I would like to draw your attention to Les Politiques. The blog that inspired me to start mine. In the past few posts, Les Politiques has been providing comparative analysis of the French versus the English media in reporting the Bush-generated crisis around Iran.
In her recent post, Sophia has provided a translation and commentary of Le Temps''s Interview with Akbar Velayati's (previous Foreign Affairs Minister of 17 revolutionary years).
Velayati compares allegations of Iran's interference in Iraq to that of de Gaulle's interference in the Quebec-Canadian politics, and stresses on the Iranian's firm belief that
a) The Iraq problem should be decided by democracy (and if the 60% of shiite majority establishes a shiite government, it should not be discouraged by Americans!
b) Iranians DO NOT WANT WIPE ISRAEL OFF THE MAP, that innocent Israelis deserve peace and land and that the Jewish, the Muslim and the Christian inhabitants of the Israel/Palestine should arrive at a "democratic" resolution to their conflict.
5 comments:
Great Naj,
I think we should spread the word. These are news you won't read in the NYT. Velayati impressed me though by his sharp intelligence and culture. I mean he is not supposed to know about De Gaulle and Québec. I see in western politicians the decline of knowledge and culture. When someone like Tony Blair tells the world that he 'knows what he believes' (I am not kidding) you wonder where his brain and the brains of those who listen to him and do not raise their eyebrows are.
Well my dear Sophia, when I was talking to say stdents in electrical engineering in Iran, and heard them talk about Habermas, I almost fell of of my chair.
One doesn't expect a Doctor (like Velayati wo is a pediatrcian) or Engineer in a "FUNDAMENTALIST" society to know much about the western movements in philosophy and culture and etc.
But smething that the Westerners do not know is that the largest collection of philoshy books in Iran is in Hozeh Elmiyeh Ghom; and those clerics are taking their education in world- philosophy VERY seriously.
I will soon translate an article that I read by a cleric who was talking about the "necessity of female translations of Koran to Persian" because he was of the belief that the translation by men do not yield well to a feminin reading of Koran. The thing is, Islam and Koran come to Iranians through translation, and this is why "interpretation" of Koran has opened the door to making a different brand of Islam in Iran.
why can't I post with my user name?
the above comment was MINE :)
Naj,
I did not answer your mail of late yesterday because it is on my PC at home and could not access it on my laptop. Anyway, you can tell Mr Campbell that the Coran says about knowledge and science the following:
A real sage (knowledgeable person) never takes pride from his knowledge on others, he never keeps his knowledge from others, he never underestimates his knowledge, and most of all, he never sells his knowledge. I came across this a long time ago and I am reciting it for its substance and not word by word. And don't ask me which sourate it is...
Well, I guess selling is what we do in our line of business anyways. And he so bluntly drew my attention to the "scientist being the child who needs money to play!"
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