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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.
Published in General
Claire –
Haven’t you taught your cats to help with the laundry yet, or would that somehow fall into the category of sorcerery..?
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.
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.
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?
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.
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..
This story makes me wonder if, by Iranian political standards, Ahmadinejad is the sane one.
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.
This could have been written by the Onion. Unreal.
This is big news. Using charges of sorcery is Khamenei’s way of moving other mullah’s against Ahmadinejad. Ahmadinejad is a very junior cleric in the mullacrocy and represents much more the security apparatus of Iran. This is the means of getting the mullahs who are siding with Ahmadinejad to move away from Ahmadinejad by giving them a pretext to do so. The mullahs are the key to power in Iran. It has happened time and time again. It wasn’t silly CIA tales of how they overthrew Mossadegh that were true, but rather how the mullahs moved to bring back the Shah.
For all of you who are so dismissive of sorcery, I can only assume you’ve never lived in such a society. It is extremely powerful and you dismiss it at you’re own peril if you are to operate in such a world. You don’t have to believe in it. You just have to understand how important it is to other people. Then you can begin to use it to you’re own ends if you choose to do so. It’s unfortunate that nobody in the CIA or other “intelligence” services does so.
“Several people said to be close to the president and his chief of staff, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, have been arrested in recent days”
I guess that makes them the Sorcerer’s Apprentice(s). Well they will just have to use their up-to-date 10th Century (CE) tools of enquiry. Wouldn’t it be fitting for Khamenei to call for the use of the Juda Cradle on that rabid anti-semite Ahmadinejad.
(A Juda Cradle is like a very pointy sitting stool, …. Look it up people)
Never thought I would be supporting Khamenei here….
AOO, The Djinn Genie lives on his back
The Djinn Genie loves chimney stacks
He’s outrageous, he screams and he bawls
Mahmoud let yourself go!
I do enjoy reading the cleaver quips posted here; never really offensive, and one of the pleasures of Ricochet membership. But, I can’t help noticing the uncomfortable thought about how one enters into rational discussions, agreements, mutual understandings with such a government.
It is funny, for sure, and cleverly reparteed here, but am I the only one that wonders about the kind of future we face – having to deal with a nuclear nation whose leaders believe in djinns and genies?
It is funny, for sure, and cleverly reparteed here, but am I the only one that wonders about the kind of future we face – having to deal with a nuclear nation whose leaders believe in djinns and genies? ·May 6 at 9:12am
How are djinns and genies very different from angels and demons and demonic possession? If a nation had those believing in angels and demos and demonic possession, would you be able to negotiate with them?
There is probably some hierarchy to the djinns and genies. Be sure the most powerful is on your side.
Islam took over paganism, in much the same way that Christianity did – e.g. by building Mosques on Pagan sacred sites (e.g. The meteorite inside the cube at Mecca was previously a Pagan sacred object). They replaced the many Gods of Paganism with One.
You can think of this in similar terms to Christianity, and what they did to Witches.
So, just as there are still many Witches around, belief in dijiins and superstition is still very widespread in Iran – much more so than in the West.
Actually, I am a little mystified by Dinnerjacket – it is well-known that he has never gotten on well with the Supreme Leader. But he is a believer in the 12th Imam (due out of his well, soon), so it’s inter-Shiite rivalry, rather than paganism.
But, most likely, as Kennedy says, the sorcery is simply a cynical ploy by the Supreme Leader.
But I wouldn’t raise hopes too much – somebody worse will be found to replace him.
It is funny, for sure, and cleverly reparteed here, but am I the only one that wonders about the kind of future we face – having to deal with a nuclear nation whose leaders believe in djinns and genies?
I’m more worried by the fact that they believe in the 12th Imam – a branch of Shia Islam, an apocalyptic cult.
I hope it’s not racist to suggest that Mr Obama II, having been brought up partly in Indonesia, should have a better understanding of all this. But I think his Marxist education probably determines his World View, more – I dunno, he’s not gonna say.
And one day very soon these primitives who believe in sorcery and “djinn” will have access to nuclear weapons. Thats not a comforting thought.
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.
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?
Hey! Any chance of getting your own personal laundry djinni out of the deal, now that they’re looking for work?
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?
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?
Khameini martini: six parts djinn, one part Revolutionary Guard, garnish with an imam.
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.
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.
Ahmadinejad in his ’64 Impala, hittin’ the djinn and Jews. Khamenei see him rollin’. He hatin’.
Shouldn’t that be djoooos?
Ahmadinejad should never have hired Roger Healey as a political consultant. Maj. Nelson, maybe, but not Roger.
No offense, but the Twelvers are about as apocalyptic as a lot Protestants are here; which means they are a lot of talk but no one, not even the most devout would actually push the button if given the opportunity make Heaven on Earth… · May 6 at 12:17pm
I may have missed it, but I don’t recall Protestants threatening to wipe Israel off the map. Let’s hope it is all talk, no action, as you suggest.
I also missed all those Protestants seeking martyrdom by flying into buildings, self-detonating, etc. (though those particular martyrs are mostly not Twelvers, tis true).
I’d rely more on Stuxnet to prevent this happening, rather than the moderation of the Twelvers.
A little Syrian girl asking help from the honorable Ottoman Arradogan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wdzt38Zfcrg
I’m not arguing we and certainly Israel should not defend themselves; it is just the Twelvers, who are a lot of Shia, not just the loony tunes, get a worse rap than they necessarily deserve.