Lavished with praise he may be, but ‘liberator of Kabul’ John Simpson, also author of this analysis of the Iranian elections, ought to be a little embarrassed by this contrast:
Simpson on Rafsanjani- ‘Unlike any of them, he understands the art of the deal, and is more concerned with what he can get away with than with making big statements.’
meanwhile…
Rafsanjani contemplating putting the nuclear kybosh on Israel-‘
“If a day comes when the world of Islam is duly equipped with the arms Israel has in possession, the strategy of colonialism would face a stalemate because application of an atomic bomb would not leave any thing in Israel but the same thing would just produce damages in the Muslim world”,’
Simpson says ‘Mr Rafsanjani is a man who believes that politics is the art of the possible.’ , yet he omits to say what he is on record as regarding as possible, ie. the nuclear blackmail of Israel and the West with a view to the elimination of Israel.
Surely, contrary to Simpson, there is no conciliatory candidate here. We ought to be examining whether, a) Ordinary Iranians want us wriggling on the end of a WW3 pin, or B) Whether the elections were as unfair as some have claimed them to be, and this inital tie was a clever way of concealing that fact. Simpson, true to form, is dismissive:
‘Two of the main reformist candidates now claim the result was a fix. But maybe the reformists simply cancelled each other out, and let their most extreme opponent through.’
A simple business, analysis, in the expert hands of Mr Simpson.
Re: are muslims different to other religions? In my personal opinion, I have known many decent muslims, who I would rate above some of my fellow englishmen. However, my hometown is a military manufacturing plant (Tornado aircraft) and I did meet many Saudis who were being trained as technicians. One gentleman was excellent and he invited us round for Sunday Tea to where most of the Saudis were staying. It did end up being a tirade against the West, where I was harrangued for hours. My freind apologised next time I saw him, for the ordeal I had been put through by his country men.
In my opinion, the work of Nathan Sharansky http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1586482610/qid=1119647014/sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_3_1/202-4706927-8785415
did have some resonance with my own experience. I am not yet sure that it is all muslims, but certainly those muslims that are brought up in regimes were they are brought up to hate America and jews in order to divert attention fromn their own crap regimes seems reasonable to me i.e those that have only seen Al Jazeera are hardly going to have a balanced view. Check it out log on to Al Jazeera….The BBC may be biased, but Al JAzeera is a joke.
Its a living example of George Orwell really (the need to have a hate figure).
Natalie:
The main problem with Islam is that it is a political system as well as a religion — more so than any other religion I’m familiar with. Liberal pluralistic democracy is competing against a political system that is sanctioned by God.
That’s the problem.
Max, thanks for posting that piece on the recent Sharon/Abbas meeting, and your views, which I wholeheartedly agree with. I’d like to know how you can bet Orla Guering’s soul, it’s like trying to bet BBC’s integrity or Jordan’s virginity.
Teddy Bear,
I’d like to know how you can bet Orla Guering’s soul
you have a point there 🙂 In that case, I can’t ever lose can I?
The problem is not with Islam, but with all relgions. They are false, being based on ridiculous, mythical origin lies. These stories are infantile at best, and lead the “faithful” down paths to delusion. And as we see so often around the world, it always ends in tears.
Oh yes, to make this relevant to the thread here is the obligatory — DOWN WITH THE BBC!
A bit of a giveaway line by the Chairman on this week’s News Quiz – “here at the BBC we poke fun at all religions – except those that threaten to kill us”.
Which explains the BBC showing the extreme crudity of the Jerry Springer The Opera programme but the certain knowledge that no similar besmirching of Islam would be shown -for fear of attacks by offended Muslims.
Carla,
yes, maybe, but in contrast to Islam the New Testament isn’t used as the reason to cut people’s heads off or to fly planes into buildings. You’re free to leave your Christian faith behind – in Islam you’ll get a fatwa on your head. Whereas blasphemy against the Christian and Judean religions is still considered acceptable blasphemy against Islam will cost you your life (see Theo van Gogh).
So the moderates in Iran were the minority during the election. Why am I not at all surprised?
Don’t compare Islam with other religions. It’s not a religion but a backward death-cult founded by a paedophile about 1500 years ago. Without Islam the world would be a much better and safer place.
By the way – how many Muslim countries spent how much on aid for the mainly Muslim victims of the Tsunami? Couldn’t get any figures yet.
Carla, perhaps you should contemplate the death count of communist atheism before you condemn religion as being the source of all evil in this world.
Some great (and revealing) quotes like this one re. the election in Iran:
“The Iranian election was free, fair and successful. The turnout for voting was significantly good and Mr Ahmadinejad winning more than 60% of the votes in the second round should show the world, especially the West, that there are still a majority in Iran that support the Islamic revolution and Khomeini’s ideology. I am very proud and happy for the results and my nation.
Jahangeer, Copenhagen, Denmark”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/talking_point/4091508.stm
It’s strange that people like him write their opinions from Western Europe instead of living in that lovely country of theirs!
You’re right Joerg, but the BBC is counting on the fact that most people won’t actually think for themselves about what they are reading. After all, isn’t that what they pay the BBC for?
Teddy Bear:
I tried commenting on the Beeb’s “Have your say” forum writing more or less the same I wrote above. Surprisingly I couldn’t see my comment when I last checked. I guess we need to tell more people in the UK how bad the BBC really are. There should be a rich conservative who’s willing to fund an anti-BBC tv channel. Shouldn’t be a problem in the days of digital tv? 🙂
Carla “The problem is not with Islam, but with all relgions. They are false, being based on ridiculous, mythical origin lies.”
I don’t have any religous faith, but I can’t see much wrong in Christ’s teachings of how we should live our lives.
Just which of Christ’s teachings do you have so much problem with?
Well, Simpson was shown by events to be as clueless as ever.
“That is why, with plenty of reluctance, most people will turn out to vote for Mr Rafsanjani.”
It’s worth reading the BBC world affairs editor’s piece again
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4110878.stm
and comparing it to reality.
Simpson’s view of Iran is (was?) one of a politically sophisticated and advanced society where the great majority “badly want change” (i.e. liberal reform).
The result doesn’t allow this. The people either wanted a religious conservative president; or they wanted a reformist president but the country wasn’t advanced and politically sophisticated enough to allow them their choice.
Anyway, back to your five minute hate (as in, every five bleeding minutes).
.
PJF
Will John Simpson preface his next piece …”I got the Iran election totally wrong, in spite of being World Affairs Editor among a staff of 4000 people at the BBC, but never mind, here’s my next guess about a news event” ?
Or will he just stick to demonstrable facts and keep his opinion to himself ?
From Simpson’s piece:
Both times Mohammed Khatami received more than 80% of the vote, precisely because he was a reformist.
But during his eight years as president he achieved little apart from liberalising the press, which has become one of the most vibrant in the entire region.[comment: Umm, right — there has been the campaign against Iranian bloggers; there was the killing of Zhara Kazemi for photographing near the Evin prison; many, many other abuses. This is b.s. of a high order.]
Simpson continues: His efforts to open up to the West and lift the annoying intrusion of the state into the way people live their everyday lives failed.
Simpson doesn’t mention one of the main reasons why Khatami’s reform efforts failed — the extra-judicial against dozens of his potential political allies in 1998 by Khamanei.
I guess that would have made Iran’s political process look kind of bad.
Imagine if the chief justice of the US Supreme Court had ordered extra-judicial executions of Michael Moore, Susan Sarandan, prominent Democrats, etc. Now imagine Simpson leaving that little fact out of its coverage of the last US presidential elections.
It really is the “soft racism of lowered expectations.”
Joerg, RE There should be a rich conservative who’s willing to fund an anti-BBC tv channel.
I believe there’s 2 kinds of rich other than the outright criminal, the self-made, and the inherited.
The former is not going to jeopardize their business concerns by incurring the wrath of the BBC.
The latter would need a lot of self-esteem to take on the BBC, because they are laying themselves open to ridicule. It’s almost a contradiction in terms. Not impossible, but I won’t be holding my breath. So I guess it’s back to the grindstone for us;)
I’m not holding my breath either but something needs to happen and soon. People in the UK (and the networks in the rest of Europe aren’t much better, I’d say) are being brainwashed by left-wing faschists and sympathisers of islamofaschists – that has to stop. Our freedom and our way of life is at stake here, people!
There’s currently a programme on freedom of expression and religion on ITV. Not sure what to expect but I just thought I’d let anyone still awake know. Cheers.
I think many here share your frustration Joerg, but for the time being there is little else I see we can do except what we are doing, until some other solution presents itself.8) The situation will reach a head eventually, not that this is much consolation, because there’s bound to be a lot more shit to endure in the meantime.:(
Well, at least blogs like this make it easier to endure. I like to applaud Natalie and the others for their efforts – even if we’re not always sharing the same opinions.