President Ahmadinejad to be questioned by Iranian lawmakers

[Rhyfelwyr]

Shi'a Islam is more disposed to being moderate than Sunni Islam, its strong hierarchy and sort of priestly caste means that there will always be a moderating influence to keep the would-be fanatics under control. It also makes Shi'aness less prone to modernisation/liberalisation. I guess its kind of like the Catholicism of Islam.

[gaelic cowboy]

Shi'a Islam is more disposed to being moderate than Sunni Islam, its strong hierarchy and sort of priestly caste means that there will always be a moderating influence to keep the would-be fanatics under control. It also makes Shi'aness less prone to modernisation/liberalisation. I guess its kind of like the Catholicism of Islam.

It is the wet dream of pentagon planners to have a moderate government in Iran who has less frosty relations with the West. The benfits geo-politically and blah blah blah are the nightmare of the even more repressive Sunni governments.

[Rhyfelwyr]

It is the wet dream of pentagon planners to have a moderate government in Iran who has less frosty relations with the West. The benfits geo-politically and blah blah blah are the nightmare of the even more repressive Sunni governments.

At the end of the day it doesn't really affect us how barbarous or backward the type of Islam they practise in some countries is. Even the strictest Saudi Wahhabists condemn Al-Qaeda's vision of jihad. Sure they are as backward as you can be and I wouldn't want to live there, but at least they aren't going to come here and try to blow me up. The hobted of the idea of global jihad is not the well consolidated backward regimes, but the unstable places like Yemen, Somalia etc.

They young Wabbabist of an Indonesian university is infinitely more dangerous to me than some old Wahhabist guy looking after some goats in the desert (or whatever they do).

[gaelic cowboy]

At the end of the day it doesn't really affect us how barbarous or backward the type of Islam they practise in some countries is. Even the strictest Saudi Wahhabists condemn Al-Qaeda's vision of jihad. Sure they are as backward as you can be and I wouldn't want to live there, but at least they aren't going to come here and try to blow me up. The hobted of the idea of global jihad is not the well consolidated backward regimes, but the unstable places like Yemen, Somalia etc.

They young Wabbabist of an Indonesian university is infinitely more dangerous to me than some old Wahhabist guy looking after some goats in the desert (or whatever they do).

True but then I was more thinking about how Saudi and the like would have to let there grip on power slip as the inevitable backlash came from there own people watching things like elections in Iran/Iraq on telly.

As long as unemployment of young men especially young graduates continues in the middle east an Central Asia then OBL will live on in some form. Notice how there tends to be a lot of engineering and technical people in the upper echelons of Al-Qaeda there is a book there if someone would write it.

[HoreTore]

Let's get the commies back in power in Iran.

An atheist, social democratic Iran.....

[Rhyfelwyr]

Let's get the commies back in power in Iran.

So you support foreign-backed regime change in the middle east?!

[HoreTore]

So you support foreign-backed regime change in the middle east?!

Why on earth wouldn't I?

I don't give a crap about other people's nationalist feelings, Rhy, you should know that by now