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The Forum > Article Comments > Iran, Syria, Zimbabwe: are you laughing yet? > Comments

Iran, Syria, Zimbabwe: are you laughing yet? : Comments

By James Allan, published 25/5/2007

When outlaws run UN committees, 'global community' is a dubious concept.

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James is correct. The composition of the UN and its agencies are a complete farce. Arab countries are among the most influencial and the wealthiest in the world - they also have the worst human rights abuses.

Iranian intellectuals and activists are actively calling for Iran to be expelled from the UN in protest against this country's human rights abuses. They cite the Iranian Islamic Consititution and Iranian Islamic Penal Codes. Here are some of the horrors.

The Iranian Islamic Constitution

Article 13 Only followers of three other religions are recognized as minorities (who do not have equal rights with the Muslims believing in twelve imams). The rest are infidels and deprived from all civil rights and killing them is indisputable.

The Iranian Islamic Penal Code

Article 49
A child becomes criminally liable at nine years old for girls and 15 years old for boys, this includes being sentenced to the death. Whenever a boy or a girl who has not reached the age of liability commits a crime, the court is entitled to sentence him/her to corporal punishment ( a public flogging).

Article 83, para 2
Women and girls can be stoned to death; also setting the size of the stones - neither too small not to hurt, nor to large as to kill outright.

Article 110
Homosexuals are to be executed.

Article 207
A Muslim who has killed a non-Muslim has impunity unless only subject to paying fines.

Article 222
A sane person who has killed an insane person has impunity.

Article 220
A father or grand father who kills his child or grand child has impunity. (But, a five-year-old child, who kills some one, is punishable – page 152 ….)

Article 201
A thief, the first time must get his/her four fingers of the right hand cut. The second time, he/she must get his left feet cut from below the tarsus. The third time he must be convicted to imprisonment, and fourth time, even if he steals in the prison, his conviction must be execution.

Article 513
Apostates from Islam are to be executed.

Also see: http://www.fidh.org/IMG/pdf/ir_un2005a.pdf
Posted by Danielle, Wednesday, 30 May 2007 6:50:18 PM
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We are also ignoring the pleas of many Islamic intellectuals and dissidents. Islamic Arabs intellectuals are appealing to the West to help bring change to their countries. Both Tawfik Hamid and Ayman al-Zawahiri among many, many others, state that there is much that is wrong with the Islamic world, that traditional and even mainstream Islamic teaching accepts and promotes violence and human rights abuses. They call for an approved, theologically rigorous interpetation if Islam challenging the accepted norm.

However, these intellectuals also place blame on the non-Muslim "priests of enlightenment" in the West who come actively and passively to the Islamists' defence.

These "priests of enlightenment", states Ayman al-Zawahiri: " ... who unceasingly claim to support human rights have become obstacles to reforming Islam. Political correctness among Westerners obstructs unambiguous criticism of Shariah's inhumanity. They find socioeconomic or political excuses for Islamist terrorism, such as poverty, colonialism, discrimination or the existence of Israel. What incentive is there for Muslims to demand reform when Western "progressives" pave the way for Islamist barbarity."
Posted by Danielle, Wednesday, 30 May 2007 6:53:32 PM
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Wait a sec Danielle - Ayman Al Zawahiri?

Everyone points the finger at Osama Bin Laden, however the reality is that he has always been little more than a financier. Zawahiri has long been one of the key figures in coordinating terrorist attacks, dating decades back to his time as a dissident in Egypt.

Where are you quoting him from? I'm curious. Are you referring to the same Zawahiri?
Posted by TurnRightThenLeft, Thursday, 31 May 2007 10:59:58 AM
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TurnRightThenLeft,

Thank you for pointing out my mistake. Ayman Al Zawahiri is, of course, leader of Jemaah Islamiya ... and now I have libelled him ...!! Perhaps Osama Bin Laden is this very moment trumpetting: “off with his head!”

Tawfik Hamid, author of the article “The Trouble with Islam”, from which extracts I cited, was previously a terrorist with Jemaah Islamiya, but is now a medical doctor and Muslim reformer living in the West. The whole article encapsulating what other Muslims are saying, appears here:

www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=11000989

Courageous Muslim intellectuals and dissidents are becoming more vocal about human rights abuses, the need for democracies, and rigorous examination of Islam.

Iranian dissidents maintain a very active website Free Iran from where they petition various bodies, such as the UN - albeit an exercise in futility - protesting the current Iranian regime. One dissident observed that the West’s obsession with “political correctness” trivialises his people as human beings, in the same way the West, in a bygone era, saw them as “the white man’s burden.”

Change cannot be imposed on these countries from with-out, nor should it be. Dissidents are not asking for their countries to be invaded. However, we should support those who want change. Real change can only come from within.
Posted by Danielle, Thursday, 31 May 2007 7:12:09 PM
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I am surprised by some writers above demonstrating such illfounded anti-Israel sentiments, even cynicism. They obviously refuse to both learn and understand Israel’s history, nor the Palestinian situation. However, I suppose we others should try and be understanding ...

Such writers are demonstrating typical affective implicit/explicit prejudice. I suspect they come from a background where anti-semitism was the norm. Research indicates that this type of prejudice is extremely difficult to overcome being, as it is, amygdala-mediated and relatively indelible (low neural plasticity). Not only is such prejudice relatively indelible, but any information presented will be interpreted and processed as confirmation bias.

Confirmation bias is orbito-frontal PFC mediated. In other words, emotion overcomes fact and rational thought as well.

I suggest they read Michael Shermer’s study on brain-imaging and confirmation bias, drawing on Drew Western’s research conducted at Emory University.

http://www.sciam.com/print_version.cfm?articleID=000CE155-1061-1493-906183414B7F0162

Whilst such writers will not change their point of view, perhaps they will at least acknowledge that they are prejudiced. As Socrates said “the unexamined life ...”
(Apology 38a).
Posted by Danielle, Saturday, 2 June 2007 3:29:18 PM
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