist?” The youngster in the camouflage fatigues, with both sleeves and pants legs rolled up, doesn’t answer. “His name is Hossein. He doesn’t know his family name,” the translator says. The boy is twelve at most. His face is gaunt, his body is bent forward, he breathes in spurts. One can see that he has trouble staying on his feet. “Polio,” the translator says. …Hossein comes from Mostalbar, a tiny spot somewhere between Shiraz and Bandar Abbas. …One day some unknown Imams turned up in the village. They called the whole population to the plaza in front of the police station and they announced that they came with good news from Imam Khomeini: the Islamic Army of Iran had been chosen to liberate the holy city Al-Quds – Jerusalem – from the infidels. …Hossein had no choice. The local Mullah had decided that every family with children would have to furnish one soldier of God. Because Hossein was the most easily expendable for his family and because, in light of his illness, he could in any case not expect much happiness in this life, he was chosen by his father to represent the family in the struggle against the infidel devils.[13]<br><br>[Excerpt from der Spiegel ends here]<br><br>Of the twenty children that went into battle with Hossein, only he and two others survived.<br><br>In 1982, during the retaking of the city of Khorramshahr, 10,000 Iranians died. Following “Operation Kheiber”, in February 1984, the corpses of some 20,000 fallen Iranians were left on the battle field. The “Karbala Four” Offensive in 1986 cost the lives of more than 10,000 Iranians. All told, some 100,000 men and boys are said to have been killed during the Basiji operations.[14] Why did the Basiji rush with such fervor to their own destruction?<br><br>The Martyrs of Karbala<br><br>At the very outset, the Mullahs did not send human beings into the mine fields, but rather animals: donkeys, horses, and, above all, dogs. But the tactic proved useless: “After a few donkeys had been blown up, the rest ran off in terror,” Mostafa Arki reports in his book Acht Jahre Krieg im Nahen Osten [Eight Years of War in the Middle East].[15] The donkeys reacted normally. Fear of death is natural. The Basiji, on the other hand, marched fearlessly and uncomplaining – as if guided by an invisible hand – to their deaths. The curious slogans that they chanted while entering the battle fields are worthy of note: “Against the Yazid of our time!”, “Hussein’s Caravan is Moving On!”, “A New Karbala Awaits Us”.<br><br>Yazid, Hussein, and Karbala: three essential references of the Shia religion. The primordial myth of the Shia concerns the Battle of Karbala of 680 that opposed the founders of Sunni and Shia Islam. The key figure in Shia doctrine is the Imam Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad. Hussein led an uprising against the “illegitimate” Caliph Yazid. But Hussein’s uprising was betrayed by the very persons who had sworn to serve him faithfully. The shame of this “original sin” of the Shia generates unconditional loyalty to the religious leadership to this day. On the plain of Karbala, on the tenth day of the month of Muharram, Hussein and his entourage were attacked and defeated by a numerically superior force under the leadership of Yazid. Hussein’s corpse bore the marks of 33 lance punctures and 34 blows of the sword. His head was cut off and the remaining trunk of his body was trampled by horses. Ever since, the martyrdom of Hussein provides the core of Shia theology and the Ashura Festival that commemorates it is the holiest day of the Shia. Men beat themselves with their fists or flagellate themselves with iron chains, in order to approximate the sufferings of Hussein. These rituals are pre-Islamic in nature: the Shia adapted them from Zoroastrian and pagan traditions.[16]<br><br>In his study, Crowds and Power, the Nobel-Prize winner Elias Canetti documents a first-hand report on the Ashura Festival as it occurred in around 1850 in Tehran. This report prefigures some of what we find so incomprehensible in the behavior of the Basiji:<br><br>[Excerpt from Crowds and Power starts here]<br><br>500,000 people, in the grip of delirium, cover their heads with ashes and beat their foreheads against the ground. They want to subject themselves voluntarily to torments: to commit suicide en masse, to mutilate themselves with refinement. …Hundreds of men in white shirts come by, their faces ecstatically raised toward the sky. Of these, several will be dead this evening, many will be maimed and mutilated, and the white shirts, dyed red, will be burial shrouds. …Others, who were not at first among the volunteers for self-sacrifice, suddenly discover their thirst for blood amidst the general uproar. They demand weapons, rip off their clothes, and tear their flesh. …There is no more beautiful destiny than to die on the Festival of Ashura. The gates of the eight Paradises are wide open for the holy and everyone tries to get through them.[17]<br><br>[Excerpt from Crowds and Power ends here]<br><br>Even if the bloody excesses of the sort here described are prohibited in contemporary Iran, Khomeini took over the essence of the ritual as a symbolic act and politicized it. He took the inward-directed fervor and channeled it toward the external enemy. He transformed the passive lamentation into active protest. He made the Battle of Karbala the prototype of the uprising against tyranny. Already during the demonstrations against the Shah in 1978, many protestors wore funeral shrouds in order to tie the Ashura-Cult to current political struggles. In the war against Iraq, the allusions to Karbala were given still greater significance: on the one hand, the scoundrel Yazid in the form of Saddam Hussein; on the other, the Prophet’s grandson Hussein, for whose suffering the time of Shia revenge had finally come.<br><br>But why should the Basiji lose their lives in this struggle against evil? Here the theology of Khomeini provides the key. According to his theological worldview, life is worthless and death is the beginning of genuine existence. “The natural world,” Khomeini explained in October 1980, “is the lowest element, the scum of creation.” What is decisive is the beyond: the “divine world, that [is] eternal.”[18] This latter world is accessible to martyrs. Their death is no death, but merely the transition from this world to the world beyond, where they will live on eternally and in splendor. Whether the warrior wins the battle or loses it and dies a martyr – in both cases, his victory is assured: either a mundane or a spiritual one.<br><br>This attitude had a fatal implication for the Basiji: whether they survived or not was a matter of indifference. Not even the usefulness of their sacrifice mattered. Military victories are secondary, Khomeini explained in September 1980. The Basijimust “understand that he is a ‘soldier of God’ for whom it is not so much the outcome of the conflict as the mere participation in it that provides fulfillment and gratification.”[19] Could Khomeini’s antipathy for life have had as much effect in the war against Iraq without the Karbala myth? Probably not. With the word “Karbala” on their lips, the Basiji went elatedly into to battle. And much of Iranian society went with them. Ali Khamenei, the current Supreme Leader, praised Iranian mothers who accepted congratulations instead of condolences for the loss of their sons.[2<!--EZCODE EMOTICON START 0] --><img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/alien.gif ALT="0]"><!--EZCODE EMOTICON END--> Rafsanjani, the current number two man in Iran, recounted the story of the children of soldiers killed in Karbala: “the children pulled on their funeral shrouds, took the swords of their fathers, and they were ready to sacrifice their lives.” And then he ridiculed the commanders of the regular Iranian Army, because the latter wanted to prohibit the families from sending their children to the front. But the children, according to Rafsanjani, did not agree. Rafsanjani asked the public whether, in light of this “adult” attitude, one could really still consider such children as minors.[21]<br><br>The Myth of the Imam<br><br>Nevertheless, when the courage in face of death of the Basiji seemed to wane, the regime put on a show. A mysterious horseman on a magnificent steed would suddenly appear at the front. His face – covered in phosphorous – would shine. His costume was that of a medieval prince. The child soldier Reza Behrouzi, whose story was documented in 1985 by Freidoune Sahebjam in France, reports that the soldiers reacted with a mixture of panic and rapture.<br><br>[Excerpt from story of Reza Behrouzi, starts here]<br><br>Everyone wanted to run toward the horseman. But he drove them away. “Don’t come to me,” he shouted. “Charge into battle against the infidels. …Revenge the death of our Imam Hussein and strike down the progeny of Yazid.” As the figure disappears, the soldiers cry: “Oh, Imam Zaman, where are you?” They throw themselves on their knees, and pray and wail. When the figure appears again, they get to their feet as a single man. Those whose forces are not yet exhausted, charge the enemy lines.[22]<br><br>[Excerpt from story of Reza Behrouzi, ends here]<br><br>The mysterious apparition who was able to trigger such emotions is the “Hidden Imam”, a mythical figure who influences the thought and action of Ahmadinejad to this day. The Shia call the male descendants of the Prophet Muhammad “Imams” and ascribe to them a quasi-divine status. Hussein, who was killed at Karbala by Yazid, was the third Imam. His son and grandson were the fourth and fifth. At the end of this line, there is the “Twelfth Imam,” who is named Muhammad. Some call him the Mahdi (the “divinely guided one”), others Imam Zaman (from sahib-e zaman: “the Ruler of Time”). He was born in 869, the only son of the eleventh Imam. In 874 he disappeared without a trace. Thereby, the lineage of Muhammad came to a close. In Shia mythology, however, it continued. The Shia believe that the Twelfth Imam merely withdrew from public view when he was five and that he will sooner or later emerge from his “occultation” in order to liberate the world from evil.<br><br>The Nobel Prize winner V.S. Naipaul has shown how deeply rooted the belief in the coming of the Shia messiah is among the Iranian population. In his Among the Believers: An Islamic Journey, he describes seeing posters in post-Revolutionary Tehran bearing motifs similar to those of Maoist China: masses, for instance, who raise rifles and machine-guns in the air as if in greeting. The posters always bore the same phrase: “Twelfth Imam, We are Expecting You”. Naipaul writes that he could grasp intellectually the veneration for Khomeini. “But the idea of the revolution as something more, as an offering to the Twelfth Imam, the man who had vanished … and remained ‘in occultation,’ was harder to seize.”[23] According to Shia tradition, legitimate Islamic rule can only be established following the reappearance of the Twelfth Imam. Until that time, the Shia have only to wait, to keep their peace with illegitimate rule, and to remember the Prophet’s grandson Hussein in sorrow. Khomeini, however, had no intention of waiting. He invested the myth with an entirely new sense: the Twelfth Imam will only emerge when the believers have vanquished evil. To speed up the Mahdi’s return, Muslims had to shake off their torpor and fight.<br><br>This activism had more in common with the revolutionary ideas of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood than with Shia traditions. Khomeini had been familiar with the texts of the Muslim Brothers since the 1930s and he agreed with the Brothers’ conception of what had to be considered “evil”: namely, all the life-affirming achievements of modernity that replaced divine providence by individual self-determination, blind faith by doubt, and the stern morality of the Sharia by sensual pleasures. According to legend, Yazid was the embodiment of everything that was forbidden: he drank wine, enjoyed music and song, and played with dogs and monkeys.[24] And was not Saddam Hussein just the same? In the war against Iraq, “evil” was clearly defined and vanquishing evil was the precondition for hastening the return of the beloved Twelfth Imam. When he at least let himself be seen for a few minutes riding his white steed, the readiness to die a martyr’s death increased exponentially.<br><br>The loss of the instinct for self-preservation among the Basiji will remain a mystery for us. There are, nonetheless, certain factors that help to explain it: firstly, Khomeini’s religious doctrine, which elevates the “after-life” above life in this world; secondly, the tradition of veneration of martyrs peculiar to the Shia; thirdly, the expectation of salvation that is connected to the doctrine of the Twelfth Imam; and, finally, the mixture of brain-washing and material incentives with which that Mullah-regime was able to instrumentalize this cultural heritage toward meeting its military objectives.<br><br>For hundreds of years, the Shia variant of Islam stood for quietism and non-violence. Khomeini had subjected the tradition to a radical Jihadist reinterpretation. The myth of self-sacrifice reinforced the idea of salvation and vice-versa: the more selfless the sacrifice, the more imminent the advent of the Imam; and the closer the redemption by the Mahdi, the greater the readiness for martyrdom.<br><br>From the Basiji to the Suicide Bomber<br><br>Nobody was more surprised by the effectiveness of his propaganda than Khomeini himself. “When Iranians go to war, they act as if they are going to a wedding,” he exulted in September 1982, “Even in the earliest days of Islam, we didn’t have that.”[25] And indeed the history of Islam, though not lacking in atrocities, had never known acts like those of the Basiji. Moreover, Khomeini’s policy did not only represent a rupture with the traditions of Islam, it was also at odds with the Quran. Thus Sura 2, verse 195 reads: “Cast not yourselves to destruction with your own hands.” Sura 4, verses 29-30 are still more explicit: “And do not kill yourselves. Verily, Allah is Most Merciful to you. And whosoever does so in enmity and wrong, verily, We shall let him burn in Fire.”<br><br>While it is true that in the 1930s, the Muslim Brothers had already established the motto “Victory or Martyrdom”, they aimed at assuring that every Muslim who found himself against his will in a hopeless situation would sacrifice his life rather than capitulate. The Basiji, however, rushed to certain death in a situation that was not hopeless: such a practice was completely alien to the Muslim Brothers. This is the most significant legacy of the Ayatollah Khomeini. The destructive energy that would find its most condensed expression in the attacks of September 11th had its origin in the sacrifice of the Basiji.<br><br>It is true that there were already suicide attacks against Israelis in the mid-1970s. But these were the work of Marxist-oriented groups like the PFLP-GC. The first Islamically-motivated suicide attack against Israel took place in southern Lebanon on November 11, 1982. The perpetrator was the 15-year-old Ahmad Qusayr: a follower of the then only just emerging Shia militia, Hizbullah. He had been inspired by the model of the Basiji. Khomeini personally consecrated the act of the 15-year old with a Fatwa. Later, he had a memorial built for Ahmad Qusayr in Tehran.[26] Following the lead of Hizbullah, in 1993 the Sunni Hamas likewise began to employ suicide bombings. In the meanwhile, Khomeini’s innovation has become the calling card of Islamist movements throughout the world.<br><br>Until 1982, for a mother cheerfully to accept congratulations upon the massacring of her son only seemed possible in the Islamic culture of Iran, marked as it was by the legend of Karbala. Now, however, since the start of the Second Intifada, the extinguishing of every trace of normal human instinct seems to have become a cultural norm also in the Palestinian territories. Moreover, all the military victories that the Islamists have been able to claim – Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon, the evacuation of the Gaza Strip, the destruction of southern Manhattan, or the series of massacres in Iraq – have been achieved by using the weapon devised by Khomeini. “The Palestinians say that their popular awakening followed the teaching of the Imam Khomeini,” Khomeini’s successor, Ali Khamenei, explained in 2004, “the Lebanese say that they attribute their victory over the Zionists to the school of the Imam. The entire Islamic elite… conducts its victorious battles on the basis established by the political school of the Imam.”[27]<br><br>And, in fact, the seed spread by Khomeini is bearing fruit today. This seed, however, is contaminated by Khomeini’s crime: the deliberate sending of thousands of children to their deaths in the deserts of western Iran. Every contemporary suicide attack still bears traces of this crime. In the first place, it should be remembered that the Basiji were not led to their deaths for defensive purposes; secondly, that the waves of suicide attacks served only to kill other Muslims; and thirdly, that in systematically propagating the passion for self-destruction Khomeini thereby violated the precepts of the Quran.<br><br>From the Desert to the Laboratory: Ahmadinejad’s “Second Revolution”<br><br>Today, the Basiji are present in Iran in every town, every neighborhood and every mosque. Basiji groups are divided into paramilitary units and “special” units. They fall under the direction of the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and are sworn to absolute loyalty toward him. The million strong army of the Basiji is recruited from the more conservative and impoverished parts of the population, which profit from the Basiji social programs. Since 1998, the Basiji have been deployed, above all, as a “vice squad” and their special units have been used as shock troops against opposition forces – as in both 1999 and 2003, for instance, during the suppression of the student movement.<br><br>In the summer 2005 Presidential elections, the urban middle classes voted for Rafsanjani. Ahmadinejad came to power as the candidate of the Basiji. His “second revolution”[28] aims to eradicate corruption and eliminate western influences from Iranian society. It is directed, in particular, against those sections of Iranian youth who during the Presidency of Khatami enjoyed a taste of individual freedoms. In this revolution, the Basiji are expected to play the role of a sort of Iranian SA.<br><br>Since the Presidential elections, the influence of the Basiji has continuously grown. At the end of July 2005, the movement announced plans to increase its membership from 10 million to 15 million by 2010. The “special units” are supposed to comprise some 150,000 persons by then. Accordingly, the budget for the Basiji movement has been considerably augmented.[29] Furthermore, the Basiji have received new powers in their function as an unofficial division of the police. What this unofficial function means in practice was made clear in February 2006 when the Basiji attacked the leader of the striking bus drivers union, Massoud Osanlou. They held Osanlou prisoner in his apartment and they cut off the tip of his tongue, in order to convince him to keep quiet.[3<!--EZCODE EMOTICON START 0] --><img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/alien.gif ALT="0]"><!--EZCODE EMOTICON END--> No member of the Basiji need fear being held responsible for such acts of terror before a court of law.<br><br>The highpoint of this new offensive was reached with the “Basiji Week” in November 2005. Some nine million people, 12% of Iran’s population of 70 million, came out to demonstrate. Barely noticed by the western media, this mobilization attests to Ahmadinejad’s determination to impose his “second revolution” at all costs against the internal opposition. This “revolution” shows clearly fascistic traits and is meant to extinguish the first sparks of freedom in Iran. And what has the West done to support the forces of freedom in Iran? Up until now, very little. The Europeans in particular have given priority to their commercial interests over the defense of human rights.<br><br>The second function of the Basiji is to provide mass publicity for martyrdom. There is no “truth commission” in Iran to investigate the state-planned collective suicide that took place from 1980 to 1988. Instead, every Iranian is taught from childhood the virtues of martyrdom. Everyone knows the name of Hossein Fahmideh, who in 1982, as a 13-year-old boy, blew himself up in front of an Iraqi tank. His image accompanies Iranians throughout their day: whether on postage stamps or the currency. If you hold up a 500 Rial bill to the light, it is his face that you will see in the watermark. The self-destruction of Hossein Fahmideh is depicted as a model of profound faith by the Iranian media. It has been the subject, for instance, of both an animated film and an episode of the TV series “Children of Paradise”.[31] As a symbol of their readiness to die for the Revolution, Basiji groups wear white funeral shrouds over their uniforms during public appearances.<br><br>During this year’s Ashura Festival, school classes were again taken on excursions to a “Martyrs Cemetery”. “They wear headbands painted with the name Hussein,” The New York Times reported, “and march beneath banners that read: ‘Remembering the Martyrs today is as important as becoming a Martyr’ and ‘The Nation for whom Martyrdom means happiness, will always be Victorious.’”[32] Since 2004, the mobilization of Iranians for suicide brigades has intensified, with recruits being trained for foreign missions. Thus, a special military unit has been created bearing the name the “Commando of Voluntary Martyrs”. According to its own statistics, this commando has so far recruited some 52,000 Iranians to the suicidal cause. It aims to form a “Martyrdom Unit” in every Iranian province. “The enemy is afraid that this culture will develop into a global culture,” boasts the leader of the commando, Mohammadresa Jafari.[33] The fervor for death as “global culture”? Pure delirium as the paradigm of Islam?<br><br>Of course, the numerous Iranians who admire Western lifestyles would reject such an imputation, as would the majority of Muslims throughout the world. But here too, the West has failed. Instead of condemning suicide bombing without exception as a crime against humanity and pushing for a United Nations resolution to this effect, western reactions have in this connection as well been marked by opportunism. The international condemnation of suicide terror is, however, an essential condition for the isolation of Iran.<br><br>In the context of the Iranian nuclear program, the Basiji cult of self-destruction amounts to a lit fuse. Even just a brief look at the Iranian Constitution makes clear that there can be no question of Iran limiting its program to peaceful ends. Article 151 lays down on the authority of the Quran: “Prepare against them whatever force you are able to muster, and horses ready for battle, striking fear into God’s enemy and your enemy.”<br><br>Nowadays, Basiji are sent not into the desert, but rather into the laboratory. Basiji students are encouraged to enroll in technical-scientific disciplines. According to a spokesperson for the Revolutionary Guard, the aim is to use the “technical factor” in order to augment “national security”.[34] But what is the implication of atomic weapons in the hands of those who interpret death in the battle field as a spiritual triumph?<br><br>In December 2001, then Iranian President Hashemi Rafsanjani broached this question. He explained that “the use of even one nuclear bomb inside Israel will destroy everything”. On the other hand, even in the case of a nuclear response on the part of Israel, it “will only harm the Islamic world. It is not irrational to contemplate such an eventuality.”[35] Rafsanjani thus spelled out the terms of a macabre cost-benefit analysis. It will not be possible to destroy Israel without suffering damage in turn. But for Islam the level of damage that Israel’s nuclear response could inflict is, nonetheless, bearable. Some hundred thousand or so additional martyrs for Islam – the price is not to high to pay.<br><br>Rafsanjani’s counting on a hundred thousand deaths might seem on first glance like a worst-case scenario. But it is not. For Rafsanjani is a representative of the “pragmatic” wing of the Iranian Revolution. In contrast to the apocalyptic wing of the Revolutionary Guard, who in 1988 wanted to pursue the war against Iraq no matter the costs, the “pragmatists” are concerned that any war should have a “worthwhile” outcome. What atomic weapons could mean in the hands of the “apocalyptic” faction is virtually unimaginable.<br><br>Ahmadinejad, however, is clearly predisposed toward apocalyptic thinking. The linchpin of his politics is the myth of the Hidden Imam. In September 2005, he concluded his first speech before the United Nations by imploring God to bring about the return of the Twelfth Imam. He finances a research institute in Tehran whose sole purpose is to study and, if possible, accelerate the coming of the Imam. “The most important task of our Revolution is to prepare the way for the return of the Twelfth Imam,” he stressed at a theology conference in November 2005.[36]<br><br>A politics pursued in alliance with a supernatural force necessarily becomes unpredictable. Why should an Iranian President take into account the reality principle when his assumption is that in three or four years the Savior will be taking over the controls in any case? In expecting the advent of the Messiah, who would be prepared for compromise? In any case, up to now Ahmadinejad has kept on his course toward confrontation with evident pleasure.<br><br>The West has been declared the enemy and Western music – from Mozart to Madonna – banned from the airwaves. With his threats against Israel’s existence, the option of a new epochal crime against Jews has been elevated to government policy. Inasmuch as Ahmadinejad declares the Twelfth Imam a reality, but the Holocaust a myth, he takes his leave from the international community known as the “United Nations.” Whoever ridicules Auschwitz as a myth, must thereby transform Jews into the universal enemy, who for filthy Mammon has deceived humanity for 60 years and who controls the world’s media and universities.<br><br>Ahmadinejad’s anti-Semitism bears resemblance to that of the Nazis, even if he replaces the term “Jew” by “Zionist”: the Zionists fabricated the Danish Muhammad cartoons; the Zionists brought about the attacks on Shia holy places in Iraq; the Zionists have for sixty years now blackmailed “all western governments”; the Zionists have enslaved the German government.[37]<br><br>It would be an error to dismiss Ahmadinejad as a crank. Though his goals may be demented, he pursues them with obvious intelligence. He casts himself in the role of the global populist. His speeches address the “oppressed” throughout the world. He cultivates good relations with Fidel Castro and Venezuela’s President Hugo Chávez, and he has announced his intention to participate in the summit of non-aligned states in September 2006 in Havana.[38]<br><br>Iran’s conduct of its war with Iraq between 1980 and 1988 provided a glimpse of things to come. What began with the clearing of mine fields by human detonators has become in the form of suicide bombing the most powerful weapon of the Islamist movement worldwide. The kitschy shows in the desert, with hired actors in the role of the Hidden Imam, have evolved into a showdown between a zealous Iranian President and the western world. The Basiji who once upon a time wandered the desert armed only with a walking stick is today working as a chemist in a uranium enrichment facility.<br><br>Our look back at the history of the Basiji shows us that the greatest monstrosities have to be expected as a matter of course from the current Iranian regime. Today, the political isolation of Iran is a necessity. So long as the Iranian leadership refuses to recognize the reality and tragedy of the Holocaust, Iran’s membership in the UN should be suspended.<br><br>Box 1: The Iran-Iraq War<br>In February 1979, Khomeini’s revolution triumphs in Iran. Next door in Iraq, Saddam Hussein becomes President in July 1979. Khomeini calls on the Shia of Iraq “to rise up against the criminal murderer Saddam Hussein and his clan.” Clandestine organizations in Iraq receive funding from Tehran. For propaganda purposes, Iranian radio transmitters are set up close to the Iraq border.<br><br>The response from Hussein comes in September 1980 with the invasion of Iran. Cities like Abadan are occupied by Iraqi troops. Four months later, the Iranian counterattack begins. In March 1982, Iran for the first time deploys Basiji commandos. In Summer 1982, Iraq offers to negotiate a truce. Iran rejects the offer. In August 1988, Khomeini finally gives in following several years of a war of attrition. 750,000 Iranians lose their lives in the war, 1,200,000 are wounded. Iraq suffers some 340,000 dead and 700,000 wounded.<br><br> <br><br>Box 2: The Pasdaran vs. the Regular Army<br>In the war against Iraq, Khomeini could not do without the regular Iranian armed forces that had been built up under the Shah. But he mistrusted them and tried to limit their influence. To this end, the Revolutionary Guard (Pasdaran) were developed into a second army. Until 1980, the tasks of the 25,000 strong organization consisted of enforcing the prescribed virtues of the Sharia and murdering regime opponents. But by 1985, the Pasdaran forces, of which Ahmadinejad was a member, were already with their some 450,000 troops more powerful than the 350,000 strong regular armed forces.<br><br>In Summer 1982, the tensions between the “revolutionary” and “conventional” military approaches came to a head. Following a Basiji deployment, Iran had beaten back the Iraqi offensive and restored the pre-war status quo. At this point, the regular army wanted to end the war, to accept Saddam’s offer of negotiations, and to avoid any further deployments of the Basiji. On all three points, Khomeini and the Pasdaran resisted and prevailed. Starting in 1982, the war was pursued as a war of conquest.<br><br>In 1988, the same differences again came to the fore. Despite the hopeless military situation, the Pasdaran wanted at all costs to escalate their revolutionary war efforts. This time, however, Hashemi Rafsanjani, as Commander in Chief of the united armed forces, accepted the truce. Khomeini sided with Rafsanjani. When, in Summer 2005, Ahmadinejad defeated his former and current rival Rafsanjani with the help of his friends from the Pasdaran, this also represented the revenge of the Pasdaran for their defeat in the 1988 power struggle.<br><br>Translated from the German by John Rosenthal<br><br>==============================================<br><br>Footnotes<br><br>==============================================<br><br>* Matthias Küntzel, born in 1955, is an author and a political scientist and holds a tenured part-time position as a teacher of political science at a technical college in Hamburg/Germany. His most recent book is Djihad und Judenhass. Über den neuen antijüdischen Krieg (Jihad and Jew-hatred. About the new anti-Jewish war), Freiburg: Ca ira pubs., was published in 2002.<br><br>“Ahmadinejad's World” is reprinted from his website, which has articles in English at <!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.matthiaskuentzel.de/contents/kategorie/english/">www.matthiaskuentzel.de/c...e/english/</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--> <br>in French at<br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.matthiaskuentzel.de/contents/kategorie/francais/">www.matthiaskuentzel.de/c.../francais/</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--> <br>and in German at<br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.matthiaskuentzel.de/contents/">www.matthiaskuentzel.de/contents/</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br>* * *<br><br>[1] Cited in Baham Nirumand, Krieg, "Krieg, bis zum Sieg," in: Anja Malanowski und Marianne Stern, Iran-Irak. ,Bis die Gottlosen vernichtet sind’, Reinbek (Rowohlt) 1987, p. 95-6.<br><br>[2] Cited in Christiane Hoffmann, "Vom elften Jahrhundert zum 11. September. Märtyrertum und Opferkultur sollen Iran als Staat festigen," Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, May 4, 2002.<br><br>[3] Wahied Wahdat-Hagh, "Bassiji: die revolutionäre Miliz des Iran," in: MEMRI Berlin, Special Dispatch, December 20, 2005.<br><br>[4] MEMRI, Inquiry and Analysis Series – No. 262, February 1, 2006.<br><br>[5] MEMRI, Special Dispatch Series – No. 945, July 29, 2005.<br><br>[6] Sepehr Zahib, The Iranian Military in Revolution And War, London and New York: Routledge, 1988, p. 241.<br><br>[7] Katzman, Kenneth, The Warriors of Islam. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, Boulder et. al.: Westview Press, 1993, p. 64.<br><br>[8] Freidune Sahebjam, „Ich habe keine Tränen mehr“. Iran: Die Geschichte des Kindersoldaten Reza Behrouzi, Reinbek: Rowohlt, 1988.<br><br>[9] Cited in Erich Wiedemann, "Mit dem Paradies-Schlüssel in die Schlacht," in: Der Spiegel, No. 31/1982, p. 93.<br><br>[1<!--EZCODE EMOTICON START 0] --><img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/alien.gif ALT="0]"><!--EZCODE EMOTICON END--> Dilip Hiro, The Longest War. The Iran-Iraq Military Conflict, London et al.: Grafton Books, 1989, p. 290.<br><br>[11] Möller, Harald, Der Krieg zwischen dem Irak und dem Iran: Endogene und exogene Bestimmungsfaktoren – ein Beitrag zur Kriegsursachendiskussion, Dissertation, Berlin 1995, p.154-6.<br><br>[12] Amir Taheri, Holy Terror. The Inside Story of Islamic Terrorism, London et. al.: Hutchinson, 1987, p. 81 and 33.<br><br>[13] Cited in Wiedemann, op. cit., p. 93.<br><br>[14] Anthony H. Cordesman and Abraham R. Wagner, The Lessons of Modern War. Volume II: The Iran-Iraq War, Boulder et al.: Westview Press, 1990, p. 181, p. 247; Wiedemann, op. cit.; Möller, op. cit., p.151.<br><br>[15] Arki, Mostafa, Iran-Irak. Acht Jahre Krieg im Nahen Osten, Berlin: VWB-Verlag für Wissenschaft und Bildung, 1989, p. 87.<br><br>[16] Ehsan Yarshater, "Ta’ziyeh and Pre-Islamic Mourning Rites in Iran," in: Peter J. Chelkowski, Hg., Ta’ziyeh: Ritual and Drama in Iran, New York : New York University Press,1979, pp. 88-94.<br><br>[17] Elias Canetti, Masse und Macht [Crowds and Power], Frankfurt/M. 1996, pp. 172-4.<br><br>[18] Cited in Daniel Brumberg, "Khomeini’s Legacy. Islamic Rule and Islamic Social Justice," in: Appleby, R. Scott, Spokesmen for the Despised. Fundamental Leaders of the Middle East, Chicago & London: University of Chicago Press, 1997, p. 56.<br><br>[19] Cited in Dawud Gholamasad and Arian Sepideh, Iran: Von der Kriegsbegeisterung zur Kriegsmüdigkeit. Hannover: Internationalismus Verlag, 1988, p. 15.<br><br>[2<!--EZCODE EMOTICON START 0] --><img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/alien.gif ALT="0]"><!--EZCODE EMOTICON END--> Saskia Gieling, The Sacralization of War in the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ridderkerk: Ridderprint, 1998, p. 66.<br><br>[21] Gieling, op. cit., pp. 125-6.<br><br>[22] Freidune Sahebjam, „Ich habe keine Tränen mehr“. Iran: Die Geschichte des Kindersoldaten Reza Behrouzi, Reinbek: Rowohlt, 1988, pp.136-8.<br><br>[23] V.S. Naipaul, Eine islamische Reise. Unter den Gläubigen [Among the Believers: An Islamic Journey], Berlin: List Taschenbuch, 2002, p. 23.<br><br>[24] Möller, op. cit., p. 153.<br><br>[25] Cited in Gholamasad and Sepideh, op. cit., p. 15.<br><br>[26] Joseph Croitoru, Der Märtyrer als Waffe. Die historischen Wurzeln des Selbstmordattentats, München: Hanser, p. 132.<br><br>[27] MEMRI Berlin, Special Dispatch, June 9, 2004: "Iran – Freiwillige Märtyrer und Feiern zu Khomeinis 15. Todestag."<br><br>[28] Cf. Ayelet Sayvon, "The ,Second Islamic Revolution’," MEMRI, Inquiry and Analysis Series, No. 253, November 17, 2005.<br><br>[29] IranReloaded, July, 31, 2005 and Wahied Wahdat-Hagh, "Europäische Diplomatie in der Sackgasse. Warum der kritische Dialog mit dem Iran scheitern musste," in: Internationale Politik, March 2006, p. 72.<br><br>[3<!--EZCODE EMOTICON START 0] --><img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/alien.gif ALT="0]"><!--EZCODE EMOTICON END--> Colin Freeman and Philip Sherwell, "Iranian fatwa approves use of nuclear weapons," in: The Sunday Telegraph, February 19, 2006.<br><br>[31] Hoffmann, op. cit.<br><br>[32] Michael Slackman, "Invoking Islam’s Heritage, Iranians Chafe at 'Oppression' by the West," in: New York Times, February 6, 2006.<br><br>[33] MEMRI Special Dispatch, 18. August 2005.<br><br>[34] Iranfocus, 12. August 2005.<br><br>[35] Cited in Daniel Jonah Goldhagen, "Iran Bares ,Genocidal Intent’," in: The Sun, November 3, 2005 and MEMRI, Special Dispatch Series – No. 325, January 3, 2002.<br><br>[36] Paul Huges, "Iran president paves the way for arabs’ imam return," reuters, November 17, 2005.<br><br>[37] MEMRI, Special Dispatch Series, No. 1091, February 14, 2006, sowie MEMRI – Special Dispatch, 15. Februar 2006.<br><br>[38] "Ahmadinedschad reist nach Kuba," in: Junge Welt, February 9, 2006.<br><br>===================================</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--></em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--> <p></p><i></i>
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Re: on political Islam, "Ahmadinejad's World"

Postby Seamus OBlimey » Sun Oct 08, 2006 11:21 am

I remember the war comics I read as a kid often included memorials to medal-winning (posthumously),war heroes who "without fear for his own safety" single-handedly stormed the enemy line, saving many lives in the process... etc.<br>I suppose the modern "I'm alright Jack" attitude can never be reconciled with the community spirit which enables a few to be sacrificed for the long term welfare of the many. That's not to say I condone suicide bombing or walking mine detectors, but I can imagine worlds where life and the chances of a better one are so crap that it might seem better to get it over with now than to suffer longer. Especially to those who believe in an after or other life.<br><br>Is that what you wanted to discuss? It's hard to tell when you just post a series of articles. I must admit I skimmed most of it so if you were trying to make a point could you put it more concisely for these tired eyes? Please? <p></p><i></i>
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Re: on political Islam, "Ahmadinejad's World"

Postby Dreams End » Sun Oct 08, 2006 11:24 am

I think his point had something to do with the cynical creation of thousands of mindless "martyrs" as a tool of warfare and the use of little kids to clear mines from minefields. <br><br>Maybe skimming isn't such a good idea. <p></p><i></i>
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Re: on political Islam, "Ahmadinejad's World"

Postby Seamus OBlimey » Sun Oct 08, 2006 12:01 pm

DE, that's the impression I got before skimming, hence my comments.<br>Reading here I get the impression most states employ the same tactics even if the martyrs are unwitting and the minefields mindfields. <p></p><i></i>
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Its all about "Mindless martyrs".

Postby slimmouse » Sun Oct 08, 2006 12:16 pm

<!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>I think his point had something to do with the cynical creation of thousands of mindless "martyrs" as a tool of warfare and the use of little kids to clear mines from minefields<hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br><br> Hey DE, looks like you have a comrade in arms. Strange that you also took his point to be the above, rather than more booga booga propaganda by the usual suspects.<br><br> The overall impression that I got of the article, is that Aminejhad is a cynical manipulating maniac who maniacal following, indeed entire country, obviously needs dealing with<br><br> Im glad I took your advice not to screen read though. <br><br> For here are A few choice excerpts by those who it strikes me would clearly require us to deal with Iran next;<br><br> <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>From the Basiji to the Suicide Bomber</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--><br><br>....<!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>The destructive energy that would find its most condensed expression in the attacks of September 11th had its origin in the sacrifice of the Basiji.</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--><br><br> Errmmm.......right !<br><br> <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em> Now, however, since the start of the Second Intifada, the extinguishing of every trace of normal human instinct seems to have become a cultural norm also in the Palestinian territories. Moreover, all the military victories that the Islamists have been able to claim – Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon, the evacuation of the Gaza Strip, the destruction of southern Manhattan, or the series of massacres in Iraq – have been achieved by using the weapon devised by Khomeini.</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--><br><br> Let me see, the suicide bombers of Lower Manhatten.<br><br> Who are they exactly ?<br><br> And as for the suicide bombers of Gaza - That isnt in fact the fault of vicious Israeli policies of Lebensraum, collective punishment, and imprisonment within their own land - Rather its the fault of the Iranians.<br><br> Who writes this garbage exactly ?<br><br> But wait, theres more ;<br><br> <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>In the first place, it should be remembered that the Basiji were not led to their deaths for defensive purposes; secondly, that the waves of suicide attacks served only to kill other Muslims; and thirdly, that in systematically propagating the passion for self-destruction Khomeini thereby violated the precepts of the Quran.</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--><br><br> Gosh, not defensive. Look out America and the rest of the world for children walking towards you, fists waving, organised from the streets of tehran !!!<br><br><br> <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>This “revolution” shows clearly fascistic traits and is meant to extinguish the first sparks of freedom in Iran. And what has the West done to support the forces of freedom in Iran? Up until now, very little. The Europeans in particular have given priority to their commercial interests over the defense of human rights.</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--><br><br> Oh for the American system. If only it were in Tehran. And boy, those naughty Europeans, if only they would trade with freedom loving countries like the US and Israel instead of the fascists of Tehran.<br><br> <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>There is no “truth commission” in Iran to investigate the state-planned collective suicide that took place from 1980 to 1988</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--><br><br> Unlike say "The Warren Commission" , or "The Kean Commission", or how about those Israeli army internal investigations into the massacre of innocents by the IDF in Lebanon or Palestine ?<br><br> Heres a good bit - Be afraid, be very afraid ;<br><br> <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>Since 2004, the mobilization of Iranians for suicide brigades has intensified, with recruits <!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>being trained for foreign missions.</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--> Thus, a special military unit has been created bearing the name the “Commando of Voluntary Martyrs”. According to its own statistics, this commando has so far recruited some 52,000 Iranians to the suicidal cause. It aims to form a “Martyrdom Unit” in every Iranian province. “The enemy is afraid that this culture will develop into a global culture,” boasts the leader of the commando, Mohammadresa Jafari.[33] The fervor for death as “global culture”? Pure delirium as the paradigm of Islam?</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--><br><br> So, the next "terrorist" attack in the US will no doubt 'bear all the hallmarks' of "Al Quaeda - martyrdom unit Mohammadresa Jafari " ?<br><br> I guess we'll just have to watch this space.<br><br> More, yes, theres more;<br><br> <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>Instead of condemning suicide bombing without exception as a crime against humanity and pushing for a United Nations resolution to this effect, western reactions have in this connection as well been marked by opportunism. The international condemnation of suicide terror is, however, an essential condition for the isolation of Iran.</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--><br><br> Hmmm, my spider senses are tingling now. Havent looked closely at the authors bio yet, as I was riveted in fear from reading this stuff. Maybe I'll get round to it later if I can keep my fingers composed on the keyboard.<br><br> <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>In the context of the Iranian nuclear program, the Basiji cult of self-destruction amounts to a lit fuse. Even just a brief look at the Iranian Constitution makes clear that there can be no question of Iran limiting its program to peaceful ends. Article 151 lays down on the authority of the Quran: “Prepare against them whatever force you are able to muster, and horses ready for battle, striking fear into God’s enemy and your enemy.”</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--><br><br> Okay, Okay, Ive seen enough of this bile now.<br><br> Im wondering Dreams end, how you missed the possible whiff of Standard mockingbird issue cologne in this article ?<br><br><br> <p></p><i></i>
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Re: on political Islam, "Ahmadinejad's World"

Postby erosoplier » Sun Oct 08, 2006 12:41 pm

What bothers me is that this account of the "true nature" of Iran begins in the year 1980, 1979 at a pinch. Thats why it falls almost immediately into my waste bin labelled "ahistoric propaganda."<br><br><br>Edit: And fwiw, I've heard it argued that Ahmedinejad likes it that there's 150 000 US troops camped just over the way in Iraq - he's got more chance of doing serious damage to them there than if they were back home in America. He's maintaining a position of strength when he fails to push for US troop withdrawal. <p></p><i>Edited by: <A HREF=http://p216.ezboard.com/brigorousintuition.showUserPublicProfile?gid=erosoplier>erosoplier</A> at: 10/8/06 10:51 am<br></i>
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Re: Its all about "Mindless martyrs".

Postby Dreams End » Sun Oct 08, 2006 12:59 pm

Well, if you are asking if I am now saying "Let's go bomb Iran"...no. <br><br>But we know enough here in the US via Jim Jones, etc, to know that it's perfectly possible to manipulate people in this way. The "martyrs" were not a nonviolent movement, they were cannon fodder, pure and simple. <br><br>As for suicide bombers...if you don't see a mind control element in that bit of "martyrdom" then you aren't even loyal to your own belief system.<br><br>This actually always made me very uncomfortable when I was in the "let's support any movement against Israel" camp. I think I had to confront this in a very odd experience that I now realize may very well have been an intel op on little ole me. Actually, it probably wasn't about me but about getting to an organization I worked with. Might as well put that story here.<br><br>I was working for an SAT test prep company teaching classes to kids about tricks they can use to up their SAT scores. A Sri Lankan man, very nice, very charismatic, started teaching there. he had a pretty advanced degree and it seemed a little odd that he would teach there given whatever I knew of his life (I've forgotten). <br><br>One day he invited me into his camper to watch a video while giving me some tasty Sri Lankan food. He knew about my work with a UN NGO and wanted to tell me about the Tamil Tigers. This is a group that is waging an armed struggle in Sri Lanka.<br><br>Well, politically, I was in support of them though I knew nothing about them and I think the group I worked with already had had some contact. The NGO dealt in "humanitarian law'...or armed conflict law such as the Geneva conventions, etc. <br><br>So I'm watching this video and if there was much about their cause, I don't remember it. I just remember the testimony of the very young male and female members and how they were on a waiting list to go blow themselves up somewhere. They also kept, if I recall, a vial of cyanide around their necks either as a reminder or to use in the event of capture. I could be wrong about that.<br><br>I was really bothered by the video. I "knew" politically that I was supposed to support the LTTE, but I was uncomfortable. It was just odd...friendly guy, nice food, and teenagers talking about blowing themselves up. It was particularly weird because it's not the kind of video you'd show someone you were hoping to convert to your cause but only as (I guess) "inspiration" for true believers. Especially since the Tigers are considered by many countries to be terrorists.<br><br>In addition, armed conflict law would not allow the use of suicide bombers. there are actual rules to war...though enforcement is obviously rather nonexistant. <br><br>I think...if I remember..that at least the Tigers said they only went after military targets, which would be an improvement over blowing up civilian buses or whatever. Still, I didn't like it at all.<br><br>Maybe the guy was just sincere, but I don't think he worked for the company much longer after I put him in touch with our UN rep. So it really seemed like a convoluted effort to get in with the organization I worked with. Of course, THIS implies he already knew who I was, which brings us back to the intel theory.<br><br>Anyway, I am more comfortable now with a position that not only condemns these suicide bombers (a fairly mainstream view, I admit) but also wonders if there are cult or MC techniques employed in their creation. I note with particular interest the relatively new use of women bombers, including the woman recently who left behind a baby. I think women in the US have been the vast majority of MC victims for whatever reason.<br><br>Think of Jim Jones. Think of him running a country. Not saying that is the reality in Iran...obviously there are a lot of different factions in Iran, including some real movements for reform and I'm sure, movements funded by the CIA. <br><br>It could be that the above article is simply false, start to finish. But I wonder, slimmouse, if the parts about the basiji are true, and given that I know you are aware of MC techniques, doesn't that creep you out at all?<br><br>Here's a pic of them.<br><br><!--EZCODE IMAGE START--><img src="http://rooz0nline.com/images/ns_basij_ss_01.jpg" style="border:0;"/><!--EZCODE IMAGE END--> <p></p><i></i>
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Re: Its all about "Mindless martyrs".

Postby erosoplier » Mon Oct 09, 2006 1:24 am

I think the system of mind control that is Islamic fundamentalism appears to be quite capable on its own of producing the phenomenon of the martyr suicide-bomber. That the spread of this phenomenon in all likelihood has been covertly encouraged adds a whole new dimension to it all.<br><br>It's just another variation of the theme "Let's you and him fight." Let's see you become your own worst enemy. Let's see how we can make you an enemy of my enemy. We'll just be quietly living large over here while you're at it. <p></p><i></i>
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Re: Its all about "Mindless martyrs".

Postby AlicetheCurious » Mon Oct 09, 2006 9:06 am

First, I'd like to thank DE and his colleague, wordspeak, for posting their steaming coils of Zionist propaganda in a form that only the most avid true believers are capable of reading.<br><br>I don't suffer from any form of ADD, yet become almost tearfully grateful for the scroll key whenever I come across one of these hateful, racist tirades.<br><br>Maybe you guys can propose to your buddies in the Shin Bet, or who run Gitmo and Abu Ghraib, that they force the Muslim prisoners to read them as an "alternative interrogation technique". Talk about mental torture! I wouldn't last a second before telling them whatever they wanted to hear..<br><br>As for this Mathias Kuntzel guy, take any of his writings about Muslims, change the word "Muslim" into "Jew" and voila! Instant Neo-Nazi propaganda to rival the most virulent anti-semitic hate-mongering. Change it back to "Muslim" and, according to Zionists, it becomes serious political analysis.<br><br>Go figure. <p></p><i></i>
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Re: Its all about "Mindless martyrs".

Postby Dreams End » Mon Oct 09, 2006 9:13 am

Great arguments Alice! Feel free to scroll past my posts anytime. You've just reduced yourself to completely to name calling.<br><br>By the way it was Brzezinski himself in the famous interview that said Islam was not some monolithic threat despite the fact that he personally created the Mujahadeen network. So to condemn Islamic fundamentalism is to condemn Islam? So when I condemn Pat Robertson I condemn all Christianity? Or when I condemn the Christian cult my sister got roped into, or the Boston Church of Christ movement?<br><br>Am I anti-buddhist if I point out ties between Sokku Gokkai (the "namu myoho renge kyo" chanting religion from Japan) for its ties to the rightwing and the Yokuza?<br><br>And eros, I don't mean that the mind control has necessarily to be run from Langley....I'm afraid these techniques are not really very secret. <p></p><i></i>
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Re: Its all about "Mindless martyrs".

Postby AlicetheCurious » Mon Oct 09, 2006 9:47 am

Hello, last I checked, those stinky writings constitute the ideological basis (and propaganda cover) for indiscriminate killing of Muslims, including children, not to mention the kidnappings, torture and occupation of lands belonging to Muslims (and Arab Christians as well, although they tend to be ignored except as potential fifth-column "allies").<br><br>If the hatred were simply limited to writings, then scrolling would be enough. I'm a live and let live kinda gal. <br><br>I suggest you go visit some Arab or Muslim kid who's had his leg blown off, lost both his parents, and will probably die of cancer because of the DU weapons used against his country and tell him or her, and bending down so he can see your earnest face with his/her one good eye, say, "See, you must understand it's for the best: you and your family are Islamofascist scum, and we are here to save America/Israel from you". Try it sometime, and keep a kleenex handy, because there's a good chance that kid will spit in your face.<br><br>Must be mind-controlled... <p></p><i></i>
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Re: Its all about "Mindless martyrs".

Postby Dreams End » Mon Oct 09, 2006 10:07 am

Well, to use your logic...anti-Zionism was used as an excuse for the Holocaust. Therefore anti-Zionism is wrong. <br><br>It is this stuckness in a two dimensional universe that worries me. I can condemn Israeli use of cluster bombs without embracing Hezbollah. They are two different issues. <br><br>I can support the state of Israel without putting a Sharon poster up in my bedroom. In fact, I'm not even "anti-American". There are a lot of great things about my country and I don't want to see it destroyed (though surely the vision I have for my country would be called "destroying" it by many). I<br><br>But you are unable to make any sorts of discrimination whatsoever and this could lead to real problems. You understand, for example, that my country supported the Muslim Brotherhood in order to "contain" (and eliminate) Nasser. I assume you would have been a Nasser supporter? So would you condemn the MB for its assassination attempts on him? <br><br>It's a three dimensional world out there, Alice. You can keep calling me and wordspeak names if you want to. But I will be damned before I support an Iranian style theocracy. I'm a leftist. I understand it was the Islamic fundamentalist movements which were intentionally supported by the West precisely to eliminate secular, political movements in the Arab world. As in LEFT movements.<br><br>The US has used Christian missionaries to similar effect in Latin America. Doesn't mean I'm anti-Christian, though I was amused to find myself defending Saladin for his battle against the crusaders who established the Latin patriarch that you are so fond of...<br><br>I know some about the history of Islam and the Arabs. I am aware that the west owes a huge debt to the Arabs for preserving and developing knowledge that became the basis for modern thought while Europe devolved into a bunch of feuding kingdoms. I'm sorry there are anti-modernist, fundamentalist versions of Islam (by the way, do you AT LEAST condemn the Saudi Wahabists or are they just peachy too?) but there are. Just like there are rightwing religious Zionists. And just like there are Christian fundamentalists. I don't want any of them in charge. <br><br> <p></p><i></i>
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Re: Its all about "Mindless martyrs".

Postby AlicetheCurious » Mon Oct 09, 2006 12:49 pm

<!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>You understand, for example, that my country supported the Muslim Brotherhood in order to "contain" (and eliminate) Nasser. I assume you would have been a Nasser supporter? So would you condemn the MB for its assassination attempts on him? <br><br>It's a three dimensional world out there, Alice. You can keep calling me and wordspeak names if you want to. But I will be damned before I support an Iranian style theocracy.<hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--> <br><br>How you do go on... I think it is you who needs to realize the multidimensionality of the world.<br><br>For example, you "assume" that I would have been a Nasser supporter. But you would be wrong. I think Nasser's presidency was a disaster for Egypt in some ways, but concede that he was right, right, right in others. In my opinion, Nasser often did bad things for good reasons, and sometimes did good things for bad reasons, and sometimes did good things for good reasons while other times he did bad things for bad reasons.<br><br>It's interesting to me, how you ascribe to Zionists all kinds of complex thinking and diversity of opinion, but lose this capacity when discussing Arabs or Muslims, when the "Islamofascism" thought-barrier crashes down and reduces your analysis to a cartoon-like struggle between the forces of Good and drooling Islamofascist fanatics.<br><br>As for supporting the Muslim Brotherhood's assassination attempt against him, it's a complicated story. In their view, he played them like a violin, using their networks to propel himself to power, at which point he turned around and gave them the shaft, having them arrested and viciously persecuted.<br><br>I'm far from a Brotherhood fan, but neither do I accept having people dragged from their homes and tortured because of their political views. I also don't think they should have tried to kill him, but it's the kind of thing that tends to happen when you use people and then double-cross them.<br><br>Also, unlike you, I don't consider the Muslim Brotherhood to be made up of zombies. One of my closest friends is the daughter of a Muslim Brother, a highly-educated, thoughtful man who was imprisoned and tortured under Nasser. One of my neighbours is also one of the old-time Brothers, who fled the country just ahead of the security forces, and has since returned. He's a nice man, as are his wife and daughters, and he has a cute granddaughter, too.<br><br>Some in the Muslim Brotherhood are undoubtedly fanatics, but I don't believe in killing them, their wives, or their children, simply because I don't agree with their political or religious views.<br><br>Just as I don't believe in killing Zionists who call for exterminating Palestinians, or ethnic cleansing, even when they're in a position to do something about it.<br><br>Ah! But if they commit a crime, they should be tried and punished.<br><br>Get it? Is that concept so radical for you? So incomprehensible?<br><br>I'm frankly getting frustrated with your simplistic thinking, your casual racism that equates defending people who are fighting against a foreign aggressor, with "supporting an Iranian-style theocracy".<br><br>You're defending a judeofascist style apartheid system, where war crimes are committed daily, run by some pretty "theocratic"-types, if you hadn't noticed. And I would take a good look at what "your country", is engaged in, and the messianic justifications, before you start advocating mass murder against people who live in theocracies. <p></p><i></i>
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Re: Its all about "Mindless martyrs".

Postby AlicetheCurious » Mon Oct 09, 2006 2:30 pm

BTW, what was that?<br><br><!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>anti-Zionism was used as an excuse for the Holocaust. Therefore anti-Zionism is wrong.<hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br><br>Really? Anti-Zionism was "used as an excuse for the Holocaust"?<br><br>Your grasp of history is truly astounding. <p></p><i></i>
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My last word on this.

Postby slimmouse » Mon Oct 09, 2006 4:24 pm

<br><br> I hate what is happening to the people of Palestine and the Middle East in General.<br><br> I hate the the way the colonial KluKluxKlan/ Nazi/White supremacist meld of Zionism,WASPs and similar Ayran style ideologies are carrying on the work of The real Global elite.<br><br> The links between the said Global elite and Hitler are hidden in plain sight for anyone who can pick up a copy of Tarpleys expose of Bushco, BrownBrothers Harriman, The Warburgs and Sulzbergs, the Dulles Bros, et cetera etcetera.<br><br> But remember this ;<br><br> The PTB today are the same dynasties who have ruled ever since so to speak. <br> <br> A while back now, an ingenious plan was devised. This plan is something I think all of us might be far better employed focusing our energies upon.<br><br> Namely the Organised religion scam.<br><br> Blow this cynical exploitation of the human race by the usual suspects out of the water, and suddenly the Emperors' clothing is looking scant and tattered to put it mildly.<br><br> Bottom line, as I tell up to 100 different people per week;<br><br> There are no Jews, Christians, Catholics, Muslims and so on ad infinitum - Per say - They are all just PEOPLE.<br><br> People who have been cynically manipulated ( conned might be a far better description ) to surrender both their own power and energy, not to mention earnings, courtesy of the organised religion software programme, in order to keep the said Usual suspects in the manner to which they have become accustomed. <br><br> And if you want proof of that statement, then just look at how, as DE has indeed pointed out, the "Muslim" Brotherhood, " Al Qaeda" and similar "religious" organisations have had their radical elements financed, trained, and essentially co-ordinated by the Global elite.<br><br> Look at how people like the Rothschilds, Kohn Loeb, Schiff, the Warburgs and Sulzbergs have "looked after" their own faith by sponsoring their deaths at Aushwitz, and later committing the survivors to a murderfest of their own in their "safe haven"<br><br> Look at how the Bushes and Blairs deal with their own faith, by sending them into a quagmire that is nothing whatsoever to do with them, or for that matter their faith. Look at how they tax even the good of their faith in order to carry out their genocidal bloodfest.<br><br> The Saudi Monarchy meanwhile, along with other select Middle Eastern elite pay money to the likes of Al Quaeda and others. <br><br> "Kashnoggi express ?" That will do nicely sir.<br><br> I wonder where the Vaticans share portfolio lies ? - Gun and bible corporation ltd.<br><br> All the above, love a good religious following huh ? <br><br> Destroy the organised religion mechanism, which is a completely different animal to faith in a supreme being at a personal level and we might actually start to achieve something. That is to say, suggest to people that they make their own faith a strictly personal matter. <br><br> Lennon said this, and of course paid the price with his life. I only wish that Id written imagine !<br><br> Enough already from me. Im going supersized <!--EZCODE EMOTICON START ;) --><img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/wink.gif ALT=";)"><!--EZCODE EMOTICON END--> <p></p><i></i>
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