Destroyed Partho-Sassanid Archaeological Site Believed to be Lost City...

[Reality=Chaos]

This reminds me Taliban in Afganistan. Especially this one time when they destroyed those two Buddha statutes(Can't remember how they were called) while cameras were recording everything.

That was criminal imo... but for a completely different reason, namely a religious one (a demented twisted religious one though).... From what I can gather from the article the destruction of the sites hsa not so much to do with the fundamentalist nature of the government, but because of widespread corruption. From what I know from Iran Iranians are rather proud of their heritage in general.

[king of thracia]

From what I know from Iran Iranians are rather proud of their heritage in general.

So we've heard. But there is that whole Islam thing..

and the Iranians we hear from are probably Westernized and out of the ordinary, different from the run of the mill guys who elected the Ahmad

[A Terribly Harmful Name]

There is a non-religious reason as well as a religious one. The Islamic power players fear that the association of Iran with a pre-Islamic ideal will generate contempt for their fundamentalist government as much as they despise the fact that "previously" people lived and prospered in a non-Islamic way.

The non-religious reason is the fact that were it not for King Oil Iran would be a fifth rate power instead of a fourth rate one. Someone has to feed the mouths of the proud Iranian peasants and Ahmadinejad voters so they keep backing the regime.

[Ibrahim]

The non-religious reason is the fact that were it not for King Oil Iran would be a fifth rate power instead of a fourth rate one. Someone has to feed the mouths of the proud Iranian peasants and Ahmadinejad voters so they keep backing the regime.

people are actually supporting the SOB? I was under the impression that there was much voter fraud involved in this election, hence the recent riots.

honestly, I think Iran needs to get another revolution going: they already kicked far worse people out of power before, and made a few others age faster, why not kick this dunce from power again? mind you in both cases Iran was governed by either foreign invaders or police states from within...

*apparently the only exception was hajjaj ibn yusif, but let's face it, even arabs hate the guy.

look, if you want to know why the government doesn't give a crap, its not really down to religion, as much as it is down to power: twatdinejad and his supporters want a power base with which to exercise authority*, so they will pull the religion card, by saying that destroying things is good for the lord. why destroy ancient iranian stuff? because, being preislamic, and a source of pride, it will allow the iranis to have pride in something other than shiism, thus undermining the theocratic authority of the government. in other words, the government sees it as a threat.

taaliban did it for essentially the same reason: they don't want anyone having pride in Afghanistan's preislamic past, undermining their myopic bastardized version of the faith (and power), so they tore the bhudda's down.

*y'know, if they really are faithful, why lie or fudge the votes? a muslim can't be a liar.

[a completely inoffensive name]

When did this turn into a religious/politic thread? In b4 the lock.

[Megas Methuselah]

When did this turn into a religious/politic thread? In b4 the lock.

What the heck is wrong with these people? I mean, ACIN, don't they have the decency to stay on topic?

In b4 teh lok.

[bobbin]

look, if you want to know why the government doesn't give a crap, its not really down to religion, as much as it is down to power: twatdinejad and his supporters want a power base with which to exercise authority*, so they will pull the religion card, by saying that destroying things is good for the lord. why destroy ancient iranian stuff? because, being preislamic, and a source of pride, it will allow the iranis to have pride in something other than shiism, thus undermining the theocratic authority of the government. in other words, the government sees it as a threat.

Absolutley correct there my friend, you should also read up on how the revolutionary guards are investing large sums of my in buying up the various businnesses in Iran, there trying to root themselves so firmly into Iranian life and the economy that to remove them would be catasrophic.

I remember reading something about the ISI in pakistan doing the same but i'm not too sure about that.