Canada: What could possibly go wrong?

History Exam, Grade 4: Explain why we lost the Second World War

Canadian Islamic school sources its teaching materials from Iran.

A Toronto Islamic school whose teaching materials disparaged Jews and encouraged boys to keep fit for jihad will not face criminal charges but police said their investigation had identified passages of syllabus books they found concerning.

A York Regional Police report outlining the hate crimes investigation of the East End Madrassah said a review of 30 school syllabus books found portions that “challenged some of Canada’s core values” and “suggested intolerance,” even if they were not criminal.

The report also confirmed some of the school materials originated from books published by Iranian foundations, one of which is an alleged front for the Islamic regime. The Iranian-origin passages referred to Jews as “crafty” and “treacherous,” and contrasted Islam with “the Jews and the Nazis.”

Police held Principal Masuma Jessa and Imam Syed Mohammed Rizvi responsible. “As leaders in their respective roles the two must accept responsibility for failing to appropriately screen the learning material. Although not held criminally responsible, the complaint has raised a legitimate concern and has prompted change.”

Canada | News | National Post

Until the next time…

Iran: Blogger tortured to death for Facebook comments

Iran has been accused of torturing to death a blogger who was arrested last week for criticising the Islamic republic on Facebook.

Iran’s cyber-police, known as Fata, picked up Sattar Beheshti from his home in Robat-Karim last week on suspicion of “acting against the national security” because of his online activities on social networking sites. He was then taken to Tehran’s notorious Evin prison.

Beheshti’s family heard no news of him until Wednesday, when they were phoned by prison officials asking them to collect his dead body from the Kahrizak coroner’s office. The opposition has accused Iranian officials of torturing the 35-year-old blogger to death.

SMH

How many times does it have to be said?  ’Militant’ atheists are rude about the Pope: militant theists kill people.

Iran: When female success embarrasses your religion…

For the Ayatollah — insert where appropriate

…just stop them competing.

36 universities have announced that 77 BA and BSc courses in the coming academic year will be “single gender” and effectively exclusive to men.
It follows years in which Iranian women students have outperformed men, a trend at odds with the traditional male-dominated outlook of the country’s religious leaders. Women outnumbered men by three to two in passing this year’s university entrance exam.

Senior clerics in Iran’s theocratic regime have become concerned about the social side-effects of rising educational standards among women, including declining birth and marriage rates.

Telegraph

Global: $68 million to corrupt kleptocracies for ‘carbon credits’

And not even OUR thieves

The U.N. is funneling millions of dollars worth of tradable carbon credits to corrupt nations worldwide, including Iran, North Korea, Sudan, and Uzbekistan in an attempt to encourage clean energy projects in the developing world…

‘…in an attempt to shore up its own credibility and win votes in the General Assembly.’ There, I fixed it for you,

Iran, Uzbekistan, Sudan, and North Korea are among the more than 70 countries currently hosting CDM projects.

Iran, with 16 separate CDM projects, brings in around 4.8 million CERs, worth about $26 million, every year, despite numerous U.N. sanctions against the Islamic Republic.

Uzbekistan, dominated for the last two decades by the autocratic Islam Karimov, hosts 20 different CDM projects, with a combined annual value of over 7.5 million CERs, or roughly $40 million.

Sudan … is on the receiving end of two different CDM projects, with a combined annual value of over 180,000 CERs, or almost $1 million.

North Korea is hosting seven hydroelectric dams, which may generate over $1 million in CERs annually.

Washington Free Beacon

Your taxes at work.

Iran: Rapper faces fatwa for ‘blasphemous’ song

The Iranian rapper, Shahin Najafi, is in fear for his life following the release of a song called Naqi.

The song title refers to the 10th Shia Imam, Ali Ibn Muhammad, also known as al-Naqi.

According to Shia tradition the Imam is the infallible spiritual leader of the Muslim community, directly descended from the Prophet Muhammad through his daughter Fatima and son-in-law Ali.

Najafi’s reference to 10th Imam in a satirical song has sparked an outcry among religious conservatives in Iran, a predominantly Shia state.

PRI’s The World

Because when you’re up in Heaven with your ninety-nine concubines, nothing pisses you off more than hearing some dude down here mixin’ it up with your good name.

US: Burning books bad — Iran: imprisoning Christians, just fine

SMH

A Koran burning conducted by Terry Jones, the inflammatory pastor from Florida, has angered Iranian politicians, with one calling for Jones’ execution.

Mr Jones, who gained worldwide attention in 2010 when he threatened to burn 200 copies of the Koran but backed off after pleas from world leaders, on Saturday set fire to several copies of the Muslim holy book and an image of the prophet of Islam, Mohammad. Mr Jones said the purpose was to raise attention about a Christian pastor held in an Iranian prison….

Mr Jones was quoted by the Christiantoday.com website as saying that the intent of the Koran burning was to protest the imprisonment of an Iranian pastor, Youcef Nadarkhani. Groups of Christians worldwide have called for Iran to release Mr Nadarkhani, 29, who had converted to Christianity. Conversion from Islam is a crime in Iran theoretically punishable by death.

Mr Nadarkhani was arrested in 2009 on charges of apostasy and evangelisation, but Iranian prosecutors later replaced those charges with accusations of rape and extortion. They said the case had nothing to do with religion and had been whipped up by Western media. But the final disposition of the case in Iran’s judicial system has yet to be officially announced.

What if we threatened to burn 5000 Korans for every prisoner executed in Iran, every protestor shot in Syria, every innocent bystander blown up in Iraq…?

I hate to say it, but my sympathies are with Mr Jones. Sometimes people are so crazy, you just have to be crazy right back at them.

Iran: Divine Right trumps human rights, every time

“Until a person has converted to Islam, he is free — but democracy and Human Rights have no meaning within Islam. Everything must be under the surveillance of the government, even the way people dress. And if some people say otherwise, they don’t know Islam.”

via hriran.com

There it is, in black and white. Literally.

Australia: Stabbed to death in front of 300 people

SMH

 A self-absorbed man who stabbed his estranged wife to death in front of 300 people because she disobeyed him will spend at least 26 years behind bars.

Zialloh Abrahimzadeh, 57, was sentenced today to life in jail after pleading guilty on day 11 of his murder trial earlier this year to killing Zahra at a Persian function at the Adelaide Convention Centre in March 2010….

The judge said Abrahimzadeh had shown no remorse when he wrote to his children after the murder – blaming their mother and her family for all his troubles.

Anybody want to bet that the killer wasn’t a devout Moslem?

No, I thought not.

Iraq: Religious differences more important than preventing mayhem and death

Co-operation? What’s that mean?

SMH

Sunni Muslim rulers have largely shunned an Arab League summit hosted by Shiite-led Iraq, illustrating how powerfully the sectarian split and the rivalry with Iran define Middle Eastern politics in the era of the Arab Spring.

The crisis in Syria is the epicentre of those divisions. Thursday’s one-day summit closed with a joint call on the Syrian President, Bashar al-Assad, to stop his bloody crackdown on an uprising seeking his ouster. But the final statement barely papered over the differences among the Arab nations over how to deal with the longest-running regional revolt….

In a snub to Iraq, only 10 heads of state from the Arab League’s 22 members attended, with the rest sending lower-level officials.

Especially notable were the absences of the rulers of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and most other Persian Gulf countries, as well Morocco and Jordan – all of them headed by Sunni monarchs who deeply distrust the close ties between Baghdad’s Shiite-dominated government and their top regional rival, Iran.

---

Myself and my cousins against the world!
Myself and my brothers against my cousins!
Myself against my brothers!

— Bedouin Arab saying

Iran: Komeback for the Kardboard Kid

Death has improved his temperament, say Khomeini's colleagues

NYPOST.com

Thirty-three years after Ayatollah Khomeini returned from Parisian exile to revolutionize Iran, the country’s regime re-enacted the arrival at Tehran’s airport and other locations in the capital this week.

But since the first Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran died in 1989, they made do with a larger-than-life-size cutout of the leader.

As 40 uniformed officers, each holding a rose, waited on the tarmac and a military band played, Cardboard Khomeini was solemnly escorted off a jet by two white-gloved attendants in dark glasses.

Rumour has it that the Kardboard Khomeini will be fitted with a tape-recorder playing verses from the Qu’ran, and reappointed Supreme Leader of the Iranian Republic.

Iran: Actress sentenced to jail and flogging

SMH

Iranian actress Marzieh Vafamehr has been sentenced to a year in jail and 90 lashes for her role in an Australian-produced film about the limits imposed on artists in Iran.

A spokesperson said: “Iran is a wonderful place, and anyone who claims it is a savage, barbaric hellhole run by sadistic lunatics deserves to be whipped, and jailed, and have their fingernails pulled out, and their genitals…”

Another spokesperson said: “Please come back later. The Minister is having one of his turns.”

Iran: Activist flogged for insulting loathsome tyrant

SMH.

An Iranian student activist has been lashed 74 times for insulting President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Peyman Aref, a student of political science at Tehran University was sentenced in March 2010 to a year in jail after being found guilty of propaganda against the regime for speaking to foreign media.

Iran: Pastor sentenced to death for converting to Christianity

Telegraph.

Mr Nadarkhani, now 32, converted from Islam to Christianity at the age of 19 and became pastor of a small evangelical community called the Church of Iran.

He was arrested in October 2009 and condemned to death for apostasy under Islamic sharia law, which however allows for such verdicts to be overturned if the convicted person “repents” and renounces his conversion.

After his conviction was upheld by an appeals court in Gilan province in September 2010, Nadarkhani turned to the supreme court. His wife, who was initially sentenced to life imprisonment, was released on appeal.

OK, he’s not very bright, but if we executed all the idiots who’d be left to make the coffee?

Iran: Three men hanged for sodomy

Iran Human Rights

According to the reports from Iran, six people were hanged in the Karoun prison of Ahvaz (southwest of Iran) early Sunday morning September 4th.

The state run Iranian news agency ISNA reported that three of those executed were sentenced to death by the Ahvaz revolution court, convicted of “unlawful” acts and acts against Sharia, based on the articles 108 and 110 of the Iranian Islamic penal code. Articles 108 and 110 of the Iranian Islamic Penal code are part of the chapter covering the punishment of “Hadd” for “sodomy”. Article 108 says: “Sodomy (or Lavat) is sexual intercourse between men”, and article 110 says:”Punishment for sodomy is killing; the Sharia judge decides on how to carry out the killing”.

Wake up, Ireland! This is the way to run a theocracy!

Israel: Hezbollah attack kills eight

SMH

The attack by gunmen on bus 392, crowded with holiday-makers and Israeli soldiers going home for the weekend, has pulled the bloodshed in Syria and political instability elsewhere in the region into sharp focus.

Eight Israelis – six civilians and two soldiers – died and at least 31 were injured in the attacks near the southern city of Eilat, near the Israel-Egypt border after gunmen opened fire on two buses, two cars carrying civilians and a military unit that responded to the attacks. Several gunmen were killed in the security response that followed.

And this will achieve a better life for Iranian and Syrian citizens … how, exactly?

Iran: Two different kinds of crazy

SMH.

PRESIDENT Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran has admitted for the first time that a rift has developed between him and some of the most senior figures of the Islamic regime.

At a news conference in Tehran on Tuesday, his first since news emerged of his power struggle with the Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, the President said: ”It is very clear now that we are 180 degrees away from them – we are actually on opposite sides.”

Because there’s crazy — and then there’s barking batshit crazy.

Iran: Where civilisation is optional

SMH.

The court-ordered blinding of an Iranian man as punishment for throwing acid on a woman who spurned him has been postponed, but heated debate over his crime and such “eye for an eye” punishments continues.

Majid Movahedi was due to be made unconscious in a prison hospital in Tehran on Saturday and acid was to be dropped into his eyes by his victim, Ameneh Bahrami.

What’s to debate? This is a theocracy renouncing civilised values. No rational person thinks that is remotely acceptable for one second.

We could debate whether things would be different if the attacker hadn’t grown up in a state that imposes a Bronze Age code by violence and fear — but alas, we’ll never know.

Iranian refugees, tell the truth! No, not THAT truth, the other truth!

Iran Human Rights.

According to reports that reliable sources have given to Iran Human Rights (IHR), an Iranian Kurdish asylum seeker who was extradited from Norway to Iran on February 9th 2011, is in danger of torture, ill-treatment or even death at Tehran’s Evin prison.

…

On extradition of Iranian asylum seekers to Iran, Amiry-Moghaddam said:” Iranian authorities have recently signalized that Iranians who have sought asylum abroad should be charged for “dissemination of false propaganda against the Islamic Republic of Iran” and punished for that. This means that seeking asylum by itself could be a reason for the Iranian authorities to subject the asylum seekers who are extradited to Iran, to persecution, imprisonment and ill-treatment.

So anyone can apply to leave Iran, provided they acknowledge that it’s so wonderful there that only a mad person would ever want to leave. How’s the Persian translation of Catch-22 been selling lately?

Iran: Sentenced to death for peddling porn

SMH.

Iranian courts have sentenced two people to death for running porn sites, prosecutor-general Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi has been quoted by the official IRNA news agency as saying.

And Do-Lotta-Bad-i is a wonderful name for an Iranian Prosecutor-General.

Iran: Activists hanged for taking pictures

BBC News

Iranian authorities have hanged two men convicted of taking part in protests following the disputed presidential election in 2009.

Iranian prosecutors said Jafar Kazemi and Mohammad Ali Hajaghaei had taken photos and footage of the protests and distributed them on the internet.

How scared and sick do you have to be to hang people for taking pictures?

Iran: ‘Eye-for-an-eye’ justice for acid attack

SMH.

An Iranian court has reportedly ruled that a man must lose an eye and an ear after he blinded another man and burnt his ear in an acid attack.

Judge Aziz Mohammadi gave the order against the man, who was only identified as Hamid, after convicting him of the throwing acid on the victim, named as Davoud, said the hardline Kayhan newspaper.

And the appropriate punishment for institutionalised stupidity is…?

Iran: Good news — the divorce rate is soaring

NYTimes.com.

Divorce is skyrocketing in Iran. Over a decade, the number each year has roughly tripled to a little more than 150,000 in 2010 from around 50,000 in 2000, according to official figures. Nationwide, there is one divorce for every seven marriages; in Tehran, the ratio is 1 divorce for every 3.76 marriages, the government has reported.

“High dowries, high living costs, lack of jobs and financial support make young people fear marriage,” said a member of Parliament, Gholamreza Asadollahi, who also blamed young people who had lost their belief “in the unseen power of God to solve life’s problems.”

Unseen? Well, there’s your problem!

Iran: Girls should marry aged 16-18, says President

Express Tribune.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the best age for girls to get married was between 16 and 18, Iranian newspapers reported on Sunday.

Analysts say such announcements could be part of the government’s efforts to gain support among young voters. Iran’s parliament in 2004 raised the legally acceptable age of marriage for girls to 15 from nine.

What Would Mohammed Do? Oh, that’s what.

Middle East: Islamic ‘honour killings’ go on. And on. And on.

The Independent.

A 10-month investigation by The Independent in Jordan, Pakistan, Egypt, Gaza and the West Bank has unearthed terrifying details of murder most foul. Men are also killed for “honour” and, despite its identification by journalists as a largely Muslim practice, Christian and Hindu communities have stooped to the same crimes. Indeed, the “honour” (or ird) of families, communities and tribes transcends religion and human mercy. But voluntary women’s groups, human rights organisations, Amnesty International and news archives suggest that the slaughter of the innocent for “dishonouring” their families is increasing by the year.

Iran: cleric rejects Holocaust as ‘superstition’

SMH.

A senior Iranian cleric has dismissed the Nazi Holocaust of Jews during World War II as a new “superstition” for the West, media reported on Saturday.

….

“The truth about the Holocaust is not clear, and when the researchers want to examine whether it is true or the Jews have created it to pose as victims, they jail the researchers,” said Makarem Shirazi, who is a “marja,” or among the highest authorities in Shiite Islam.

Whereas anyone who wants to question the claims of the Koran, for instance, is treated with the utmost respect…

Iran: Woman tortured for televised ‘confession’

SMH

A lawyer for an Iranian woman sentenced to death by stoning has told a British newspaper she was tortured for two days before confessing on state TV to being an accomplice to her husband’s death.

Sakineh Mohammadi-Ashtiani’s lawyer told the Guardian on Thursday that his client, a 43-year-old mother of two, was forced to give the interview, which was recorded in Tabriz prison where she has been held for the past four years.

Allah is merciful! — but not to women.

Iran: The day the music died

Iran’s supreme leader seeks music ban.

Iran’s supreme leader has spoken out against music in the Islamic Republic, saying it should not be practised or taught in the country, reports say.…

He banned Western-style music during his presidency in the 1980s.

Witness the power of fear over a medieval mind.

Iran: Scanty dressing = extramarital sex = earthquakes, says Muslim cleric

Yahoo!7 News

“Many women who dress inappropriately … cause youths to go astray, taint their chastity and incite extramarital sex in society, which increases earthquakes,” Ayatollah Kazem Sedighi told worshippers at Friday prayers in Tehran.

Did the earth move for you too? And you? AND you? Oh, shit…

[The dress code] has not stopped urban women from appearing in the streets wearing tight coats and flimsy headscarves and layers of skilfully applied makeup.

The hussies!

Iran: Islamic Solidarity Games cancelled due to intra-nation squabble

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Pure gold… you can’t make this stuff up.

Iran: good music another casualty of Islamic fundamentalism

NYTimes.com.