Re: Digest Number 1642

Greg,

I have an Iranian brother-in-law, so I can tell you straight ; Iranians are 
NOT Ay-rabs, and are indeed highly prejudiced against them. What's more, 
they are Shi'a, ie they believe that Ali, the son-in-law of the Prophet, was 
the last real leader, or Imam, of Islam, and that the Hidden Imam (the 
"Mahdi"), is yet to come. Of course the Sunni, the orthodox Muslims, abhor 
this view, and al-Qaida (or the shadow of this inexistant organisation which 
is projected on our screens for our tremulous satisfaction), will with great 
joy undertake "operations" aganist the Shi'a as they do against the 
"Crusaders and Apostates". But wait, there's more ; the Shi'a are divided 
into two antagonistic groups, for centuries ; the Septimans and the 
Duodecimans. The former believe that after Ali there were Seven imams, and 
then silence ; the latter, that there were Twelve, and then the same. The 
Iranians are in their great majority Septimans, however other smaller Shi'a 
groupings are of the other persuasion, such as the followers of the Aga Khan 
(directly descended from the Assassins, or Haschischeen, of the Middle 
Ages), or the Druze, who are even more heretically inclined in that they 
admit also various heritages of the pre-Islamic Sabaeans and the heretic 
Christian Nestorians. Walid Jumblatt, the leader of the Druze holed up in 
the Chouf region of the Lebanon, is  widely known as a paramilitary 
political leader ; it would surprise some to hear what he has to say about 
the origin of the Druze corpus of belief and the interaction the Druze have 
had with groups such as the Lurianic Jews of Safed and the heritage of the 
Templars. And finally there are the Sufic schools of Syria, Turkey, and the 
Caucasus who are all of the Shi'a persuasion and possess much lore dating 
from the time when the People of the Book were not yet even in the process 
of writing It ; I wish to point  out that "Islam" is no monolithic block, 
with but one visage, stonily pointed West, but as variegated and turned 
within itself as "Christendom", as carrying as strong resentments as a 
Moravian Brother or a Socinian would against a member of the Society of 
Jesus or the Hieron du Val d'Or.

Melchisedek

   From: Gregory Alexopoulos <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: What is President Ahmadinejad on?


--- Peter J Richardson <[email protected]>
wrote:

> Is President Ahmadinejad a CIA agent?
>

Why, has he been using EU airports for his prisoners?
;^p

>
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4529198.stm
>
> If the US government were to want to build a
> "coalition of the willing" Ahmadinejad seems to be
> going out of his
> way to make that task as easy as possible.
>

IMHO he's trying to see how far he can go without
being given a "yellow card". It's a trial and error
process. As soon as he knows his limits (which will
keep getting broader as long as the Iraqi business
does not reach a descent conclusion) he's going to
crown himself the Champion of all Arabs (or, better
yet, all Muslims) against the crusaders.

It won't be the first time someone's becoming a
messiah in the middle east. It won't be the last time
either.





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