I am student from Iran. I am sorry about what Channel 4 did by showing Ahmadinejat.

I am sorry that still some countries and some people are still support this inhuman government who only care for thier power by killing and tourturing even their own people.
you can read on our weblog in Iran http://studentscommittee.blogfa.com
there is not a day that you don’t hear about execution of people even under age 18.
unfortunatlly still other governments care about money , oil and trading with this inhuman government of Iran rather than to think of Iranian people who want their democracy and freedom for their own country and they should help them to reach that by not giving any help to his mullahs regime.
we believe that they should put more sanction on Iran rather that to put this ugly man on their T.V.

Please have a visit on our weblog to know the reality in my country.

Wish you the bests in this new year!

Thank you,
SARA

I have taken the time to read between 15-20 books this past year from across the political spectrum regarding the “Muslim threat”, because I want to have useful understanding of what’s going on. It just seems like, as usual, the serious responses of our leaders are so far behind the curve and off kilter.

I still can’t believe they’ve begun to introduce Sharia principles into government finance. That information came from a wide variety of sources, and was sort of spit out into the flow of communications over a period of 4-5 weeks. I got the distinct impression that the bureaucrats weren’t anxious to have that one catch fire out here in the hinterlands.

I acknowledge that I am conservative and I have very strong opinions about this stuff. I try to have informed opinions and intend to express them legitimately…..so thanks for your response!

The fact is that he IS the president of Iran (even if he doesn’t wield much of the real power there), which is a prominent country in international affairs, always in the news, why not hear what he has to say to us, it can’t hurt.

It does not demonstrate weakness or helplessness, what demonstrates weakness is a State that feels forced to silence its opponents because it knows that allowing citizens access to their arguments will damage the credibility of the domestic political system (such as in Iran, Zimbabwe or North Korea)

I certainly wouldn’t calll BB King ‘country’, I’m thinking more of the commercial pop-country twaddle that comes out of nashville these days, that doesn’t have much of an audience outside the US but if you guys like it and see it as relevant to your culture then that’s the important thing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqAuuIDU2sw&feature=related

Although the other one aint too bad at all.

Spin

Appreciate your input and thoughts.

Good response to my attack.

Pop culture and art is critical. Lets go with this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4OXrmxDp44&feature=related

You might know Gary Moore. Northern Irish – awesome guitar player. He performs here with the American blues master BB King – you call that “country music” maybe. This is manna from heaven for me. You cant stand it, I gather from your post. I could listen to it all day. Yes I know Gary is Irish, not British or UK.

Long shot from there to what passes as brit-pop these days.

Yep you still got some terrific guys out there. You just havent supported them enough. You put out thousands of your best without a coherent plan or backup. Brits are out of Iraq now. Thank you very much.

I think the USA is gearing up now to do what needs to be done in Afghanistan. Some of your young people are on the line now.

I read something recently; A letter from the now dead Al-Queda leader in Iraq (Musab al-Zarqawi), dated Januray 2004, to his comrades in arms:

” There is no doubt that the Americans’ losses are very heavy because they are deployed accross a wide area and among the people, and because it is easy to procure weapons, all of which makes them easy and mouthwatering targets for the believers. But America did not come to leave, and it will not leave no matter how numerous its wounds become and how much of its blood is spilled…”

Not so for the UK. Easy for the Machdi Army do get rid of them. Harder for the Iraqi/US in the aftermath.

Anyway thanks for the help. Go listen to some Coldplay.

Spindok

Our “free speech traditions” are being used to undermine (ultimately) our free speech traditions. Have you not noticed that within completely Islamic cultures, controlled by Islamic governments, individuals are allowed no freedom–of movement, of speech or any other kind. Are these the kind of people we want to give an opportunity of influence–using our “tradition of free speech”, perhaps just to prove how magnanimous we are about free speech?

Not all Muslim countries are as restrictive as say Saudi Arabia but I take your point that they are not generally very free places in terms of free speech. However I still don’t see that Ahmedinejad’s words and ideas are so seductive and appealing that the public needs to be banned from hearing them.

“Using your logic, I guess we will just continue to generously provide free speech opportunities until we have the same audio ambience here that is now avialable in many European cities: the Muslim publicly broadcast call to prayer, five times a day.”

Which cities would they be? Obviously in Muslim European countries like Albania and Bosnia or in Istanbul it is to be expected but i’ve never heard it anywhere else and i’ve been to dozens of European cities. Maybe there have been a couple of proposals (as there have been in the US – http://www.weaselzippers.net/blog/2008/09/video-minaret-blasts-islamic-call-to-prayer-in-boston.html) but the fact that you seem to think that it it common to hear the muezzin in European cities seems to me typical of the misinformation that the right-wing media propagates. It certainly isn’t common at all, I work in a city with one of the highest percentages of muslims in Europe and it doesn’t happen here so it is very unlikely to happen in most European cities where muslims are only 1-2% of the population.