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Mon. Oct 03, 2005

Nuclear Religion

You might have read Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s recent threat that if Iran’s nuclear program was sent to the UN Security Council for possible action, they would stop selling us oil. OK, fine, Sparky, whatever. But there was another quote in the article that I found intriguing.

The newspaper quoted Ahmadinejad as saying Iran’s nuclear program was peaceful because it had to be.

“Our religion prohibits us from having nuclear arms and our religious leader has prohibited it from the point of view of religious law. It’s a closed road,” the Khaleej Times quoted Ahmadinejad as saying.

Guardian: Newspaper Stands by Iran Oil-Threat Story

I find this interesting because “His election, following a run-off ballot against former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani was a surprise and shock to the Western world fearful of his nuclear power policy and comments on nationalising the oil industry.”

The man he beat had distinctly different ideas about nuclear weapons: “One of Iran’s most influential ruling cleric called Friday on the Muslim states to use nuclear weapon against Israel, assuring them that while such an attack would annihilate Israel, it would cost them ‘damages only’ [...] Analysts said not only Mr. Hashemi-Rafsanjani’s speech was the strongest against Israel, but also this is the first time that a prominent leader of the Islamic Republic openly suggests the use of nuclear weapon against the Jewish State.”

And Rafsanjani is No Small Potatoes: “For over two decades, Ali-Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani has been one of the two most powerful men within Iran’s ruling hierarchy, first as Ayatollah Khomeini’s most trusted confidant until his death in 1989, and later as the junior partner in the Khamenei-Rafsanjani duo that has been at the apex of the Islamic Republic since then.”

So, what was once “policy” is now scarilegious?

OK, it’s possible the religious ruling to which Ahmadinejad refers is a recent one. If so, maybe someone should tell Osama: “Mr bin Laden himself has declared that acquiring nuclear weapons is a ‘religious duty’. ‘If I have indeed acquired [nuclear] weapons,’ he once said, ‘then I thank God for enabling me to do so.’ When forging an alliance of terrorist organisations in 1998, he issued a statement entitled ‘The Nuclear Bomb of Islam’. Characterised by a distinguished Islamic scholar, Bernard Lewis of Princeton, as ‘a magnificent piece of eloquent, at times even poetic Arabic prose,’ it states that ‘it is the duty of Muslims to prepare as much force as possible to terrorise the enemies of God.’”

Oh, that’s right … this was a ruling from a Shi’ite cleric. Al Qaeda’s leader in Iraq, Zarqawi, continually says nasty things about their mothers, and calls Shi’ites “the insurmountable obstacle, the lurking snake, the crafty and malicious scorpion, the spying enemy, and the penetrating venom [...] a sect of treachery and betrayal throughout history.” And Al Qaeda is very busy in Iraq killing Shi’ites nearly as fast as they can.

So, while I find this “sectarian debate” interesting, I’m not exactly calmed by the claim nuclear weapons are supposedly against someone’s religion. Because there’s always someone who dissents, or who prefers a more liberal interpretation. Or a new clerical ruling.

Or someone who will try to twist religion to further their warped desires, no matter what any cleric says.