News The Clerics Are Right
posted by on May 28 at 11:05 AM
All these recent reports about Iran and its suspect nuclear weapons program should scare you.
Here’s why: Ahmadinejad is crazier than you think.
There was an an overlooked article in the NYT last week about Ahmadinejad’s stand-off with Iran’s clerics that shows just how loo-loo he is.
The NYT report, “Iranian Clerics Tell the President to Leave the Theology to Them,” explains that Ahmadinejad says Imam Mahdi—a Shiite prophet who is supposed to return after 1,000 years in hiding and bring peace to the world—is a secret member of Ahmadinejad’s kitchen cabinet.
The clerics, offended that Ahmadinejad is usurping their authority by claiming to have Imam Mahdi on speed dial, have publicly denounced his presumptuous rhetoric, adding that Ahmadinejad is using the religious bombast to cover up the fact that he’s doing a lousy job with the economy. (Sounds like the clerics want a little separation of church and state.)
Having the conflict out in the open has been a long time coming, and I suspect it’s going to reach a crisis point in the next year that will either fully consolidate Ahmadinjad’s fascist-leaning rule or wind up bouncing him from office.
Here’s an excerpt from the article…cuckoo, cuckoo…
Mr. Ahmadinejad said Imam Mahdi was directing his government’s policies. He said he had the imam’s hidden support when he gave a speech at Columbia University in New York last September and was insulted by the president of the university.With Imam Mahdi’s support, he said, 500 million people watched him on television. Mr. Ahmadinejad also said the United States had attacked Iraq because it had found out that “the divine hand” — apparently a reference to Imam Mahdi — was going to emerge there.
The escalation of the dispute in recent days seemed to suggest that Mr. Ahmadinejad was challenging Shiite clerics assumed to be the sole interpreters of the faith.
Several of Mr. Ahmadinejad’s critics said that by linking his government to Imam Mahdi, he was trying to deflect criticism of his economic policies, which have led to double-digit inflation.
A senior conservative cleric, Ayatollah Muhammad Reza Mahdavi Kani, warned him weeks ago not to talk about Imam Mahdi and said that even the founder of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, did not claim any links with the imam.
I’ve always believed the scariest thing about Ahmadinejad’s presidency is this: While all of Iran’s recent presidents have had to bow to the authority of the Supreme Council of Clerics (which is scary enough), Ahmadinejad’s fascist populist shtick has quietly elevated him above the ruling council.
After becoming the teacher’s pet of the far-right clerics in the 2005 presidential elections—and beating reform-minded, liberal President Khatami—Ahmadinejad now towers over his former right-wing benefactors. It’s a Frankenstein story.
> "...Imam Mahdi—a Shiite prophet who is supposed to return after 1000 years in hiding and bring peace to the world..."
In the book, the Imam's name was spelled "Muad'Dib."
why does he want to meet with the Pope?
I think what they want correlates not so much with separation of church and state, but an independent judiciary.
Is there anyway we can rewind to when the secular majority of persian Iran had a democratically elected government and didn't hate us for assassinating their president?
please. this doomsday scenario is as stupid as this loon's visions of an iman. yes, he is a loon, but his power is much more limited than people think.
this is the kind of crap that leads to editors supporting ill-advised invasions.
feit youre sounding like freidman. what r u gonna do next, bite his, "iran is the next cold war" mantra?
what part of the No Fear sticker on the back of my truck don't you understand?
Well, if Jesus can advise Dubya, who's to say that Imam Mahdi isn't in communication with Ahmadinejad?
George and Mahmoud ... peas in a very loony pod.
khatami didn't really put into place any reforms. aside from that, what is your solution to this...another invasion?
#5 is right. You should know better than to believe everything you read in the NY Times, the same propaganda machine that convinced a majority of Americans to support the Iraq invasion.
@5
Despite your inability to use capitalization and punctuation, I absolutely agree.
Ahmadinejad is the President of Iran, not the Supreme Leader of Iran.
"Ahmadinejad’s fascist populist schtik has quietly elevated him above the ruling council."
It has? Really? That's your actual assertion? Based on what evidence? That he appears on american television more often?
You are either incredibly uninformed or intensely stupid, or both. Consider blogging on some other topic, or (god forbid) doing some research.
Ahmadinejad doesn't tower above anyone, Josh. He's hanging by a thread and has much less power than you think.
I am trying to figure out why Josh Feit is in any special position to know about internal Iranian politics.
How is this different in substance from the "Saddam has WMD" argument? If Iran does not possess nuclear weapons, which seems to be the consensus, then it can't threaten us with them, crazy leader or no. Yet the bulk of the argument here is devoted to the point that is not in dispute, which is that Ahmadinejad is bugnuts.
If the point were merely "Wow, that's one crazy motherfucker over there in charge of that government, boy howdy" then that's fine. But if this is going to be presented as part of a case for doing something about it (how's that Beach Boys song go, President McCain?) then let's remember that the most important step when assessing these sort of threats is asking "do they actually have the means to carry it out?"
WHAT'S this? I thought we'd sprayed the Raid and hung up enough no-pest strips. What the hell is Feet doing here? I thought you said you were leaving the Stranger, Feet.
right.
so, besides the fact that the president of iran doesn't control foreign or nuclear policy... when again did iran threaten anybody? before you say "that krazy guy said he wants to wipe israel off the face of the map!!!!11one!" please realize that was a bullshit translation by neocon pro-israel think tank MEMRI run by a former israeli intelligence officer.
all those weapons that the "insurgents" in iraq had that came from iran? examined and determined there was no proof they came from iran.
meanwhile, we threaten them with obliteration. well, clinton does anyway.
it's all bullshit. they're making it up, again, and you're falling for it.
Josh always sides with the establishment clerics.
Let me get this straight:
a. The Pope is crazy but against War with Iran and War with Iraq.
b. King George and Grand Vizier McCain are crazy and want war with Iraq, Iran, and Iceland, and maybe Iberia.
c. The Saudis are crazy and continue providing 90 plus percent of the funding and volunteers and 100 percent of the "religious" texts to destroy America - but King George gave them the bomb this month.
OK. Time to bring the grownups back ...
The clerics don't want separation of church and state. They want to be the ones to run things. Sheesh.
Meh. He's using religion to advance his politics? That's not a surprise here, much less in Iran. What are you going to get worried about next? A report that Brazilians like to dance?
Fear mongering on slog, the kind of thing only Josh can provide.
Sounds like it's only a matter of time before the "new and improved holocaust".
...and ali larijani just got elected by a large majority as speaker of their parliament. he is an opponent of ahmadinejad. i bet we see ahmadinejad out in their election next year, assuming all this fear mongering doesn't result in us launching a war with iran, which of course will strengthen the hardliners.
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