BREAKING: Ahmadinejad to Resign? Aides Charged With Sorcery?
I wake up every morning praying for a slow news day so I can do my laundry, but it is not to be, apparently.
Arab TV has announced that Khameini has requested Ahmadinejad's resignation. This has not yet been confirmed by Western media. Confirmed, however, is the arrest of his allies on suspicion of sorcery. Yes, sorcery:
Close allies of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, have been accused of using supernatural powers to further his policies amid an increasingly bitter power struggle between him and the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Several people said to be close to the president and his chief of staff, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, have been arrested in recent days and charged with being "magicians" and invoking djinns (spirits).
Ayandeh, an Iranian news website, described one of the arrested men, Abbas Ghaffari, as "a man with special skills in metaphysics and connections with the unknown worlds."
So much for the laundry.
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May '10
Re: BREAKING: Ahmadinejad to Resign? Aides Charged With Sorcery?
And one day very soon these primitives who believe in sorcery and "djinn" will have access to nuclear weapons. Thats not a comforting thought.
Jan '11
Re: BREAKING: Ahmadinejad to Resign? Aides Charged With Sorcery?
Sure to be left unexplained is how such powerful sorcerers let the police get close enough to arrest them in the first place. Surely they would've used their 'special skills' and supernatural powers to avoid capture.
Nov '10
Re: BREAKING: Ahmadinejad to Resign? Aides Charged With Sorcery?
Claire, surely you knew that your laundry awaited bigger and better things. Can I ask this? You are incredibly smart, and quick on your feet, as to all things within your kin? I don't mean to discount your importance in Turkey, but we need you here and now!! Would you please come home?
Jun '10
Re: BREAKING: Ahmadinejad to Resign? Aides Charged With Sorcery?
Hey! Any chance of getting your own personal laundry djinni out of the deal, now that they're looking for work?
Dec '10
Re: BREAKING: Ahmadinejad to Resign? Aides Charged With Sorcery?
How does Islam resolve pagan beliefs in djinn and sorcery with Mohammedan teachings? Or is that what Islam is: grafting ideas from Judaism onto a pagan religion?
May '10
Re: BREAKING: Ahmadinejad to Resign? Aides Charged With Sorcery?
Claire Berlinski, Ed.: I wake up every morning praying for a slow news day so I can do my laundry, but it is not to be, apparently.
Arab TV has announced that Khameini has requested Ahmadinejad's resignation. This has not yet been confirmed by Western media. Confirmed, however, is the arrest of his allies on suspicion of sorcery. Yes, sorcery:
Djinn and tonic maybe?
Dec '10
Re: BREAKING: Ahmadinejad to Resign? Aides Charged With Sorcery?
Khameini martini: six parts djinn, one part Revolutionary Guard, garnish with an imam.
Re: BREAKING: Ahmadinejad to Resign? Aides Charged With Sorcery?
I saw the sorcery item on the news, ran to grab a quick shower before writing it up, and found when I got back to my desk that you'd beaten me to it. You can't do laundry, Claire, and I can't shower.
As far as the call for resignation is concerned, I can't find anything on al-Arabiya, al-Jazeera, Haaretz, the Jerusalem Post, or anywhere else that's an actual news site confirming it. Ahmadinejad does seem to be on the ropes, though -- this was a humiliating week for him domestically. We'll see.
Jun '10
Re: BREAKING: Ahmadinejad to Resign? Aides Charged With Sorcery?
Not so fast Stuart. Let's not give paganism a bum rap here. Maybe, I'm-a-dinner-jacket had a deal on: three wishes for the sorcerer that rubbed his vessel.
Dec '10
Re: BREAKING: Ahmadinejad to Resign? Aides Charged With Sorcery?
Ahmadinejad in his '64 Impala, hittin' the djinn and Jews. Khamenei see him rollin'. He hatin'.
Jun '10
Re: BREAKING: Ahmadinejad to Resign? Aides Charged With Sorcery?
Shouldn't that be djoooos?
Dec '10
Re: BREAKING: Ahmadinejad to Resign? Aides Charged With Sorcery?
Ahmadinejad should never have hired Roger Healey as a political consultant. Maj. Nelson, maybe, but not Roger.
Dec '10
Re: BREAKING: Ahmadinejad to Resign? Aides Charged With Sorcery?
Claire -
Haven't you taught your cats to help with the laundry yet, or would that somehow fall into the category of sorcerery..?
Apr '11
Re: BREAKING: Ahmadinejad to Resign? Aides Charged With Sorcery?
Claire, an RSS feed to Strategypage is a good thing to have; they covered the Iranian government's problem here
The world is just a wonderfuly weird place though, isn't it? I remember the people of Jakarata elected a sorceror for their mayor because another city's mayor was hexing them, apparently, and this was I think in the 1970's...
I do, however, know there were some people in my order who were in Iran, helping the Revolution, that is Iranians themselves, and they and many of the Sufis in general were swept into jail not long after the Shah fell by the mullahs. I wonder if this was the same charge against them? I guess I was never crazy enough to ask.
May '10
Re: BREAKING: Ahmadinejad to Resign? Aides Charged With Sorcery?
I love how another version of the article describes the charge as "misuse of genies". It's all in how you use them. Genies don't kill people; people kill people. Remember to have your genie spayed or neutered. I eagerly await the translation "abuse of genies".
Interestingly, the name of the prison to which the aides will be headed is Azkaban. True story.
Guess we should wait for confirmation before going beyond the realm of easy jokes.
Oct '10
Re: BREAKING: Ahmadinejad to Resign? Aides Charged With Sorcery?
Claire, could this be a power struggle ignited by disagreement over how best to prevent the Arab Spring from becoming a Persian Summer of Love?
Jun '10
Re: BREAKING: Ahmadinejad to Resign? Aides Charged With Sorcery?
Consorting with djinn would be a form of apostasy. The penalty would be death. Khameini has put his political enemies on notice that he's out for blood.
PJM reported last week that the Stuxnet worm has rendered the Bushir nuclear plant permanently inoperative. If this is the case, then Iran has lost its ace in the hole. What sort of panic is going on in the upper levels of the regime? Enough, it would appear, that heads will roll.
We can hope and pray that the whole creaking edifice will collapse of its own malignant nature.
Apr '11
Re: BREAKING: Ahmadinejad to Resign? Aides Charged With Sorcery?
In the article I linked to it does report that-- while there are a great many problems in Iran that can be blamed on the government-- the main problem is that many of the victims of the Arab Spring-- ie the dictators in power-- blame Ahmadinejad much for sticking his fingers in everywhere and overbalancing their power. The Persians are not well liked in this part of the world, and finding themselves without allies because of Ahmadinejad's overreach may finally allow the mullahs-- who never liked him to begin with-- to kick him out. I'm surprised they didn't accuse him of the sorcery, but hey, the day is young, after all..
Edited on May 6, 2011 at 3:18pmApr '11
Re: BREAKING: Ahmadinejad to Resign? Aides Charged With Sorcery?
This story makes me wonder if, by Iranian political standards, Ahmadinejad is the sane one.
May '10
Re: BREAKING: Ahmadinejad to Resign? Aides Charged With Sorcery?
If True, this makes a certain sense. Dinnerjacket's support is largely rural, so the whole sorcery thing could be a cynical ploy to undermine him among his base before tossing him.