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Muslim Academy

Why Did God Create Evil - 0 views

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why did god create evil did god create evil

shared by Muslim Academy on 30 Dec 12 - No Cached
  • Muslim Academy on 30 Dec 12
     
    From human evil in wars, drone attacks, and brutal mass killings, to natural disasters as in earthquakes, floods and tornadoes, many innocent people get died and many survivors spend their lives mourning them. Amidst all this misery, we cannot help but ask, why? Is it fair that my lovely child who still have not tasted the goodies of life die while those malicious people who killed him run away? Is it fair that a flood comes to drown a group of people while others remain untouched? However, there is a beam of hope that still manages to arise only if we think deeper within ourselves. "Why did God create evil" is one of the most philosophical questions that thinkers and philosophers do not seem to be in agreement while providing a logical answer to it. Let me discuss with you one of the humblest, yet most logical answers provided by the great Islamic thinker "Mustafa Mahmud".
Argos Media

BBC NEWS | UK | God 'will not give happy ending' - 0 views

news.bbc.co.uk/...7964880.stm

Climate Change Rowan Williams God

shared by Argos Media on 26 Mar 09 - Cached
  • God will not intervene to prevent humanity from wreaking disastrous damage to the environment, the Archbishop of Canterbury has warned.
  • "I think that to suggest that God might intervene to protect us from the corporate folly of our practices is as unchristian and unbiblical as to suggest that he protects us from the results of our individual folly or sin," he said.
  • Without a change of heart, Dr Williams warned, the world faced a number of "doomsday scenarios" including the "ultimate tragedy" of humanity gradually "choked, drowned, or starved by its own stupidity."
Pedro Gonçalves

Mossad 'posed as CIA to recruit fighters' - Middle East - Al Jazeera English - 0 views

www.aljazeera.com/...20121142232610383.html

US Israel Iran CIA Mossad

shared by Pedro Gonçalves on 14 Jan 12 - No Cached
  • Agents with Israel's spy agency, Mossad, have posed as CIA agents in operations to recruit members of the Pakistani group Jundallah, according to a report in US-based Foreign Policy magazine. Using US dollars and passports, the agents passed themselves off as members of the US Central Intelligence Agency in the operations, according to memos from 2007 and 2008, said the report which was published on Friday. It is unclear whether the recruitment programme is ongoing.
  • "Israel has done this before. I know of a report very widely accepted in the US of Israeli Mossad agents in the United States, actually recruiting American Muslims," Mark Perry, who authored the report, told Al Jazeera.
  • Jundallah [which translates to "soldiers of God"] says it is fighting for the interests of Iran's southeastern Sistan-Baluchistan province's large ethnic Baluch community, whose members, unlike most Iranians, mainly follow the Sunni branch of Islam. The Baluch straddle the border with neighbouring Pakistan and Afghanistan and Jundallah fighters have taken advantage of the unrest in the region to find safe haven in the border area.
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  • According to the US government, the group is responsible for targeting Iranian government officials and killing Iranian women and children, Foreign Policy said. In July it claimed responsibility for attacking the Grand Mosque in Sistan-Baluchistan capital of Zahedan, reportedly targeting members of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards Corps, killing 28 people.
  • Tensions in the US-Iran relationship have also spiked, most recently following the car-bombing of an Iranian nuclear scientist. Foreign Policy, however, said there was no evidence of a link between the scientist's killing and Jundallah.
Pedro Gonçalves

BBC News - Libya's Gaddafi urges 'holy war' against Switzerland - 0 views

news.bbc.co.uk/...8537925.stm

Lybia Switzerland Muammar Gaddafi EU

shared by Pedro Gonçalves on 26 Feb 10 - Cached
  • Libya's Muammar Gaddafi has called for a jihad, or holy war, against Switzerland, as an ongoing diplomatic row between the two nations heats up.He criticised a recent Swiss vote against the building of minarets and said Muslims must boycott the country. There have been tensions between the nations since 2008, when one of Mr Gaddafi's sons was arrested in Geneva, accused of assaulting two servants.
  • "Let us wage jihad against Switzerland, Zionism and foreign aggression," he said. "Any Muslim in any part of the world who works with Switzerland is an apostate, is against Muhammad, God and the Koran."
  • In a referendum last November, 57.5% of Swiss voters approved a constitutional ban on the building of minarets. An appeal against the ban has been submitted to the European Court of Human Rights.
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  • Earlier this month, Libya stopped issuing visas to citizens from many European nations, prompting condemnation from the European Commission.
  • Libya's move came after Switzerland allegedly blacklisted 188 high-ranking Libyans, denying them entry permits. The Swiss ban is said to include Mr Gaddafi and his family. The row began after the arrest of Mr Gaddafi's son Hannibal and his wife, Aline Skaf, in Geneva in July 2008. They were accused of assaulting two servants while staying at a luxury hotel in the Swiss city, though the charges were later dropped. Libya retaliated by cancelling oil supplies, withdrawing billions of dollars from Swiss banks, refusing visas to Swiss citizens and recalling some of its diplomats. In the same month that the Gaddafis were arrested, Libyan authorities detained two Swiss businessmen, in what analysts believe was a retaliatory move.
Pedro Gonçalves

Iranian cleric says rioters should be executed | Reuters - 0 views

www.reuters.com/...idUSTRE55F54520090626

Iran Iran Elections 2009

shared by Pedro Gonçalves on 26 Jun 09 - Cached
  • "I want the judiciary to ... punish leading rioters firmly and without showing any mercy to teach everyone a lesson," Ahmad Khatami told worshippers at Tehran University.
  • Khatami, a member of the Assembly of Experts, said the judiciary should charge the leading "rioters" as being "mohareb" or one who wages war against God. "They should be punished ruthlessly and savagely," he said. Under Iran's Islamic law, punishment for people convicted as mohareb is execution.
Pedro Gonçalves

Authorities Rule Iran Election 'Healthy' - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...27iran.html

Iran Iran Elections 2009 Iran Guardian Council G8 Ayatollah Shirazi

shared by Pedro Gonçalves on 26 Jun 09 - Cached
  • Despite new international criticism, the Iranian authorities showed no sign Friday of bending to domestic or foreign pressure, insisting that the disputed presidential vote on June 12 was the “healthiest” in three decades.
  • The uncompromising words emerged as the Group of Eight countries, including the United States, mounted a fresh broadside Friday saying they “deplored” the post-election violence and demanding that the “the will of the Iranian people is reflected in the electoral process.”
  • However, he is a member of the influential Assembly of Experts and his threats seemed likely to further intimidate protesters whose presence on the streets has dwindled in the face of the deployment of security forces in large numbers.
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  • Ayatollah Khatami is not regarded as a high-profile figure, so it was not clear how much weight his words carried.
  • At Friday prayers at Tehran university, Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami referred to the demonstrators as rioters and declared, “I want the judiciary to punish leading rioters firmly and without showing any mercy to teach everyone a lesson.” Reuters quoted him as saying demonstrators should be tried for waging war against God. The punishment for such offenses under Islamic law is death, Reuters said.
  • The authorities have repeatedly dismissed the opposition complaints. In remarks quoted on the official IRNA news agency on Friday , Abbas-Ali Kadkhodaei, a spokesman for the 12-member Guardian Council charged with vetting elections, said the panel had “almost finished reviewing defeated candidates’ election complaints” which the council said earlier numbered in excess of 600.“The reviews showed that the election was the healthiest since the revolution,” Mr. Kadkhodaei said. “There were no major violations in the election.”
  • on Friday, at a meeting of foreign ministers from the Group of Eight in Trieste, Italy, a joint statement said they “deployed post-electoral violence which led to the loss of lives of Iranian civilians” and urged Iran to respect human rights, including freedom of expression.” Along with Japan and Russia, the G-8 includes the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Britain.It called on Iran to “guarantee that the will of the Iranian people is reflected in the electoral process” but it said the door must remain open to dialogue with Tehran in its contentious nuclear program, news reports said.
  • The joint statement was a compromise between some European countries seeking a hard line, and Russia, whose foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, was quoted as telling a news conference in Trieste that while Moscow wanted to express its “most serious concern” over use of force in Iran, “we will not interfere in Iran’s internal affairs.”
  • In another indication of the depth of divisions that remain, a senior cleric, Grand Ayatollah Nasser Makarem-Shirazi, called for “national conciliation.” “Definitively, something must be done to ensure that there are no embers burning under the ashes, and that hostilities, antagonism and rivalries are transformed into amity and cooperation among all parties,” he said in comments posted on the state-run Press TV Web site.
Pedro Gonçalves

Iran: Qom's Senior Clerics Pushing for Compromise Asharq Alawsat Newspaper (English) - 0 views

www.aawsat.com/...news.asp

Iran Iran Elections 2009 Iran Guardian Council Qom

shared by Pedro Gonçalves on 25 Jun 09 - Cached
  • a delegation from the Guardian Council's members visited the religious leaders and ayatollahs in Qom to get their public support for the legitimacy of the election and the reelection of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for a second term. But an Iranian source told Asharq Al-Awsat: "But praise be to God, the sources of emulation did not support the demands" of the Guardian Council
  • members of the Guardian Council, the body supervising the election, visited the Shiite seminary in Qom and met the sources of emulation there and that Great Ayatollah Safi Golpaygani, one of the most important sources of emulation in the seminary, was among those they met. The source, which it cannot be identified, said Ayatollah Golpaygani urged the Guardian Council "to be above politics and exercise its role as a neutral arbiter between the political parties and not lean toward one party at the expense of the other."
  • The Iranian source pointed out that the senior religious leaders in Qom and its seminary prefer to be "above the political tendencies" and they include those with strong influence in Qom and its seminary who have a voice in the decision-making centers in Tehran due to their religious status such as Ayatollah Makarem-Shirazi, Ayatollah Vahidi, and Ayatollah Zanjani. Ayatollahs Amini and Javadi-Amoli took a neutral stand during the present crisis and called for listening to the voice of the Iranian street and reformists and examining the violations and complaints neutrally.
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  • But there are among all these religious leaders and ayatollahs who are neutral and do not have political interests or inclinations several other religious leaders and ayatollahs in Qom who lean toward one trend at the expense of the other. These include Ayatollah Hoseyn Nouri Hamedani and Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi both of whom support President Ahmadinejad while Ayatollah Mousavi Ardabili and Ayatollah Sani'i lean toward the reformists.
Pedro Gonçalves

Iran Council Certifies Ahmadinejad Victory - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...30iran.html

Iran Iran Elections 2009 Iran Guardian Council Ahmad Jannati EU

shared by Pedro Gonçalves on 30 Jun 09 - Cached
  • The powerful Guardian Council touched off scattered protests in Tehran Monday night when it formally certified the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to a second four-year term, saying there was no validity to charges of voting fraud.
  • As the certification was announced, security and militia forces flooded the streets, and protesters who were already out marching down Tehran’s central avenue, Vali Asr, broke into furious chants. The marchers were quickly dispersed, but other Iranians, urged by opposition Web sites, went to their rooftops to yell “God is great!” in a show of defiance.
  • Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, the Guardian Council’s secretary, sent a letter to the interior minister saying the panel had approved the election after a partial recount, according to state television. “The Guardian Council, by reviewing the issues in many meetings and not considering the complaints and protest as valid, verifies the 10th presidential election,”
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  • Earlier in the day, apparently in an attempt to create a semblance of fairness, state television said the Guardian Council had begun a random recount of 10 percent of the ballots in Tehran’s 22 electoral districts and in some provinces.
  • On Monday, the National Security and Foreign Policy Commission of Parliament was scheduled to visit the holy city of Qum to meet with two grand ayatollahs. A day earlier it met with two former presidents, Mohammad Khatami and Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, in an effort to ease the strains that have developed since the June 12 election. The speaker of Parliament, Ali Larijani, a former nuclear negotiator, has emerged as a powerful opponent of Mr. Ahmadinejad.
  • The nation’s intelligence chief charged that the protests were inspired by Western and “Zionist” forces, and Mr. Ahmadinejad called Monday for an investigation into the shooting of Neda Agha-Soltan, the young protester who became a symbol when a video of her dying moments in the streets was seen all over the world. Witnesses said she was shot by a member of the Basij, the government militia. But now the government is pressing an account that foreigners killed her to undermine its credibility.
  • On Sunday, the authorities arrested nine Iranian staff members of the British Embassy in Tehran, and while five had been released Monday, four remained in custody for what the intelligence service said were efforts to incite and organize the protests.But as the arrests ratcheted tensions up between Iran and the European Union, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman tried to ease back on Monday, however slightly. “Reduction of ties is not on our agenda with any European country, including Britain,” the spokesman, Hassan Qashqavi, said.
  • Iran’s economy, even before the electoral crisis, was suffering from the drop in oil prices, with inflation of at least 15 percent — and by some estimates 25 percent — and damaging unemployment. On Sunday, the government announced that it had to end all subsidies for gasoline used by private vehicles, a decision that was expected, but given the timing, suggested serious strains to the state budget. Antagonizing the European Union, Iran’s largest trading partner, could do further damage.
Pedro Gonçalves

Iran's supreme leader blasts Ahmadinejad for corruption claims | World news | guardian.... - 0 views

www.guardian.co.uk/...ahmadinejad-debate-backlash

Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Mir Hossein Mousavi Ali Khamenei Politics

shared by Pedro Gonçalves on 05 Jun 09 - Cached
  • In the most significant development, Ahmadinejad appeared to have irked the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, over his performance in Wednesday night's debate with Mir Hossein Mousavi, his main opponent in next week's presidential election."One doesn't like to see a nominee, for the sake of proving himself, seeking to negate somebody else," Khamenei said in a speech commemorating the 20th anniversary of the death of the Iranian revolution's spiritual leader, Ayatollah Khomeini. "I have no problem with debate, dialogue and criticism but these debates must take place within a religious framework."
  • Khamenei has previously given Ahmadinejad his public backing and his support is considered essential if the president is to win a second term. Ahmadinejad may have been relieved to note that the supreme leader also found fault with his rival's rhetoric, particularly a segment where Mousavi criticised the incumbent for his "extremist" foreign policy."I do not accept the sayings of those who imagine that our nation has become belittled in the world because of its commitment to its principles," Khamenei said, adding "this path will continue until final victory".
  • Ahmadinejad's accusations of corruption prompted a string of senior figures – including former president Hashemi Rafsanjani – to demand a right of reply.
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  • Apparently trailing in the opinion polls, Ahmadinejad attempted to link Mousavi – the main reformist candidate – to the past governments of Rafsanjani and the reformist ex-president Mohammad Khatam, which he said had been guilty of widespread graft. Among others, he singled out Rafsanjani's sons as well as Ali Akbar Nateq-Nouri, the current head of the supreme leader's inspectorate.
  • Khamenei's criticisms echoed those of Mousavi, who told Ahmadinejad during the debate: "This is a sin. We are Muslims, we believe in God. We cannot name people like that and accuse them."
  • The most remarkable part of an acerbic encounter came when Ahmadinejad held up a file apparently referring to Mousavi's wife, Zahra Rahnavard, and questioned her qualifications. "Can I speak about the education background of a lady with you – shall I," Ahmadinejad said in a goading tone. He accused Rahnavard, who has been campaigning with her husband, of gaining two degrees illegally and starting a PhD without sitting an entrance exam.He also said she had become a university lecturer and chancellor without the necessary qualifications.
  • After the debate, pro-Mousavi students took to the streets of Tehran chanting: "Ahmadinejad, impolite person, shame on you. Leave this country alone."
Pedro Gonçalves

Breakthrough in Tribunal Investigation: New Evidence Points to Hezbollah in Hariri Murd... - 0 views

www.spiegel.de/...0,1518,626412,00.html

Lebanon Hariri Hezbollah Daniel Bellemare

shared by Pedro Gonçalves on 24 May 09 - Cached
  • The United Nations special tribunal investigating the murder of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri has reached surprising new conclusions -- and it is keeping them secret. According to information obtained by SPIEGEL, investigators now believe Hezbollah was behind the Hariri murder.
  • The Hariri assassination has been the source of wild speculation ever since. Was it the work of terrorist organization al-Qaida, angered by Hariri's close ties to the Saudi royal family? Or of the Israelis, as part of their constant efforts to weaken neighboring Lebanon? Or the Iranians, who hated secularist Hariri?
  • In late 2005, an investigation team approved by the United Nations and headed by German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis found, after seven months of research, that Syrian security forces and high-ranking Lebanese officials were in fact responsible for the Hariri murder. Four suspects were arrested. But the smoking gun, the final piece of evidence, was not found. The pace of the investigation stalled under Mehlis's Belgian successor, Serge Brammertz.
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  • At the time of the attack, it was known that Hariri, a billionaire construction magnate who was responsible for the reconstruction of the Lebanese capital after decades of civil war, wanted to reenter politics. It was also known that he had had a falling out with Syrian President Bashar Assad after demanding the withdrawal of Syrian occupation forces from his native Lebanon. As a result, the prime suspects in the murder were the powerful Syrian military and intelligence agency, as well as their Lebanese henchmen. The pressure on Damascus came at an opportune time for the US government. Then-President George W. Bush had placed Syria on his list of rogue states and wanted to isolate the regime internationally.
  • The establishment of a UN special tribunal was intended to provide certainty. It began its work on March 1, 2009. The tribunal, headquartered in the town of Leidschendam in the Netherlands, has a budget of more than €40 million ($56 million) for the first year alone, with the UN paying 51 percent and Beirut 49 percent of the cost. It has an initial mandate for three years, and the most severe sentence it can impose is life in prison. Canadian Daniel Bellemare, 57, was appointed to head the tribunal. Four of the 11 judges are Lebanese, whose identities have been kept secret, for security reasons.
  • As its first official act, the tribunal ordered the release, in early April, of the four men Mehlis had had arrested. By then, they had already spent more than three years sitting in a Lebanese prison.
  • Intensive investigations in Lebanon are all pointing to a new conclusion: that it was not the Syrians, but instead special forces of the Lebanese Shiite organization Hezbollah ("Party of God") that planned and executed the diabolical attack. Tribunal chief prosecutor Bellemare and his judges apparently want to hold back this information, of which they been aware for about a month.
  • a secretly operating special unit of the Lebanese security forces, headed by intelligence expert Captain Wissam Eid, filtered out the numbers of mobile phones that could be pinpointed to the area surrounding Hariri on the days leading up to the attack and on the date of the murder itself. The investigators referred to these mobile phones as the "first circle of hell."
  • They were apparently tools of the hit team that carried out the terrorist attack.
  • there was also a "second circle of hell," a network of about 20 mobile phones that were identified as being in proximity to the first eight phones noticeably often. According to the Lebanese security forces, all of the numbers involved apparently belong to the "operational arm" of Hezbollah, which maintains a militia in Lebanon that is more powerful than the regular Lebanese army.
  • The romantic attachment of one of the terrorists led the cyber-detectives directly to one of the main suspects. He committed the unbelievable indiscretion of calling his girlfriend from one of the "hot" phones. It only happened once, but it was enough to identify the man. He is believed to be Abd al-Majid Ghamlush, from the town of Rumin, a Hezbollah member who had completed training course in Iran. Ghamlush was also identified as the buyer of the mobile phones. He has since disappeared, and perhaps is no longer alive.
Pedro Gonçalves

Breakthrough in Tribunal Investigation: New Evidence Points to Hezbollah in Hariri Murd... - 0 views

www.spiegel.de/...0,1518,626412-2,00.html

Lebanon Hariri Hezbollah Hassan Nasrallah Jamal al-Sayyid Detlev Mehlis Hajj Salim

shared by Pedro Gonçalves on 24 May 09 - Cached
  • Ghamlush's recklessness led investigators to the man they now suspect was the mastermind of the terrorist attack: Hajj Salim, 45. A southern Lebanese from Nabatiyah, Salim is considered to be the commander of the "military" wing of Hezbollah and lives in South Beirut, a Shiite stronghold. Salim's secret "Special Operational Unit" reports directly to Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah, 48.
  • Imad Mughniyah, one of the world's most wanted terrorists, ran the unit until Feb. 12, 2008, when he was killed in an attack in Damascus, presumably by Israeli intelligence. Since then, Salim has largely assumed the duties of his notorious predecessor, with Mughniyah's brother-in-law, Mustafa Badr al-Din, serving as his deputy. The two men report only to their superior, and to General Kassim Sulaimani, their contact in Tehran. The Iranians, the principal financiers of the military Lebanese "Party of God," have repressed the Syrians' influence.
  • The deeper the investigators in Beirut penetrated into the case, the clearer the picture became, according to the SPIEGEL source. They have apparently discovered which Hezbollah member obtained the small Mitsubishi truck used in the attack. They have also been able to trace the origins of the explosives, more than 1,000 kilograms of TNT, C4 and hexogen.
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  • The Lebanese chief investigator and true hero of the story didn't live to witness many of the recent successes in the investigation. Captain Eid, 31, was killed in a terrorist attack in the Beirut suburb of Hasmiyah on Jan. 25, 2008. The attack, in which three other people were also killed, was apparently intended to slow down the investigation. And, once again, there was evidence of involvement by the Hezbollah commando unit, just as there has been in each of more than a dozen attacks against prominent Lebanese in the last four years.
  • Hariri's growing popularity could have been a thorn in the side of Lebanese Shiite leader Nasrallah. In 2005, the billionaire began to outstrip the revolutionary leader in terms of popularity. Besides, he stood for everything the fanatical and spartan Hezbollah leader hated: close ties to the West and a prominent position among moderate Arab heads of state, an opulent lifestyle, and membership in the competing Sunni faith. Hariri was, in a sense, the alternative to Nasrallah.
  • The revelations about the alleged orchestrators of the Hariri murder will likely harm Hezbollah. Large segments of the population are weary of internal conflicts and are anxious for reconciliation. The leader of the movement, which, despite its formal recognition of the democratic rules of the game, remains on the US's list of terrorist organizations, probably anticipates forthcoming problems with the UN tribunal. In a speech in Beirut, Nasrallah spoke of the tribunal's "conspiratorial intentions."
  • The UN tribunal's order to release the generals who were arrested at his specific request is, at any rate, a serious blow to the German prosecutor. One of the four, Jamal al-Sayyid, the former Lebanese general security director, has even filed a suit against Mehlis in France for "manipulated investigations." In media interviews, such as an interview with the Al-Jazeera Arab television network last week, Sayyid has even taken his allegations a step further, accusing German police commissioner Gerhard Lehmann, Mehlis's assistant in the Beirut investigations, of blackmail.
  • Sayyid claims that Lehmann, a member of Germany's Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) proposed a deal with the Syrian president to the Lebanese man. Under the alleged arrangement, Assad would identify the person responsible for the Hariri killing and convince him to commit suicide, and then the case would be closed. According to Sayyid, the authorities in Beirut made "unethical proposals, as well as threats," and he claims that he has recordings of the incriminating conversations.
  • the spotlight-loving Jamil al-Sayyid could soon be embarking on a new career. He is under consideration for the post of Lebanon's next justice minister.
Pedro Gonçalves

Foreign Policy: The Battle for Qom's Hearts and Minds - 0 views

www.foreignpolicy.com/...cms.php

Iran Hossein Montazeri Iranian Revolutionary Guards Basij Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

shared by Pedro Gonçalves on 22 Jun 09 - Cached
  • clerics like Montazeri believe that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his protégé, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, use a distorted interpretation of Shiite theology for their own political ends. As a result, they believe Iran has become an un-Islamic, militarized state where Islamic militias repress the Iranian population in the name of God. There is another fact unknown to those unfamiliar with Iran: The youth are actually fond of some of the clerics, and shout their names at their demonstrations.
  • Khamenei's has, in turn, granted enormous power to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and the basij, the Islamic militias under their command
  • This is not to say that the majority of clerics oppose Ahmadinejad and Khamenei. It is likely that the clerics are split, and even those who do not support Khamenei and Ahmadinejad might be unwilling to say so in public for a variety of reasons, including the fact that clerics rely on the state to some degree to fund their seminaries
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  • its chairman, Ayatollah Mahdavi Kani, openly announced their support for Ahmandinejad.
Pedro Gonçalves

Iran releases Rafsanjani relatives detained during protests - Haaretz - Israel News - 0 views

www.haaretz.com/...1094746.html

Iran Iran Elections 2009 Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani

shared by Pedro Gonçalves on 22 Jun 09 - Cached
  • A daughter of former Iranian president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a rival of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has been released from detention, state television said on Monday. Iran's English-language Press TV had reported that Faezeh Rafsanjani and four other relatives of the former president were detained during an unauthorized protest in Tehran on Saturday. The four other relatives were freed earlier.
  • Last week, the semi-official Fars News Agency said Faezeh and her brother Mehdi had been barred from leaving Iran.
  • Iran's powerful Guardian Council said Sunday there were some irregularities in the June 12 presidential election, which has been widely disputed and triggered bloody street protests. The Guardian Council admitted that the number of votes collected in 50 cities was more than the number of eligible voters, the council's spokesman Abbas-Ali Kadkhodaei told the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) channel.
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  • State television earlier on Sunday said at least 10 people were killed during street clashes in downtown Tehran the previous day.
  • According to a report in the pan-Arab newspaper Asharq al-Awsat, Rafsanjani is contemplating the formation of a distinct body of clerics that would serve as an alternative to the ruling council of ayatollahs. The report stated that the former president, who is based in the town of Qom, which is thought of as a religious stronghold, has already consulted other prominent clerics on possible future steps against his chief rival, Khamenei.
  • He said this amounted to about 3 million questionable votes, but added that "it has yet to be determined whether the amount is decisive in the election results."
  • The authorities have branded the protesters as "terrorists" and rioters. Tehran's police commander Azizullah Rajabzadeh warned police would "confront all gatherings and unrest with all its strength," the official IRNA news agency reported.
  • In pro-Mousavi districts of northern Tehran, supporters took to the rooftops after dusk to chant their defiance, witnesses said, an echo of tactics used in the 1979 Islamic revolution. "I heard repeated shootings while people were chanting Allahu Akbar [God is great] in Niavaran area," said a witness, who asked not to be named.
  • Mohammad Khatami, a Mousavi ally and a moderate former president, warned of "dangerous consequences" if the people were prevented from expressing their demands in peaceful ways.
Pedro Gonçalves

American Thinker Blog: On Iran, look to Qom for the next breaking story (updated) - 0 views

www.americanthinker.com/...an_look_to_qom_for_the_ne.html

Iran Iran Assembly of Experts Qom Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani Ali Sistani Ali Montazeri Ayatollah Saanei

shared by Pedro Gonçalves on 23 Jun 09 - Cached
  • Estimates of police and Guards deployed range from 25,000 to 60,000 in Tehran alone. And the Basij were busy overnight, keeping the pressure on reformists by carrying off several high profile home invasions in richer neighborhoods while scouring hospitals for people injured during the clashes.
  • According to the source that asked to remain anonymous, during this meeting they recounted memories of the days of the Revolution. A reasonable purpose of these meetings, according to the source, is that Rafsanjani is looking for a majority to possibly call for Ahmadinejad's resignation.
  • Many of the Shiite clerics in Qom never embraced the idea of either a supreme leader or a central role for clerics in the new Islamic republic. Iran's revolution represented not just a political upheaval. It was also a revolution within Shiism, which for 14 centuries had prohibited a clerical role in politics. With clerics taking over government, many senior Shiite clerics feared that Islam would end up being tainted by the human flaws of the state.
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  • Ayatollah Ali Montazeri, who was originally designated to become supreme leader until he criticized the regime's excesses in 1989, dismissed the election results and called on "everyone" to continue "reclaiming their dues" in calm protests. He also issued a warning to Iran's security forces not to accept government orders that might eventually condemn them "before God."
  • Others have also bestowed legitimacy on the protests. Grand Ayatollah Saanei -- one of only about a dozen who hold that position -- pronounced Ahmadinejad's presidency illegitimate.
  • Neither man weilds much political influence. But if Qom's clerical leadership calls on Khamenei to resign (thus delegitimzing his role as "Supreme Leader" even more), this would cause a crisis in government - a near civil war - as the clerical establishment would likely be ripped in two. It would paralyze the government and perhaps even split the security forces.
  • Because of that - and because many of the clerics in Qom have shown a great reluctance to involve themselves too heavily in politics - such a strong statement might not be forthcoming.
Pedro Gonçalves

The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan - 0 views

andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/...h-montazeri-takes-a-stand.html

Iran Iran Elections 2009 Hossein Montazeri

shared by Pedro Gonçalves on 22 Jun 09 - Cached
  • Declaring results that no one in their right mind can believe, and despite all the evidence of crafted results, and to counter people protestations, in front of the eyes of the same nation who carried the weight of a revolution and 8 years of war, in front of the eyes of local and foreign reporters, attacked the children of the people with astonishing violence. And now they are attempting a purge, arresting intellectuals, political opponents and Scientifics.
  • I ask the police and army personals not to “sell their religion”, and beware that receiving orders will not excuse them before god.
Pedro Gonçalves

Shots fired on as more than 100,000 Iranians defy rally ban | World news | guardian.co.uk - 0 views

www.guardian.co.uk/...pposition-rally-banned-mousavi

Iran Mir Hossein Mousavi Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Iran Elections 2009

shared by Pedro Gonçalves on 15 Jun 09 - Cached
  • Shots have been fired at an opposition rally in Tehran where more than 100,000 Iranians were protesting against the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
  • An Associated Press photographer saw one person killed when shots were fired from a compound for pro-government militiamen. Several other people appeared to have been seriously wounded in Tehran's Azadi Square. BBC's Persian service quoted an eyewitness saying that four protesters have been killed.
  • The gathering followed an announcement from Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, that he had ordered an investigation into claims vote-rigging had given the incumbent president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a landslide victory.
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  • Earlier, the defeated candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi addressed the crowd in his first public appearance since Friday's disputed election. Addressing the crowd from the roof of his car, Mousavi said he was ready to compete in a fresh election."The vote of the people is more important than Mousavi or any other person," he said, according to al-Jazeera television.
  • The rally had been banned by the authorities and was initially called off by Mousavi amid fears of violence. But tens of thousands of people, dressed in Mousavi's green campaign colours, took to the streets, chanting "God is great" and "We fight, we die – we will not accept this vote-rigging".Calling on Ahmadinejad to resign, they said the election results were a "coup d'etat" and chanted "Death to the lying government".
  • Scuffles broke out as Ahmadinejad supporters on motorbikes used sticks to beat the marchers. Mousavi had attempted to cancel the rally after receiving warnings that militias responsible for policing it would be equipped with live ammunition
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