THE TELEGRAPH: A prominent hard-line Iranian cleric has said that God may be holding off on natural disasters in the West in order to let people sin more and doom themselves to hell.
The cleric, Kazem Sedighi, sparked widespread derision with his pronouncements in a prayer sermon last month that women who don't dress modesty spread adultery in society, in turn increasing earthquakes.
In Tehran's main weekly prayer sermon on Friday, he defended the claim but added some further explanation on why some places are hit more than others.
"Some ask why (more) earthquakes and storms don't occur in the Western world, which suffers from the slime of homosexuality, the slime of promiscuity and has plunged up to the neck" in immorality, he said.
"Who says they don't occur? Storms take place in the US and other parts of the world. We don't say committing sin is the entire reason but it's one of the reasons," he said. >>> | Friday, May 14, 2010
