Iranium, o filme, só hoje, de borla

Irão: a minoria religiosa mais severamente perseguida

Uma pergunta para o leitor: em que país se radicou uma religião originária do Irão onde é severamente perseguida?

Amplify’d from pajamasmedia.com

Iran’s most repressed religious minority is also its largest. Members of the community are routinely imprisoned, frequently executed, banned from universities, and ruthlessly repressed economically. Tens of thousands have been murdered by one regime after another. The current government—the Khomeinist “Islamic Republic”—goes farther than any other by vowing to crush these people wherever they live and erase them from the face of the earth.

There are only six or seven million in the entire world, and their spiritual home is in Israel. I am not, however, referring here to the Jews, but to the Bahais.

Their world headquarters is in Israel, and they came during Ottoman times from Persian lands. The nation-state of one of the world’s oldest religions now hosts the holiest site of one of the newest, and the nation where the Bahai Faith was born vows to destroy the nation where the Bahai Faith had to migrate.

The strikingly different treatments of these people by Iran and by Israel infuses the looming showdown between the Middle East’s two most powerful countries with even more moral clarity than it already had.

The Bahai gardens in Haifa, Israel

The U.S. State Department rates Iran one of the worst violators of religious freedom in the world, particularly for its repression against the Bahais. “Bahai religious groups reported arbitrary arrest and prolonged detention,” says its most recent annual report, “expulsions from universities, and confiscation of property. During the reporting period government-controlled broadcast and print media intensified negative campaigns against religious minorities, particularly the Bahais.” Even the United National General Assembly recently condemned the Iranian government on similar grounds.

Around 300,000 Bahais are still in Iran, ten times the number of Christians and Jews there. Two million or so live in India. There are many more in South America and Africa. Only 150,000 or so live in the U.S., but the faith has been growing in Eastern Europe since the fall of the Soviet Union.

Most worship in their houses, but there are community centers in places where enough Bahais are concentrated. There’s a house of worship on each continent. North America’s is in Chicago. South America’s is in Chile. Asia’s is in Delhi.

The Bahai house of worship in Chicago, Illinois

In 1844 a young man named Mirza Ali Muhammad, a merchant in the city of the Iranian city of Shiraz, said he was the herald of a new revelation from God. He announced the coming of the new great teacher.

“He called himself the Báb,” Weinberg said, “which means ‘the gate’ in Arabic, and his teachings began to spread throughout Persia. Thousands upon thousands of people responded and were very attracted to the teaching. He said a new day had come, a day when religions would become united, when people would recognize their oneness, when the equality of men and women would be established.”

One of his first followers was a poet who removed her veil in public, something unheard of in that day, though it was perfectly normal before the Khomeinists took over in 1979. “There were reports of a man cutting his throat,” Weinberg said, “because he was so shocked at the audacity of this act.”

This new religion alarmed the authorities as it spread. Shia Muslims were abandoning Islam and becoming Bábis, followers of the Báb. Pogroms followed, and 20,000 were executed, many in horrible ways. They were executed not because they were criminals, nor for political reasons. They were executed because they were heretics. The Báb himself was publicly executed in 1850 in Tabriz.

Tabriz is an Azeri city. In Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan—the now-sovereign Azeri land detached long ago from the Persian Empire by Czarist Russia—is a statue of a liberated woman discarding her veil. It was erected almost a century ago, and the liberation has held.

The statue of the liberated woman, Baku, Azerbaijan Read more at pajamasmedia.com

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Entrevista: Cristãos no Irão à beira da extinção?

Amplify’d from timedecristo.wordpress.com

Visto que os cristãos fogem em grande número do Irã, tanto por razões políticas como religiosas, a comunidade cristã corre verdadeiro perigo de extinção, afirma o jornalista e observador das Igrejas do Oriente Médio, Camille Eid. Camille Eid é libanês e vive na Itália onde é professor do idioma árabe na prestigiada Universidade Católica de Milão e na Universidade Biccocca Milão. Ele é também presidente da Federação Árabe Fenícia que estuda a cultura árabe. Nesta entrevista, Camille Eid explica como é a vida para um cristão que vive no Irã e como e por que os cristãos persas são proibidos pelos muçulmanos de orar no idioma persa em seus cultos a Cristo.

Pergunta: O Irã tem 99% de muçulmanos e o islã é a religião do Estado. As raízes da Igreja no Irã são muito antigas e remontam ao século II. O cristianismo é a religião mais antiga do Irã? Camille Eid: Não, temos duas comunidades mais antigas que o cristianismo. Em primeiro lugar, temos a comunidade zoroástrica, que remonta a vários séculos antes da chegada do cristianismo e do islã. Em segundo lugar, temos a comunidade judaica. A comunidade zoroástrica soma cerca de 20 mil pessoas, e a judaica, entre 20 e 35 mil. Estas duas comunidades são mais antigas que a cristã.

Pergunta: Hoje, o Irã é mais de 99% muçulmano. Como o islã permeia a vida cotidiana? Camille Eid: Se você estiver nas ruas de Teerã, ou em qualquer parte do país, verá o retrato dos mártires, do Aiatolá. Se você usar o telefone de uma cabine pública, escutará a voz do imã Hussein lhe dizendo o que fazer.

Pergunta: Assim que você tira o telefone do gancho, ouvirá imediatamente uma voz (gravada) do imã? Camille Eid: Sim. E nas escolas são permitidas diversas disciplinas, mas por meio da perspectiva que se baseia no Alcorão e no Hadit e outras ciências islâmicas.

Pergunta: A imagem do Aiatolá está estampada na capa dos livros de catecismo? Camille Eid: Exatamente. E pode ser uma forma de mostrar que os cristãos estão sob a proteção do regime e são considerados dhimmis (pessoas protegidas) na lei Sharia islâmica. É uma forma de dizer que vocês (os cristãos) estão sob nosso regime (islâmico).

Pergunta: Eu ia lhe perguntar sobre as patrulhas que fiscalizam se as mulheres se vestem de modo adequado. Camille Eid: É assim. Algumas vezes utilizam a linha dura e outras, não, dependendo do regime. Sob Khatami, por exemplo, foram um pouco mais liberais porque as crianças podiam mostrar um pouco de sua cabeça. Sob Ahmadinejad é mais restrito.

Pergunta: Atualmente a restrição é maior com a vestimenta completa? Camille Eid: Sim. Só se deve mostrar o rosto. Há mulheres que cobrem as mãos e o rosto.

Pergunta: O número de cristãos é de cerca de 100 mil em uma população de 71 milhões. Como são vistos os cristãos no Irã? Camille Eid: Os cristãos são vistos como minorias étinicas porque são predominantemente armênios, e sírio-caldeus. Temos 80 mil armênios ortodoxos que também são chamados de armênios gregorianos ou apostólicos, 5 mil católicos armênios, e cerca de 20 mil sírio-caldeus, e mais outras comunidades como igrejas latinas, protestantes, que, todas juntas, somam entre 100 e 110 mil cristãos. São vistos como minorias étnicas e, como tais, não é permitido que celebrem seus ritos em parsi (o idioma persa), mas sim em armênio ou caldeu.

Pergunta: Para distingui-los como estrangeiros?- Camille Eid: Não só por isso, mas para evitar que sejam atrativos e compreendidos pelos iranianos locais.

Pergunta: Para evitar que os iranianos se sintam atraídos pela fé cristã? Camille Eid: Sim, para evitar que os iranianos compreendam o que os cristãos dizem. Só houve um caso; foi em Teerã poucos dias depois da morte do Papa João Paulo II, e o sacerdote leu as Escrituras em parsi na presença das autoridades. Este foi um caso excepcional.

Pergunta: Mas ainda assim o Parlamento reserva três assentos para os cristãos. Portanto, os cristãos têm voz dentro da estrutura parlamentarista? Camille Eid: De fato, a República Islâmica conservou a Constituição de 1906, que reserva cinco assentos para as minorias – três para os cristãos, um para os zoroástricos, e outro para os judeus.

Pergunta: Os direitos cristãos estão garantidos pela Constituição? Camille Eid: Não. No artigo 13, é mencionado que todos os iranianos são iguais pela raça e pela língua, mas não se mencionada nada pela religião. No artigo 14, se me permite lê-lo: “todas as comunidades não muçulmanas se absterão de tomar parte em conspirações contra o islã e contra a República islâmica do Irã”. E por último, o artigo 19 estabelece: “todos iranianos de qualquer grupo étnico devem gozar dos mesmos direitos e a cor, raça ou língua não oferecem privilégio algum”. Aqui também não há nenhuma referência à religião.

Pergunta: Mas não diz, dentro do artigo 13 da Constituição, que os cristãos são permitidos de expressar seus desejos e praticar sua fé? Camille Eid: Sempre que não formem parte de conspirações contra a República do Irã. O que significa isso? Significa protestar contra o regime? O problema do Irã é ser um regime teocrático. Assim a oposição ao regime como uma ação política pode ser interpretada como agir contra a República Islâmica. Dentro da comunidade islâmica, estão os liberais e os conservadores. Ao protestar contra o Aiatolá Khamenei estão protestando contra o corpo político do regime ou contra o religioso? Quando o regime político e religioso tem a mesma formação, um ataque contra o corpo político é considerado um ataque a um aspecto religioso do regime teocrático.

Pergunta: Quais as restrições que os cristãos enfrentam em sua vida diária? Camille Eid: Bem, para os cristãos é difícil encontrar trabalhos na administração pública. Mesmo diretores de colégios cristãos são muçulmanos, mas com uma exceção. Em Esfahan, há três ou quatro anos, quando o governo nomeou um armênio para o Colégio Armênio. Mas na maioria dos casos os diretores das escolas cristãs são muçulmanos. Isso para os poucos colégios cristãos que ficaram após os confiscos de 1979 e 1980. Outro exemplo no Exército. Há alguns anos descobriram que um oficial, o coronel Hamid Pourmand, havia se convertido ao cristianismo. Foi processado e foi levado à corte marcial, mas graças à pressão internacional pôde abandonar o Irã. É muito difícil que os cristãos estejam em cargos altos do governo no Irã.

Pergunta: Que vida tem um muçulmano convertido? Camille Eid: Nada pode confessar sua fé dentro do Irã. Só é possível se for ao estrangeiro. Conheço duas famílias iranianas na Itália que são convertidas. Uma das famílias cruzou a fronteira entre Irã e Turquia no inverno. Foi difícil, mas conseguiram asilo. Dentro do Irã não podiam expressar ou mostrar sua fé porque enfrentariam a morte. Não é Fácil.

Pergunta: Queria tocar na questão da fuga de cristãos do Irã após a revolução islâmica de 1979. Cerca da metade da população cristã abandonou o país e existe, até onde pude ler e entender, cerca de 10 mil famílias que abandonam o Irã a cada ano. O que significa isso para a comunidade cristã no Irã? Camille Eid: Tanto os muçulmanos quanto os não muçulmanos sofrem com a pressão política, mas os cristãos sofrem o dobro, porque é o aspecto político do regime que é questionado pela maioria dos iranianos e, sobre este fato, há a pressão religiosa para os não muçulmanos. Essa é a razão desta fuga massiva e, de fato, há um verdadeiro perigo de desaparecimento, de uma extinção do cristianismo no Irã.

* * *

Esta entrevista foi realizada por Mark Riedemann para o programa de TV “Lá onde Deus chora”, um programa semanal produzido por Catholic Radio and Television Network (CRTN), em parceria com a organização cristã católica Ajuda à Igreja que Sofre. Mais informação em www.aisbrasil.org.br, www.fundacao-ais.pt

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Lapidação: um guia

Via Creeping Sharia [http://creepingsharia.wordpress.com/]

Amplify’d from news.nationalpost.com

In Saturday’s National Post we look at the brutal practice of stoning. This method of execution is still practiced in certain countries, notably Iran, where it is used to punish adulterers and other criminals. The graphic below looks at how a stoning occurs (click on graphic for a full-size version):

Part one

Part two

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O regime iraniano associa-se a um movimento pró-nazi

Is Iran's Regime Officially Running--Or Merely Helping--a Pro-Nazi Site?

Amplify’d from rubinreports.blogspot.com

By Barry Rubin Is Iran’s government sponsoring an Internet site that extols the German Nazis, their history and achievements, including the antisemitism that the current Iranian regime also supports? Or is it merely permitting one to operate in its highly censored communications' system? Here are the facts. There is a discussion group site entitled IranNazi that has an Iranian internet URL. It is written in Persian and seems to have begun on August 24. All the material on the site is pro-Nazi and features pictures of Adolph Hitler, the swastika, and goose-stepping German soldiers. There is an English-language part as well. This site pretends to be an association for the research of Nazism and to be "completely historical and scientific." کاملا پژوهشی و علمی تاریخی است It includes such topics as  claims that The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, the well-known antisemitic forgery is true; insistence that the mass murder of Jews by the Nazis never happened and is in fact a lie; makes the prediction that Israel will collapse in five years; and highlights cartoons and satire ridiculing the Holocaust. All four of these positions are also taken by the Iranian government and official media. The main page includes the following message: این تارنما طبق قوانین جمهوری اسلامی ایران و تحت نظارت کارگروه رسانه های دیجیتال وزارت فرهنگ و ارشاد جمهوری اسلامی فعالیت می کند . In English it means: "This website is under Islamic Republic of Iran laws and it is under the supervision of the working committee on Digital Media of the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance." The site is registered to this place under the IRNIC, Iran's domain manager and an arm of the government. It is owned by a company in Isfahan. There is also evidence, however, that the site goes through a server in Arizona. The Phoenix hosting company is called Atjeu.com.  This doesn't prove, however, that the site is not sponsored by the Iranian government. It does go out on the state-controlled server and is allowed to claim government sponsorship. Iran does not have freedom of speech and certainly not freedom of the Internet. Given the tight censorship in Iran and the fact that all sites are closely monitored, permission to publish--especially to claim government sponsorship--is evidence of state backing. So is this, then, a state-backed site, showing just how far the regime has gone in boosting Nazism historically and antisemitism or a private initiative by some Iranian immigrants in the United States who are supporters of the Iranian regime? Is the statement on the site, which has not been suppressed by the government, accurate? It isn't completely clear. A very well-informed and highly credible Iranian notes that the fact that it isn't blocked "is a significant indication that the government at least does not have problem with it." The deputy minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance is Muhammad Ali Ramin, who was President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's advisor on Holocaust issue and founder of Holocaust Institute in Tehran and the president of the conference of Holocaust; A Global Perspective, which denied that the mass murder of Jews never took place. A reader asked me whether anyone would be surprised to see something like this happen. Obviously, one more Internet site doesn't prove anything huge. Yet the fact that it is in line with the Iranian government's public positions is a reminder of just what these stances are and what they signify. Well, except for the explicit boosting of the German Nazi regime itself--rather than just denying its crimes and basically endorsing its policies--this is not really different from the regime's positions. It is shocking, but more on a symbolic than a substantive level. If this is a private group lying about its sponsorship that point should be made clear, but it still reminds us of what the current Iranian regime is saying...and doing. My broader answer is that while many observers won't be surprised, given the regime's hatred of Jews as well as of Israel, the national home of the Jewish people, there are others who will be genuinely shocked. The conventional wisdom in many quarters that Iran's regime is a rational government that looks only to its national self-interest. There is something to be said for this view. We have seen times when Iran's rulers--some if not all--exercised caution and showed that the regime's survival was their highest priority. The decision to end the war with Iraq in 1988 and avoiding direct aggression or armed conflict with other neighbors provide examples. On the other hand, Iran has been able to be more provocative without incurring armed conflict because the other side, including the United States, is so reluctant to counter its actions, including state sponsorship of terrorism and covert, indirect attacks on American soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq. Certainly, the answer is not to launch an armed attack on Iran. But the proper answer has been to exert sufficient threats, pressure, and support for Iran's foes to deter, contain, and frighten Iran into being more cautious. The Iranian regime is a radical Islamist government, not a Nazi or fascist one, though there are points in common. But also as I've written elsewhere, Iran's government is the closest thing we've seen to an irrational, ideologically motivated ruler since the fall of Germany in 1945. There have been other such rulers--Idi Amin in Uganda, the Cambodian Communists, the Afghan Taliban come to mind. But we have seen how these regimes have behaved and how many people they've murdered. And none of those others, including Nazi Germany itself, had nuclear weapons. Barry Rubin is director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center and editor of the Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA) Journal. His latest books are The Israel-Arab Reader (seventh edition), The Long War for Freedom: The Arab Struggle for Democracy in the Middle East (Wiley), and The Truth About Syria (Palgrave-Macmillan). The website of the GLORIA Center is at http://www.gloria-center.org and of his blog, Rubin Reports, http://www.rubinreports.blogspot.com/.

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Irão: clérigo cristão condenado à morte por crime de apostasia

Amplify’d from www.jihadwatch.org

Islamic apologists in the U.S. routinely deny that Islamic law mandates that apostates from Islam be murdered. Unfortunately for the apostates, the facts are otherwise.

Muhammad, the prophet of Islam and supreme example of conduct for the Muslim (cf. Qur’an 33:21), said: “Whoever changes his Islamic religion, then kill him.” (Bukhari 9.84.57)

The Tafsir al-Qurtubi, a classic and thoroughly mainstream exegesis of the Qur’an, says this about Qur’an 2:217: “Scholars disagree about whether or not apostates are asked to repent. One group say that they are asked to repent and, if they do not, they are killed. Some say they are given an hour and others a month. Others say that they are asked to repent three times, and that is the view of Malik. Al-Hasan said they are asked a hundred times. It is also said that they are killed without being asked to repent.”

All the schools of Islamic jurisprudence all teach that a sane adult male who leaves Islam must be killed. They have some disagreements about what must he done with other types of people who leave Islam, but they have no disagreement on that.

The internationally renowned Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, who has been praised as a “reformist” by pseudo-academic John Esposito and who has said this about Islamic apostasy law: “That is why the Muslim jurists are unanimous that apostates must be punished, yet they differ as to determining the kind of punishment to be inflicted upon them. The majority of them, including the four main schools of jurisprudence (Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi`i, and Hanbali) as well as the other four schools of jurisprudence (the four Shiite schools of Az-Zaidiyyah, Al-Ithna-`ashriyyah, Al-Ja`fariyyah, and Az-Zaheriyyah) agree that apostates must be executed.”

“Iranian Pastor Accused of ‘Thought Crimes’ to Die by Hanging,” by Michael Ireland for Assist News Service, November 13 via JW:

TEHRAN, IRAN (ANS) — An Iranian court has passed down a death sentence on a Christian pastor, who was found guilty of so-called “thought crimes.”

According to www.presenttruthmn.com, the official verdict has now been delivered in writing to Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani, stating that he is to be hung for the crime of apostasy…. Read more at www.jihadwatch.org

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Para uma verdadeira compreensão do islão: a aversão aos cães

Os muçulmanos não se limitam a ter aversão pelos politeístas, judeus⁽¹⁾ e cristãos⁽²⁾, pelos não-crentes em geral⁽³⁾: também os cães são detestados e perseguidos:

Sahih al-Bukhari: Volume 4, Book 54, Number 450:

Narrated Salim's father:
Once Gabriel promised the Prophet (that he would visit him, but Gabriel did not come) and later on he said, "We, angels, do not enter a house which contains a picture or a dog."

Sahih Muslim: Book 010, Number 3811:

Abdullah (b. Umar) (Allah be pleased with them) reported: Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) ordered the killing of dogs and we would send (men) in Medina and its corners and we did not spare any dog that we did not kill, so much so that we killed the dog that accompanied the wet she-camel belonging to the people of the desert.

«Ah, mas isso são coisas da Idade Média», dirá o leitor mais céptico. Infelizmente, não é bem assim: as ahadith de Bukhari e de Muslim são consideradas autênticas pelos sunitas (90% dos muçulmanos) e perfeitamente ortodoxas e canónicas. Consistem de relatos da vida, dos ditos e feitos do profeta Mafoma. Ora, de acordo com a doutrina segundo a qual Mafoma é o homem perfeito e o seu exemplo deve ser modelo de conduta para todos os crentes, por toda a eternidade⁽⁴⁾, o que o profeta Mafoma fez, tal como o relatam as ahadith, é para ser emulado. Para o provar, surgem frequentemente várias actualizações hodiernas das práticas do islão primitivo:

«Dogs are considered "unclean" under Islamic tradition but, while relatively rare in Iran, some people do keep them as pets.By issuing a fatwa -- a religious ruling -- Grand Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi has sent a clear message that this trend must stop.
"Friendship with dogs is a blind imitation of the West," he was quoted as saying in Javan daily. "There are lots of people in the West who love their dogs more than their wives and children."
Guard dogs and sheep dogs are considered acceptable under Islamic law but Iranians who carry dogs in their cars or take them to public parks can be stopped by police and fined.
The Koran does not explicitly prohibit contact with dogs, Shirazi said, but Islamic tradition showed it to be so. "We have lots of narrations in Islam that say dogs are unclean."
The interpretation of religious rules on personal conduct is a constant source of debate and potential conflict in Iran which has been an Islamic republic since a revolution ousted the Western-backed Shah in 1979.
In a television interview last week, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad weighed in on the issue of the Islamic dress code, saying women who fail to cover their hair completely should not be harassed by the police.
Morality police are conducting their annual crackdown and women who reveal strands of hair are liable to be stopped in the streets for failing to respect the dress code, or "hijab."
Ahmadinejad's surprisingly liberal view was condemned by fellow hard-liner politicians and senior clerics "I wish he had not said those words about the hijab," Grand Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati told the faithful during the week's Friday prayers, in a rare criticism of the president.
"We are grappling with many problems including economic and political ones but the issues of morality and ethical security are among the important issues that cannot be ignored," he said.
Tehran University has set up a thinktank "to investigate the problems related to hijab," the representative of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to the university announced on Monday.»

Via Jihad Watch.

⁽¹⁾ - Alcorão 5:82: «Constatarás que os piores inimigos dos fiéis, entre os humanos, são os judeus e os idólatras. (...)»  
⁽²⁾ - Alcorão 5: 51: «Ó fiéis, não tomeis por confidentes os judeus nem os cristãos; que sejam confidentes entre si. Porém, quem dentre vós os tomar por confidentes, certamente será um deles; e Deus não encaminha os iníquos.»  
⁽³⁾ - Alcorão 98:6: «Em verdade, os incrédulos, entre os adeptos do Livro, bem como os idólatras, entrarão no fogo infernal, onde permanecerão eternamente. Estas são as piores das criaturas!»  
⁽⁴⁾ - Alcorão 33:21: «Realmente, tendes no Mensageiro de Deus um excelente exemplo para aqueles que esperam contemplar Deus, deparar-se com o Dia do Juízo Final, e invocam Deus frequentemente.»