CAIR is hosting a private reception and dinner with Khatami tonight. But yesterday Iran’s “reformist” former president revealed his true colors by defending Iran’s nuclear program and his unhinged successor, the Thug-In-Chief, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Will CAIR now demonstrate the veracity of its claims to be a moderate Muslim organization by canceling the event for Khatami, on the grounds that defending the genocidally-minded Ahmadinejad and his nuke program is just the opposite of what American Muslims who accept and revere American values should be doing? What do you think?
“Khatami defends Ahmadinejad, Iran’s nuke plans,” from the Washington Times, :
Former Iranian President Mohammed Khatami yesterday defended his country’s nuclear program and rejected suggestions that freedom and human rights in Iran had deteriorated under his hard-line successor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Mr. Khatami, who is considered a moderate in Iran’s political spectrum, told reporters at the Washington National Cathedral [which is disgraceful enough — RS] shortly before delivering a speech on “dialogue of civilizations” that Iran’s nuclear effort is peaceful and that the world should focus on the atomic arsenals of Israel and other states before criticizing Iran….
Remember at this point the Thug-In-Chief’s oft-repeaed genocidal ambitions toward Israel.
The “reformist” has-been also indulged in a bit of irresponsible and inaccurate moral equivalence:
“Iran has its problems, but they are not greater than the violations of human rights we saw at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo,” he said….
Mr. Khatami acknowledged that his two-week American tour had been criticized by religious hard-liners in Iran, but he said he did not think that Iran had regressed under Mr. Ahmadinejad.
“I don’t think things have reversed,” he said. “Of course their interpretation may be different than mine, but on women and youth, the new president has said things that are very hopeful.”
Mr. Ahmadinejad has enforced dress codes requiring that women be dressed in black or dark blue Islamic garb from head to toe and has begun a campaign to purge liberal and secular professors from the nation’s universities. Mr. Khatami’s successor has also called for Israel’s destruction….
Reza Pahlavi, son of the late shah who was ousted in the 1979 Islamic Revolution, said that despite Mr. Khatami’s image as a “moderate,” he has been a critical part of the “clerical dictatorship that holds our country hostage.”
Religious minorities in Iran were harshly persecuted under Mr. Khatami, Mr. Pahlavi said. “Regardless of his smiling rhetoric, the true nature of the regime is far different from what Khatami wants us to believe.”