Islamic dietary rules require that animals that provide food for the
faithful be slaughtered in a very specific way. Muslims are allowed to
eat camel meat, but how can you kill a camel according to ritual halal rules,
which specify the precise manner in which the camel’s throat is cut? A
camel does not permit human beings to kill him according to the religious
requirements, but if a camel has not been killed in the ritual way then one is
not allowed to eat it. What to do?
The first Muslims solved the problem by cunning. Instead of attacking him, the slaughterers inserted a sharp pin in the camel’s neck. For a moment the animal feels pain but thereafter he feels nothing. Meanwhile, the blood slowly drains from his body. After a while the animal does not feel well. The only way to save the camel is by a blood transfusion, but if that is not done – a process unthinkable fifteen hundred years ago – then the animal is beyond rescue. After a while the camel slowly descends on his front knees and this the time to cut its throat in the name of Allah.
This is the present condition of the Islamic regime led by Khamenei. I did not invent this metaphor; it is widely used these days by Iranians watching the supreme leader’s public and private behavior. Khamenei is losing blood, and Iranians are waiting for him to slowly go down on his front knees and to fall down. He has been punctured by the months of demonstrations and the nightly chant of “Death to the Dictator,” and he is visibly staggering.
On August 26 [2009] Khamenei delivered an exceptionally important speech in Tehran. In this speech he demonstrated the weakness of a regime that slowly begins to perceive its own doom: About the Kahrizak detention center, where demonstrators were raped and tortured to death, Khamenei said the following: “Mistakes have been made, laws have been violated and crimes have been committed. The perpetrators have to be treated with a hard fist”. And he decried the regime’s violent acts against students: ”The attacks on the student dormitories at the campus have to be criminally investigated”. Fascinating! Khamenei, whose pronouncements were recently hailed as Divinely inspired, is now publicly speaking of crimes committed by his regime on basis of his own instructions.
Khamenei even demanded the trial of the members of the security forces and the Basjii (militia) who committed these crimes: “They have done a lot for this country, but this does not mean that the offenders should not be tried. The offenders must be prosecuted.“
To be sure, he threw a very small bone to those who have been loyal to him: “but the case of Kahrizak and other cases should not be confused with the great injustice committed against the regime. The desecrated honor of the regime is worse than the events at Kahrizak.”
Mr. Khamenei, is this not a bit stupid? Kahrizak, where the young Persians were tortured, raped and murdered by the jihadist hordes, is less important than the honor of these rapists and murderers?
The first Muslims solved the problem by cunning. Instead of attacking him, the slaughterers inserted a sharp pin in the camel’s neck. For a moment the animal feels pain but thereafter he feels nothing. Meanwhile, the blood slowly drains from his body. After a while the animal does not feel well. The only way to save the camel is by a blood transfusion, but if that is not done – a process unthinkable fifteen hundred years ago – then the animal is beyond rescue. After a while the camel slowly descends on his front knees and this the time to cut its throat in the name of Allah.
This is the present condition of the Islamic regime led by Khamenei. I did not invent this metaphor; it is widely used these days by Iranians watching the supreme leader’s public and private behavior. Khamenei is losing blood, and Iranians are waiting for him to slowly go down on his front knees and to fall down. He has been punctured by the months of demonstrations and the nightly chant of “Death to the Dictator,” and he is visibly staggering.
On August 26 [2009] Khamenei delivered an exceptionally important speech in Tehran. In this speech he demonstrated the weakness of a regime that slowly begins to perceive its own doom: About the Kahrizak detention center, where demonstrators were raped and tortured to death, Khamenei said the following: “Mistakes have been made, laws have been violated and crimes have been committed. The perpetrators have to be treated with a hard fist”. And he decried the regime’s violent acts against students: ”The attacks on the student dormitories at the campus have to be criminally investigated”. Fascinating! Khamenei, whose pronouncements were recently hailed as Divinely inspired, is now publicly speaking of crimes committed by his regime on basis of his own instructions.
Khamenei even demanded the trial of the members of the security forces and the Basjii (militia) who committed these crimes: “They have done a lot for this country, but this does not mean that the offenders should not be tried. The offenders must be prosecuted.“
To be sure, he threw a very small bone to those who have been loyal to him: “but the case of Kahrizak and other cases should not be confused with the great injustice committed against the regime. The desecrated honor of the regime is worse than the events at Kahrizak.”
Mr. Khamenei, is this not a bit stupid? Kahrizak, where the young Persians were tortured, raped and murdered by the jihadist hordes, is less important than the honor of these rapists and murderers?
What is the current opinion of Khamenei about the demonstrators and the leaders of the opposition? Do they still work for foreign intelligence services? Does the majority of the demonstrators still consist of spies working for the CIA, MI6 and the Mosad? No, the great leader has to admit that his people are not agents of the enemy.
“The judiciary should not base its judgment on rumors but on hard evidence. I do not accuse the leaders of recent events (read Mousavi and others) to be in the service of England or America. It is not proven that they worked for America or England. Everything had been long been planned by the enemy, but perhaps they (the opposition) did not know this. Those who had designed the unrest did not know whether it would work. They used all their options [the media, internet] but they failed.“
For weeks, Khamenei, Ahmadinezhad and a plethora of high officials have claimed that the opposition leaders were spies for the West. Until August 26th, they were collectively tried for espionage and involvement in an international conspiracy against the Islamic republic.
Suddenly they are not spies. How can we understand this? Khamenei warned students to be careful. They should not use trivial matters as an alibi for the creation of unrest at the universities as that could cause the universities to be closed for a while. Yes, this is where it is all about: in about four weeks schools and universities are to open and there lies the problem, quite possibly the survival of the regime itself. What is going on in the court of Khamenei?
Reliable sources report me the following straight from the heart of the regime (yes, leakage again):
In recent days Khamenei has been confronted with facts and analysis by Rafsanjani and others. He was shown names and pictures of raped and murdered protesters. He received reports that several elements of the Revolutionary Guard (RG) can no longer handle this.
After the opening of the academic year, when 14 million students return to the campuses, unrest will increase. Security forces will only for a period limited to a few weeks be able to address intensive conflicts in Tehran and other cities. The show trials did not have the expected effect. Nobody believes in these trials.
The general economic situation is disastrous. Gasoline supplies are only sufficient for a period of about 70 days in case of a potential international gasoline boycott. Today [August 27], Mr. Ahmad Tavakoli, a member of the Iranian parliament and a follower of Ahmadinejad, stated that 200,000 employees of at least 50 factories have not been paid for more than three months
In the next major conflict with the people, parts of the Revolutionary Guards and the army will remain neutral. If protests continue, they will chose the side of the people.
In addition to this Khamenei was also confronted with a very secret message from Najaf [Iraq]. In this message Khamenei was seriously warned and criticized by Grand Ayatollah Sistani, the most important religious leader of all Shiites. The division between the ayatollahs is unprecedented. And the highly respected Iranian Ayatollah Montazeri has just declared that the regime is neither Islamic, nor a republic. In other words, it is illegitimate.
How will the Iranian people react to Khamenei’s speech? The comparison with the Iranian revolution of 1979 is obvious: during the first months of the revolution the shah had also accused his own people of crimes, trying to win the support of the masses. But it was too late. Like the shah thirty years ago, Khamenei has lost all popular legitimacy: once the supreme leader totally reversed his position on the nature of the uprising, he can no longer command authority.
A few weeks ago, he openly asked the security forces to suppress the demonstrators. Now he openly speaks of crimes committed by his security forces. According to Jahan News, a pro-government news site, Mortasavi, the notorious prosecutor of the Revolutionary Court, has been fired. This suggests that other top officials will be sacrificed. But mere changes in personnel are no longer sufficient to rescue the dying camel.
What should the Americans and the Europeans do? Above all, they must not try to save the regime. They must avoid playing the role of paramedics who want to provide a blood transfusion to Khamenei, aka The Camel. The suffering is terrible, but it is not a ritual slaughter. It’s simple justice.
Afshin Ellian is professor at the Faculty of Law of Leiden University(Netherlands).
Source: http://www.faithfreedom.org/2009/09/06/khamenei-staggers-like-a-camel-being-ritually-slaughtered/
IHS
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