[lit-ideas] Nuclear weapons in the ME (was: Jewish communities in the ME)

  • From: Omar Kusturica <omarkusto@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Fri, 30 Apr 2004 11:02:24 -0700 (PDT)

--- Omar Kusturica <omarkusto@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> 
> I seem to remember that the grandfather of Nathaniel
> Hawthorne sentenced a Quaker woman to be whipped in
> the streets of Boston, which is mentioned in one of
> his stories. What could this tell us about the
> American society ?

* Actually, I withdraw this remark - it is not
pertinent here. I was really reacting to this:

(The treatment awarded to the Bahai has been worse
than the treatment 
awarded to the Iranian Jews, since the Moslems
consider the Jews to be 
a 
"People of the Book" and therefore to be tolerated as
long as they 
regularly pay their special Jew tax -- whereas the
Bahai are considered 
to 
be apostate Moslems, and are executed with the same
freedom as 
homosexuals.)

*I agree that Iran's policies with regard to
homosexuals, Jews etc. are a matter of concern. It is
not clear whether the executions of homosexuals are
still occurring in Iran, and there are indications
that the general atmosphere has grown more tolerant:

http://www.qrd.org/qrd/world/asia/iran/sensational.iran.account-08-15-96

But still, it is a matter of serious concern. Only, it
does not bear on the question of whether Iran should
be permitted to have nuclear weapons. Still less does
it bear on the question of whether other states in the
region, hostile to Iran for reasons quite unrelated to
human rights, and with an ample record of human rights
violations of their own, should be allowed to have
nuclear weapons. That is the point I ought to have
emphasized from the beginning. I should not have let
myself be drawn into discussing human rights issues
with those who obviously raise such issues to support
their political agendas.

O.K.








        
                
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