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Enjoy that subversive latte. "Iran steps up crackdown against "immoral" activity," from Agence France-Presse:
TEHERAN - Iran is pressing on with one of its toughest moral crackdowns in years, warning tens of thousands of women over slack dress, targeting “immoral” cafes and seizing illegal satellite receivers, local media reported on Monday.
The Iranian police launched the crackdown in April in a self-declared drive to “elevate security in society” that encompassed arrests of thugs, raids on underground parties and street checks of improperly dressed individuals.
Reza Zarei, commander of police in Teheran province, said that since the drive began police in his region have handed out 113,454 warnings to women found to have infringed Iran’s strict Islamic dress rules.
“Of these 1,600 cases have been given to the judiciary” for further investigation, he said.
He added that 5,700 people — including 1,400 men — have been sent to “guidance classes” on how to behave in society.
Zarei said police have been targeting billiard halls and coffee shops — the latter hugely popular in Teheran as a meeting place for men and women — as certain establishments promoted immorality.
“One of the main grounds for the creation of social and ethical crimes are billiard halls and coffee shops,” he said.
The student news agency ISNA and the Kargozaran newspaper quoted Zarei as saying that police had shut down 3,000 coffee shops and billiard halls although the official IRNA news agency said the establishments had merely been given warnings.
“I am pleased to have carried out this plan to elevate security in society,” Zarei said.
Watching satellite television is illegal in the Islamic republic as it is deemed to spread decadence and has long been the target of periodic crackdowns by the police.
Zarei said police had closed down 68 warehouses selling satellite equipment, seized 27,000 receivers and arrested 535 people linked to the underground industry.
Some reformists in Iran have argued that the authorities would be better off combating poverty or traffic rather than moral laxity but conservatives have applauded the police for seeking to restore revolutionary Islamic values.
Ah, but dealing with poverty or traffic would require action more substantive than minding other people's business.
Posted by Marisol at September 10, 2007 7:25 AM
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Oh we've got trouble right here in River City,
With a capital T and that rhymes with P and that stands for pool!
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at September 10, 2007 7:48 AM
Dang, I know Starbucks is expensive... but decadent and need of an Islamic purge?
Posted by: senor doeboy at September 10, 2007 8:10 AM
They don't want people to be able to get together and organize against the regime.
Cafes have long been associated with rebellion and revolution.
Posted by: Josephine at September 10, 2007 8:18 AM
I guess there won't be any Tim Horton's opening there soon, aye?
Posted by: ImNoDhimmi at September 10, 2007 8:31 AM
What if we open an Islamic country latte franchise called MoonBucks? Is that OK?
Posted by: Shy Guy at September 10, 2007 8:48 AM
Couldn't the police just put one of those "Friends don't let Friends drink Starbucks" bumper stickers on their cars instead?
Posted by: AnneCrockett at September 10, 2007 8:58 AM
Welcome to the 7th century, all your progress belong to us.
We won't need to bomb those idiots back to the stone age, they are doing it to themselves.
Posted by: CelticCoyote at September 10, 2007 9:17 AM
We need to invade Iran NOW, led by Willie Mosconi, Steve Mizerak and Minnesota Fats.
Posted by: Bigfoot at September 10, 2007 9:24 AM
Try to be charitable. Try to be understanding. Try to make the case through their eyes.
Clean-cut coffeehouses may be one thing (but where's all the crowing about coffee as "an Islamic discovery" -- it was not -- and coffee-houses as an Islamic thang?). Billiards are quite another. Pool halls were once considered doubtful. Jefferson in his "Thoughts on Lotteries" noted that "...there are some [games of chance] which produce nothing, and endanger the well-being of the individuals engaged in them, or of others depending on them. Such are games with cards, dice, billiards, etc." I would bet that Fiorello La Guardia not only had his police smash slot-machines, but had them police those pool halls where, as we all know from the movies, were once dens of possibly iniquity, what with the all-male atmosphere, and the pool sharks, and the cigarette haze that spelled danger.
Qaere: did Prince Bandar, the port-and-cigars we-are-all-corrupt-aren't-we-so-what's-the-harm-as-long-as-we-keep-it-within-bounds fixer of Washington, have a billiards room in his mansion, or didn't he?
What with that two billion dollar slush fund he apparently had, for doling out here and there, giving a jaguar to Mrs. Colin Powell here, a little contribution to the Baker Institute at Rice over there, possibly a little something to show appreciation for all the good work such people as Eugene Bird and Raymond Close and James Akins were doing over there, not to mention the truly splendid activity of John Esposito (who hardly shows up at the office anymore, so busy is he with those fantastically-paid lectures to "appreciative" audiences) and others of that ilk, and what with actually showing up to attend supposedly off-limits-to-all-foreigners tippety-top secret planning sessions of the Bush Administration before the war in Iraq, he had a hectic life. And what better way -- other than the usual season ticket to the newest successor to Madame Claude -- to relax than over a nice game of billiards?
at September 10, 2007 9:30 AM
Billiards is not a game of chance, unless one plays it with their eyes closed. Perhaps Jefferson didn't know a cue ball from an eight ball.
Actually more plots and big ticket financial deals are made on golf courses than in poolhalls.
The word golf was coined because f--k was already in use. I gave up golf because everytime I teed off, the word f--k would come out my mouth.
Iranians may be starving, but it will be in accordance with Islamic law.
Posted by: Pelayo at September 10, 2007 10:06 AM
Billiards is not a game of chance, unless one plays it with their eyes closed. Perhaps Jefferson didn't know a cue ball from an eight ball.Posted by: Pelayo at September 10, 2007 10:06 AM
at September 10, 2007 10:39 AM
Ah, the return of the jack-booted thugs.
Posted by: sadatoni at September 10, 2007 11:35 AM
I wish them all the best in stamping out a free society or places of self expression.
Posted by: Ruebacca at September 10, 2007 11:39 AM
I'd like to challenge Mahmoud to a game of straight pool to 100, calling all your shots (including kisses, combos and cushions), with the loser having to renounce their nukes.
Come on Achmadinnerjacket.
Rack 'em!
(Plus, I think the Hidden Madhi is in the corner pocket.)
Posted by: profitsbeard at September 10, 2007 11:47 AM
CelticCoyote
The problem is that in order to bomb them back to the stone age, we would first have build them up to that level.
Posted by: GuitarBob at September 10, 2007 12:19 PM
Guidance class? One can just imagine what sort of "guidance" gets dispensed in such a class. I can just picture some dirty old mule-ah passing out advice on how to properly beat one's wife in order to be a good citizen and Muslim.
Posted by: ISLAMSFORLOSERS at September 10, 2007 1:28 PM
They're going Nutzi FAST!!!
Posted by: Allahfanculo at September 10, 2007 2:25 PM
PLEASE FEEL FREE TO POST THIS ANNOUNCEMENT AT OTHER WEBSITES
The U.S. Senate Project (an initiative to increase congressional awareness of the nature and goals of jihad) currently has 78 volunteers in 38 states.
WE ARE STILL SEEKING ADDITIONAL CITIZEN VOLUNTEERS FROM ALL 50 STATES, ESPECIALLY THE FOLLOWING 13:
Connecticut
Delaware
Hawaii
Kansas
Louisiana
Mississippi
Montana
North Dakota
Oklahoma
South Dakota
Vermont
West Virginia
Wyoming
The Project: We're looking for people in every state of the Union who would be willing to purchase, from Amazon or any other source, a copy of Robert Spencer's Religion of Peace? Why Christianity Is and Islam Isn't and mail it, on an agreed upon date, to one of the senators in your state. We want to get the book simultaneously to all 100 senators, in order to send a strong message. If we get more than two people per state, books can also be sent to the U.S. House of Representatives.
If you’d like to be involved, please write to me at traehnam@yahoo.com under the subject heading “Senate,” and tell me the state your senator represents, an email address where I can reach you, and a nickname. No need for your real name. And I will never share your email address with anyone, not even with other volunteers for this project.
And visit www.jihadawareness.blogspot.com to get more info on this project and to leave comments other volunteers can read. You can also see there the growing list of participants in this project, and the states their senators represent. I've also designed a graphic that might amuse. Scroll down when you get to the site.
Once we have at least two people from every state, we can agree on a mailing date and then each of us can mail a copy of the book on that date.
Right before each of us mails the book, we can issue a press release to various media outlets in every state, and in that way announce and explain the mailing. And perhaps we can come up with some other ways of maximizing the effectiveness of this project and gaining as much positive attention as possible.
One of the project's volunteers suggested contacting Rep. Sue Myrick, who started the Anti-Jihad Caucus in Congress. I'll try to coordinate this project with Rep. Myrick to maximize its effectiveness. I've also been calling various congressional offices to get advice on how best to go about the project.
Posted by: traeh at September 10, 2007 2:38 PM
If Starbucks opened male-only and female-only franchise, would that be acceptable to Iran?
No unacceptable mixing of the sexes.
at September 10, 2007 2:43 PM
"Allah did not create man so that he could have fun. The aim of creation was for mankind to be put to the test through hardship and prayer. An Islamic regime must be serious in every field. There are no jokes in Islam. There is no humor in Islam. There is no fun in Islam. There can be no fun and joy in whatever is serious." -- Ayatollah Khomeini
Posted by: Ynkedoodl2 at September 10, 2007 3:55 PM
Josephine is correct. Close down coffee houses and you close down areas where people go to read and discuss politics. Didn't know they played billiards or played pool in Iran. Billiards and pool halls are a product of Western Civilization...like having dogs as pets. Gotta get rid of that by all means!
Posted by: never_submit at September 10, 2007 5:44 PM
“guidance classes” = old fashioned re-education camps
Shall I tell you why we have brought you here? To cure you! To make you sane! Will you understand, Winston, that no one whom we bring to this place ever leaves our hands uncured? We are not interested in those stupid crimes that you have committed. The Party is not interested in the overt act: the thought is all we care about. We do not merely destroy our enemies, we change them. Do you understand what I mean by that?
—George Orwell, 1984
at September 11, 2007 7:05 AM
Yes - coffee houses have a long association with politics - consider Sir Samuel Johnson and the 18th-century English coffee house.
Coffee was not always respectable, either. I am sure Hugh, for one, is familiar with Johann Sebastian Bach's best-known essay in fashionable secular frivolity - The Coffee Cantata. The plot, as I recall, involves a young lady whose stern father attempts to prevent her from drinking coffee.
Reflect on the conclusion of that cantata (she successfully defies her father, gets a husband AND as much coffee as she wants); contrast it with the joyless mullahs shutting down coffee shops; and we know all we need to know concerning the differing attitudes to life's small pleasures that are fostered, on the one hand, by a robust christian faith (for J S Bach was most surely a Christian believer!) and on the other, by fanatical Islam.
They'll be banning chocolate next.
Posted by: dumbledoresarmy at September 11, 2007 8:20 AM
Either banning chocolate.....or claiming muslims invented it!
Posted by: ImNoDhimmi at September 11, 2007 8:49 AM
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