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Going Rogue
Weekly Standard ^ | Reuel Marc Gerecht

Posted on 12/25/2009 6:53:02 PM PST by nuconvert

When I first encountered the Persian word mofangi, I struggled to grasp its meaning. It implies a certain timidity, physical weakness, and awkwardness. Seeking to put some flesh on that definition, my language tutor told me to envision Grand Ayatollah Hosein Ali Montazeri. "He's more than a little mofangi," remarked the tutor, expressing the condescension that well-educated, leftwing Iranians often have for the clergy who stole their revolution.

That was in the mid 1980s, and Montazeri was the number two cleric in Iran, a mullah who once passionately believed in exporting Iran's revolutionary tumult and was instrumental in building the institutions of Islam's first theocracy. Yet, unlike his former teacher and friend, the formidable Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Montazeri didn't scare anyone. With his big owlish glasses, squeaky voice, and sartorial dishevelment, Montazeri was clearly a man of the people--to the extent that any accomplished Shiite jurist can be an ordinary man.

(Excerpt) Read more at weeklystandard.com ...


TOPICS: Editorial; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: greenmovement; iran; iranprotest; mofangi; montazeri; timidity

1 posted on 12/25/2009 6:53:03 PM PST by nuconvert
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To: nuconvert

Mofangi GOP?


2 posted on 12/25/2009 6:54:28 PM PST by rabidralph (http://www.thealaskafundtrust.com/ http://www.sarahpac.com)
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To: rabidralph

The Persian version of “pencil necked geek”?


3 posted on 12/25/2009 6:55:36 PM PST by HiTech RedNeck (I am in America but not of America.)
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To: HiTech RedNeck

Mo’ fangi, mo’ fangi, mo’ fangi!


4 posted on 12/25/2009 7:00:20 PM PST by rabidralph (http://www.thealaskafundtrust.com/ http://www.sarahpac.com)
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To: HiTech RedNeck

5 posted on 12/25/2009 7:02:35 PM PST by Past Your Eyes (You don't have to be ignorant to be a Democrat...but if you are...so what?)
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To: nuconvert

Mofangi = a Black American Vampire..


6 posted on 12/25/2009 7:03:58 PM PST by hosepipe (This propaganda has been edited to include some fully orbed hyperbole....)
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