Ayatollah Safi Golpayegani, a Shiite cleric based in the holy Iranian city of Qom, has issued a death sentence against rap artist Shahin Najafi for apostasy, the Persian-language Al Arabiya website reported on Wednesday.
The sentence was issued after Najafi released a controversial song called Naqi.
The song sparked a furor among protesters who believe it to be offensive to Imam Naqi, the tenth Imam in Shiite Islam.
News website Asr Iran, which is closely tied to the regime in Tehran, launched an online campaign calling for the hanging of Najafi. The website stated that the aim of the campaign was to have Najafi condemned for apostasy, a crime that carries the death penalty in Iran.
The campaign organizers have called on all Shiites and Muslims in general to find and kill Najafi and send him to hell, according to the website.
Najafi, 31, was an underground artist during his time in Iran, and was banned by the authorities from performing in the country. He moved to Germany in recent years where he joined a group called Tapesh 2012 which performs politically-motivated songs in Persian.
In 1989 a novel by British author Salman Rushdie created a similar response from Iran, when a fatwa (religious edict) was issued by Irans highest authority, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, calling for his killing for what was considered a disrespectful depiction of Prophet Muhammad.
#1
"Austerity" has been redefined. It means "not increasing spending as much as the best & brightest think ought to happen." It definitely does NOT mean cutting government spending back to a level below that of the previous 12 months.
From the article: No less than the very sovereignty and liberty of free peoples everywhere depends on rejection of the international order that has evolved since the end of World War II. The central banking cartel and their willing political accomplices are pushing us into an international tyranny run on debt. Author does have a point. However, changing that order will be very painful, even AUSTERE. And that's not popular anywhere. The people are rejecting the rotting corpse of the established order. Only a few, very few at that.
Posted by: Secret Asian Man ||
05/10/2012 5:17 Comments ||
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#5
The only way out is one proposed by Charles Murray years ago.
Either cut the number of government employees by 40% or keep them all but cut all of their paychecks by 40% and to hell with the consequences to their standard of living. If they riot, incarcerate them or do whatever else is necessary to keep the peace.
America will be saved when the boomtown suburbs of D.C. fouled as they are with lawyers, lobbyists, and regulators, are reduced to impoverished ghost towns.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
05/10/2012 7:59 Comments ||
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#6
We are not immune here in the U.S. In fact, we are leading the movement. From Tea Party in 2009 and 2010 to Occupy in 2011 to May 8s overwhelming defeat of a senior establishment figure like Richard Lugar in Indiana, the people are rejecting the rotting corpse of the established order.
Amen and amen! I noted Lugar's bitter comments on the teevee last evening. Evidently 40+ years supping at the public trough wasn't enough for the greedy bastard!
#7
I would have labeled Lugar a "superannuated political figure" rather than a "senior establishment figure." He's been long past his "sell by" date.
"Rotting corpses" are still getting plenty of support. Cases in point:
Traverse City, Michigan -- City firefighters washed the city's budget hearing with yellow-clad supporters, some of whom called for tax increases to save the jobs of Traverse City's emergency responders threatened by budget cuts..."I'm a retired teacher,"... said Mary Anderson... "I will pay whatever you need to help pay for it." ...said Carol Tompkins-Parker, whose father was a city firefighter. "I will support the Traverse City Fire Department any way I can, I will pay more taxes," she said.
Whistles, whoops and honking cars marked unionized labor's picketingof Milpitas City Hall Tuesday evening. Paul Mullett, a union representative for public works employees, said his group gathered 700 signatures from the public in support of preserving their jobs instead of contracting to less expensive workers.
"I would say 99 percent do not want us to outsource the parks or the streets," Mullett said.
Anyone can find dozens of news items like these on any given day. When items like these stop being reported with a straight face, it might be a sign people are rejecting the status quo.
[Ynet] Catholics and Jews have gathered outside the Colosseum in Rome in a candlelit vigil to decry attacks on Christians in the world.
Italia's minister for international cooperation, Andrea Riccardi, contended Wednesday night that there is practically "religious purification" being waged in places against Christians. Joining Catholic figures were Italian Jewish leaders in a show of solidarity.
Continued on Page 47
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Outgoing French leader Nicolas Sarkozy ...23rd and current President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra. Sarkozy is married to singer-songwriter Carla Bruni, who has a really nice birthday suit... 's cabinet met for a last session Thursday as president-elect Francois Hollande ...the impending Socialist president of La Belle France... began talks with EU leaders on his plans to refocus European policy on growth.
Hollande also met with senior figures in his Socialist party to gear up for next month's parliamentary vote in which he hopes to win a majority of seats to help him push through his reforms.
He also hunkered down with aides on forming a government and preparing for his first foreign visit, to Berlin, where he is expected to get a frosty reception over his plans to renegotiate the European fiscal austerity pact.
Sarkozy's cabinet meeting was "emotional", participants said, with ministers giving the outgoing president a standing ovation after he told them he wished Hollande "good luck" following his election win on Sunday.
"Nicolas Sarkozy's main commitment in 2007, to put La Belle France on the move, has been met," Prime Minister Francois Fillon said after the session.
"We did this with a number of reforms that no one else managed, and we did it during a climate of crisis."
Government spokeswoman Valerie Pecresse said Fillon would tender the cabinet's resignation on Thursday and that it would take effect when Hollande is inaugurated on May 15.
Hollande meanwhile met with senior party officials at his campaign headquarters, where talks focused on securing the Socialists a majority in the two-round parliamentary vote on June 10 and 17.
[Iran Press TV] Greece's leftist SYRIZA coalition and Socialist PASOK party have failed to agree on the formation of a coalition government.
Alexis Tsipras, the head of Coalition of the Radical Left, SYRIZA, said in Athens on Wednesday evening that he had abandoned his efforts to form a coalition government after the pro-austerity parties of Panhellenic Socialist Movement, known as PASOK, and the conservative New Democracy, declined to join an anti-bailout plan, Rooters reported.
PASOK leader Evangelos Venizelos confirmed the failure after holding talks with Tsipras.
The New Democracy, SYRIZA, and PASOK respectively finished first, second, and third in parliamentary election on Sunday.
Continued on Page 47
Posted by: Fred ||
05/10/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
Well, they're certainly off to a good start, aren't they?
To paraphrase Monty Python, Greeks throwing tantrums is no basis for forming a government.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Outgoing French leader 
Greece's leftist SYRIZA coalition and Socialist PASOK party have failed to agree on the formation of a coalition government.
