Posted on 08/19/2006 7:43:03 AM PDT by Calpernia
That sounds a bit ominous...
Iran: Khamene'i Message Greets Congress of University Students' Society
IRNA (Internet Version-WWW)
Saturday,
August 19, 2006
Shiraz, Fars Prov, Aug 19, IRNA -- The Islamic Society of University Students opened its 8th national congress in this southern city Saturday with an inaugural message from Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei.
In an inaugural ceremony, the Supreme Leader's message to the congress was read for him by the representative of the Vali-ye Faqih (religiousjurisprudent) in universities.
"Dear university students! I hereby greet you one by one and pray that God Almighty would grant you a more prosperous and dignified future thanks to your efforts, hopeful hearts and increasing joyfulness.
"Today, you are the replica of the country's future. The future of this country, which has seen enlightenment by embracing science and faith, lies in the research activities and deep thinking of this country's youth accompanied by faith, moral uprightness, a revolutionary spirit and hard work.
"In the future that we anticipate, the dark forces of ignorance, cruelty and injustice have been wiped out," the Supreme Leader said in his message.
He further advised the youth to "go through this unprecedented period with diligence and a sense of direction," adding "God will help you all."
After the reading of the message and inaugural ceremony, members of the congress held a session to reflect on and discuss the message.
(Description of Source: Tehran IRNA (Internet Version-WWW) in English -- official state-run news agency) -------------------------------------------------------- Note: Zolfaghar is the name of the sword of the Iman Ali, the grandson of the Prophet Mohamed.
--------------------------------------
IRNA (Internet Version-WWW)
Saturday, August 19, 2006
Tehran, Aug 19, IRNA --The Army headquarters in southeastern Sistan-Baluchestan province is to command wargames that are to be launched starting Saturday.
The first stage of the wargames, code-named `Blow of Zolfaghar', will start in the northeast, northwest, west and southern parts of Iran.
According to the news center of the maneuvers, assault and transport helicopters, parachutists, electronic war units and the army's special forces will participate in the wargames.
"Army commandos, parachutists, mobile shoulder-firing units, electronic war forces and rapid reaction units enjoying high combat spirit have been deployed in the operational theater and will demonstrate their readiness," wargames spokesman Brigadier General Kiumars Heidari said on Friday.
The wargames, he added, are aimed at improving and updating the Army's tactics.
(Description of Source: Tehran IRNA (Internet Version-WWW) in English -- official state-run news agency)
THANKS CallMeJoe.
"In the future that we anticipate, the dark forces of ignorance, cruelty and injustice have been wiped out," the Supreme Leader said in his message.
That's the future I anticipate when Khamenei and the rest of his regime are gone.
"...Ali (a), a figure with all that greatness, has a strangely distorted personality in the outlook of some people. Some people know Ali (a) only as an athlete. At times some people of very suspect motives publish pictures of Ali that show him bearing in hand a two-tongued sword, like a pythons tongue, and with facial features and expression one does not know from where they have got them. It is definite that a picture or statue of Ali or that of the Prophet never existed. They have painted such a strange face that one can hardly believe that it is the same Ali famous for his justice, the Ali who wept at nights for the fear of God. The face of a devout man, of someone who is used to nightly worship, of someone who engages in istighfar at nights, the face of a sage, a judge, a man of letters is a different face..."
100 Stairs? I give up ;^)
That picture sums it up perfectly.
To some Shi'ites, Ali and his successor-descendant the Mahdi are like the ancient "King Arthur" of Camelot who brings a rule of justice (Knights of the Round Table, quest for the Holy Grail, etc) and Zulfiqar is like Arthur's sword "Excalibur" (the sword in the stone).
It is worth remembering that the Arthurian legends began circulating about the time of Muhammad (Arthur lived a century before - - around 550 AD), so the idea of a king with his supernatural sword returning to rule a "Holy Empire" had a precedent (Arthur supposedly never died but was transported mortally wounded by barge to Avalon after having his servant thrown Excalibur into the water where the hand of the "Lady of the Lake" rose from the water to catch it).
Ancient Britons also believed King Arthur would return to rescue them from a time of trouble (like the return of the Mahdi to restore justice to a world of oppression and chaos), so it is easy to see how parts of this story may have been copied by Shi'ites a couple centuries later as these legends were evolving and slowly spreading about the "martyrdom" of Arthur, his supernatural sword, and his return one day to right the wrongs of the world.
We have to go back over a millennium to put ourselves into the medieval mindset of some of these folks. Our ancestors had the same legends. But we had a renaissance, developed a civil society apart from medieval kings and clerics, and left behind the "Holy Roman Empire" with its conquering "Crusader" mentality (killing others in the name of God and "Holy War" as our European ancestors did).
Our medieval European ancestors were jihadis ("holy warriors").
But today's unfortunate extremists are mired in the medieval "holy war"/jihad past and are trying to recreate it in the 21st century. And by bringing about a clash of civilizations, they are trying to replay the past by once again forcing us to engage them on their terms and on their level and once again become like them so we can replay the "holy wars" of the Dark Ages once more.
But this time with nuclear weapons.
There was an Arabic message StillProud2befree translated and posted about a year? 2 years? ago that quoted 100 stairs for 100 men.
I was hoping she would come by and repost it so I could see it comparison to that Hundred Men/Petroleum Reserves Corp tapline I posted above.
But she is getting stuff together for her CNN appearance Rakan Bin Williams at 5pm today.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard-Henri_Levy
>>>In 2003, he wrote a compelling account of his efforts to track the murderers of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, who had been executed by Islamic extremists the previous year. At the time of Pearl’s death, Lévy was visiting Afghanistan as French President Jacques Chirac's special envoy.[2] He spent the next year in Pakistan, India, Europe and the United States trying to uncover why Pearl's captors held and executed him. The resulting book, Who Killed Daniel Pearl?, argues it was because Pearl knew too much about the links between Pakistan's secret service, nuclear scientists and al-Qaeda. <<<<
How much do you want to bet it was Bernard-Henri Lévy website/notes I was reading that he took down to make a book?
Levy has a website? Is it in French?
I *think* it was a geocities webpage. This was a few years ago. Someone put up a large amount of articles that Danny Pearl had written PLUS notes on stories he was working on.
I found a geocities webpage with Danny's articles; but it doesn't look like the same one. The notes aren't there either.
This was years ago. This note in post 50 I copied sounded exactly like what I remembered reading.
That is the site I found with his articles. Not the one I remember with the notes on stories he was working on.
Thanks.
No ping to me??
I don't have you in my ping lists.
Should I add you under my Iran ping list?
Alan has posted this to the multilingual section of:
AntiMullah and is looking for someone with the time to turn the article into a bilingual one.
The sub-blogs you can access from the left hand column of the site or click on these links:
Multilingual - MultiLingual - there are also posts in French as well as bilingual Farsi/English.
News Round-ups - News Round-Ups which often have RegimeChange newsbriefs as well as from other sources
Various Videos - Various Videos
I still do not know if it is possible (or how to) post videos using Youtube.com on FR so perhaps the quickest way to view an interview of Bibi Netanyahu with SkyNews that is a must watch is by viewing it on AntiMullah .
There is also a "graphics" link on his site which should have new content over the weekend for everyone's enjoyment or elucidation. Click on the link in the left hand column of the site. I would love to post them all on FR but often it appears easier to point at them than post them.
All hints and suggestions very welcome.
Of course :-)) and Middle East in general if you have a separate list for that.
Are you on mine? I'll take a look but it's becoming quite a good one - not alphabetical, so hard to see if I do or do not have someone.
I will simply add you in. If you begin to get a "double" please let me know.
cheers,
Does not everything depend on what happens next week and the week after that? 8/22 and 8/31?
I have friends who believe that the world as we know it will be a memory quite shortly.
Instincts rather than logic say this could be true, though now that those around Ahmadi-Nejad have received huge contracts and his brother has siphoned off funds, perhaps they may delay - if not prevail - on preventing the apocalyptic events that Khamenei, old and cancerous, may be alluding to in his recent speech.
Would not the less complicated or even simplistic thought processes in the 14th century explain some of this? There were great minds in those days but the arena for their thinking was limited by the scope of their knowledge about the world or life beyond their horizons. Specially when it came to Islam and Allah as the 'playing field'.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.