The former president of the Islamic Republic — Hojat al-Islam wa al-Moslemeen Sayyed Muhammad Khatami — practiced Shiite religious deception, Taqiyah, in front of Harvard students, many of whom apparently ate it up. Amir Taheri has a brilliant piece in which he used his ability to speak Persian to point out the Iranian’s disgusting behavior:

[Khatami] decided to “edit” his name to cut a less outlandish image with his American interlocutors. Gone was the title Hojat al-Islam wa al-Moslemeen (”Proof of Islam and of Muslims”) and the sobriquet of Sayyed (”master”) used by those who claim to be descendants of the Prophet Muhammad. Throughout, he presented himself as former president of “Iran,” rather than of the Islamic Republic - although, legally speaking, there is no state known as Iran. He also insisted on describing himself as hich-kareh - someone with no official position at all - hiding the fact that he is a member of at least 11 organs of the Islamic Republic, including the all-important Assembly of Experts.

Khatami altered more than his identity: He edited Islam into a lovey-dovey cult that abhors the use of force, is uncomfortable with capital punishment, would never fight except in self-defense and actively welcomes other faiths….He used a vocabulary carefully designed to hoodwink the Americans without angering his fellow Khomeinists back home. The trick was reinforced by the fact that he often said one thing in Persian, while the interpreter said something else in English for the benefit of the Harvard audience.

For example, Khatami would speak of khoshunat, which means “roughness,” but the interpreter would translate it into “violence” or even “terror.” Thus, the Harvard audience would think that Khatami admits that there may be terrorism in the realm of Islam - while back in Tehran, he would appear talking only about “roughness” and “coercion.”

In Persian, he would speak of “sodomy,” but the Harvard audience would hear “gay sex.” Referring to the leader of al Qaeda, he would say “that gentleman” (Aan Agha) in Persian, but the interpreter would say “Osama bin Laden.”…

Khatami was also in total denial about the bloody history of his eight years as president. There was no mention of the 1,347 men and women executed during his two terms. And when it came to the murder of intellectuals and journalists by his henchmen, he pretended that other organs of the Islamic Republic had been responsible, without his knowledge. An Iranian student raised the murder of Iranian-Canadian journalist Zahra Kazemi - and Khatami, with a broad smile, said he wasn’t quite sure how the poor woman had died in one of his prisons.

The worthies at Harvard are interresed in a “dialogue” with Iran. But how can there be a dialogue if one side is willfully unable to understand what the other side is saying, and the other side is all-too-willing to deceive those who would be deceived.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 13th, 2006 at 2:20 pm and is filed under General, Iran, Religion, War, art, culture, idiots!, radical chic. 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.