Web Developer Sentenced To Death In Iran 368
An anonymous reader points out the case of Saeed Malekpour, an Iranian-born permanent resident of Canada who worked as a web developer. In 2008, during a visit to Iran, Malekpour was arrested and detained by Iranian authorities on charges that he designed and moderated "adult content websites." In 2009, he was sentenced to death for "acting against the national security, insulting and desecrating the principles of Islam, and agitating the public mind." Malekpour wrote photo-uploading software, and in a letter he sent from prison, he said it was used by porn sites without his knowledge. This week an Iranian court reviewed the case and confirmed that the death sentence was an acceptable punishment. According to one Canadian publication, "Human rights monitors believe that Malekpour, one of a number of people held on Internet-related charges, is trapped by a convoluted justice system that is manipulated by rival factions in Iran."
In other words, (Score:5, Insightful)
You're in danger the second you step into Iran. Don't do business there, don't visit there.
Re:In other words, (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:In other words, (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:In other words, (Score:4, Funny)
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Yarr, tharr be Photoshop off the starboard bow!
Oh... wrong pirates.
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Nowhere near as remote, inaccessible and dangerous as Antarctica.
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I just need Africa and Australia to complete the set!
Re:In other words, (Score:5, Insightful)
What really irks me is how a random group of Americans can be discovered by Iranians wandering into Iraq, the media is told OH THEY'RE JUST HIKERS, and a single person finds the story credible.
Re:In other words, (Score:5, Insightful)
It is credible. Hiking's not my passion, but in mine there are "places to go" that are considered way better that what you can find in the US. If you've advanced far enough in your sport and want to push the limits ever further, you have to go to places that are dangerous. The danger you intend to face is environmental, but the countries that happen to house them also contain political dangers, as in your country hates my country.
It's completely plausible. It's also possible they're spies, but it seems like a really dumb cover story. I don't speculate which is true because without direct info I can only say both are possible.
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First of all, why do they have to go to Iraq to go hiking?
One possibility: Their CIA or DIA superiors ordered them to. Just because the Iranians are bastards about who they'll execute doesn't mean that they weren't spies, and the US intelligence agencies would definitely lie to the US public about whether they were spies in order to avoid blowing people's cover. In fact, they may even use a completely false story to try to convince the public that going to war with Iran is a good idea, if they have leadership that is part of the old and honorable profession of sta
Re:In other words, (Score:5, Insightful)
Since when do you have to enter the US to get arrested by it? look at the megaupload guys...
Re:In other words, (Score:5, Informative)
Or live in the UK: Richard O'Dwyer [guardian.co.uk]
Re:In other words, (Score:5, Informative)
It works both ways.
Fact Sheet on the U.S.-UK Extradition Treaty [usembassy.gov]
Independent review of the United Kingdom's extradition arrangements [homeoffice.gov.uk]
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Umm, a smaller population should mean a smaller number of extradition requests, sounds like the U.K. is being screwed by an order of magnitude.
Oh, I understand your point, a larger population means a larger number of rich assholes to take offense at your mostly harmless activities. Yeah, maybe that's possible, but I didn't check how many were bullshit extraditions. It might be Americans just throw a shit ton of people in jail for no good reason though. Occam's Razor.
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Lets hope the Arab spring gets to Iran and you and your fellow travelers got what the milice did in France post ww2 - if your lucky a clean death by firing squad against the wall.
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Great comparison between justice systems in Iran and USA. Those who moderated the parent insightful deserve being sent to Iran to get a clue. They should bring their porn collections for initial evidence.
Re:In other words, (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:In other words, (Score:5, Insightful)
More than Gitmo, you can cite Al Awlaki, an American citizen we executed over making partisan videos. The new standard in America is free speech, so long as the Feds don't object to it.
Re:In other words, (Score:5, Insightful)
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You can happily live in any country without being involved with the legal system (though definition of happiness may vary substantially). The question is what happens if you do become involved, for one reason or another. Do you honestly think you'll receive the same kind of treatment in both?
Re:In other words, (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:In other words, (Score:4, Interesting)
"Great comparison between justice systems in Iran and USA. "
Buddy, you don't have the first clue about what REALLY goes on in the US "justice system".
I mean you have no fucking idea. All you "know" is what you have been told by the people who
want you to believe you live in a free and just society. Well, the truth runs counter to the idea that
the US is a free and just society.
I have done time in the US system.
In the US, torture does happen, to US citizens. It's called "diesel therapy". Ask any
prison guard about this phrase. There are also people who have been locked up for years
without a trial. The method used for this is for a judge to order the person sent to a prison
facility which has psychological "expertise". The person can be held there with no trial for
years, and his friends and family don't even know what has happened to him. Yes, this is terrifying,
and it is real. No, I don't have a citation, because the government makes it difficult to acquire
evidence about these things. But I will stake my life that everything I wrote is true.
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Get back to us when you can be put to death in the US for making a porno in Canada and we'll talk.
(Who the fuck modded this Insightful?)
Re:In other words, (Score:5, Insightful)
No, in the US you only need to be born black in Detroit to be put to death.
Meanwhile hosting a website that links to other websites can earn you 20 years in jail when you've never even fucking visited the fucking country.
I haven't even mentioned the decade of torture and false imprisonment in a foreign country for the evil crime of "pissing off someone that works for the Americans". Or do you really believe that everyone in Guantanamo is guilty?
Trust me, from where I'm sat the US poses are far greater threat to my ongoing life and freedom than Iran does.
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Totally agree. For instance, now I mentioned the CIA. They are reviewing this conversation now. Iranian agencies don't have the capacity.
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Naah, CIA is not that good with new SIGINT, that's all The NSA.
And ooops, now're they're on us.
Everybody say hi to the NSA!
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Strangely enough the CIA, which is reviewing this thread, doesn't mind you bad mouthing it. In fact, I think they enjoy knowing that they are feared. They do, however, have a problem if you start talking about blowing things up or something of that ilk. I can't imagine why. And I'm pretty sure they enjoy looking at Porn so the dude would have been fine on a trip to the US.
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Exactly, it may be true that our justice system committing these sorts of abuses less frequently than say the Iranians, but its the same capriciousness and ethical emptiness seen there.
It absolutely needs to be pointed out now while its still possible to do something about, that does not require firearms.
Re:In other words, (Score:5, Informative)
it may be true that our justice system committing these sorts of abuses less frequently than say the Iranians
Considering how many people we arrest each year, and how comparatively few the Iranians arrest (the US is the world leader in arrests and imprisonment), I am not even sure that is true.
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Re:In other words, (Score:5, Informative)
He's reacting to the equivalence fallacies.
This is what happens on Slashdot every single time:
1. Some other country trespasses egregiously on human rights (e.g. death penalty for software unwittingly used by porn sites)
2. First comment says "this is no different than the USA", gets modded +5
3. Someone responds to that post with "that's not a fair comparison since the US reacts differently for [crime in topic]"
4. Someone like you twists #3's words around to frame him as an apologist with low standards when in fact he was calling out the non-sequitur for having no logical connection.
5. Someone chimes in about how this is a cultural phenomenon and we should sympathize with abusive foreign governments [slashdot.org] (to which I can only laugh because it begs the silly question: why doesn't the world sympathize with the abusive US government for reasons of cultural understanding?)
Yes of course you SHOULD be vigilant in policing the abuses by the government, but when you can no longer separate bad from worse, you will have lost all hope of separating good from bad. If you want a country to get better, then you better know exactly where it stands in relation to others, those which are better than it and those which are worse than it. Only what that self-knowledge can you seek to improve. Defeatist like #2 have neither the insight nor the inclination to improve a country.
Re:In other words, (Score:5, Interesting)
Well actually, Obama just executed an American citizen (Al Awlaki) by drone attack without any evidence, not even a show trial, and it appears that the reason was posting partisan videos in which he talked smack about America. So at least in Iran you get a show trial before your execution. The fact that people look at this story and think "Iran is Evil" without thinking the same of the Feds, should create huge cognitive dissonance. That it does not, suggests to me that the civil liberties our country was founded on don't have much time for this world, at least not in America.
Re:In other words, (Score:5, Insightful)
Degree doesn't matter.
That is an utterly ludicrous statement. Degree absolutely does matter, there's a huge difference between killing someone and fining them, for example, even if both are abuses of human rights. The fact that one abuse is of lesser degree doesn't make it right, or acceptable, but it does mean that its less bad than the abuse of greater degree.
If my country tortures just one person, it's lost any kind of moral high ground from which to cast criticism
Now you've changed your argument from "degree doesn't matter" to "quantity doesn't matter". That I can agree with, not so much because quantity truly doesn't matter but because accepting a given degree of abuse in small quantities almost inevitable results in that abuse in greater quantity over time.
I do have to point out that there are different forms of torture, which constitute different degrees of abuse, however. None are acceptable, and I do not approve of my country engaging in torture at all, but there are still differences between playing loud music all night, waterboarding and flaying.
US versus Iran (Score:5, Insightful)
Well, let's see here. Maybe not *in* the US, but *by* the US:
you can be gunned down by Apache helicopters for peacefully assembling
you can be thrown into indefinite jail on the word of a paid informant
If you are a foreign leader, you can be deposed and hung
or deposed and brought into the US to stand trial for breaking US laws
If you are a foreign citizen, you can be extradited and put in jail for breaking civil law
If you are a US citizen the president can have you killed by the CIA
You can be tortured by the US (for some definitions of torture)
You can be shipped to another country and tortured (for all definitions of torture)
I dunno, it's a tough choice. Is Iran worse than the US because it visits harsh penalties on a few people, or is the US worse because it's actions are milder but more widespread?
Because, as we know, we can only oppose one evil at a time. Comparing the relative evil helps us to make that choice.
Oh, and let's not forget China.
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> You are in danger the second you enter a country with a failing justice system and the death penalty,
Thanks for reaffirming.
> including the U.S....
Nope.
wow (Score:5, Funny)
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As the poor bastard that has to maintain some of your shit I would have to disagree.
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you're both fired.
Savages (Score:2, Interesting)
Canada should go to war over this. Another country is murdering one of their citizens (Iranian born or not) on trumped-up charges. Are there any crimes in this savage country that don't deserve the death sentence?
Re:Savages (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Savages (Score:5, Interesting)
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Yes. Arar was wrongfully sent home to Syria, a country he is a citizen of, and they tortured him. He was cleared of any charges by them and a Canadian commision. He was later apoligized to by the Canadian Premier and awarded 10.5 million dollars(Canadian). A clear case of wrong doing by over zealous governments. It still hardly compares to the case above. Want to bet this guy survives to collect any money? Would you really rather take you chance with Iranian justice instead of US or Canadian? Don't
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Interesting reading. You do realize he was captured in a firefight in Afghanistan don't you? That is the very definition of enemy combatant. He pled guilty to five charges and is serving an 8 year sentence for murder. Hardly sounds like a tourist and at least he can look forward to going home one day. I'm not a fan of Guantanamo Bay, if people are caught they should be tried and sentenced if guilty or sent home if innocent. This crap of holding on to people for years with no trial is definetly wrong a
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Seriously the guy pled guilty. It's not a kangaroo court, they follow rules even if those rules are not unanimously approved by everyone. Evidently the torture isn't of an all consuming nature there since many of the detanees maintain their innocence. Many have been released due to lack of evidence which doesn't happen in kangaroo courts. Again, while I don't agree with what goes on at Guantanamo it's not even close to what passes for justice in Iran.
Help me list other capital crimes in Iran (Score:3)
- witchcraft
- apostasy
- blasphemy
- homosexuality
- crimes against chastity (i.e. the crime of being raped)
And Iran executes more people, per-capita , than any other nation
Also worth mentioning, Iran executes people for these "crimes" in the most gruesome, and painful ways possible: beheading, hanging, even stoning. The hangings are usually suspension hangings which are far more painful, and last much longer.
Iran also executes children as young as nine years old.
Other than execution, Iranian punishments inclu
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After observing the Canadian conservative government go for a while now, I would say don't expect them to do anything. They'll just ignore it, because 1) he's Iranian, 2) it won't contribute to get them reelected and 3) it won't contribute to some good friends in the prairies.
At most, what they could do is revoke his permanent residency and put some security flag on him (ie. put him on some potential dangerous people list).
The conservative, not only do they fail at understanding anything related to interna
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Yeah. I mean it's not like Canada can do much after all, after it tells it's citizens. Don't go there. And it can't do much diplomatically besides recalling it's ambassadorship, and besides it's not like we're already in a roll with them after refusing them another embassy in the country because they're terrorist scuzz suckers in the first place either. You don't know as much as you think you know, let alone understand as much as you think you know.
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I wonder how you can bring out such bold statements following a single vague comment on my part. THAT I don't understand.
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Diplomacy would be a better move... It's quite likely that Canada could achieve his release through diplomatic channels. Or at least, it was quite likely before the current administration took over.... Now, I'm not so sure. But going to war with Iran wouldn't achieve anything, nor would it be a particularly intelligent move. Far more people would die.
Part of the problem is that this person is a dual citizen. He's both Iranian and Canadian. If he had renounced his Iranian citizenship when he got his Canadian
Re:Savages (Score:5, Insightful)
I think it is bizarre that Iran apparently has people who track the authors of software used to host pornography and associates it with their residency status and availability for arrest in Iran.
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Well, if you're a pervert in Iran, you either go to jail ... or the secret service.
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Wait and See (Score:4, Interesting)
We've had a similar case here in NL (Score:5, Insightful)
The question is: why oh why do all of these people go back to fscking Iran ?!
Re:We've had a similar case here in NL (Score:5, Funny)
Re:We've had a similar case here in NL (Score:5, Informative)
Convoluted Justice? (Score:2)
FTFY.
Mixed thoughts (Score:3)
On the one hand, one might argue that Malekpour knew - or should have known - what he risked by returning to Iran.
OTOH, the death penalty is heinous in and by itself.
The question that comes to my mind, and that I would very much like to have feedback upon, is: does this case deserve a campaign, under "us" computer programmers, geeks, architects, database tuners and birds of many digital feathers, to free Malekpour ?
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The summary itself even says that he didn't know porn sites were using his software, why would somebody know or even suspect they would be arrested for such a thing?
Pay attention to compiler warnings! (Score:5, Insightful)
You know, it's easy to just glaze over things like, "conversion from int to long," "unused variable," or "insulting and desecrating the principles of Islam." But it's better to fix them . . . it may save your life!
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Well it's obviously a feature come egypt today too.
Death penalty (Score:2, Insightful)
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Re:Death penalty (Score:5, Insightful)
While religion can be destructive at times, it does do a lot of good. I'm an atheist, but stating that religion should not be allowed is a violation of human rights. Prosecuting every religion is the same as prosecuting just one, which is often what happens in countries like Iran. However, the death penalty definitely should be banned.
MEGAUPLOAD (Score:2)
The flip side of megaupload. Who knows which of the ~200 governments doesn't like what you do?
Avaaz? (Score:2)
Maybe a case for avaaz.org [avaaz.org]?
british soldiers (Score:2)
Remember all those british sailors who got captured for sailing into their territorial waters?
Again, forced confessions, torture.
Iran is probably just flexing its muscles in an attempt to assert sovereignty.
The RIAA and MPAA are jealous (Score:3)
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Globalized injustice (Score:2)
Globalized injustice...
Iran currently has one among the most insulting and desecrating governments on planet Earth.
It is one among many countries who detain foreign nationals without a proper legal system, and like many other 3rd world countries it has retained the death penalty.
How many countries act on these lethal principles? I don't know, but the list is long and is typically related to countries where the populace and those who believe in supernatural forces have a say on the political agenda.
A Pitiful lot, these iranians and muslims (Score:4, Insightful)
So, a piece of software for photo uploading can damage islam? WHat a f*cking weak religion.
Looks more like maybe he was the sole inheritor of property of his father, and someone wanted him out of the picture. So they came up with the grand charge of 'insulting islam' and bribed some judges..
Tell me, according to these islamists, is there any person alive on earth (except those unwashed bearded mullas) who are not guilty of insulting islam some way or the other?
Heck, everyone connected with any part of internet would all be guilty of insulting islam and therefore target for murder, then.
Porn is bad but not actual sexual assault? (Score:2)
So the Iranian government is worried about porn, but it's okay for its interrogators to threaten sexual assault? How does this make any sense?
Governments are inherently evil. (Score:3)
Never forget [slashdot.org] that governments are inherently evil, because they occupy the space that is historically occupied by the inherently evil forces that fight for power over people.
That's why Constitution is important - law above the government set by the people to limit what government can do.
That is why people who should really be supporting a system of laws set by the Constitution, but who find themselves defending government's action that go above and beyond any Constitutional restrictions are so confused. Often those are the people who want government to cuddle them and give them entitlements and put obligations on others to provide those entitlements, but then government gains strength over all people and those who rely on entitlements are the ones who are going to suffer at the end, because those don't want entitlements can already take care of themselves and always see a government for what it is.
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Constitution by itself means nothing. All dark regimes (including Iran and N. Korea) have some kind of constitution - it doesn't prevent the governments from either completely ignoring it or adjusting the constitution to their needs.
What's really required for the constitution to work is an independent authority with power to enforce it, and much more importantly, people willing to stand for their freedoms.
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Definitely.
Look at the republican debates. Any time that the warmongers on the stage talk about attacking Iran and building the most powerful military in the world that nobody would ever even think about attacking USA - there are applause.
When Ron Paul says: do to others as you want to be done to you - he gets booed by the crowed.
What Ron Paul needs to suggest is that it is not he, who is 'weak on defence', it's the people then, because if asking Congress to declare a proper war is 'weak on defence', then
Any country controlled by religion (Score:4, Insightful)
...are bound by illogical and fantasy rules & regulations that only makes sense to a fanatically indoctrinated mind.
The headline in this post is also typical of the sensationalist kind, yes - it's sad that it's a web developer that got the death sentence, but it would be equally sad that it would be anyone in any other category as well, it's why they're being judged that we should react on - not what status they have in society.
Questions anunswered (Score:5, Interesting)
1/ what's the name of the software (I tried to google him in various file extensions, but could not find him)
2/ list of websites that use it.
Campaign to help (Score:5, Informative)
There's a campaign to help this man: https://peoplewithoutnation.wordpress.com/ [wordpress.com]
Most recently, there's an appeal to write to the Prime Minister of Canada, who hasn't yet spoken out in support of Saeed:
https://peoplewithoutnation.wordpress.com/2012/01/19/take-action-write-a-letter-to-stephen-harper-canadas-prime-minister/ [wordpress.com]
The death sentence could be carried out imminently.
Saeed Malekpour was in Iran to visit his gravely ill father. He was waiting for Canadian citizenship and the Iranian regime are aiming to make an example of him, having tortured him and denied him due process. I think the Canadian government does have a particular moral duty to stand up for him under the circumstances, although really all democratic governments ought to oppose this sort of thing.
The Iranian regime seems to have an interest in intimidating the population (and making an example out of cases that are highly-publicised internally, such as this one) since there's an election coming up in March, as well as the general interest in keeping the population scared.
Amnesty also have some information on the case:
http://www.amnesty.org/en/news/iran-must-halt-execution-web-programmer-2012-01-19 [amnesty.org]
I'm just piecing together some information I've found here, I'm not connected to the case.
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Well, history tells us there is another option. But genocide has gone out of style.
Figures. Now that we got the means to actually do it efficiently...
(yes, I'm a cynic. But just a little)
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Not to mention if you nuke the country, what happens to the oil?
If we bring back the neutron bomb, not much.
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I wonder if Dmitry Sklyarov feels the same way about the U.S.
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Yes, of course. Don't judge something because, regardless of the facts, this other fictional fantasy (redundancy intended) might perhaps with luck (again) be true.
I'll be careful and I'll stick to facts, thank you.
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This is what happens when any country is run by insert religion here. We see it in Iran, Pakistan, Iraq, etc. These countries really are better off under dictators rather than leading themselves, compare Saudi Arabia to Somalia. We will see a lot more of this in the "Arab Spring" countries. I expect to be modded down by the PC crowd with their "all belief systems are equal" and "a Theocracy can be just as good as secular democracy (as long as it isn't Christian)" comments but they are just ignoring what actually happens whenever insert religious group here get into power. Surprise surprise they follow the teaching of insert religion here - from a demented warlord with a taste for little girls.
Bonus points: come up with five religions that could make the above quote factually correct.
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Buddhism? I dunno, how about you go first..
Re:Lets tell it like it is (Score:4, Interesting)
Not, I would say, a particularly PC view, and doubtless one that will get you modded troll quicker than a quick thing. But I would temper your view with a rather more - shall we say diplomatic? - way of putting things.
Some views are fundamentally incompatible and unless both parties are prepared to compromise, conflict will ultimately result. Full stop, end of conversation. Get together people who feel strongly enough to kill to make their point and give them the means to do so, you probably shouldn't be too surprised when they do. There's no way of getting around this, and to pretend there is is probably the most damaging thing extreme political correctness has ever achieved.
In this case, the conflict is between very conservative Muslims who happen to be in charge of a country and the West, but it could just as easily be between animal liberation people and drugs testing labs.
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Not, I would say, a particularly PC view, and doubtless one that will get you modded troll quicker than a quick thing. But I would temper your view with a rather more - shall we say diplomatic? - way of putting things.
Some views are fundamentally incompatible and unless both parties are prepared to compromise, conflict will ultimately result. Full stop, end of conversation. Get together people who feel strongly enough to kill to make their point and give them the means to do so, you probably shouldn't be too surprised when they do. There's no way of getting around this, and to pretend there is is probably the most damaging thing extreme political correctness has ever achieved.
In this case, the conflict is between very conservative Muslims who happen to be in charge of a country and the West, but it could just as easily be between animal liberation people and drugs testing labs.
Islam is not just incompatible with the west but fundamental principles such as equality, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, right to life (for homosexuals etc.), democracy, and a lot more. Its true that some animal testers would go to war with anti-vivisectionists and vice versa, but they would want a reformulation of laws that would apply to everyone - they would not want to prevent certain sections from expressing their view or testifying in court. Islam is fundamentally opposed to our ideas of righ
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This is what happens when any country is run by Muslims. We see it in Iran, Pakistan, Iraq, etc.
How's the situation in Indonesia, by the way? It also has a strong Muslim population base, Jakarta being the world's 2nd largest city (Tokyo is 1st).
Aside from mobs attacking churches, laws coming i that call for amputation [indahnesia.com], and laws that subjugate minorities [bbc.co.uk] it is doing well. As Muslim states go it is a political paradise, only a low level of sustained violence with occasional massacres [bbc.co.uk].
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Read the protocols of their elders for some evidence.
What, like Telnet and UUCP and stuff like that?
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If america is going to shut down websites and prosecute foreign citizens (MegaUpload.com) for violation of OUR laws then we should expect the same from foreign countries. Whats good for the goose is good for the gander.
Im Just Sayin
So take the guys cars away from him.
OTOH, maybe this is just the start of the outsourcing of the death penalty by the US. "Attention MegaUpload.com guy, due to technical difficulties the plane currently extraditing you to the US for trial is making a brief stopover in Iran. Feel free to get out and stretch your legs.".
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I've never heard of this Burt Prelutsky, but is he always an ignorant cunt?
I mean, seriously? Nobody's worried about jewish people building houses in Israel. They're pretty fucking pissed about Israeli people building houses in Palestine but that's a very different thing.
Not to mention the attempt to incite religious divide by naming the activities of two religions, rather than the fuckwits practicing either.
The idiots in Tehran would be idiots in any religion. The Israelis illegally settling in Palestine m