If Barack Obama somehow ends up as the nation's next president, he's made it clear that he wants to negotiate with the mentally unstable Islamofascists running Iran.
If they weren't supplying weapons to our enemies in Iraq, or if they weren't allying themselves with terrorists, or if they weren't subjugating women and stoning adulterers, if they weren't trying to develop nuclear weapons, then they'd be laughable.
But they're doing all of those things. And more.
And then there is the crazy stuff they believe in. The ruling elite of the Islamic Republic of Iran views Ayatollah Khomeini as their founder of their sick state, and his views and writings serve as the intellectual bedrock of their nation.
Which brought to mind this passage, which I've blogged about before, from Azar Nafisi's best-selling book from 2003, Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books.
"I have to tell you that the Ayatollah himself was no novice in sexual matters," Nassrin (one of Professor Nafisi's students) went on. "I've been translating his magnum opus, The Political, Philosophical, Social, and Religious Principles of Ayatollah Khomeini, and he has some interesting points to make."
"But it's already been translated," said Manna (another student). "What's the point?"
"Yes," said Nassrin, "parts of it have been translated, but after it became the butt of party jokes, ever since the embassies abroad found out that people were reading the book not for their edification but for fun, the translations have been very hard to find. And anyway, my translation is thorough—it has references and cross-references to works by other worthies. Did you know that one way to cure a man's sexual appetites is by having sex with animals? And then there's the problem of sex with chickens. You have to ask yourself if a man who has had sex with a chicken can then eat the chicken afterwards. Our leader has provided us with an answer: No, neither he nor his immediate family or next-door neighbors can eat of that chicken's meat, but it's okay for a neighbor who lives two doors away. My father would rather I spent my time on such texts than on Jane Austen or Nabokov?" she added, rather mischievously.
We were not startled by Nassrin's erudite allusions to the works of Ayatollah Khomeini. She was referring to a famous text by Khomeini, the equivalent of his dissertation—required to be written by all who reach the rank of ayatollah—aimed at responding to the questions and dilemmas that could be posed to them by their disciples. Many others before Khomeini had written in almost identical manner. What was disturbing was that these texts were taken seriously by people who ruled us and in whose hands lay our fate and the fate of our country. Every day on national television and radio these guardians of morality and culture would make similar statements and discuss such matters as if they were the most serious themes for contemplation and consideration.
Hopefully everyone who read this post didn't have chicken for dinner tonight. Oh, I don't get the part where it's not okay to give the tainted meat to a neighbor or relative, but it's kosher (Oops, that word slipped in) to hand it to someone else.
Explanations anyone?
Oh, Senator. Your consituent in Morton Grove thinks you should read Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books.
My viewpoint is unchanged: Regime change now in Iran.
Technorati tags: Barack Obama politics 2008 election Democrats Obama news farsi iran خبر حقوق بشر محمود فتوى Persian Iraq Islamofascism Azar Nafisi books Khomeini
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