Death To Heretics
The Iranian Revolution is beginning to outgrow itself. Threatened, it might seem, from within. The younger generation not so inclined as their elders to cast in their lot with the Ayatollahs, with their rigidly doctrinaire fundamentalism. Ah, was it not ever thus? The wise elders knowing full well what is best for their society, forever and always challenged by hot-headed youth, clamouring for freedom from strictures and societal norms.Decades post-revolution the youth of Iran are proving to be inconveniently misled by matters they know little of. And, since the vast majority of the population now is 30 years of age and below, they represent a post-ideological generation, more pragmatically given to modern ideas and impulses than their theism-stifled elders. They strive for a future that promises economic prosperity, an open society - freedom of thought and discourse and action.
Very unwise in a rigid theocratic dictatorship. The Ayatollahs, and the Ahmadinejads will have none of it; this is their Iran, after all; their vision, their spirituality, their aspirations that the young of the country have been permitted to live under. Reinstated: the hijab. Crackdown: human rights organizations. Reinstated: shariah law in its most fundamental extremes. Crackdown: on apostasy, heretical thought.
Draft legislation is now in place, preparing to be brought into law for the imposition of the death penalty: for men who seek to abandon Islam. The lesser penalty of life imprisonment for women sufficiently rash to attempt a similar abandonment of their faith. The practise of witchcraft will reward its practitioners similarly. As will be those who undertake any heretical stance against Islam.
Pretty straightforward and unequivocal. And not all that different really to what already pertains under shariah; these insults against Islam will become more formalized under the country's criminal code. Of course this does contravene the international human rights convention, and regrettably, Iran, in a moment of forgetfulness did happen to sign on to it, but these are details.
Understandably, these new crack-downs are worrying to the country's already horribly beleaguered Baha'is, since the new legislation prescribes the death penalty for anyone claiming to be a prophet: "any Muslim who invents heresy in the religion and creates a [contrary] sect" - all such individuals of such breakaway groups considered to be apostates; ergo death to them.
But these matters must be taken in context. The purpose is to continue building a society more reflective of Islam's divine purpose. In the words of Iran's redoubtable president Ahmadinejad: "Building a model society and introducing the Islamic Revolution are our nation's missions... The Islamic Revolution and the Islamic Republic of Iran are both great divine gifts, not only awarded to the Iranian nation, but to the entire mankind.
"The Iranian nation also has two heavy responsibilities, one of which is constructing Iran, since the message of a revolution would be heard and welcomed when it would be accompanied by practical models. Such model making would lead to leading the mankind towards the peak of perfection, and assist the world nations in embracing eternal salvation in the Hereafter, by convincing them that Islam is capable of presenting an ideal model for social life."
Reminiscent in its burden undertaken on behalf of humankind, of the Thousand-Year Reich. Fascism, Nazism, Adolf Hitler and his portentous belief in the ubermensch, the Final Solution, the inevitability of German suzerainty over the world, aided by the Axis powers.
Death to heretics, apostates, witches, infidels, Jews. After which the perfect world will be attainable.
Labels: Middle East, Religion, Terrorism, World Crises
posted by Pieface @ Friday, February 29, 2008
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