Overdosing on Islam

The NY Times ^ | May 12, 2004 | NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

[F14 Pilot]

Bush 2004 FOR A FREE MIDDLE EAST, FOR A SAFER AMERICA

[F14 Pilot]

Spread the word about our Pro-American friends in IRAN!

[Bahbah]

"It has made Islam unpopular."

There is a whole bundle of things that are making Islam unpopular.

[onyx]

So the Islamic Republic is increasingly vulnerable to the most devastating accusation of all: that it is un-Islamic and is alienating its youth from Islam. The mullahs have even made beards unpopular.

Well, that would be a start.

[F14 Pilot]

"How can you have hope for life any more?" said Abdullah Erfani, a plumber, adding, "If there were a free vote, 99 percent would oppose this system, and only the 1 percent within the system would support it."

That is great!

[F14 Pilot]

We had reports here and there that people of Iran, mostly youth generation, are converting to Christianity or Zoroastrianism.

[onyx]

Then they "can" make it happen.
I'm all for overthrowing the regime.

[ovrtaxt]

Ooh, that was weird. That last paragraph was pretty forced. I couldn't figure out where the author got that bizarre twist, then I scrolled up- NY Times.

Mystery solved.

[ovrtaxt]

check out www.bibleleague.org . They smuggle Bibles into Islamic and Commie countries. A very cool ministry that I support, and many times you can designate the country.

I just paid for 100 Bibles to Iraq last month.

[onyx]

LOL!
Mystery solved.
BINGO.

[F14 Pilot]

You might be true but no one has the right to force religious ideas into people's lives. And moreover Religion and State are divided apart from each other here and in any other free and democratic country, Right?

[yankeedame]

"How can you have hope for life any more?" said Abdullah Erfani, a plumber, adding, "If there were a free vote, 99 percent would oppose this system, and only the 1 percent within the system would support it."

Frankly, this can be said about a whole lot of liberal "peoples'" government.

[F14 Pilot]

Iran's baby boomers will defeat the ayatollahs

Nicholas D. Kristof, NYTimes
Tuesday, May 11, 2004

http://www.iht.com/articles/519204.html

[onyx]

I know you care deeply about Iran.
I want to see it free too.

[djf]

Growing up on the east coast in the '70s, there were a large number of moderate Iranians in college and industry.
Then the Shah fell, the Ayatollah took power, and things went to hell in a handbasket.

[whereasandsoforth]

I did the exact thing. It seems the NYT just can't help itself. Thet print something 1/4-way intelligent and then ruin it with the most ignorant and idiotic "moral lesson" at the end.

I wish the NYT would send their reports back to school to learn something about Christians. Their complete lack of knowledge on such an old and important subject is incredibly embarrassing for them and a real turn-off for the reader.

[yankeedame]

I wish the NYT would send their reports back to school to learn something about Christians....and American history....

What?? And have them lose thier "objectivity"?

[ovrtaxt]

Right. But the author's attempt to equate Bush with an Iranian ayatollah is ludicrous!

[jocon307]

Yes, Ayatollah George Bush, shoving Methodism down our throats.

What idiots these people are.

[Siamese Princess]

One of the reasons for the unpopularity of the Islamic Republic is that the economy has gone down the sewer since the Shah was toppled. Even during the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s, they had a huge under- and unemployment problem -- about 25% unemployment and an equal number underemployed. This is comparable to what the US suffered during the worse years in the Depression. I don't know what the statistic is now, but I doubt that it has improved.

Ironically enough, one of the reasons for the popularity of extreme Islam in Saudi Arabia (extreme by even Saudi standards) is the same phenomenon of widespread under- and unemployment.