Thursday, August 09, 2007

Comment is Free (Guardian): "Tehranophobia"

A new phobia identified! The nomenclature for describing various sorts of prejudice has become admirably varied, enabling great precision in classifying bigots of every stripe, as illustrated here:
. . . Bush damaged his already low credibility in foreign affairs when he went on to claim that Iran had a government "that has proclaimed its desire to build a nuclear weapon" ".

This statement is false. On September 12 2004, Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamanei issued a fatwa (religious decree) that it was "un-Islamic" to use an atom bomb.

In his Friday prayer sermon on November 5 2004, Khamanei declared that "developing, producing or stockpiling nuclear weapons is forbidden under Islam" and for "our believing nation", and added: "They accuse us of pursuing nuclear weapons program. I am telling them as I have said before that we are not even thinking about nuclear weapons." (See Middle East International, Issue December 4 2004.)

But then again, in George Bush the world is dealing with a politician who prides himself on acting on gut feeling - rather than facts, expertise or historical experience.
Here is Ahmadinejad in a typical mode, as covered by Iran's Press TV a little more than a month ago:
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said even Iran's most powerful enemies are unable to launch any form of attack against the country.

“The enemies of the Iranian nation will be given such a heavy blow they would not even consider attacking Iran,” he said on Wednesday addressing a group of martyr's families killed in a bomb blast by the Mujahideen Khalq Organization in 1981.

All relations and equations will change in our favor once Iran is stabilized as a nuclear nation,” he added.
Crossposted on Soccer Dad

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