Iranian president thinks himself divinely inspired to bring about the reappearance of the 12th Imam - feels a holy aura surrounding him. So has Mahmud wipe-israel-off-the-map Ahmadinejad president of Iran and future nuclear weapon wielder, finally completely lost his marbles? And is that a man the world is able to conduct serious negotiations with regarding the nuclear build up? And what the heck happened to the supposedly secular Iranian population sick with the mullahs, everybody is talking about? Perhaps they weren’t so sick with mullahs as all that, or will Ahmadinejads iron islamic rule just hasten the collapse of the Iranian Islamic Democracy?
My WAG: I’ll be charitable, and assume this statement was made purely for domestic consumption, and, at that, served up specifically for the Iranian equivalent of our “family values” crowd.
Because any other interpretation would be too horrible to contemplate.
I second this guess.
I talked w/ an Iranian fellow who led me to believe that it’s not uncommon for political proclamations to have an implied religious sanction. He also said that references to receiving wisdom from the Hidden Imam are also not unheard of when it comes to these sorts of proclamations.
Now, I met him at a rally for the Sazeman-e Mojahedin-e Khalq-e Iran, ( I mean the PMOI ) so he’s not an unbiased source of info.
The secular (or more secular) political parties in Iran made steady gains in the parliament for fifteen years. Those gains were wiped out in the last year when the mullahs declared that most of the secular parties were ineligible to provide candidates for elections.
While the ruling theocrats are genuinely scary people, I do not think it is valid to draw conclusions regarding the will of the majority of Iranians based on the last election.
In the interest of avoiding a separate post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy, I will simply note that the timing of the theocrats’ action was interesting.
Assuming that’s true then there’s no reason to worry about his followers acting on the rhetoric and doing some random act of violence.
I get all warm and fuzzy every time I hear about the Iranian Cabinet ending their deliberations with chants of “death to America”. No disconnect there.
No more than before.
Consider that GWB has had several God-momemnts and believes that God directed him to becom PotUSA. Yet to most of us, this merely cause for eye-rolling.
Lack of sarcasm/wit in a logical response may be somewhat disappointing to the reader, but nevertheless…
There is a significant difference between claiming that God is behind all events, including Bush’s election as president, and claiming that one is the special “chosen insrument” of God, and using that, and that alone, to justify future actions. In one, God is given thanks for what has already passed; in the other, man essentially “forces” God, or the idea of God, to sanction any future actions taken.
Doubtful. Standard internal Iranian politics from the right wing.
If Ahmadinejad had lots of power and was the person the world is actually negotiating with, I might say no. But he’s not. He can’t even get his ministers to be approved by Parliament and the mullahs have been the ones picking which emissaries go where to negotiate what.
Well, they didn’t have much choice after the conservatives hamstrung the more liberal parties when they were in power, then declaring most of them ineligible to run for Parliament in the last election.
Why not? Both are devout followers of their respective religions. Both believe that religion should be entwined with the governance of their respective nations.
Of course, only Bush claims to have been called by God to be president before he ran for office and only Bush has started a war against another country that was not even threatening his country, claiming that he consulted God, first, so I guess the comparison is unfair to the mullahs.
Well, if we were in a debate forum, you could debate.
You could offer reasons as to why one leader’s claims of “divine inspiration” is so markedly different than the others.
Note that in Christianity everyone is called by God to do something. Which is why anyone saying God called him or her to be/do something is not particularly unusual or fear-worthy. Even secular Americans sometimes refer to a job or hobby “calling;” same thing.
) so he’s not an unbiased source of info.
[reaches for liquor bottle]