“The Western technology is like muddy and unsanitary water. Water is the lifeblood, but when it gets murky and unsanitary it must be purified.” And so what the Post calls “Iran’s conservative clerics,” although nowadays it is Leftists who are the foremost foes of free speech, “would rather leave the Internet to the Supreme Council of Cyberspace, which was set up in 2012 to censor what Iranian eyes can see online.” In other words, the muddy and unsanitary water must be purified by government-led Sharia censorship. Barack “The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam” Obama was seen nodding in agreement.
“Iranian cleric issues fatwa against the Internet,” by Gail Sullivan, Washington Post, September 2, 2014:
A prominent hard-line Iranian cleric has denounced high-speed mobile Internet and 3G services as “immoral and unlawful.”
Last week, Grand Ayatollah Nasser Makarem-Shirazi said 3G mobile services are against sharia law and violate “human and moral norms.”
He cautioned Iran’s information ministry against providing 3G mobile service before the technology is “purified” of its “negative features” to ensure “moral and psychological security” for users.
“The Western technology is like muddy and unsanitary water,” the senior conservative cleric told the Tehran Times on Sunday. “Water is the lifeblood, but when it gets murky and unsanitary it must be purified.”
Makarem-Shirazi isn’t against all technology. After all, he has a Web site where followers can ask for religious rulings, as one group of activists did in this case. In the past he’s passed judgment on a variety of subjects, such as the morality of pet food advertisements — devotion to the animals would result in “evil outcomes,” he warned.
Iran’s conservative clerics would rather leave the Internet to the Supreme Council of Cyberspace, which was set up in 2012 to censor what Iranian eyes can see online. The council’s concerns? Political opposition groups, Web sites that promote Western culture and Satan worship, the ability to share naughty photos, use of social media by protesters and other digital-age evils.
On Monday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, who campaigned on the promise of better Internet access, stood by the Web. “We cannot close the gates of the world to our younger generation,” he said in a televised meeting with conservative clerics. “If we do not move toward the new generation of mobile today and resist it, we will have to do it tomorrow. If not, the day after tomorrow.”
The fatwa isn’t binding on the administration, but illustrates the opposition the centrist government is up against given that conservatives occupy key positions in judicial, intelligence and security branches and that conservatives hold a majority in parliament.
The debate over the Internet has gotten heated since Iran’s government awarded 3G licenses to three mobile broadband companies. After the first license was issued earlier this year, Makarem-Shirazi and three other ayatollahs expressed concern that 3G technology would “jeopardize public chastity” and allow men and women to speak to each other without oversight.
Ha Meshuga says
Yes, I saw that in industry press….
Peter Buckley says
Grand Ayatollah Nasser Makarem-Shirazi knows very well that the Internet is destroying Islam…..that’s why he fears it so much:
http://islamexposed.org/
http://www.answering-islam.org/Authors/Wood/islam_beheaded.htm
mariam rove says
you said that right!!!!!!!!!!!!! M
RKM says
Humans race on, get onboard.
Tommy Guns says
Well, there’s a new one. Internet and 3G services ‘violate human and moral norms’??!?!? How about ISIS, sweeping through Iraq, torturing and beheading innocent people. Does that violate human and moral norms??
These old-fart ayatollahs and clerics are starting to show signs of dementia. They don’t make sense, time for them to step down, maybe do some lawn bowling or knitting instead.
gravenimage says
This insanity isn’t demential, Tommy—it’s orthodox Islam.
Bob Spinster says
What does that mean, “Obama was seen nodding in agreement.”?
You wouldn’t know a fact if one cut off your ….
gerard says
“Obama was seen nodding in agreement.”
No one, apart from you, took that literally.
SKevin says
And yet…..
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/03/world/asia/iran-speeds-up-cellphone-connections.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&version=LargeMediaHeadlineSum&module=photo-spot-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0
bernie says
Strictly speaking, the technology isn’t exclusively “Western” anymore…countries such as Japan, Soouth Korea, India and China are at the forefront of innovations and improvements to the Internet.
Fia says
Technology HARAM, sexually violating the tiny un-matured bodies of male and female Childrenj, HALAL. Welcome to Satan’s Disney Land
gravenimage says
Iranian cleric says high-speed mobile Internet and 3G services violate Sharia law and are “immoral and unlawful”
……………………….
The death penalty for “blasphemy”, “wiping Israel of the map”, and stoning women to death—all perfectly “moral” under Islam.
High speed mobile internet? Now *that’s* “immoral”.
God, I hate Islam.
JP Sundharam says
Looks like Grand Ayatollah Nasser Makarem-Shirazi did not know that Mohammad thought that nothing could make water impure.
>> Abu Sa’eed AI-Khudri narrated: “It was said, ‘O Allah’s Messenger! Shall we use the water of Buda’ah well to perform ablution while it is a well in which menstruation rags, flesh of dogs and the putrid are dumped?” Allah’s Messenger said: ‘Indeed water is pure, nothing makes it impure.'” [Jami at-Tirmidhi : Book 1, Hadith 66]
bernie says
Not even the toxic gumbo in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina hit, in 2005? Or the radioactive contamination from the damaged nuclear power plants in Japan?