Video: "European Races Barbaric" Claims Iran's Ayatollah Khameini

This is probably one of the funniest things I've seen in a long while.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khameini telling what looks to be a group of hijab-clad women that:

"...the European races are barbaric. They wear freshly pressed suits and ties, and they smell of eau de cologne, but deep down, they still have the same barbaric nature known from history. They kill with ease. They murder people without any problem. Therefore, beating women in their homes is of no consequence to the (Europeans) and Americans, whereas in an Islamic environment, it is unimaginable."

Pot..kettle..black.

The Reason Iran Is So Intransigent- The Twelfth Imam

Former CIA agent Charles Faddis, who worked the Near East and South Asia region for 20 years, explains why dealing with Iran in a rational manner is futile. It's all about the Mahdi (the 12th Imam aka the Hidden Imam).

In a commentary in the Tampa Tribune, he writes:

Several years ago, prior to my retirement from the CIA, I was meeting with a senior Iranian asset in the Middle East. I had finished debriefing him on the intelligence he had to provide, and we had launched into a more expansive conversation about the overall direction of American policy toward Iran. I was trying to explain the rationale behind our sanctions regime and the thought process that had led us to conclude that we could persuade the Islamic Republic of Iran to modify its behavior.

The asset interrupted me. "You really don't have any idea who you are dealing with, do you?" he asked. I told him I was not sure I understood what he meant.

The source elaborated. We were under the illusion we were dealing with rational actors. We were not. We were under the illusion we were playing a game, which would stretch out over many years. Our adversaries in Iran shared no such belief. They expected this conflict to reach its climax in the very near future.

They also knew, to a moral certainty, that they would win.

Iran is an overwhelmingly Islamic nation, and almost all Iranians belong to the Twelver sect of the Shia branch of Islam. This sect awaits the return of the 12th Imam, or Mahdi, a direct descendant of the Prophet Muhammed anointed by Allah himself. According to the Twelvers, the Mahdi has been in hiding in caves since the 9th century.

The Mahdi has been hidden for 1,200 years now, but he will return just before the Day of Judgment. According to the Hadith, his return will be preceded by three years of chaos, violence and cataclysmic events. He will rule over the world for a period of seven years, eliminate all tyranny and oppression, and usher in an era of peace. He is, in many ways, the Muslim equivalent of the Jewish Messiah or the Second Coming of Christ. He is, however, the only one of these apocalyptic figures who expressly intends violent world conquest.

Some Twelvers, including the current president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and the Iranian Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khameinei, believe that they are to prepare the way for the return of the Mahdi. In order to do so, they are to bring on the state of chaos and destruction, which will precede the Madhi's return. The worse things get; the faster they win.

The source's point was not simply to remind me of the tenets of the Twelver sect, with which I was already familiar. It was to stress the literal sense in which these tenets were understood by Ahmadinejad, Khameinei and their supporters. These were not, the source stressed, metaphors or parables. Ahmadinejad did not understand the story of the Mahdi to be a reference to some end state in which the world would live in peace and harmony. He understood it in a completely literal, simplistic way. He accepted it word for word as the absolute truth.

Read the rest here.

It's fascinating, and reaffirms my belief that the reason Iran is being so intransigent about everything is that they are bucking for a major confrontation that will herald the 12th Imam.

More Gender Segregation In Iran- Schoolgirls To Get Separate Text Books

Saudi Arabia ranks as one of the most backward, unenlightened countries in the world in terms of how it treats its women folk, in spite of a few paltry attempts at reform. Not to miss out on the fun, it looks like Iran is making huge strides towards joining in that backwardness.

Gender segregation in education isn't enough for the Iranian government, they have now decided that school girls and boys should have separate textbooks.

Why? No-one is saying.

Iran's minister of education, Hamid-Reza Hajibabai, made the announcement during a press conference in Tehran on January 16. He said the ministry plans to publish school textbooks that reflect the country's educational system, which requires boys and girls to study at different schools.

Iran’s Mehr news agency quoted Hajibabai as saying that in line with gender segregation in the education system, "education, training, and textbooks should be adjusted accordingly."

"In the next year, comprehensive education reforms will occur in all fields, including teachers, classes, books, and teaching methods," Hajibabai said, without revealing any specifics.

Even preschool children are now subject to gender segregation.

Apparently gender separation started after that unholy Islamic revolution in the late 1970s, which set back the Persian nation centuries.

But according to Hojatoleslam Nabiollah Fazlali, a rep for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, co-education in universities is like "putting meat in front of a cat" because, I guess, he thinks we're nothing more than animals at heart, with no self restraint. This was at a speech given at Khajeh Nasir Toosi University of Technology in 2009.

At least they allow females to get an education. Afghan women haven't fared so well in that area.

Iranian Protest version of Pink Floyd's "Another Brick In The Wall" Goes Viral

Maybe I'm dating myself once again, but remember Pink Floyd's "Another Brick In The Wall" from their rock opera "The Wall"? It appears some young Iranian exiles (two brothers who are members of the Canadian rock band "Blurred Vision") have revamped the song's lyrics (with Pink Floyd's blessing) in an effort to rally support against the authoritarian leadership in Iran. Entitled "Another Brick In The Wall (Hey Ayatollah, Leave Those Kids Alone!" they simply exchange the word teacher for 'mullah' and 'ayatollah', and they have a video (which has gone viral) with a very simple yet powerful message.

It's up to the youth of Iran to take their country back, since they're the ones who got it there in the first place. More info here.

Religious Hypocrisy In Action: Iran's Ayatollah Khamenei Loves Him Some Caviar and Dirty Jokes

So, Iran's grand religious poobah Ayatollah Khamenei loves trout and caviar! Who would have thought. Now, trout is pretty commonplace, at least in the U.S., but caviar? Excuse me, but that stuff is dang expensive, so why the heck is Khamenei chowing down on caviar when the people of Iran aren't doing so great economically speaking. And that's not the only major indulgence, according to a defector from Khamenei's private guard who spilled the beans on the religious leader.

A catalogue of the private opulence and eccentric tastes of 70-year-old Ayatollah Khamenei and his family has been compiled by Iran's opposition Green Movement from the accounts of the defector, who is said to be in hiding in France.

Smart man to be hiding in France; we all know what happens to people who criticize the Iranian regime. Although I'm not sure how safe he will be. So, other than his penchant for caviar and trout, he is also

... an avid hoarder of collectables from bejewelled pipes to fine horses; and that he suffers regular bouts of depression which are treated in part by audiences with a mid-ranking mullah who tells vulgar jokes.

Living a double life as an austere theocrat in public, and an epicure in private- no wonder he's depressed. And vulgar jokes? Ha! I guess dirty jokes are in and Prozac is out. And that doesn't sound particularly pious to be using vulgar jokes as a form of therapy. And the man's a collector of fine (and obviously expensive) things to boot. He owns 170 antique walking sticks and at least 100 of the finest horses in Iran, not to mention his palaces- all 6 of them.

Ayatollah Khamenei is claimed to have accumulated a sprawling private court that stretches across six palaces, including Niavaran, the former resident of the Shah in Tehran. Two of the palaces - Niavaran and Vakilabad - are equipped with deep, reinforced concrete nuclear bunkers said to be capable of withstanding nuclear attack. A fully functioning hospital is overseen by a former health minister.

Then we have the following:

Claims from three intelligence officials, who have also fled Iran, have additionally documented the Khamenei family's wide-reaching business connections, including interests in European manufacturers, African mobile phone companies and international commodities markets.

You wonder where all their money is stashed. Switzerland, probably. Or the Cayman Islands. But the opposition Green Movement's exiled leader, film director Mohsen Makmalbaf seems to have information regarding his investments and wants the West to act on that info.

Mr Makmalbaf claimed the Green Movement had gathered information about the Khamenei family's investments abroad. "If the Western governments are serious enough in putting pressure on the regime by applying economic sanctions, then they should follow these leads and find these bank accounts and confiscate their deposits to be returned to the Iranian people at a later time," he said.

Before defecting, the bodyguard was one of a 200 personal security force for Khameini. I suppose you'd need that many when you are so loved. The fact that he denied rumours that Khameini also indulges in opium, which seem to be pretty widespread in Iran, seems to lend credence to his claims regarding the Ayatollah's other excesses.

None of this is surprising, of course, considering most of the ruling elite in authoritarian, totalitarian, communist, Islamic or other oppressive regimes always prosper while the population suffers.

There's nothing worse than religious hypocrisy.