We read the primitive-looking letter (text via WSJ) from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to President Bush without reading much about the letter in advance. The idea was to try to bring fresh eyes to the effort; we did hear a brief report on CNN, but fortunately, that had no news content at all, aside from a bit of girlish gushing about how exciting it all was — the very first letter from an Iranian President in 27 years. The correspondents sounded like they wanted Ahmadinejad as their prom date.

The letter is a remarkable document and should be read in its entirety by anyone who wants to venture a claim that he knows what is going on in the world. The letter sounds a number of different notes. (Clearly, much of it was actually written by Ahmadinejad, though some of the rhetoric designed to appeal to the worldwide Left had echoes of a committee at work.) What is primarily striking about the letter is that it is overwhelmingly a religious document. Indeed, the letter appears to us to be an appeal to George Bush to convert to Islam, or, perhaps better put, to recognize his true inner nature and submit to Allah as a Muslim.

The letter makes any number of different arguments for its proposition, from logic and reason to the Christian faith’s being a true antecedent of Islam, with Jesus, Abraham and Moses being true prophets and monotheism being true religion. It is highly respectful of Jesus Christ, including usually using “PBUH” when referring to him. One of Ahmadienjad’s main points is that the Christian eschaton is included within the Islamic eschaton, and that we shall all have to face Judgement Day together. Here are a few excerpts from the 18 page letter:

Today, there are hundreds of millions of Christians, hundred of millions of Moslems and millions of people who follow the teachings of Moses (PBUH). All divine religions share one word and that is “monotheism” or belief in a single God and no other in the world.

The Holy Koran stresses this common word and calls on all followers of divine religions and says: [3.64] Say: O followers of the Book! come to an equitable proposition between us and you that we shall not serve any but Allah and (that) we shall not associate aught with him and (that) some of us shall not take others for lords besides Allah; but if they turn back then say: Bear witness that we are Muslims.

According to divine verses, we have all been called upon to worship one God and to follow the teachings of divine prophets….”A bad ending belongs only to those who have shosen the life of this world and disobey Him and opposes His servants” and “A good end and eternal paradise belongs to those servants who fear His majesty and do not follow their lascivious selves.”

We believe a return to the teachings of the divine prophets is the only road leading to salvation. We have been told that Your Excellency follows the teachings of Jesus (PBUH) and believes in the divine promise of the rule of the righteous on Earth….The day will come when all humans will congregate before the court of the Almighty, so that their deeds are examined. The good will be directed toward H[e]aven and evildoers will meet divine retribution. I trust both of us believe in such a day, but it will not be easy to calculate the actions of rulers, because we must be answerable to our nations and all others whose lives have been directly or indirectly affected by our actions….

Do you not think that if all of us come to believe in and abide by these principles, that it, monotheism, worship of God, justice, respect for the dignity of man, belief in the Last Day, we can overcome the present problems of the world — that are the result of disobedience to the Almighty and the teachings of the prophets…Will you not accept this invitation? That is, a genuine return to the teachings of the prophets, to monotheism and justice…

History tells us that repressive and cruel governments do not survive. God has entrusted the fate of man to them. The Almighty has not left the universe and humanity to their own devices. Many things have happened contrary to the wishes and plans of governments. These tell us that there is a higher power at work and all events are determined by Him…

Can anyone deny the signs of change in the world today?….We increasingly see that people around the world are flocking towards a main focal point — that is the Almighty God. Undoubtedly though faith in God and the teachings of the prophets, the people will conquer their problems. My question for you is: “Do you want to join them?” Mr. President, Whether we like it or not, the world is gravitating toward faith in the Almighty and justice and the will of God will prevail over all things.

You are free to doubt the sincerity of Ahmadinejad’s religious beliefs at your peril. We take them literally and seriously. (Indeed, on a personal note, it is very creepy typing out his words, so full of familiar religious terms, while so full of the threat — indeed the virtual inevitability — of impending cataclysm.) Ahmadinejad’s propostion is clear as a bell: repent and join the winning team of Islam, or face the destiny that “repressive and cruel governments do not survive” — not so much as a result of Iran, but perhaps Iran implementing God’s will. Do you doubt that Ahmadinejad thinks that the “one storm” he intends for Israel to be anything other than God’s will? This is chilling stuff.

UPDATE

It appears that this call to Islam by Ahmadinejad is called a dawa, an obligation to proselytize (even among the very young). Robert Spencer explains its use in Jihad:

In a Hadith, Muhammad tells his followers to call people to Islam before waging war against them:

Fight in the name of Allah and in the way of Allah. Fight against those who disbelieve in Allah. Make a holy war…When you meet your enemies who are polytheists, invite them to three courses of action. If they respond to any one of these, you also accept it and withhold yourself from doing them any harm. Invite them to (accept) Islam; if they respond to you, accept it from them and desist from fighting against them….If they refuse to accept Islam, demand from them the Jizya [the tax on non-Muslims specified in Qur’an 9:29]. If they agree to pay, accept it from them and hold off your hands. If they refuse to pay the tax, seek Allah’s help and fight them. (Sahih Muslim 4294)

In light of that, this letter could be — but is not necessarily — a prelude to an attack.

UPDATE II

This letter seems to us very serious business, but you’d never know it from the MSM. Powerline ably deconstructs an AP story (though we can’t agree with Scott’s assessment of the letter’s “formulaic religious tripe”). Another AP unconscious attempt at black humor was entitled Experts: U.S. Hasty in Brushoff of Iran. We wonder what would have been the “non-hasty” response to the words above written by Ahmadinejad — conversion perhaps?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 9th, 2006 at 6:01 pm and is filed under General, Iran, MSM, New Media, Religion, War, art, culture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.