Top Iranian cleric slams US pastor, stops short of fatwa

Iran Mania ^ | October 8 2002 | AFP

[knighthawk]

TEHRAN, Oct 8 (AFP) - A top Iranian Shiite cleric on Tuesday called on Muslims "not to stay silently seated" after right-wing US pastor Jerry Falwell labelled the prophet Mohammad "a terrorist".

Quoted by state radio, Ayatollah Hossein Nuri-Hamedani called on Muslims "not to stay silently seated in the face of such insults and propaganda".

"The priests linked to the White House who stand against the prophet seek to revive the (pre-Islamic) period of ignorance," he said.

Ayatollah Nuri-Hamedani is one of the clerics considered qualified here or issue a fatwa -- or Islamic edict -- but in his comments Tuesday he stopped short of taking such a step.

He said Falwell's comments were "a Zionist plan to bring Christians and Muslims to a confrontation".

In an interview broadcast Sunday on the CBS television network's "60 Minutes" news programme, Falwell called the prophet "a terrorist".

"I think Mohammed was a terrorist. I read enough by both Muslims and non-Muslims, (to decide) that he was a violent man, a man of war," Falwell said.

Falwell, a leader of the US Evangelical Christian right, has also previously labelled Mohammed a pedophile possessed by the devil.

In 1989, Iran's late supreme leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa ordering the death of British author Salman Rushdie over his book "The Satanic Verses", which was deemed to be blasphemous.

[knighthawk]

US pastor Falwell draws wrath of Iran over Prophet

(AFP should get their facts straight, by the way)

[knighthawk]

A top Iranian Shiite cleric on Tuesday called on Muslims "not to stay silently seated" after right-wing US pastor Jerry Falwell labelled the prophet Mohammad "a terrorist".

Islam-list

If people want on or off this list, please let me know.

[knighthawk]

Ping

[Joe Boucher]

Falwell has always seemed a little over the top in regards to religion but if he has pissed off the entire muslim world, he's my man. Go Jerry, You go big guy.

[aristeides]

A top Iranian Shiite cleric on Tuesday called on Muslims "not to stay silently seated"

What does that mean?

[knighthawk]

To stand up and vocaly protest.

[aristeides]

Maybe. But I think he may really have had more extreme kinds of reaction in mind.

[terilyn]

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[MarineDad]

Whenever raghead "clerics" (i.e., murder-of-innocents advocates) have a shiite fit over anything, I'm positively delighted. Maybe, just maybe, one or two of those worthless sacks of dung will stroke out and save an infidel the cost and bother of eventually providing him with sudden skull ventilation. Total scum barely worth the cost of a bullet.

[FR_addict]

I think Jerry is going to need bodyguards. This is a serious threat.

[knighthawk]

I think the reason that he was not fatwa'd is that it will backfire and proof Falwell is right.

So I guess they will send in CAIR or other apologists, but no killers. They know if he or Graham get killed there will be a lot of trouble.

[My2Cents]

Maybe Falwell should have soft-pedaled it and simply called Mohammed "an apostate leader of a satanic cult."

[Paleo Conservative]

Falwell's comments weren't very much different than Mark Twain's.

[VOA]

Ayatollah Nuri-Hamedani is one of the clerics considered qualified here or issue a fatwa --
or Islamic edict --
but in his comments Tuesday he stopped short of taking such a step.

This makes me feel much better in my current view on most of the world of Islam.

1. This Ayatollah is afraid.
He is afraid what would happen if he REALLY P-SSES OFF the 70 Million Americans who
generally agree with Falwell (according to Sixty Minutes correspondent
Bob Simon, during the interview).

2. Nice to see even an Ayatollah is "in on the game" of Islam.
If Islam really meant anything to this Ayatollah, he shouldn't have had a second
of hesitation in issuing a fatwah for such an insult.
As my own brother said after visiting the Islamic temple at his university,
"Islam looks like a great deal for guys; up to four wives, little work, etc."

H-ll, they issue fatwahs over the writings of Salman Rushdie...and I suspect
not one American in a hundred has read his stuff.

File this one under
"Religion,
Fake,
Islam"

[Camel Joe]

I'm glad to see that I am not alone in truly understanding the goal of these fundamentalists. They don't care that we support Israel, or are "present" in the middle east. They are truly insulted that we were born and still breath. The only thing that will make them happy is the death of ALL those who are not of the Islamic faith. I wonder now how the rest of the Muslam world feel in thier hearts... can any of them be trusted? Hugging you with one hand and stabbing you in the back with the other perhaps?

[FreedomPoster]

A top Iranian Shiite cleric on Tuesday called on Muslims "not to stay silently seated"

Good, I want them making lots of noise so we can identify them easily. It's the sleepers that worry me.

[Russell Scott]

Islam is huge lie. That lie was exposed for all to see September 11th. Hatred, murder, and oppression are its fruits. If you consider those as postive, godly attributes, then I say join up tomorrow. I don't ever remember Jesus killing anyone, hating anyone, or opressing anyone. In fact, he was just the opposite. Islam is the dominant anti-Christian religion on Earth, just ask the Christians in Southern Sudan.

Acts 10 38 How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.

[SunStar]

Top Iranian cleric slams US pastor, stops short of fatwa

Can Iran be next after Iraq? PLEASE??????