[lit-ideas] Re: After August 22
- From: "Andy Amago" <aamago@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 23 Aug 2006 11:46:57 -0400
Notably Lawrence's case is so indefensible he has to make up quotes. I saw the
entire interview, have it on tape in fact, and Ahmadinejad said no such thing.
You have reinforced the premise that the August 22 bit of scare mongering
embodies our approach to Iran. Thank you Lawrence.
----- Original Message -----
From: Lawrence Helm
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: 8/23/2006 11:28:36 AM
Subject: [lit-ideas] After August 22
Here is what Irene and Ahmadinejad want Bush to do: ?If you want to have good
relations with the Iranian people in the future, you should acknowledge the
right and the might of the Iranian people, and you should bow and surrender to
the might of the Iranian people. If you do not accept this, the Iranian people
will force you to bow and surrender.? [From Ahmadinejad?s interview with Mike
Wallace]
Lawrence
After August 22
By Robert Spencer
FrontPageMagazine.com | August 23, 2006
Iran drew concern worldwide for refusing to respond in a timely fashion to the
West?s offer of an incentives package in exchange for Tehran?s abandonment of
its nuclear program. Iranian officials brushed aside the June 29 deadline set
by the West and said Iran would respond on August 22. Some, including Farid
Ghadry of the Reform Party of Syria (as I reported several weeks ago) and
Islamic scholar Bernard Lewis, suggested that Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad and the mullahs in Iran?s inner circle may have chosen that date in
order to establish a connection with the Islamic prophet Muhammad?s fabled
Night Journey, during which Allah is said to have miraculously illuminated the
night sky over Jerusalem to facilitate the prophet?s journey from Mecca to
Jerusalem, and thence to Paradise. Would Iran?s answer to the West?s tribute
package be to illuminate the night sky over Jerusalem again, this time with a
nuclear device?
Obviously not ? at least not on August 22 itself. That was a cue for some of
the loudest advocates of Western appeasement and surrender to the global
jihadists to condemn right-wing hysteria, despite the fact that no one who
reported on this possibility had ever stated with any certainty that anything
in particular would happen on August 22. Brian Whitaker, a columnist for The
Guardian who once suggested that Gandhi would admire jihad, sneered: ?The
purpose of all this scaremongering is obviously to build up fears about an
Iranian nuclear attack. The main obstacle to promoting such fears is that Iran
does not possess any nuclear weapons but Lewis seems determined not to let that
stand in the way and apparently believes that Iran already has a fully-prepared
arsenal.? In dismissing these speculations as ?scaremongering,? however,
Whitaker and others neglect to consider one possibility: that they were correct.
How could this be, when doomsday did not materialize on August 22? Because the
Iranian regime has made its desire to illuminate the night sky over Jerusalem
abundantly clear. The fact that they first set the date for their reply as
August 22, and then delivered a reply that budged not one inch toward
conciliation, and made it clear that they had no plans to give up their nuclear
ambitions, suggests that such an attack is still in the cards. When Whitaker
and his ilk dismiss ?fears about an Iranian nuclear attack? as
?scaremongering,? they ignore both Iran?s present bellicose activities and
clear indications it has been giving of its future plans:
* According to the Times of London, Iran ?is seeking to import large
consignments of bomb-making uranium from the African mining area that produced
the Hiroshima bomb.?
* On August 22 itself, an Iranian warship fired upon a Romanian oil tanker
moored in the Persian Gulf; Iranian troops occupied the ship.
* Lethal roadside bombs strong enough to penetrate American and British tank
armor are being turned out in large numbers by three Iranian factories. A large
cache of other Iranian-made weapons and materiel were discovered last Monday in
the Iraqi city of Um Qasr.
* After decisively altering the balance between Hizballah and Israel by
supplying military hardware to the Lebanese Shi?ite terror organization, Iran
continues even after the ceasefire announcement to ship arms and materiel to
Hizballah.
* Ahmadinejad continues to indulge his now well-established taste for
pugnacious rhetoric, declaring last week: ?If you want to have good relations
with the Iranian people in the future, you should acknowledge the right and the
might of the Iranian people, and you should bow and surrender to the might of
the Iranian people. If you do not accept this, the Iranian people will force
you to bow and surrender.? Hardly a promising foundation for the negotiations
that American officials so desperately want to initiate with Tehran.
* The Iranian President also threatened George W. Bush during his recent
interview with Mike Wallace. Referring to the letter he sent several months ago
to Bush inviting him to accept Islam, Ahmadinejad said to Wallace: ?We are all
free to choose. But please give him this message, sir: Those who refuse to
accept an invitation will not have a good ending or fate.?
This is in accord with Islamic tradition. Muhammad, the Prophet of Islam, tells
his followers to call people to Islam before waging war against them: ?Fight in
the name of Allah and in the way of Allah. Fight against those who disbelieve
in Allah. Make a holy war?When you meet your enemies who are polytheists,
invite them to three courses of action?.Invite them to (accept) Islam; if they
respond to you, accept it from them and desist from fighting against them?.If
they refuse to accept Islam, demand from them the Jizya [the tax on non-Muslims
specified in Qur?an 9:29]. If they agree to pay, accept it from them and hold
off your hands. If they refuse to pay the tax, seek Allah?s help and fight them
(Sahih Muslim 4294).? (Muhammad sent a letter much like Ahmadinejad?s to one of
Ahmadinejad?s early predecessors, Chosroes, emperor of Persia ? who
contemptuously tore it to pieces. Muhammad, hearing of this, called upon Allah
to tear the Persian emperor and his followers to pieces
(Bukhari, vol. 5, book 64, no. 4424)). Ahmadinejad has followed Muhammad?s
instruction to the letter both by calling Bush to Islam, and then by warning
that his refusal would have bad consequences.
* Iran has in the last few days conducted large-scale military maneuvers and
tested a new short-range missile.
* Ahmad Khatami of the Iranian Assembly of Experts said last week on
government-controlled Iranian television that if Bush and Olmert ?decided to
display the slightest aggression against Islamic Iran, they should?fear the day
that our missiles, with a range of 2,000 kilometers, land in the heart of Tel
Aviv?.They should know that playing with Islam is like playing with a lion?s
tail.?
* Ahmadinejad continues to call for ?elimination of Zionist regime.?
August 22 has come and gone. But the threat of Iran continues to hang over the
world. Those who choose to ignore or downplay it may be in before too long for
a most unpleasant surprise, courtesy of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
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