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Edit: Summit Meeting in Iran Disrupted by Rebukes of Syria


Rauf Mohseni/European Pressphoto Agency

President Mohamed Morsi of Egypt, right, speaking on Thursday in Tehran with
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, center, and Ban Ki-moon also on the stage.

By THOMAS ERDBRINK and RICK GLADSTONE
Published: August 30, 2012 58 Comments

TEHRAN — Iran’s .. http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/iran/index.html?inline=nyt-geo .. triumphal stewardship of the Nonaligned Movement summit meeting here veered off script on Thursday when the two most prominently featured guest speakers — President Mohamed Morsi .. http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/m/mohamed_morsi/index.html?inline=nyt-per .. of Egypt .. http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/egypt/index.html?inline=nyt-geo .. and the United Nations .. http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/u/united_nations/index.html?inline=nyt-org .. secretary general, Ban Ki-moon .. http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/b/ban_ki_moon/index.html?inline=nyt-per — denounced the repression of the armed uprising in Syria .. http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/syria/index.html?inline=nyt-geo, a close Iranian ally.

Related

Selected Excerpts of Morsi’s Speech (August 31, 2012)
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/31/world/middleeast/selected-excerpts-of-president-mohamed-morsis-speech.html?ref=middleeast
Threat to Syrian Civilians Is Growing, Officials Say (August 31, 2012)
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/31/world/middleeast/syria.html?ref=middleeast
Syrian Émigrés Seek Aid in U.S. to Arm Rebels (August 30, 2012)
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/30/world/middleeast/syrian-group-in-united-states-seeks-to-arm-rebels-against-assad.html?ref=middleeast
Assad Admits Difficulties, but Projects Confidence (August 30, 2012)
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/30/world/middleeast/syrias-assad-says-time-is-needed-in-fight-against-rebels.html?ref=middleeast

Syria’s foreign minister walked out in protest over Mr. Morsi’s remarks at the meeting, the largest international conference in Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Iranian leaders have portrayed the meeting, attended by delegations from 120 countries, as a validation of Iran’s importance in the world and a rejection of Western attempts to ostracize it.

Mr. Ban added further embarrassment to the Iranian hosts by publicly upbraiding them in his speech for threatening to annihilate Israel and for describing the Holocaust as a politically motivated myth. “I strongly reject threats by any member state to destroy another or outrageous attempts to deny historical facts, such as the Holocaust,” Mr. Ban said.

In what appeared to signal Iran’s effort to avoid public friction over the Syrian conflict that would detract from the tone of the Nonaligned conference, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, opened the day with a welcoming speech that conspicuously avoided any mention of Syria. But the subsequent speeches by Mr. Morsi and Mr. Ban refocused attention on it.

Mr. Morsi, Egypt’s new Islamist president, whose decision to accept Iran’s invitation to attend the meeting was considered a major victory by the Iranians, likened the uprising in Syria to the revolutions that swept away longtime leaders in North Africa like Mr. Morsi’s own predecessor in Egypt, Hosni Mubarak.

“The Syrian people are fighting with courage, looking for freedom and human dignity,” Mr. Morsi said, suggesting that all parties at the gathering shared responsibility for the bloodshed. “We must all be fully aware that this will not stop unless we act.”

Mr. Morsi, pointedly, did not mention unrest in Bahrain, possibly to avoid offending Saudi Arabia, which has helped Bahrain’s monarchy suppress the uprising.

With the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad .. http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/a/mahmoud_ahmadinejad/index.html, sitting beside him, Mr. Morsi .. http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/m/mohamed_morsi/index.html .. delivered a stinging rebuke of President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, whom Mr. Ahmadinejad and other Iranian leaders have staunchly defended throughout the conflict.

“Our solidarity with the children of beloved Syria against an oppressive regime that has lost its legitimacy is a moral duty as much as a political and strategic necessity that stems from our belief in a coming future for the free proud Syria,” Mr. Morsi said.

“And we must all offer our complete, undiminished support for the struggle for freedom and justice in Syria, and to translate our sympathy into a clear political vision that supports peaceful transition to a democratic government,” he said.

Mr. Ban, in the Syria portion of his speech, aimed a clear rebuke at the Syrian government by saying “the crisis in Syria started with peaceful demonstrations that were met by ruthless force. Now, we face the grim risk of long-term civil war destroying Syria’s rich tapestry of communities.” While he urged all antagonists to stop the violence, Mr. Ban said, “The Syrian government has the primary responsibility to resolve this crisis by genuinely listening to the people’s voices.”

Iran .. http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/iran/index.html .. stands isolated in the Islamic world in its support for President Assad, a status that became abundantly clear when it was the only nation to oppose the expelling of Syria as a member of the Organization of Islamic Countries on Aug. 14.

Local Iranian news media did not report the comments on Syria by Mr. Ban or Mr. Morsi, which strongly conflict with Iran’s official line; a top military commander recently declared Mr. Assad’s government the “winner” over the “U.S.- and Israel-backed terrorists.”

Such remarks have made it increasingly complicated for more pragmatic Iranian politicians to offer alternative ideas when it comes to Syria, with state television stressing daily the line of no compromise on Iran’s support for Mr. Assad.

Mr. Morsi, the new leader of an Egypt re-emerging as a regional player, and Ayatollah Khamenei, as the head of the Middle East’s only Islamic republic, predicted the coming of a new world order in which the power of the West fades as developing countries demand more influence. The revolutions in the region are a clear sign of more changes to come, they said.

In their separate speeches, Mr. Morsi and Ayatollah Khamenei both said that the makeup of the United Nations Security Council, in which the five permanent members — the United States, Russia, China, France and Britain — can veto decisions, should be altered.

“We need comprehensive changes so that the Security Council will be more representative of the 21st century,” Mr. Morsi said in Arabic, speaking through an interpreter.

Ayatollah Khamenei, who repeatedly lashed out against the United States, said the composition of the Security Council had led to a “flagrant form of dictatorship,” and he accused Washington of abusing “this mechanism in order to impose its will on the world.”

Both leaders called for a nuclear-free zone in the Middle East. Ayatollah Khamenei said that the United States and its Western allies had “equipped the usurper Zionist regime with nuclear weapons .. http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/science/topics/atomic_weapons/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier, which now pose a great threat to all of us.”

They also called for an independent Palestinian .. http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/p/palestinians/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier .. seat in the United Nations.

Mr. Ban, making his first visit to Iran as United Nations .. http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/u/united_nations/index.html?inline=nyt-org .. secretary general, called upon Iran to comply with a set of five Security Council resolutions demanding that the country stop enriching uranium. But Ayatollah Khamenei made clear that Iran would never compromise on the nuclear issue.

“The Islamic Republic is not after nuclear weapons,” Ayatollah Khamenei said. “But we will never give up on our right to nuclear energy ..http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/iran/nuclear_program/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier.”

Thomas Erdbrink reported from Tehran, and Rick Gladstone from New York. Mayy
El Sheikh contributed reporting from Cairo, and Kareem Fahim from Beirut, Lebanon.

A version of this article appeared in print on August 31, 2012, on page A10 of the New
York edition with the headline: Summit Meeting in Iran Disrupted by Rebukes of Syria.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/31/world/middleeast/ban-ki-moon-broaches-delicate-topics-with-iranian-officials.html

======== .. someone please remind the creep Terry Jones and other Islamophobes, and any other ethnicoreligiophobes around the world who stimulate their jollies with 'violence inciting' bigoted rhetoric/acts attacking the Muslim religion and/or other religions and/or ethnic groups that there are also violent extremists in the Christian religion ..

Religiously-motivated terrorism

Terrorist acts by Christians and members of other faiths

Terrorism and threat of terrorism in the U.S.:

Violence by extremist Christians in the United States has been responsible for attacks on Jewish centers, attempts to poison municipal water supplies, bombing of abortion clinics, and shooting of abortion providers. Timothy McVeigh’s bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City during 1995 killed 168 people, including 19 children. It showed that extremist Christians can be as deadly as their extremist Islamic counterparts.

There is a substantial number of organizations that are closely involved with actual terrorists. The members of these organizations are convinced that the forces of truth wage a perennial, cosmic battle with the forces of falsehood, and that they face the challenge of protecting Christian truth by any methods available. That they are allowing Jesus’ cross to become Mithras’ sword does not occur to them. There are fewer attacks by extremist Christians than by Muslim terrorists because the various Christian organizations are less numerous, their individual agendas differ, and there is a lack of cooperation – their actions are not coordinated.
.................
Edit: Insert comment: Could there also be fewer attacks by Christian terrorists
since Muslim nations have not invaded Christian nations as the West has in the recent past?
.................

Many Christian extremists derive their theological beliefs from at least two major fundamentalist Christian organizations.

* The Recontructionist movement .. http://www.religioustolerance.org/reconstr.htm .. asserts that the coming reign of Jesus will abolish democracy, the separation of church and state .. http://www.religioustolerance.org/const_am.htm, abortion access .. http://www.religioustolerance.org/abortion.htm, federal welfare programs, and many other features of modern society. Existing laws would be replaced with the Mosaic Code. Slavery, as regulated by biblical laws, would be reintroduced. Adultery, blasphemy and homosexual behavior would become crimes punishable by the death penalty .. http://www.religioustolerance.org/execute.htm.

* Christian Identity .. http://www.religioustolerance.org/cr_ident.htm .. (CI) is based on racial supremacy and biblical law (shades of ‘Sharia’?). It has provided the theological foundation for many extremist American movements. It provides the ideological support for some of America’s militias. Its ideas were most likely part of the thinking of Timothy McVeigh.

The most distinctive doctrine associated with Christian Identity is the belief
in the Satanic origin of the Jews. The Anti-Defamation League states:

"The most extreme expression of Identity anti-Semitism is the so-called "two-seed" (or "seedliner") theory. ... According to the two-seed theory, the seduction of Eve by the Serpent in Eden was sexual, Cain was the product of their liaison and Cain, in turn, was the father of the Jewish people; all Jews, therefore, are children of the devil, literally demonic. Jews are considered to be non-human demonic creatures who carry the devil’s capacity to work evil.

Christian Identity teaches that Jewish ancestry can be traced through Cain, the Edomites, and the Khazars, to contemporary Jews. CI has fused belief in a world-wide Jewish conspiracy with that of a cosmic Satanic conspiracy.

A Wikipedia article states:

"Like other anti-Jewish groups, Christian Identity has advocated violence against Jews on the basis that they are the 'Christ killers.' A few members have also advocated violence against Italians, arguing that if Jewish violence is justified on the fact that Jesus was betrayed by the Jews; then Italians must also be punished because it was the Romans who undertook the act of nailing Christ to the crucifix, and the Italians are the descendants of the Roman Empire.

Christian Identity was derived from a nineteenth-century form of biblical exegesis known as British Israelism. In the last decades of the twentieth century the ideology of CI groups such as The Covenant, The Sword and the Arm of the Lord (CSA); The Church of Jesus Christ, Christian; Aryan Nations, The Christian Defense League, and The Kingdom Identity Ministries, blended into their distinctive amalgam of biblical, apocalyptic, historical, anti-Semitic, racist, and conspiratorial theories. The ingredients of these theories were taken from New Age groups .. http://www.religioustolerance.org/newage.htm, survivalism, the patriot movement, and from neo-Nazi variants of white supremacist teaching. 5 A brochure published by Aryan Nations included this statement in their creed of faith:

"We BELIEVE there is a battle being fought this day between the children of darkness (today
known as Jews) and the children of Light (God), the Aryan race, the true Israel of the Bible."

Their motto is "Violence Solves Everything."

One of the United States most notorious right wing terrorist groups of the post-war era, the Order (a.k.a. the Silent Brotherhood, or Holy Order of Aryan Warriors) brought together militant racists from Christian Identity, some Odinists, and people of conventional neo-Nazi backgrounds.

Terrorism in Northern Ireland:

A special chapter could be written about terrorism in Ulster: Between 1968 and 1998, the IRA killed an estimated 728 civilians (most of them Protestants – not counted are military personnel and police). This compared with an estimated 864 civilians (most of them Catholics) killed by loyalist paramilitaries. However, the conflict between the Irish Republican Army, the IRA, whose goal is to unify Ulster with the Republic of Ireland, and the three main Protestant paramilitaries that want to stay loyal to the British Crown (the Ulster Defence Association, UDA; the Ulster Volunteer Force, UVF; and the Ulster Freedom Fighters, UFF), does seem to be inspired more by political ideology than by religious beliefs. Many Catholics feel like second-class citizens in Ulster, and there is violence, harassment, intimidation, and abuse (not to mention revenge killings). But, with the possible exception of Rev. Paisley, there seem to be little religion in all of it. Lately, the terror groups have turned their attention to moneymaking activities.

Other acts of terrorism:

There are many examples of terrorism committed by religious people all over the world:

For example, there was the killing of Sri Lanka’s prime minister, S.W.R.D. Bandranaike by a Buddhist monk. A bomb destroyed an Air India Boeing 747 over the Atlantic, killing all 329 people abroad, for which both Sikh and Kashmiri terrorists were blamed. However, most probably the attacks were motivated mainly by political reasons rather than by religion.

There are striking parallels between the white supremacists and the religiously motivated Islamic Shi’a fanatics in the Middle East. Both groups transform abstract political ideologies and objectives into a religious imperative. Violence is not only sanctioned, it is divinely decreed. Hence, the killing of persons described as 'infidels' by extremist Shi’a or as ‘children of Satan’ by the white supremacists thus becomes a sacramental act. 7

References used:

The following information sources were used to prepare and update this essay. The hyperlinks are not necessarily still active today.

Mark Juergensmeyer, "Terror in the Mind of God," University of California Press, (2003).

"Christian Identity," Anti-Defamation League, at: http://www.adl.org/

Michael Barkun, "Religion and the Racist Right." University of North Carolina Press, (1997).

"Christian Identity," Wikipedia, at: http://en.wikipedia.org/

Brenda E. Brasher, Ed., "Encyclopedia of Fundamentalism," Routledge, (2001).

"Aryan Nations" at: http://www.aryan-nations.org/

Bruce Hoffman, "Holy Terror: The Implications of Terrorism Motivated by a Religious Imperative," RAND Paper P-7834, (1993).

http://www.religioustolerance.org/tomek34d.htm

no reminder needed a Jone is one.

Aside: just heard on tv the film was made? supported by? an Iaraeli .. first
and only time i've heard that so far .. have you heard anything like that?