Was that a misprint? Britain strongly condemns the exile broadcaster? Sounds like they need to condemn Shariatmadari and his ilk.

Posted by: Hugh Bristic at November 30, 2004 7:04 PM

Hi, Hugh Bristic. If you look at this longer article on the subject, you'll see that the "British" part is no typo.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L3066558.htm

"The British government does not share Mr Fouladvand's views," said Matthew Gould, deputy head of mission at the British Embassy in Tehran. "We deplore any attacks on Islam ... We condemn those who stir up division."

"The British government does not support Ma-TV, does not agree with Ma-TV, and has given no backing or assistance to Ma-TV," he said.

"However, because of the threats to kill Mr Fouladvand, the British police need to consider his security," Gould said. "This does not imply any support for his views ... This sort of approach is essential if we are to have a society based on the rule of law."

Rushdie brought the wrath of many Muslims with his book the Satanic Verses, which Khomeini said was blasphemous. Khomeini said it was the duty of Muslims to kill Rushdie and a $2.5 million bounty was placed on the author's head.

The Iranian government in 1998 said it no longer supported the mission to kill Rushdie, although it could not rescind Khomeini's fatwa.

Posted by: markjames at November 30, 2004 8:36 PM

I completely agree about "...the firing of a bullet into his damned and blasphemous head..." -only the blasphemer, in this instance, is the one using the rotten cloak of a 'religion' to tyrannize and murder and call for homicide in the name of his 'creator'.

That would be Hossein Sharia't'madari and his demented ilk.

Britain needs a new Bodaecia to sweep this sura-as-hell plague of intolerant lunatics from its green and pleasant shores.

But, the way U.K. government is reacting, they make Winston Churchill's herculean efforts to save the Isle from a New Dark Ages seem betrayed and wasted and futile.

I guess Muslim guides, in a century, will be showing the ruins of the House of Parliament, the way tourists now visit Stonehenge. And laughing.

Posted by: profitsbeard at November 30, 2004 8:51 PM

Winston Churchill will be turning in his grave! What a slimy form of Dhimmitude!!

Posted by: Terminator at November 30, 2004 9:21 PM

What if THOUSANDS of people all started saying the same things that this guy is saying, all at the same time.
There's strength in numbers, right?

Posted by: Voltaire at November 30, 2004 9:43 PM

I would really love to see this TV presenters broadcast. Is there any way of doing this?

Posted by: Voltaire at December 1, 2004 3:34 AM

How are they going to give this guy special protection when they have muslims in the police force?

Won't that still place his life in danger?

Posted by: Voltaire at December 1, 2004 8:34 AM

Can we have a little more publicity for this latest threat from Iran pls/ that way more people will tune in and listen to what this brave exile has to say.
Nothing like free publicity at enemy expense, i tell you. Dubya can certainly vouch for that!

Posted by: voletti at December 1, 2004 10:44 AM

The British government "deplores any attack on Islam"? Why does the British government have any position on Islam? What does "the British government" know about "Islam"? What facts about Islam, about what is in the Qur'an and the hadith and the sira, and what the Shari'a is alla bout, would the British government care to share with its population that will help it better understand why the British government "deplores any attack on Islam"? What does the British government know about the behavior of Muslim conquerors toward the Christians and Jews of the Middle East, toward the Christians of North Africa and Spain, toward the Zoroastrians of Iran, toward the Hindus and Buddhists of India, toward the Hindus and Buddhists and Confucians of the Malay Peninsula and the East Indies, that would cause a spokesman for the British government to say that the British government "deplores any attack on Islam"?

Why does the British government so deplore? Is it in the business of deploring? Tony Blair may call Islam a religion of "tolerance" and "peace" just as every smiling imam assures us it is?. So what? Substitute the word "Fascism." Would the British government declare that it "deplores any attack on Fascism"? Given the hostility, the at-times murderous hatred, for all Infidels, that a perfectly straightforward reading of the Qur'an and hadith and sira would inculcate (even if some Muslims manage to minimize, or even ignore, those teachings), given that Believers are taught to hate Infidels not for how they behave, or what they believe, but because they are not Believers, the same kind of total dismmissal that defines what everyone deplores as "racism," it is certainly true that Islam has a good deal in common with Fascism and also with Nazism, which is merely Fascism-cum-racism wrought to a hysterical pitch. The Middle Eastern crowds baying for blood are reminiscent of other crowds from the last, unappetizing century, in Nuremberg or Munich, preserved on old newsreels.

No, what is to be deplored here is that the British government thinks it has a duty to announce that it "deplores attacks on Islam." That is deplorable. That is regrettable. that should never have happened.

Those accused of "attacks on Islam"are always assumed to be unjustified by officialdom, guilty of mindless "islamophobia." But the "Islamophobes" are simply those who have bothered to inform themselves about the real teachings of Islam, and simply refuse to accept pious assurances that those texts can be safely ignored, and that the evidence produced by scrupulous Western scholarship about Jihad-conquest and the fate of non-Muslims who have been subjugated by those Muslim conquerors, is all "polemical" or "unworthy even to be discussed." The apologists have had their day. Reality is sinking in, despite the best efforts of the "British goverment" or the BBC or a thousand other collaborators in the demise of their own civilization.

No, what is to be deplored here is that the British government thinks it has a duty to announce that it "deplores attacks on Islam." That is deplorable. That is regrettable. that should never have happened.

Posted by: Hugh at December 1, 2004 1:19 PM

Hugh, good post.

Posted by: former liberal WF at December 1, 2004 1:49 PM