Rather than hijacking this thread, let’s take Frank’s argument, such as it is, to GD.
Whether it’s true or not is a bit of a semantic. Clearly the government killed the man because he was challenging the status quo. I’m sure Iran has its share of “playas” who sleep with a lot of women who DON’T get executed.
I’d just be curious to see what, exactly, about his teachings was it that challenged the current regime, or had the potential to.
IIRC, Iran hangs its condemned by hoisting them up with industrial cranes, using soft maritime rope. Those of you who support capital punishment wouldn’t stand for that for the worst crimes you could imagine.
If he’d been sleeping with women other than his wife then it wouldn’t have taken nine years to execute him.
As for his beliefs, they’re going to be as vague as possible because they don’t like to release such information.
Since he was accused of “insulting the prophet Jonah(Yunnus)” it could very easily be something as stupid as claiming the story of Jonah and the Whale/great fish was not meant to be taken literally but was merely an allegory.
To the Ayatollahs suggesting that parts of the Quran are not the uncorrupted word of God transmitted to Muhammad via the Angel Gabriel(Jibril) that are to be understood and taken literally but are merely allegories is blasphemous.
You’d be amazed at what some supporters of capital punishment would accept, just so long as convicted criminals end up dead.
Not always, but yeah, that’s often the case.
While I have many issues with the show Homeland, that’s one thing it got right.
That’s what Iranwire is saying…that he told a class it was impossible for a man to live three days inside a whale.
If so then he had cojones the size of canon balls.
Yeah, something like that would definitely piss off the mullahs.
It’s clear, then, that the Arab Spring hasn’t taught you anything. There’s a country that rhymes with cafeteria that you need to be thinking about.
This has to be the most idiotic definition of government popularity I’ve ever seen. You are honestly suggesting that Marcos’ presidency was by definition popular by virtue of remaining in power from 1965-86 when it spontaneously became unpopular when he was forced to flee the country after an election both sides claimed to have won? Opposition to his rule did not suddenly appear out of nowhere in February 1986. He was so popular that he ruled from 1972-81 by declaring martial law, incidentally extending his term beyond the constitutional two-term limit. He was so popular that he won the 1981 election handily because the opposition parties boycotted it as the fraud that it was. He was so popular that the opposition leader Benigno Aquino, Jr. who’s wife ultimately unseated Marcos was didn’t even make it off the tarmac at the Manila International Airport before he was assassinated when he returned to the country in 1983.
Egypt, Yemen, Tunisia, and Libya don’t rhyme with cafeteria.
Oh, you meant Syria. The outcome is still in doubt. Assad is not what one would call “in control”, and so long as he is not your point is noted but is not a refutation.
Well, another day in a 1500 CE Muslim theocracy.
Revolution is the choice of desperate people, because all bets are off. Your children are at risk, your parents, those you love, everybody. The odds are seldom in your favor, and to win, you likely will have to abandon every shred of decency. Because if you are so desperate that revolution is your only option, the other guys already have abandoned theirs.
We should not be quick to disdain people who cannot face such a daunting threat. Many a man will risk his life in a just cause, but his children? The moment of revolution is the moment when the Abyss stares into you. And I will not condemn any man because he trembles on the brink, and his courage fails.
Sadly enough, this isn’t the dumbest post on this thread but it’s still extraordinarily stupid.
Velayat-e faqih in the 1970s not the 16th Century.
Also there are no other Muslim countries rules by Velayat-e faqih.
Perhaps you’re thinking of Saudi Arabia or Sudan, which are ruled by Salafists.
The founder of Salafism, Muhammad Abd Al Wahhab(hence the slur Wahhabi) was an 18th Century figure.
Beyond that, out of the 57 or more countries with Muslim majority populations I’m only about those three and arguably Pakistan, can be called “theocracies” to the best of my knowledge, and even that is somewhat questionable.
If you wish to insult Muslims or Iranians please do your homework.
Thanks
And even if you do “win”, there’s no guarantee that in the post-revolutionary chaos you won’t end up with something worse than what you started with.
I think it’s safe to say that Saddam Hussein’s Ba’athist regime in Iraq, for example, was not a popular government. Well, the anti-Saddamists (mostly in the form of US/coalition forces rather than autonomous revolutionaries) succeeded in getting him overthrown and executed. Are Iraqis in general noticeably better off now than they were under Saddam?
The idiots just declare themselves to be the instruments of their God’s will, ignoring how piss poor this makes their God. That’s the problem with idiots, they don’t logic.
In the M.E., the evidence is that you are likely to end up with something worse, for the average person. No need even to invoke Iraq-- the process that put the mullahs in power in Iran was, let us remember, a revolution. That is the country we’re talking about in this thread.
Qu’vatlh!
I had to go look it up.
I am sure that Stringbean meant to type 1501 CE. Personally, I think blaming the Safavids for the state of contemporary Iran is a bit much, but they should have seen this coming when they converted the place to Twelver Shi’ism. And if you think that’s wrong, well, mumble mumble taqiyyah.
ETA: Eid Mubarak!
Well, one has to point out that part of the process came to be thanks to Britain and the USA helping to put the Sha in power.
I will never forget seeing historical Movietone news of the day openly mocking the forcibly deposed Iranian president when he was on his kangaroo trial, I expected that from Pravda and the soviets, and not from the western media.