They don’t believe in G-d, yet they say He told them they were entitled to own land there, irrespective of who else was living on it. At first it was only land about the size of Wales, but later on God told them they should help themselves to a lot more land. They started planting colonies on this land but say they’re just for ‘security’ purposes. Some members of the cult say they don’t really want the land at all, but they keep on building those colonies.

They tell the rest of the world it’s wrong to be racist, and they’re very keen on immigration and emigration without limits– except in and out of this land G-d intended just for them. They also say they only want peace, but in a dream they built 200 or more nuclear warheads and pointed them at every other capital in the region (while denouncing these neighbouring countries as hell-bent on their own destruction) and now they won’t say if they’ve even got these nukes, though they stick their own people in jail for saying they exist.

And get this– although the leaders of the cult are nearly all atheists and agnostics, you can’t get married in their state unless you go through a religious ceremony! (Oh yeah, they’re very down on ‘theocracy’ too.)

I think your theory is as plausible as any I’ve heard. The 12th Imam stuff, coupled with Iran’s long-standing desire to whack Israel, worries me as much as the next sane fellow.

My question concerns the ‘intimidate the Arabs’ theory: what do the Iranians want from them?

I borrowed a phrase from your post here, and ended up getting quoted on the Pajamas Media front page tonight. I used the phrase “Al Jazeerah sounds worried …”

I just want to acknowledge that I stole from you, and ask what I owe.

Mahmoud, you are going to be the next Reichstag Fire. No?

*http://www.iran-press-service.com/articles_2001/dec_2001/rafsanjani_nuke_threats_141201.htm

It occurred to me some weeks ago that the Sunni Muslim street have quite a lot in common with the radical European left: as long as Islamists and zealots like Ahmadinejad oppose the US, both Sunni Muslims and radical leftists are willing to look the other way when it comes to their terrorist methods.

The pity is that the radical European left has had to sacrifice traditional liberal values to keep that position, moving more and more towards the totalitarian end of the spectrum.

Back to Ahmadinejad, I still cannot decide if he is a buffoon or a tactician: is he making these (very public) remarks for internal consumption or is this somehow related to Iran’s pursue of nuclear weapons?

Of course they sound nervous. The Qataris, Saudis, etc. don’t want Iran to get the bomb. Iran will use it to pressure them.

Same with Saddam and his bomb. He made noise that it was to be used against Israel and he should be supported in the name of “Arab unity”. That is the cover story. Iranians certainly were not so deceived and tried to knock out Osirak before the Israelis did.

That the media doesn’t pursue Arab opinion on the Iranian bomb shows their near complete lack of perspective.

Interesting. When Aljazeera say: “While it neither admits nor denies nuclear arms, Israel is thought to harbour about 200 nuclear warheads deployed on ballistic missiles, aircraft and submarines…” it does rather sound like they’re sending Ahmadinejad a warning.

Mark,

While it’s true that many Arab Muslims will never accept Israel, maybe, hundreds of millions of people in the Muslim world WILL one day accept a Jewish state in their midst. Anyway, from this keyboard to …