• Why Jihad Watch?
  • About Robert Spencer and Staff Writers
  • FAQ
  • Books
  • Muhammad
  • Islam 101
  • Privacy

Jihad Watch

Exposing the role that Islamic jihad theology and ideology play in the modern global conflicts

Hugh Fitzgerald: Howard “Dizzy” Dean and “The Farthest Thing From an Islamic Republic”

Aug 14, 2016 3:56 pm By Hugh Fitzgerald

Howard Dean

Howard Dean, he of the shriek heard round the world, claims to know that present-day Iran has nothing to do with Islam. Of course, he could only conclude that if he knew a lot about Islam (and Iran). Well, so many people seem to know all about Islam these days – Barack Obama, Jeh Johnson, John Kerry, Theresa May, the Pope – so why not Howard Dean? Let’s see what he has to say.

Howard Dean insists that the Islamic Republic of Iran is “the farthest thing from an Islamic Republic.” Strange, then, that Iran should call itself that. Stranger still – given that Howard Dean adds that he “doesn’t consider Iran a Muslim country” — that Iran’s leaders are Shia clerics who have instituted a parliamentary theocracy, with an ayatollah as Supreme Leader and a Council of Guardians who make sure that no law passed by the Majlis, the Iranian parliament, violates the Sharia. But still, let’s hear Howard Dean out. Perhaps he understands something about the hard-to-detect inner essential non-Islamness of Iran that has escaped the rest of us.

Let’s start with his claim that Iran is “a republic that’s been hijacked by thugs and murderers.” It’s not the ”thugs and murderers” part that is troublesome – that’s unarguable — but the part about hijacking, for that implies an illegal seizure of power. All of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s past presidents — Ali Khamenei, Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, Mohammad Khatami and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad — each served for two terms, and Hassan Rouhani is the current President. And all of them, just like all the members of Iran’s unicameral majlis, were duly elected by direct election and universal suffrage. Howard Dean may not like those “thugs and murderers,” but a majority of people in the Islamic Republic of Iran apparently approve of them. There was no illegitimate seizure of power by “thugs” and “murderers.” There was no “hijacking.”

What about the role of Islam in the Iranian government? Can we find a hint of Islam in this country which is, according to Dean, not “a Muslim country” and “the farthest thing from an Islamic Republic”?

The founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran was the Grand Ayatollah Khomeini, the highest ranking cleric in Shia Islam. He was given the title of Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution (“Supreme Leader” for short). His successor, Ayatollah Khamenei, is still in office and, like Khomeini, making sure that Iran is kept safe for Shia Islam. Then there are the twelve members of the Council of Guardians, whose main responsibility is to decide which new laws are compatible with, and which may possibly contradict, the Sharia. And if any law is held to violate the Sharia, it is sent back to the Parliament for revision.

But let’s look a little more into the workings of this country which is the “farthest thing from an Islamic Republic.”

When the Ayatollah Khomeini came to power, within months of the founding of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the 1967 Family Protection Law was repealed; female government workers were forced to observe Islamic dress code; women were barred from becoming judges; beaches and sports were sex-segregated; the legal age of marriage for girls was reduced to 9. Anything here sound as if it might have something to do with Islam? Why did he reduce the marriageable age of girls to 9? Do you think Howard Dean knows the reason? What about that Islamic dress code – might those hijabs and chadors and soorooshes now required of female government workers have something to do with Islam? And why were beaches sex-segregated when Khomeini came to power? Anything to do with Islam, in this polity which is the “farthest thing from an Islamic Republic”?

Just a few more questions before the bell sounds for recess.

What happens to adulterers in the Islamic Republic of Iran?

They are stoned to death.

What happens to those convicted of blasphemy in the Islamic Republic of Iran?

They are subject to long imprisonment or capital punishment.

What happens to those convicted of homosexuality in Iran?

They are executed, usually by hanging.

What can happen to apostates in the Islamic Republic of Iran?

They can be executed.

What happens to those who consume alcohol, or violate the rules for hijab?

They can be flogged.

Where do all these punishments come from? They come from the Sharia, that is, the Holy Law of Islam, on which both the civil and criminal laws of the Islamic Republic of Iran are based, though the Sharia is not followed precisely in every case. For example, long-term imprisonment is sometimes imposed for crimes which, under Sharia, would always be punishable by death. But those rare examples of leniency hardly support Dean’s assertion that the Islamic Republic of Iran is “the farthest thing from an Islamic Republic,” by which he meant, in any case, not that Iran was more lenient, but rather more savage in its punishments than a “real” (good, kind) Islamic Republic would be.

“There is no organized religion which is a legitimate religion which condones this kind of behavior.” Also sprach Howard Dean. Read over that sentence a few times to see if you can make it make sense. I think what Dean may be trying to say is something like this: Islam is an “organized religion” – and not merely a “cult” — because it’s been around a long time, and the sheer number of its adherents commands, for many, respect. And there are two kinds of “organized” religion. The “illegitimate” kind is the one that condones behavior of which Howard Dean disapproves. The “legitimate” kind is the one does not condone behavior of which Howard Dean disapproves. And because Iran has “some of the highest rates of execution in the world, torturing political prisoners, one of the worst human rights records in the world”—all things of which Howard Dean disapproves – then Iran, the Islamic Republic of Iran, run by ayatollahs and other clerics, cannot be “a Muslim country.”

Come again? Oh, if you have to ask, you cannot afford Howard Dean. He doesn’t have to read the Qur’an or Hadith or Sira to know what the real Islam, the legitimate Islam, is like. He doesn’t have to know, doesn’t appear even to want to know, how Muslims have treated non-Muslims over the past 1400 years. He only has to consult with his own interior conscience to decide what is the real Islam, which has nothing to do with today’s Iran, and what is the false Islam, which does. He doesn’t consider Iran to be a Muslim country because he “doesn’t know Muslims who behave like that who I respect.” The kind of Muslims he knows and respects – the “real Muslims” — are ones who would not “behave like that.” Or the kind of Muslims he knows and doesn’t respect because they would “behave like that” cannot be real Muslims. Once they do bad things, “Muslims” cease to be real Muslims, because real Muslims don’t do bad things. If you are feeling dizzy, thank Howard Dean, who is not only incoherent but a cause of incoherence in other men. Round and round his “argument” goes, and where it will stop, nobody knows. Not even Howard Dean.

Howard Dean lives in a dream-world where the bad therefore not-Muslim-at-all Shia Muslims who run the non-Muslim Islamic Republic of Iran are “thugs, murderers,” and those other nothing-to-do-with-Islam Sunni Muslims of the Islamic State are to be dismissed on mental health grounds – according to Dean, “they’re crazy, I think they’re lunatics, pathetic lunatics.” No adducing of facts, no application of logic, no reference to Islamic texts or history, no awareness of how the Islamic State justifies its every move and act of terror by reference to the Qur’an and Hadith. None of that for Howard Dean. These ISIS members whom he dismisses as “pathetic lunatics” seem to have done quite well. They have held off for several years all attempts in Syria by the Syrian Army, and the Russian Air Force, and in Iraq by the Iraqi Army and the American Air Force, to destroy them.

These “pathetic lunatics” have managed to establish operational branches in 18 countries, have carried out or inspired major attacks in Paris, Brussels, Nice, Wurzburg, San Bernardino, and elsewhere, and have killed more than 2,200 victims in two dozen countries. Most importantly, these “pathetic lunatics” have great appeal for many Muslims all over the world, including doctors, lawyers, engineers, academics who have joined or attempted to join them, or have pledged allegiance to help their cause from within the West. Like Obama, Howard Dean doesn’t want “to give them any legitimacy” – as if the legitimacy of any group of Muslims (e.g., Islamic State, Hamas, Hizballah) in the eyes of more than a billion Muslims depended on the likes of Howard Dean.

How many Christians wait to see what some Muslim cleric in Cairo says before making up their minds about whether Mormons, or Seventh Day Adventists, or some other group, are “real Christians”? Neither in Iran, nor in the Islamic State, do Muslims, Shia or Sunni, care what Howard Dean thinks about them; they know who they are, and they will cheerfully quote ayat and surah in justification of their every deed of atrocious derring-do. Howard Dean insists — let’s hold that bewildering sentence up for inspection one final time — “there is no organized religion which is a legitimate religion which condones this kind of behavior.” Otherwise expressed, also one final excruciating time: if any religion condones the kind of behavior – executions, torture, that sort of thing — that these self-described Muslims engage in in Iran and the Islamic State, then it can’t be a “legitimate” religion. But we know – don’t we? – that Islam is a “legitimate” religion. That’s what everyone says. And therefore, these people in Iran who condone these atrocities, or commit these atrocities themselves, can’t be real Muslims, even if they happen to be grand ayatollahs. Dean knows. Ipse dixit, and dixit, and dixit, and you can rub your eyes all you want in disbelief, till the cows come home from somewhere in upstate Vermont, but Howard Dean will remain dizzily steadfast in his stupidity.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • More
  • Click to share on Skype (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Telegram (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)

Follow me on Facebook

Filed Under: Hugh Fitzgerald, Iran, Islamic State (aka ISIS, ISIL, Daesh), Useful idiots, willful ignorance Tagged With: Howard Dean


Learn more about RevenueStripe...

Comments

  1. IQ al Rassooli says

    Aug 14, 2016 at 4:07 pm

    Howard Dean, the pope, most of the Christian clergy in the USA & Europe, all the elites of Europe and Americas are ‘obviously’ MORE knowledgeable about Islam than ALL the Muslims on Earth!

    These creatures are not only beneath CONTEMPT but are more dangerous to Western civilization than ISIS because ISIS has a publicly proclaimed agenda to either SUBJUGATE all of humanity to Sharia or EXTERMINATE it while these elites are DECEIVING hundreds of millions of innocent people

    I Q al Rassooli
    Kafir & Proud!

    • mortimer says

      Aug 15, 2016 at 9:54 am

      Did Howard Dean ever read ANY manual of Sharia law to determine and conclude that Iranian punishments are ‘thuggish’, rather than PERFECTLY in accordance with Sharia law?

      No? Not even ONE manual of Sharia?

  2. Angemon says

    Aug 14, 2016 at 4:29 pm

    Howard Dean was, in one word, rekt.

  3. jewdog says

    Aug 14, 2016 at 4:30 pm

    I’m really tired of these ignorant moonbats and their smug misconceptions.
    YAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

    • mortimer says

      Aug 15, 2016 at 9:58 am

      Howard Dean is the definition of smug…he knows nothing about Islam, its theology, its laws or its history.

      • Carolyne says

        Aug 15, 2016 at 12:54 pm

        Howard Dean comes from a line of idiots. When he was running for President, his mother said that they really weren’t all that rich. In fact, Howard’s nanny had to share his room their condo was so small.

        Am I the only one who thinks he looks like Barney Rubble?

    • heidi says

      Aug 15, 2016 at 4:37 pm

      YAAAAHHHH:

  4. Janwaar Bibi says

    Aug 14, 2016 at 4:58 pm

    Back in the heyday of Communism in the 70’s, Western leftists used to defend Communism by arguing that while the Soviet Union, East Germany etc. were failures, they were not practicing “true” Marxism-Leninism, so one could not conclude that Marxism-Leninism does not work. A few of the more brazen ones would claim that actually Albania, under Comrade Enver Hoxha, was a socialist paradise – a claim they could get away with since no one knew much about Albania in those days. Alas, after the Iron Curtain fell, Albania turned out to be an even bigger cesspool than East Germany.
    The same left-wing intellectuals, cultural Marxists, and fellow-travelers of Communism are today pushing the joy of Islam and promoting endless migration of Muslims into Western countries. Islam and Communism are very different ideologies but they have one thing in common – they are both enemies of Christianity, Western civilization and democracy, which is what attracts the cultural Marxists and leftists to these ideologies.
    The more things change, the more things stay the same.

  5. Jay Boo says

    Aug 14, 2016 at 5:08 pm

    Pull his string and for a price he will apparently say anything.
    While working for a pharmaceutical lobby he criticized Obama Care.

    https://theintercept.com/2016/01/21/howard-dean-despite-denials-has-long-sad-history-of-selling-himself-on-k-street/

  6. Pam Minnick says

    Aug 14, 2016 at 5:23 pm

    I know how he could find out the truth, he needs to visit Iran and tell them they aren’t Islamic. Obama will be paying more of our dept to Iran in the middle of the night and getting him back.

    • jewdog says

      Aug 14, 2016 at 7:17 pm

      Somehow I think Iran will send this guy packing gratis – once they hear him scream..

  7. elizabeth says

    Aug 14, 2016 at 5:40 pm

    “Those who know nothing of Islam pretend that Islam counsels against war” – Ayatollah Khomeini, 1942

  8. PRCS says

    Aug 14, 2016 at 7:22 pm

    That’s Jeh “Doh” Johnson.

    • jewdog says

      Aug 14, 2016 at 7:59 pm

      Right, along with Loreduh Lynch, Joe Byduhn and Barrack Obameh.

  9. steve brown says

    Aug 14, 2016 at 9:02 pm

    How his Jewish wife stays with this evil Jew hater is a mystery.

  10. More Ham Ed says

    Aug 14, 2016 at 11:40 pm

    My favorite (sarcasm) SHORT youtube video:

  11. Michael Warden says

    Aug 15, 2016 at 1:23 am

    I remember, back in 1979 when the Shah was overthrown, all the female Iranian students here in England in their mini skirts and tight sweaters (lovely!) were celebrating in the streets. What a change awaited them. I also have seen a set of photos of Afghanistan in the 1950s. Girls in short skirts, driving cars, going to school and even a photo of the Girl Guides Association of Afghanistan. Progress ?

  12. Richard Paulsen says

    Aug 15, 2016 at 8:49 am

    Muslims do not follow islam according to the selfproclaimed elite. No, they follow the best way to Europe and the U.S.A. and all the West.
    However not ideologically.

  13. mortimer says

    Aug 15, 2016 at 9:50 am

    Howard Dean hasn’t read the basic reading list to become well-informed (let alone an expert) about Islam, and yet, preposterously, he presents himself as an expert on Islam. This is the height of effrontery, arrogance and presumption.

    Howard Dean is guessing and surmising about Islam. This is not the way to make policy or even state opinions.

  14. Rachel Cohen says

    Aug 15, 2016 at 11:55 am

    Howard Dean–is a godless sociopath–he knows what he stated about Iran not being an Islamic nation, is a lie. He like the rest of the Marxist democrat party–is promoting Islamic terrorism.

  15. eduardo odraude says

    Aug 15, 2016 at 3:30 pm

    Excellent article from Hugh Fitzgerald.

    An interesting point he makes:

    All of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s past presidents — Ali Khamenei, Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, Mohammad Khatami and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad — each served for two terms, and Hassan Rouhani is the current President. And all of them, just like all the members of Iran’s unicameral majlis, were duly elected by direct election and universal suffrage.

    That statement needs to be supplemented by the fact that Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei hand-picks all candidates for president. I think only 5% of candidates who seek to run are permitted by the clerical dictatorship to run. So this is much more a theocracy than a democracy. That said, for all I know the majority of Iranians prefer theocracy to democracy.

  16. al says

    Aug 15, 2016 at 5:20 pm

    Howard Dean is what he is —- A National Boob and an embarrassment to humanity. And he is never going to be anything else…..

  17. Kepha says

    Aug 15, 2016 at 5:26 pm

    Wasn’t Dean the twat who thought that the book of Job is in the New Testament?

  18. Tony46 says

    Aug 15, 2016 at 6:12 pm

    Howard,
    The official name is Islamic Republic of Iran….and is ruled by an Ayatollah.
    Go tell him he is not islamic.

  19. gravenimage says

    Aug 15, 2016 at 9:56 pm

    Hugh Fitzgerald: Howard “Dizzy” Dean and “The Farthest Thing From an Islamic Republic”
    ……………………

    Murdering gay people and stoning women to death is “un-Islamic”…

  20. Alarmed Pig Farmer says

    Aug 15, 2016 at 10:40 pm

    There is no organized religion which is a legitimate religion which condones this kind of behavior.

    If there is something unimaginable, yet plainly there to see, it’s the duty of the would be expert to open his eyes. It’s right there in the Holy Ko-Ran and the Hah-Deaths, not in a place or two, but all over the place. The two books and more are filled not with offending phrases, but a system of thought that by self-definition brings violence and oppression.

    There is no organized school of thought that is a legitimate school of thought which condones this kind of analysis. But there’s liberalism. It may not be legitimated, but it’s pervasive.

  21. Karen says

    Aug 15, 2016 at 11:54 pm

    “And it’s not an Islamic republic; it’s a republic that’s been hijacked by thugs and murderers”. Dean seems to be harkening back to an earlier time after the Shah’s removal, when the new Islamic Republic of Iran was democratic, civil, and of course, “legitimate”. Uh…when was that, exactly?

    And why is it a republic, but not Islamic, according to Dean? Because they have some ‘for show’ elections of pre-approved, cookie-cutter candidates? Hey, even the USSR had regular elections (of course there was only one candidate.). Seems to me Iran is highly Islamic, but not much of a republic. It’s rather sickening for Dean to grant them the prestige of the term ‘republic’.

    In reading this article, I imagined how repulsed Dean must be by Saudi Arabia; according to his logic, they must be even more non-Muslim than Iran. After all, the strictest Sharia-compliant regime in the world makes Iran look like Islamic-lite. How amazing it was to find in the original Breitbart article that Dean considers KSA an ally, and to paraphrase him, not as bad as Iran. But perhaps I’m splitting hairs with these two bad apples.

  22. Karen says

    Aug 16, 2016 at 12:21 am

    In the same Breitbart articles, Dean was asked about the administration’s reluctance to use the term ‘radical Islamic terrorism’. He tries to disprove it’s existence this logic:

    “In fact, I teach a foreign policy course at Yale. I had three Muslims sit in from other countries. And they pointed out to the class that their families were at greater risk from Daesh [ISIS] than ours because they live with them every day, around the corner.”

    But he ignores centuries of internecine activity between rival Islamic groups. The fact that ISIS has killed countless Muslims does not prove they are un-Islamic.

    • Jack Diamond says

      Aug 16, 2016 at 8:06 am

      He had me with “I teach a foreign policy course at Yale.”
      What a kidder.

      • Karen says

        Aug 20, 2016 at 11:37 pm

        🙂

FacebookYoutubeTwitterLog in

Subscribe to the Jihad Watch Daily Digest

You will receive a daily mailing containing links to the stories posted at Jihad Watch in the last 24 hours.
Enter your email address to subscribe.

Please wait...

Thank you for signing up!
If you are forwarding to a friend, please remove the unsubscribe buttons first, as they my accidentally click it.

Subscribe to all Jihad Watch posts

You will receive immediate notification.
Enter your email address to subscribe.
Note: This may be up to 15 emails a day.

Donate to JihadWatch
FrontPage Mag

Search Site

Translate

The Team

Robert Spencer in FrontPageMag
Robert Spencer in PJ Media

Articles at Jihad Watch by
Robert Spencer
Hugh Fitzgerald
Christine Douglass-Williams
Andrew Harrod
Jamie Glazov
Daniel Greenfield

Contact Us

Terror Attacks Since 9/11

Archives

  • 2020
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2019
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2018
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2017
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2016
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2015
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2014
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2013
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2012
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2011
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2010
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2009
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2008
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2007
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2006
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2005
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2004
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2003
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • March

All Categories

You Might Like

Learn more about RevenueStripe...

Recent Comments

  • Lion heart on Muslim cleric: ‘We welcomed the takeover of ISIS because they wanted to implement the Sharia’
  • Graham Bryant on Biden vows to surrender to Iran, then negotiate
  • gravenimage on EU Parliament members call for firing of border agency director for preventing illegal migrants from entering Europe
  • Lion heart on Iranian Kurdistan: Muslim brothers behead their sister in honor killing over her romantic relationship
  • Graham Bryant on Canadian Mental Health Association studies Muslim women’s mental health due to ‘discrimination’ and ‘hate crimes’

Popular Categories

dhimmitude Sharia Jihad in the U.S ISIS / Islamic State / ISIL Iran Free Speech

Robert Spencer FaceBook Page

Robert Spencer Twitter

Robert Spencer twitter

Robert Spencer YouTube Channel

Books by Robert Spencer

Jihad Watch® is a registered trademark of Robert Spencer in the United States and/or other countries - Site Developed and Managed by Free Speech Defense

Content copyright Jihad Watch, Jihad Watch claims no credit for any images posted on this site unless otherwise noted. Images on this blog are copyright to their respective owners. If there is an image appearing on this blog that belongs to you and you do not wish for it appear on this site, please E-mail with a link to said image and it will be promptly removed.

Our mailing address is: David Horowitz Freedom Center, P.O. Box 55089, Sherman Oaks, CA 91499-1964

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.