Islam: Democracy vs Theocracy | #shorts

John Anderson talks to Niall Ferguson about this.
My essay on this very topic written in April 2007 here.

Iran Protests against Mullah-regime Enter Tenth Day as Death Toll Grows | DW News

Human rights groups say protests continued for a tenth night in Iran over the death of a woman in the custody of the country's hardline Islamic morality police. They're defying authorities, who have ordered a crackdown on so-called rioters without leniency. Videos reportedly filmed on Sunday show women burning their headscarves, and large crowds of demonstrators in several cities. There have also been large pro-government rallies. The NGO Iran Human Rights says at least 57 people have died in protests in recent days. Public anger was sparked by the death of a 22-year old woman who was arrested for failing to wear her headscarf as prescribed.

Shouldn’t we be saying 'Death to the Islamic Republic of Iran'? That’s what these people have been saying about America. How many thousands of times have we heard these mullahs chant “Death to America”?

It is high time for the nonsense of Iran’s so-called “morality police” to end. Iranians deserve much, much better than this. Enough of the BS!

Wouldn’t Iranians have been far better off as subjects of the Peacock Throne, the Iranian Imperial Throne? Wouldn't they be better off today being ruled by the Shah? Should the Peacock Throne, perhaps, be reinstated?

This theocracy is brutal. Iranians have had enough of this cr**. Iranians deserve better. Power to the downtrodden Iranians! – © Mark Alexander

Den Ajatollahs bleibt nur die Gewalt: Die Proteste nach dem Tod der jungen Mahsa Amini nähern sich einer kritischen Masse. Aber das Regime ist weder zu Reformen noch zu Kompromissen bereit. »

‘Make It a Christian Town’: The Ultra-conservative Church on the Rise in Idaho

THE GUARDIAN: Increased influence of Christ Church, whose leader wants to create US ‘theocracy’, comes as social conservatives aim to gain traction

Members of Christ Church sing a hymn during ‘psalm sing;’ in September, outside city hall in Moscow, Idaho. Church members were protesting against an order that requires people to either socially distance or wear a face mask in public. Photograph: Geoff Crimmins/AP
A Guardian investigation has revealed that a controversial church whose leader has openly expressed the ambition of creating a “theocracy” in America has accumulated significant influence in the city of Moscow, Idaho.

Christ Church has a stated goal to “make Moscow a Christian town” and public records, interviews, and open source materials online show how its leadership has extended its power and activities in the town.

Church figures have browbeaten elected officials over Covid restrictions, built powerful institutions in parallel to secular government, harassed perceived opponents, and accumulated land and businesses in pursuit of a long-term goal of transforming America into a nation ruled according to its own, ultra-conservative moral precepts.

The rise of Christ Church may be playing out in a small Idaho city but it comes at a time when the US is roiled by the far right, including Christian nationalism, and when social conservatives are seeking to roll back basic tenets of US life such as legal abortion, as well as dominating powerful national institutions, such as the supreme court. » | Jason Wilson in Moscow, Idaho | Tuesday, October 2, 2021

This Is How Theocracy Shrivels

Taliban fighters praying at the Pul-I-Khishti Mosque in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Friday. Credit.: Marcus Yam/Los Angeles Times
OPINION
THE NEW YORK TIMES: Certain years leap out as turning points in world history: 1517, 1776 and 1917. These are years when powerful ideas strode onto the world stage: the Reformation, democratic capitalism and revolutionary Communism.

The period around 1979 was another such dawn. Political Islam burst onto global consciousness with the Iranian revolution, the rise of the mujahedeen after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the Islamization program in Pakistan and the popularity of the Muslim Brotherhood across the Arab world.

The ideas that seized the imagination of millions had deep and diverse intellectual roots. For example, the mid-20th century thinker Sayyid Qutb mounted a comprehensive critique of the soulless materialism of America, tracing it in part to the separation of church and state — the fatal error, he believed, that divided the spirit from the flesh. In the Muslim world, he argued, body and soul should not be split asunder, but should live united in a resurrected caliphate, governed by Shariah law.

This vision could manifest in more temperate ways, as clerics seeking to exercise political power, or in more violent ways, as jihadists trying to overthrow Arab regimes.

By 2006, in an essay called “The Master Plan,” Lawrence Wright could report in The New Yorker how Al Qaeda had operationalized these dreams into a set of sweeping, violent strategies. The plans were epic in scope: expel the U.S. from Iraq, establish a caliphate, overthrow Arab regimes, initiate a clash with Israel, undermine Western economies, create “total confrontation” between believers and nonbelievers, and achieve “definitive victory” by 2020, transforming world history.

These were the sorts of bold dreams that drove Islamist terrorism in the first part of the 21st century. » | David Brooks, Opinion Columnist | Friday, August 27, 2021

Iran: From Theocracy to Regional Superpower?

Following years in isolation, Iran has reentered the international stage — which for some is cause for alarm.

Tehran is now engaging in dialogue and has agreed to curb its nuclear program. But it is also involved in wars in Syria and Yemen - running the risk of upsetting the sensibilities of old enemies such as Israel, Saudi Arabia and the US. Donald Trump has now ditched the Iran nuclear deal. The consequences for the Iranian economy, international trade relations and the balance of power in the Middle East remains as yet unclear.

Does Iran have expansionist ambitions - not just military, but also political and economic? Or is it merely seeking to secure its borders and autonomy, and ward off the crises that are destabilizing the Middle East?

Does Obama Understand Iraq May Soon Be an Islamist State?

The White House should be facing up to the fact that it may soon be staring at a contiguous Islamist state smack dab in the middle of the Middle East.
FOX NEWS: Iraq is a shambles. The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), the Al Qaeda off-shoot that now controls nearly a third of the nation, continues to run amok.

It’s way past time for the White House to get its head in the game. The disaster unfolding in Iraq and Syria could very quickly spiral into a much, much bigger problem. And some problems are so big that even our president can’t spin his way out.

At the top of the list of what the administration should be worrying about—and preparing to deal with—is the potential for an endless three-way civil war in Iraq. With Sunni, Shia and Kurds fighting one another, it would look something like the civil war in Syria—on steroids. » | James Jay Carafano | FoxNews.com | Thursday, June 12, 2014

Democracy or Theocracy? Robert Spencer vs. Anjem Choudary & Abu Izzadeen

Inside Story: US – Theocracy versus Democracy [December 24, 2011]
How important a role does religion play in next year's US election? Guests on the show: Frank Schaeffer, Michelle Goldberg, and Melissa Rogers.

New Momentum — but No Clear Goal — for Iran's Street Protests
TIME: Not a single fan showed up Aug. 7 for the opening match of Iran's avidly followed football season. After the government caught wind of plans by protesters to bring the street demonstrations into the 100,000-seat national stadium, authorities decided to have the two rival teams from Tehran and Isfahan play to an empty house rather than risk yet another embarrassing show of green and chants of "Death to the dictators."

In recent days, despite the regime's heavy-handed efforts to stifle the resistance, public demonstrations have become more decentralized and frequent as protesters become increasingly bold and defiant. This shift in mood — from despondency in late June after the Basij fired on protesters following the June 12 presidential election, to a renewed sense of optimism — signals that the vocal opposition movement will not be going away anytime soon. "It's the national duty of every single man and woman to go to the streets," said a university student protester in her mid-20s. "This is far from over."

According to interviews with a half-dozen protesters, their objective appears to have evolved beyond reclaiming the votes for Mir-Hossein Mousavi in the disputed election. The aim is now to attack the very legitimacy of the theocracy. The immediate triggers for street protests, however, vary and are often tied to significant dates; for instance, in the past week demonstrators marched to protest the inauguration of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to a second term, to object to the renewed mass trial of political dissidents and, on another occasion, simply to take advantage of a religious holiday when many devout Basij members would be in mosques.

The most dramatic protests came July 30, when thousands turned out to commemorate the death of Neda Agha-Soltan, the 26-year-old woman whose death was captured on video and seen around the world. Because the two centers of protest were at opposite ends of the sprawling capital, security forces were spread too thin and could not quell the crowds in many neighborhoods; protesters began chanting "Death to Khamenei," a phrase almost no one dared utter in previous protests. >>> TIME Staff | Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Opinion: It's No Longer Islam vs. Non-Islam in Iran
TORONTO STAR: It is clear that Iran is going through its worst internal crisis since the 1979 Islamic revolution. Less obvious but more significant is this: Islam is no longer the dividing line between the proponents and opponents of the theocratic regime in Tehran.

The trend has been in the making for a decade. But it has manifested itself clearly during the crisis roiling the country since the contested results of the June 12 presidential election. If the trend holds, it would constitute the biggest political, religious and social change in the history of the Islamic republic.

The new battle line divides those in the regime who continue cracking heads to hang onto power and those who, in varying degrees, want the rule of law, human rights, greater personal freedoms and an end to Iran's international isolation.

The latter include Islamists and non-Islamists alike, and those in the regime and not. They are led, for the most part, by women and the young in Iran and in the diaspora.

This was evident in Saturday's rallies in Toronto and more than 50 cities around the world calling for reforms in Iran, said Sima Zerehi, 31, editor of the English part of the Toronto Farsi weekly Shahrvand. >>> Haroon Siddiqui | Thursday, July 30, 2009

As Iran Calms, a Struggle for Political Power Intensifies
Clerics during prayers in June. Many religious leaders have not spoken out in support of Iran’s president or supreme leader. Photo: The New York Times
THE NEW YORK TIMES: CAIRO — The streets of Iran have been largely silenced, but a power struggle grinds on behind the scenes, this time over the very nature of the state itself. It is a battle that transcends the immediate conflict over the presidential election, one that began 30 years ago as the Islamic Revolution established a new form of government that sought to blend theocracy and a measure of democracy.

From the beginning, both have vied for an upper hand, and today both are tarnished. In postelection Iran, there is growing unease among many of the nation’s political and clerical elite that the very system of governance they rely on for power and privilege has been stripped of its religious and electoral legitimacy, creating a virtual dictatorship enforced by an emboldened security apparatus, analysts said.

Among the Iranian president’s allies are those who question whether the nation needs elected institutions at all.
Most telling, and arguably most damning, is that many influential religious leaders have not spoken out in support of the beleaguered president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, or the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Indeed, even among those who traditionally have supported the government, many have remained quiet or even offered faint but unmistakable criticisms.

According to Iranian news reports, only two of the most senior clerics have congratulated Mr. Ahmadinejad on his re-election, which amounts to a public rebuke in a state based on religion. A conservative prayer leader in the holy city of Qum, Ayatollah Ibrahim Amini, referred to demonstrators as “people” instead of rioters, and a hard-line cleric, Grand Ayatollah Nasser Makarem-Shirazi, called for national reconciliation.

Some of Iran’s most influential grand ayatollahs, clerics at the very top of the Shiite faith’s hierarchy who have become identified with the reformists, have condemned the results as a fraud and the government’s handling of the protests as brutal. On Saturday, an influential Qum-based clerical association called the new government illegitimate. >>> Michael Slackman | Tuesday, July 07, 2009

Iran's Exiled Queen Speaks
THE DAILY BEAST – BLOG: As protesters flood Iran’s streets, Farah Pahlavi—the deposed empress—recalls the lessons of the 1979 uprising that led to her husband’s painful exile. A conversation with The Daily Beast.

Empress Farah Pahlavi, née Farah Diba
Farah Diba Pahlavi, the former queen of Iran, remembers all too well the last time Iranian youths poured into the streets of Tehran, chanting, throwing rocks, and demanding change: It was the start of the revolution against her husband, the shah of Iran, which ultimately forced the royal couple into exile in 1979 and plunged her life into chaos.

Thirty years later, Pahlavi, who now lives in Paris, feels a new optimism as YouTube and Twitter bring news of the uprising in Tehran’s streets. She’s hopeful that she is watching the beginning of the end of Iran’s theocracy—and the three decades of repressive Islamic rule that followed her husband’s departure.

During her reign as Iran’s queen, Pahlavi was the Jackie O. of Iran—a graceful, glamorous figure known as an emphatic advocate for the arts. And even as her husband’s support waned as a result of his autocratic rule, his harsh treatment of political enemies, and close ties with the U.S., she was still admired for her glamour and warmth.

But a new HBO documentary has forced Pahlavi to come to terms with some of the grievances against her husband’s rule. The Queen and I, which airs on Wednesday, is the work of Nahid Persson Sarvestani, an Iranian revolutionary who wanted to reconcile her glamorous childhood image of Farah Diba with the monarch who caused so much pain and suffering for their people. She sought out Pahlavi, who agreed to participate. >>> The Daily Beast | Wednesday, June 17, 2009

THE DAILY BEAST:
Photo Gallery >>>

Iran: The Brutal Side of Theocracy
Photo: The Boston Globe

The Beginning of the End?
YNET NEWS: Young Iranians may topple Ayatollah regime in wake of elections fiasco

Upon the publication of the official results of the Iranian presidential elections in 2009, which showed incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as the clear winner, regime rivals including the government of Israel can be satisfied.

Ahmadinejad’s victory, which most people believe was apparently achieved via a well-oiled machine of fraud, threats, the deployment of armed forces, closure of rival headquarters, and disconnected cellular phones, may mark the beginning of the end of the Ayatollah regime. This regime was established by the Ayatollah Khomeini 30 years ago, in 1979, after he led a revolution that toppled the Shah and the Pahlavi dynasty.

During the past 30 years, Islamic regime leaders made sure not to repeat the grave mistakes made by the previous regime. As they took advantage of the Shah’s mistakes in order to topple him, Islamic leaders knew precisely which errors to avoid. However, in the latest presidential elections they revived the well-known dictum that we are doomed to repeat our mistakes.

On several occasions during his rule, the Shah was accused of forging election results; large strata of society believed these charges and this laid the groundwork for the popular revolution against him in 1978-79.

Yet on Friday it was the Islamic regime which so blatantly forged the results of the Iranian presidential elections. >>> Soli Shahvar | Sunday, June 14, 2009

Frost over the World: Reza Pahlavi

The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Paperback (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Hardcover (US) Barnes & Noble >>>

Shades of Theocracy
FAMILY SECURITY MATTERS: The modus operandi for the political empowerment of Islamists in America is in full public display during every election cycle. The sad part is few realize how central "Islamic politics" is to the driving force of transnational Islamism and its threat to American security. The incessant attempts by American Islamist groups (like the MAS, CAIR, MPAC, ISNA, ICNA to name a few) to collectivize Muslims in the body politic - from voter registrations to their ideological grievance mill - point to their goals.

What better way to push forth a quasi-theocratic political agenda than to deceive the Muslim faithful into believing that their political survival as a minority in America depends upon the mixture of their faith identity with their political identity? These same Islamists spread the ideology of victimization and identity politics among any Muslims who will listen while they internally promote political Islam and Islamist statecraft within the ummah (Muslim community). They use their efforts at Muslim electoral involvement to exploit the spiritual ummah for political purposes. Most importantly, many in the mainstream media (MSM) and government turn to them to purportedly speak for the American Muslim population, even though they have no mandate or significant membership to do so. Exclusive: Islamism and the So-called ‘Muslim Voting Bloc’: Shades of Theocracy >>> By M Zuhdi Jasser | July 4, 2008

The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Dust Jacket Hardcover, direct from the publishers (US) >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Paperback, direct from the publishers (US) >>>

Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Tariq Ramadan in Debate: Part 1
You are all invited to draw your own conclusions about Tariq Ramadan’s ‘reasoning’ on Islam. He sees no incompatibility between Islam and democracy, for instance. I fundamentally disagree with him on this: Islam is by its very nature incompatible with democracy. Islam was conceived for a theocratic state. Theocracy and democracy are diametrically opposed to each other; they are immiscible. Tariq Ramadan should start studying the meaning of democracy; it would appear that he has no understanding of its true nature. - ©Mark


Part 2
Part 3
Watch another YouTube video: Tariq Ramadan Talking More Tosh >>>

The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Dust Jacket Hardcover, direct from the publishers
The Dawning of a New Dark Age –Paperback, direct from the publishers