Category Archives: Iran

Iran, Racism, WTF, Xenophobia

Apple Issues: iRacism? iXenophobia? iIranophobia? iStupidity ……

    

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                       Neck of the woods
“An American teen was unable to shop at an Apple store simply because she was speaking Farsi with her uncle. What seems to be a clear-cut case of ethnic profiling turns out to be in line with official company policy. Sabah Sabet, a 19-year old US citizen of Iranian extraction, and a student of the University of Georgia, took her uncle to buy an iPhone and an iPad at an Apple store in a mall in Alpharetta, Georgia, local news channel WSBTV reports. But she was in for a shocker, as the store clerk refused to sell them the devices after he found out Sabet and her uncle were speaking Farsi. “When we said ‘Farsi, I’m from Iran,’ he said, ‘I just can’t sell this to you. Our countries have bad relations,’” Sabet recounted. Sabet said the incident, which she describes as “discrimination” and “racial profiling,” …………..”

“However, U.S. sanctions laws do not prohibit the sale of products to Iranian Americans or Iranian visa-holders in the United States. Yet, multiple Apple Stores have refused service to both American citizens and Iranian students legally residing in the United States solely on the basis of their ethnicity. In particular, Apple Stores at North Point Mall in Alpharetta, Georgia and at Perimeter Mall in Atlanta, Georgia have been implicated in this practice .………..”

The United States is the least xenophobic country and society in the world, yet there are pockets of it around.
It is definitely racism (a Russian news agency called it iRacism). These products are made in CHINA, by CHINESE workers, and how stupid can you get for F-sake! I think that is just some parts of Georgia being Georgian. Next time these Iranian-Americans are asked what language they are speaking they ought to say (heaven forgive me for suggesting that someone lie) Hebrew. No problem, piece of cake.
Cheers
mhg
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Culture, Iran, Israel, Middle East Nuclear, WTF

Forget Iran: World’s New Real Nuclear Menace, a Willie Nelson Song…….

    

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“Broken her heart
And I know I done wrong
But I pray
That someday she’ll forgive me
And remember
When I’ve sang
My last hillbilly song………..” Willie (Hugh) Nelson


“For the first time since the end of the Cold War, the specter of nuclear armageddon looms over the world, as the Pentagon announced yesterday that a group of hillbillies in central Tennessee has constructed a fully operational 50-megaton nuclear device. With this potential for destruction in the hands of people who have throughout history acted out violently for no better reason than family tradition, scientists in Helsinki, Finland, have moved the doomsday clock back up to one minute before midnight. Pentagon officials were tipped off to the backwoods people’s potential to invoke mass destruction last week when an I.R.S. agent returned from the Smoky Mountains claiming that a group of hillbillies had threatened to “nuke him up real good.” The bomb’s existence and operational status were later confirmed by a team of scientists who, after finding the weapon in a hay thresher, were run out of hillbilly territory by a family armed with a shotgun and three dogs named “Duke.”……….”

Mr. Netanyahu was pissed. He said this is a phony report planted by anti-Semites in the IRS with the goal of distracting from the most serious nuclear threat the world has faced since Hiroshima and Nagasaki was barbecued for the sake of peace.
Cheers
mhg
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Death Penalty, Iran, Saudi Arabia

Iran and Saudi Arabia and Texas: Hungry for Executions…….

    

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“Ann Harrison, the deputy director of Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Program, has severely censured the Saudi Arabian government for the execution of a group of Iranian nationals. On May 30, the Persian service of Tabnak news website reported that Saudi officials in Dammam, the capital of the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia, executed 10 Iranian citizens for alleged involvement in drug trafficking. In an analysis published on June 15, Harrison said that foreign nationals in Saudi Arabia face discrimination in relation to the death penalty, and executions are on the rise. As Amnesty International has documented for many years, it is true that a large number of people are executed in Saudi Arabia after grossly unfair trials, Harrison stated. ………….”


This was Iran’s Fars news agency gloating over the Amnesty International reaction to Saudi Arabia’s sudden execution of 10 Iranians. That is a HUGE number at one time, even allegedly for drug smuggling; but there have been larger “batches” of beheadings: one was in 1989 when they announced the execution of 16 young Kuwaiti men after a quick secret trial, then there was the aftermath of the Juhayman uprising in Mecca in 1979-80. It is true, Saudi courts, rather judges, pass sudden execution (by beheading) sentences often without benefit of defense and other “normal” court procedures. Yet Amnesty International has also often criticized Iran’s easy death sentences, including the recent sentence of several Arabic-speaking Ahwazi-Iranian men from Khuzistan Province. Two or three of these men were reportedly hanged this week, rather quickly and I never heard of any appeal of the sentences. This is what one AI official wrote about that:

“I must admit that I had to blink and look away for a moment when I saw the Iranian news agency headline: ‘Execution of Iranian citizens in Saudi Arabia was a medieval act’. As Amnesty International has documented for many years, it is true a large number of people are executed in Saudi Arabia after grossly unfair trials. Foreign nationals face discrimination in relation to the death penalty and executions for drugs offences are on the rise .…………However, it is bizarre for an Iranian news source to state so blatantly that “executing a foreign national for a crime less serious than murder is a sign of barbarity”. International standards do indeed prohibit the use of the death penalty except for “crimes with an intention to kill which resulted in the loss of life”, but we shouldn’t forget that Iran is second only to China…………”

Something about our region: it is in love with capital punishment, whether by beheading or by hanging or otherwise. Our region probably beats even Texas in its love for executions, and Texans are known to truly love executions be they fair or unfair. In Texas, as long as someone is executed for a crime, then Texans are happy feeling that justice was somehow done. Even if, as it sometimes turns out, the person executed is innocent of the crime for which he or she was executed. As some Texas reporter once commented: “Texans just like executions”.
I think executions should be banned, and not just in Texas or other Middle Eastern countries.
Cheers
mhg
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Ali Khamenei, Iran, Iraq, Muslims, Saudi Arabia

Iraq: Ali Sistani’s Successor, Iranian Mullahs, and the Saudi King in Bahrain………

 

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“As the top spiritual leader in the Shiite Muslim world, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani has instructed his followers on what to eat and how to wash, how to marry and to bury their dead. As a temporal guide, he has championed Iraqi democracy, insisting on direct elections from the earliest days of the occupation, and warned against Iranian-style clerical rule………… Frail at 81, he still greets visitors each morning at his home on a narrow and sooty side street here, only steps from the glimmering gold dome of the Imam Ali Shrine. But the jockeying to succeed him has quietly begun, and Iran is positioning its own candidate for the post, a hard-line cleric who would give Tehran a direct line of influence over the Iraqi people, heightening fears that Iran’s long-term goal is to transplant its Islamic Revolution to Iraq………..”

This is truly nonsense, and shows complete Western ignorance of the degree of independence the Shi’a Hawza has of any government. Even the intrusive Baathist regime could not meddle directly in its affairs. Even Ayatollah Ali Khamenei can’t intervene in the selection of Iranian religious leaders, let alone the Hawza in Iraq. The Najaf Hawza selects its own top Marj’e, the top Shi’a theologian, based on his scholarship, seniority, and how other clerics judge him. It is completely independent of any regime. This is not like the Saudi king appointing and firing his own palace Mufti at will or appointing the members of the Ulema (senior clerics) Council.
 
FYI- speaking of the Saudi king: soon he may be able to appoint the king of his new province of Bahrain and fire him at will.
Cheers
mhg


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Ali Khamenei, Culture, Iran

Cool Ahamadinejad: the Return to Alternative Rock, Iranian GOP……….

 

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“Step up, step up, step up the sky is open-armed
When the light is mine, I felt gravity pull onto my eyes,
Holding my head straight (looking down)
This is the easiest task I’ve ever had to do
Reason had harnessed the tame
Holding the sky in their arms
Gravity pulls me down…….” R.E.M.

“Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told reporters Thursday he was kind of getting back into old R.E.M. again, rediscovering his once-great passion for the alternative rock group’s first six albums. Ahmadinejad, leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s conservative political coalition, confirmed that ever since R.E.M. broke up in September 2011, he had been revisiting the Athens, GA band’s catalog and was once again really digging its earlier stuff. “Listening to some of those early albums they did for [record label] I.R.S. has reminded me of how great R.E.M. really was,” said the 55-year-old former mayor of Tehran, who is known for his rigorous implementation of radical Islamist policies throughout Iran. “Stipe’s cryptic vocals combined with Buck’s bright, chiming guitar hooks, Mills’ melodic bass lines, and the driving beat of Bill Berry’s drums creates this ethereal sound that just completely kicks ass.” “They’re basically like the original alternative rock band,” the controversial world leader and Holocaust denier added. Ahmadinejad confirmed he first discovered R.E.M. in 1986 after stumbling across Fables Of The Reconstruction on vinyl at a record store in Tehran. At the time a civil engineering graduate student who helped crack down on dissident university professors and pupils, he said he was immediately infatuated with the band upon hearing the haunting guitar riff at the start of album opener “Feeling Gravitys Pull.”…………”

Apparently he has had some dispute on this REM issue with the clerics. Not only do the senior clerics disapprove, conservative members of parliament (the Iranian GOP) may again threaten to impeach him. If he ain’t careful the remaining year of his career may go up the proverbial creek. But then again, right now it’s better for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to be true to himself: what has he got to lose? Just tell the mullahs to “take this job and shove it”.
Cheers
mhg


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Ali Khamenei, Culture, Iran

Ahamadinejad: the Return to Alternative Rock, Iranian GOP……….

 

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“Step up, step up, step up the sky is open-armed
When the light is mine, I felt gravity pull onto my eyes,
Holding my head straight (looking down)
This is the easiest task I’ve ever had to do
Reason had harnessed the tame
Holding the sky in their arms
Gravity pulls me down…….” R.E.M.

“Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told reporters Thursday he was kind of getting back into old R.E.M. again, rediscovering his once-great passion for the alternative rock group’s first six albums. Ahmadinejad, leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s conservative political coalition, confirmed that ever since R.E.M. broke up in September 2011, he had been revisiting the Athens, GA band’s catalog and was once again really digging its earlier stuff. “Listening to some of those early albums they did for [record label] I.R.S. has reminded me of how great R.E.M. really was,” said the 55-year-old former mayor of Tehran, who is known for his rigorous implementation of radical Islamist policies throughout Iran. “Stipe’s cryptic vocals combined with Buck’s bright, chiming guitar hooks, Mills’ melodic bass lines, and the driving beat of Bill Berry’s drums creates this ethereal sound that just completely kicks ass.” “They’re basically like the original alternative rock band,” the controversial world leader and Holocaust denier added. Ahmadinejad confirmed he first discovered R.E.M. in 1986 after stumbling across Fables Of The Reconstruction on vinyl at a record store in Tehran. At the time a civil engineering graduate student who helped crack down on dissident university professors and pupils, he said he was immediately infatuated with the band upon hearing the haunting guitar riff at the start of album opener “Feeling Gravitys Pull.”…………”

Apparently he has had some dispute on this REM issue with the clerics. Not only do the senior clerics disapprove, conservative members of parliament (the Iranian GOP) may again threaten to impeach him. If he ain’t careful the remaining year of his career may go up the proverbial creek. But then again, right now it’s better for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to be true to himself: what has he got to lose? Just tell the mullahs to “take this job and shove it”.
Cheers
mhg


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Egypt, Iran, Muslims, Religion, Turkey

History: al-Nahayan Take Aim at al-Afghani and Mohammed Abdu and British Intelligence and the Grinch……

 

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Shaky (at best) analysis from someone in the UAE aiming at the current ‘enemies” of the al-Nahayan rulers of Abu Dhabi: the Muslim Brothers and the Iranians. He is tying the Muslim Brotherhood to Jamaliddeen al-Afghani (who resided in Cairo for some years) and al-Azhar and Mohammed Abdu (of Egypt) and British intelligence and the Grinch who stole Christmas and the Wicked Witch of the East and the al-Nahayan (at that time they were busy killing each other for power).
He claims that al-Afghani was hiding his Shi’ism, which can be true but is unlikely at the time. In those days (late 19th century) people were not as sectarian as today, mainly because the al-Saud and al-Khalifa did not have access to the vast media they have now to spread their sectarian poison across the Muslim world (actually I believe the al-Saud were exiles in Kuwait at the time). It is true that al-Afghani and Egypt’s Mohammed Abdu influenced the later creators of the Muslim Brotherhood, but their teachings and writings are also claimed by some to have influenced Salafi thought (I doubt this assertion: I had thought these came from the Wahhabi doctrine. But what do I know, I am just an economist).
This piece is political (like my blog postings) and is aimed at ‘discrediting’ the Muslim Brotherhood (M by tying them to Shi’as and to British intelligence (who created the UAE) because the fundamentalist MB are having a dispute with the UAE rulers these days. Personally I don’t care for either one, but this is a transparent attempt by an al-Nahayan pen-slinger. Besides, he is accusing al-Afghani and Mohammed Abdu of being British agents at a time when the whole of the Omani Coast and its sheikhdoms, including the al-Nahayan, were under British control. As I said, the UAE itself was created by the British in 1971 (not necessarily a bad idea). (Speaking of which, whatever happened to the foreign mercenary brigade formed last year by the al-Nahayan brothers from Blackwater veterans and Colombians and Australians and white South Africans and other foreigners?)

Jamal-ad-Din Asadabadi (a k a al-Afghani), was an influential but mysterious character (both Iran and Afghanistan claim him) who resided in Iran, Egypt, India, Iraq, and Istanbul, among other places (including Europe where he visited London and Paris but most likely avoided the Moulin Rouge in Pigalle). He traveled for learning at a young age and influenced Islamic thought and the response to Western expansion and imperialism. Apparently he had a beef with Western materialism although he was not a fanatic like the Salafists or some of the Gulf Muslim Brothers of today. Whether he was an agent of British intelligence or the Russian Tsarist Okhrana or the Knight Templars or the Nabati Poets Diwaniyya ديوانية شعراء النبط, I have no idea. Interestingly the Jewish Virtual Library has a good but brief biography of him:

“Journalist, reformer. A founder of modern Muslim anti-colonialism, he advocated a religious and cultural revival to counteract European influence. Jamal al-Din Afghani is considered to be the founding father of Islamic modernism. …….”
Cheers
mhg


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Arab Media, Arab Politics, Arab Revolutions, Iran

Power and Risks of the Political Cartoon: Humorless Iranians, Humorless Arab Despots……

 

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“Fish and chips, sandpaper lips and a rainy pavement.
Soho lights, another night thinking of you.
Black cat, sat on a wall, winks at me darkly.
Suggesting ways and means that I might win a smile,
as you leave the place where you work until 12.30
and the policemen nods as you pass along his beat.
Sweaty feet, troubled brow we’re all in the same game, lady.
Life’s no bowl of cherries it’s a black and white strip cartoon…….” Jethro Tull

“An Iranian cartoonist has been sentenced to be 25 lashes for a caricature of a local MP, the semi-official Ilna news agency has reported. Ahmad Lotfi Ashtiani, MP for Arak, took offence to a cartoon published in Nameye Amir, a city newspaper in Arak. The cartoonist, Mahmoud Shokraye, depicted Ashtiani in a football stadium, dressed as a footballer, with a congratulatory letter in one hand and his foot resting on the ball. Iranian politicians, including Ashtiani, have been recently criticised for interferring in the country’s sports………. Shokraye was subsequently sued by the MP for having insulted him. A court in Markazi province, of which Arak is the capital, sentenced the cartoonist to 25 lashes – an unprecedented punishment for an Iranian cartoonist……………”

Cartoons are the cleverest way to needle Arab (and Iranian) rulers and “almost” live to tell the tale. But they have their risks: you never see a cartoon of the Saudi king or princes anywhere inside Saudi Arabia, and you never see a cartoon of the most senior Iranian clerics anywhere inside Iran (Ahmadinejad is neither a senior cleric nor a prince). Some of the more audacious artists have paid with their lives, others have been attacked, imprisoned, and maimed.
For years the great Palestinian cartoonist Naji al-Ali needled the Fatah leadership of Yassir Arafat (as well as Israel) from the relative safety of Kuwait. He created the character of ‘Hindhala. The PLO reportedly applied pressure for him to be deported from Kuwait in the 1980s. Within a short time from his arrival in a second exile in London he was shot in the face and killed. Openly, some Arab media, as hypocritical then as now, claimed the Mossad had killed him. Everybody I asked knew that he was killed by Fatah operatives on order of Arafat. Then there was Syrian Ali Farzat who was attacked last year and nearly crippled most likely by thugs affiliated with the Syrian regime. No doubt there are many others I am not aware of. There is a clever Brazilian cartoonist (Carlos Latuff) whom the Bahrain rulers (and the Saudi security) would love to get their hands on. I doubt Carlos will be visiting Manama or Riyadh anytime soon. (Don’t even think about it: if they let you in that means they have a trumped up charge ready, like drugs or worse. Remember Egyptian lawyer Ahmed Gizawy. Remember Labanese TV magician Ali Sabat who is on Saudi death row for “sorcery”).
Back to Iran: twenty five lashes for a civil case and not a criminal case, and for a mere lowly politician, an MP! I suspect this sentence is very likely against some article of their own constitution (as are other travesties). I wonder what he would get if he had depicted someone higher, much higher and I mean much higher, than that MP? I am not talking about Ahmadinejad.
Cheers
mhg


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Iran, Israel, nuclear wepoans, US Foreign Policy, War on Iran

Netanyahu Raises Chutzpah to a New Level: Hiroshima Mon Amour…….

 

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“They all said it would end the war,
And we thanked Christ for the bomb,
And the priests and witches all agreed,
They should die to keep them free.
The fireball that shamed the sun,
Burning the shadows on the ground,
As the rain falls to dry the land,
Leaving the desert for the thirsty man.

Hiroshima Mon Amour………………”  Alcatrazz

  
“Netanyahu: Iran must commit to halt all enrichment in upcoming nuclear talks. In unusual move, PM invites Barak, Lieberman and newcomer Mofaz to join meeting with EU foreign policy chief Ashton, in which he accused Iran of playing for time and said world powers must demand that Iran take tangible steps toward halting uranium enrichment……….. On Wednesday afternoon, the prime minister met with European Union Foreign Affairs Chief Catherine Ashton, who arrived in Israel to brief Netanyahu on the preparations for the second round of nuclear talks with Iran………….”

It would be funny if it weren’t so outrageous. Here is the leader of a small Middle East country, one that has built many nuclear bombs and never joined the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), and it is annexing occupied lands against international law. And he is “demanding” that Iran stop all uranium enrichment. He should be the last person, his government the last government that would talk about nuclear threats and enrichment and hiding and deception. Demanding: and European leaders actually listen to this charlatan and hustler! I can understand how they would worship him in the U.S. Congress: selling snake oil in some constituencies is an honorable old tradition that goes back to the Frontier days.
Now he is trying to set the agenda for the Baghdad meeting, perhaps hoping to provoke an Iranian withdrawal. That would apply more pressure on the White House in this year of Our Lord of Elections.
Cheers
mhg


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Europe, Iran, OPEC

Iranian Rain in Spain: Oil Boycotts and Oil Deals, Beauty Queens…….

 

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“She Was More Like A Beauty Queen From A Movie Scene
I Said Don’t Mind, But What Do You Mean I Am The One
Who Will Dance On The Floor In The Round
She Said I Am The One Who Will Dance On The Floor In The Round

She Told Me Her Name Was Billie Jean, As She Caused A Scene

Then Every Head Turned With Eyes That Dreamed Of Being The One
Who Will Dance On The Floor In The Round……...“ Billie Jean (Michael Jackson)


“Iran has signed a 1.6 billion euro contract with a Spanish company to manufacture high-tech equipment and components for its oil and gas industry. Iran’s Society of Iranian Petroleum Industries Equipment Manufacturers (SIPIEM) signed the contract with the Spanish company. Kayhandokht Kavianpour, an SIPIEM member, confirmed the deal in interview with the Mehr News Agency and said, “Certain Western countries imagine that with sanctions the engine of the development of Iran’s oil industry will stop functioning.” The SIPIEM also signed another contract with a Chinese company to transfer technology to Iranian oil industry, the report added. ……….”

This is weird. The EU voted to boycott Iranian oil starting next July. Iran voted to cut off oil to the EU members, including Spain last month. Now Iran and Spain have signed a deal to supply high-tech oil equipment to Iran’s oil industry. Presumably the equipment will be produced inside Iran. Is it a way to go around American and European sanctions? Another Iranian official later stated that soon his country will be manufacturing oilfield equipment.
Any why are Spaniards of all people producing oilfield equipment and machinery? Spain has olive oil. This is like having Oman or the UAE produce beauty queens instead of Venezuela (just an example, just an example). The plot thickens.

Cheers
mhg


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