Ali Eteraz is on a tear again…this time he’s writing to ask people to take action to save seven women sentanced to be stoned to death for adultery in Iran.
He’s got facts, impassioned argument, and useful links. Go over, take a look, and do something.
‘Stand Against Women Stoned to Death You Apathetic Monsters‘
thank you armed,
interestingly, my diary on kos about the subject – postead about 25 minutes – has garnered no comments. a later diary about america being totalitarian already has four. i can only hope that people instead of commenting are writing letters. i hold out more hope from your commentators.
Words are sometimes insufficient.
Thanks for posting the link – silence is literally death in these instances, and people who argue that the Iranian regime is reasonable or rational, or who are otherwise engaged in mirroring may need to see what’s actually going on there.
I’ve dugg the eteraz post.
http://www.digg.com/search?s=apathetic+monsters
Go find it and vote for it. Articles frequently come up on digg about these executions. Invariably, they get a low rating. apathetic monsters indeed.
Shahar,
Over 10,000 children die painful deaths every single day because they didn’t have access to clean drinking water…
A little perspective, please.
If Iran wasn’t challeging the existing Middle East order, would anyone really bother to write about these woman?
monekyboy,
this is your rationale for not caring, some crap about Iran challanging the ME order?
you make your own choices monkeyboy.
That’s true, Shahar,
Off hand, how many hookers do you think were beaten to death or died of drug overdoses or STDs this year in America beacuse Judeo-Christian “morals” forced them to work in unsafe conditions?
I bet it’s more than seven…
monkeyboy,
you’re an a#sh#le.
Hehe PD,
Of that there is little doubt.
But no more so than the people who want America to slaughter thousands of innocent Iranians in the service of some rather dubious special interests.
Got my absentee ballot today.
If Bush is gonna do it…it better be soon.
Monkeyboy,
I see that your obsession with President Bush has led you to live in a moral wasteland.
monky:
There is no such thing as an innocent Iranian. In that country, you either approve of what the rulers are doing or haven’t got the guts to do something about it. All governments rule by the consent of the governed.
What would you do if fundamentalist Baptists started blowing people up in the street?
Again and Again, Monkey makes my point for me.
Instead of naturally AGREEING that stoning women to death is shameful and should be STOPPED (something Monkey is unable morally to do, indicating complete moral bankruptcy) …
Monkey points out that no nation is perfect.
By that logic no action should ever be taken to oppose evil. Monkey certainly wouldn’t.
Wretchard was right, the Left/Dems/Media/Academia IS the new Necromongers. So in love with the perfectness of death they’d oppose even the most modest effort to save SOMEONE.
Jim,
The first woman up for execution killed her mother-in-law with a kitchen knife.
I don’t think Bush would have stayed her execution while he was governor of Texas, do you?
In fact, I seem to remember he offed far more sympathetic prisoners and chuckled at their pleas for help…
If Americans want to help out people being executed, they should focus their efforts on Texas and Florida…
Jim: Evidently, the important thing is to be able to make others wrong. All else is lagniappe.
monky:
He chuckled, did he?
You heard him?
What are the wall oulets telling you these days?
Have a nice day. Somewhere else.
Malak Ghorbany’s 13912 signatures far exceed Kobra Rahmanpour’s 868 so far. I don’t understand why. But all that matters is “is it enough?” and I have no idea what would be enough.
Why not pick a favourite, and check in to vote for the name and story you like better by signing that petition? It may seem callous, but it’s more useful than not signing either petition.
I don’t know about a need to make others wrong, NM.
I do find it a tad hypocritical that people who would cheer on an airstrike that would slaughter thousands of innocent Iranians are getting upset about the fate of seven of them…
Monkyboy probably has a personal interest in the death penalty. In fact, I think he’s the goddamn BTK killer.
Here is an “online petition page for Malak Ghorbany.”:http://savemalak.googlepages.com/home
Vote Kobra to live! (link)
Actually, Glen,
I have a keen interest in propaganda.
After being put on the throne of Iran by the C.I.A., the Shah was a “good friend” to the U.S. and Israel.
There is a large community of pro-monarchy ex-pat Iranians who fled their country when it voted to become an Islamic Republic.
They want us to put the Shah’s son, Reza Pahlavi, back on the throne of Iran, and they are funding a rather large propaganda campaign advocating that.
You’ll see that the site you linked to is run by a Lily Mazahery, who revealed in a recent interview:
I witnessed the Islamic revolution firsthand, as my father, a government official under the Shah’s regime, was the target of [Ayatollah] Khomeini’s killing machine.
http://villagevoice.com/news/0639,hentoff,74545,6.html
Hehe, never mind that her dad’s boss had a rather effective killing machine himself called SAVAK, that the C.I.A. helped run for him.
So, while I find these woman’s tales sad, I naturally assume it’s being spread by the usual gang that wants us to bomb Iran.
N.M.,
Here is Bush giving an interview about a female prisoner he had executed, despite pleas from people like Pope John Paul II to spare her life:
He asked her real difficult questions, like ‘What would you say to Governor Bush?’
“What was her answer?” I wonder.
“Please,” Bush whimpers, his lips pursed in mock desperation, “don’t kill me.”
I must look shocked – ridiculing the pleas of a condemned prisoner who has since been executed seems odd and cruel – because he immediately stops smirking.
Not some MSM lefty, but solid Republican Tucker Carlson doing the interview…
http://www.nationalreview.com/daily/nr080999.html
Doesn’t seem like Bush would care about some female prisoner in Iran getting executed, does it?
So when you see someone making a humanitarian appeal to save a woman from being crudely butchered for a non-crime, you assume that it’s a plot to bomb Iran. Interesting.
Since you didn’t supply your habitual “Hehe” titter, I’m forced to assume you’re serious.
I’m glad there are people like you, monkyboy. Just knowing that someone like you is on the other side makes me feel better about myself and everything I believe in. Even if I had to face the entire idiotarian host all by myself, I would be brimming with confidence knowing that the enemy has people of your caliber manning the trenches. No matter what setbacks may occur, I know that victory is inevitable.
It makes me feel a lot better about George Bush, too, whom I sometimes view with disfavor. But if someone as utterly devoid of decency and cognition as you is against him, he might be a god.
Glen,
When I see someone making a humanitarian appeal to save Muslim women from torture and it appears almost exclusively on sites than just a few weeks ago were advocating giving Bush the right to torture Muslims, yes, I call it propaganda.
If these Muslim woman had been turned over to the U.S. as Taliban or al Qaeda members in exchange for a $5000 bounty, would you have any problem with them being waterboarded and held indefinitely at Gitmo?
#22 monkyboy:
bq. When I see someone making a humanitarian appeal to save Muslim women from torture and it appears almost exclusively on sites than just a few weeks ago were advocating giving Bush the right to torture Muslims, yes, I call it propaganda.
At the risk of wasting my breath, I might suggest that you read the content of Eteraz’s site more closely. I think you’ll find that he advocates no such positions. In fact, he talks about the dilemma of advocating reform without feeding the ambitions of ‘imperialists’ “here.”:http://eteraz.wordpress.com/2006/09/30/the-reformist-dilemma-neo-imperialism/
At any rate, tarring his appeal with (what you percieve to be) the desires of third parties seems unfair and shortsighted.
note, you may need to hit refresh to make that link load, wordpress seems to behave oddly.
Halcyon,
I have no doubt than some people involved in trying to save these poor woman are sincere in their efforts.
But, there are thousands of such appeals going out daily to save people’s lives.
Here’s one for 3 million children whose lives could be saved each year for less than 1% of the U.S. “defense” budget, or about what we’re spending in Iraq every single week:
http://tinyurl.com/bou5d
So when sites that want to make the current regime in Iran, and Islam in general, look bad, choose, out of all the people in the who currently need help, to highlight the plight of seven woman that happen to make the current regime in Iran, and Islam in general, look bad…I have to wonder why.
Particulary when the people who run those sites have no problem with:
1. Executing woman in general.
2. Torture in general.
3. Tribunals run by the military.
It’s true, there are a great many people in need of aid in the world, and perhaps you spend a great deal of your time advocating some of those causes which don’t have any impact on US foreign relations.
I have to say, though, that when I see people reacting to clear cases of human rights abuses with a hedging of “yes, but, if we pay attention to these crimes and help these victims it will indirectly aid the designs of George Bush…”, I also have to wonder why.
Just as many folks point out that our country should not give up its values and freedom out of fear and insecurity, I would point out that liberals cannot give up on their values (human rights, women’s rights, universal freedom from religious oppression, all the things that we claim to stand for) out of fear that somehow, Dubya will use it to do evil.
Do you seriously believe that if he is that determined to take action against Iran, NOT advocating for these women’s fates will somehow stop him?
Moreover, how is defending the clearly unjust, unpopular government of Iran against criticism merely because it is opposed to Bush, different from the realpolitik policies of supporting dictators against their populations in the interest of ‘stability’? Policies which, I hope we can both agree, were unjust when our government undertook them in the past, and belong in the past?
To put it more directly, what sort of liberal do you consider yourself to be?
Halcyon,
The push to demonize Muslims didn’t begin when Bush took office and it won’t end when he leaves office.
I don’t consider myself to be any sort of liberal.
Ah, well, that explains a bit. What do you consider yourself to be?
At any rate, I think you’ll find that Eteraz is by no means part of any ‘push to demonize Muslims’.
That’s a tough question, Halcyon.
I’m still nominally a Republican, but I currently despise nearly every major Republican.
I voted for Kerry last time, but I don’t have much faith in the Democrats.
And I consider the Libertarians childish and borderline sociopaths…
Guess that makes me an Independent.
I agree that Eteraz does indeed seem to be the real deal, only interested in good works.
Ali. I wrote a letter to Busharaff.
And I’ll write another if you ask.
L