I admit this one is in very questionable taste. But, I have a feeling that Ms. Oppressive Bangs would still argue that all religious fundamentalist are created equal. The photo above (sans cutesy caption) would argue against that point. I'm not making fun of this man's torture, I'm attacking those that would draw false comparisons between this barbarity and the more run of the mill fundamentalism we have at home.
The original caption for this UPI image reads as follows,
If you are prayerful, pray for Saeed Ghanbari, if you aren't prayerful, at least recognize the huge difference between the Iranian religious police and our more local (and far less violence prone) Christian Fundamentalist. The Iranian religous authorities do this in the open, what they do behind closed doors is a thousand times worse. Here's hoping the people of Persia will rise up against their oppressors and rejoin the modern world. Until they do, they remain a serious threat to the rest of the globe. And a people who would do this over a drink, a slap, and a tickle, are not to be allowed to develop WMD under any circumstance.
The original caption for this UPI image reads as follows,
Saeed Ghanbari receives 80 lashes in public view in the Qazvin province, 91 Miles (165 Km) west of Tehran, Iran on August 21, 2007. Ghanbari was convicted of consuming alcohol and having sex outside of marriage. (UPI Photo/Mohammad Kheirkhah)
If you are prayerful, pray for Saeed Ghanbari, if you aren't prayerful, at least recognize the huge difference between the Iranian religious police and our more local (and far less violence prone) Christian Fundamentalist. The Iranian religous authorities do this in the open, what they do behind closed doors is a thousand times worse. Here's hoping the people of Persia will rise up against their oppressors and rejoin the modern world. Until they do, they remain a serious threat to the rest of the globe. And a people who would do this over a drink, a slap, and a tickle, are not to be allowed to develop WMD under any circumstance.
2 comments:
Did he survive that beating? This is disgraceful beyond words. My heart breaks for their society.
I'm assuming yes, or else they wouldn't have allowed the photo to escape, they do manage to repress most of the evidence of their public executions.
There's a real chance that the person being lashed is doing so willingly and is 'in' on the display.
There was a similarly public incident a few months ago with a couple women being bloodied for not wearing proper Islamic dress. Again it looks horrific, but the wounds are likely superficial, and the whole incident could have been staged (like in a wrestling match when they do small razor cuts to the forehead to unleash a scary amount of blood, looks awful, but not really all that harmful).
Just today LGF points to some ridiculous video out of Iran about the dangers of 'heavy metal' music that are another set of staged set pieces by the religious authorities to scare the populace into thinking the way they want them to.
Much of this is street theatre meant to keep the folks in line. This man might not be really guilty of what he's accused, and might be part of the religious authority himself. Those marks look more like abrasions than real welts due to severe blows and the skin isn't ripped or broken (though severly discolored), so other than possible infections, and the immediate pain, he'd likely recover within a few months.
There's still some Shia men who cut themselves with knives in a yearly festival, so these 80 lashes are nothing (comparatively).
In many ways, if this is street theatre, it's more barbaric and orwellian than if he's a just a guy who drank a beer (and screwed out of wedlock).
Maybe part of me wants this to be staged so that I can feel more justified in using humor to attack this barbarity. Or maybe I just have trouble believing that they can be this cruel and backwards so openly. Whether or not this man is complicit, the acts peformed against him are barbaric and disgusting.
Either way, Iran should be shunned by the world community at large (and not just by the United States alone) until they reform themselves. And we should aid groups trying to overthrow the current Iranian Mullahocracy in any clandestine way we can (open support from the Great Satan would doom any group in Iran).
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