Ahmedinajad gets C4's alternative Christmas message slot

[Wolveryeti]

What patronising, arrogant bullshit it is to suggest that people from regimes you don't like, or suspect views should automatically not be allowed airtime.

I want an insight into what the guy is actually like, without having some hack as an intermediary to shoehorn his words into whatever agenda it is they are following. It's an interesting choice, and I think C4 have done well.

 

[david dissadent]

What patronising, arrogant bullshit it is to suggest that people from regimes you don't like, or suspect views should automatically not be allowed airtime.

You also just in from the pub? C4 has a once a year high profile slot to air political dissenting voices. This is not about the censoring of views, but which ones to put on a rare pedistal.

People are not calling for Ahmadinejad to be silenced, but are angry that a voice that has fuck all to do with human rights or progessive ideas has been given such a rare platform.

What is more it feeds into the idea that everything left of the center is desperately keen to surrender to Islam and that Islam has only reactionary voices to offer.

 

[gabi]

I think they should have maybe chosen a woman who is forced to wear a full body veil anytime she leaves the house. Of course she can only do that in the company of a (male) relative. That'd be slightly be more interesting than the despot they chose. To me anyway.

 

[Wolveryeti]

You also just in from the pub? C4 has a once a year high profile slot to air political dissenting voices. This is not about the censoring of views, but which ones to put on a rare pedistal.

People are not calling for Ahmadinejad to be silenced, but are angry that a voice that has fuck all to do with human rights or progessive ideas has been given such a rare platform.

Ahmedinajad *is* a politically dissenting voice in the international community. And the whole point about him is surely that very few westerners can feel sure what he is about due to the hugely distortive media interests who are trying to spin what he says in such a way as to serve their interests, be they Al Jazeera, or Fox News.

I don't think it's a contradiction to feature someone from a repressive regime and simultaneously be interested in human rights and progressive ideas. How can you hope to generally improve the lives of the oppressed without understanding the forces that put them in the situation that they are in?

What is more it feeds into the idea that everything left of the center is desperately keen to surrender to Islam and that Islam has only reactionary voices to offer.

This is your view. I don't share it, and I'm sure a lot of others don't either. I don't give a tinkers cuss what my approving Ahmedinajad as a pick for C4 does for the image of the 'left' whatever that means. We're meant to be individuals, not a hive mind.

 

[isitme]

they put a fundamentalist on their message?

proper alternative

cunts

 

[david dissadent]

I don't think it's a contradiction to feature someone from a repressive regime and simultaneously be interested in human rights and progressive ideas.

He does not 'feature'.

He is the message.

He is not someone form a repressive regime.


He is the head of government.


I am not 'intersted' in human rights. It is not a hobby. It is the single most important imperative of my politics.
This man is a cunt. A thug. He is happy to murder people on the spurious grounds that they are genticaly predisposed to feel attracted to member of the same sex.
One of the few high profile platform to raise dissenting views has been handed to him.
He represents no voice of Islam that could not be offered in a more sympathetic light. He does reinforce prejudices though.
He offers no voice of those of faith that could not be represented in a more sypathetic light. But he does reinforce those who believe faith is irreconceivable with tollerance.
He offers no Iranian voice that could not be offered by a liberal and enlightened mind. Instead he is Irans past. Already rejected by the clerics of Tehran let alone more moderate Iranians.

Channel 4 have whored one of the most valuable slots they have for cheap sensationalism.

 

[isitme]

good post

it's disgusting to degrade islam like that as well. specially 'for kicks'

 

[Wolveryeti]

He does not 'feature'.

He is the message.

He is not someone form a repressive regime.


He is the head of government.


I am not 'intersted' in human rights. It is not a hobby. It is the single most important imperative of my politics.


This man is a cunt. A thug. He is happy to murder people on the spurious grounds that they are genticaly predisposed to feel attracted to member of the same sex.
One of the few high profile platform to raise dissenting views has been handed to him.
He represents no voice of Islam that could not be offered in a more sympathetic light. He does reinforce prejudices though.
He offers no voice of those of faith that could not be represented in a more sypathetic light. But he does reinforce those who believe faith is irreconceivable with tollerance.
He offers no Iranian voice that could not be offered by a liberal and enlightened mind. Instead he is Irans past. Already rejected by the clerics of Tehran let alone more moderate Iranians.

Channel 4 have whored one of the most valuable slots they have for cheap sensationalism.

I totally agree that a lot of the things the Irani regime does is appalling. But I am trying to disentangle the role of the theocracy and the government in things, and I don't think it is as simple as labelling Ahmedinajad a thug and writing him off. I don't know what to believe in the press, or on forums or whatever, such is the desire to spin his image.

I want to see Ahmedinajad in his own words - in an address that is not couched in words to appease the factions of his own nation, and not filtered through whatever lens a news organisation sees convenient to use to portray him. It will be revealing in ways that he does not choose it to be. Maybe he will 'reinforce prejudice', though frankly I don't believe shielding gullible people from information is a good thing.

I don't want some introspective commentary on how we should be from someone who is ideologically close to us. I get that every day. People who tell us what we should be are everywhere. I am after some knowledge of how people actually are.

 

[Wolveryeti]

good post

it's disgusting to degrade islam like that as well. specially 'for kicks'

How is it 'degrading islam'? Have you heard the message?

Anyway, he is the president of an Islamic state, not part of the clergy... Your comment is a bit like claiming featuring G. W. Bush on Al Jazeera is 'degrading Christianity'.

 

[isitme]

How is it 'degrading islam'? Have you heard the message?

Anyway, he is the president of an Islamic state, not part of the clergy... Your comment is a bit like claiming featuring G. W. Bush on Al Jazeera is 'degrading Christianity'.

because he is a fundamentalist. he is proud to be a 'face' of that aspect of islam, and i agree that it is the fault of the media that islam has this image. but this is a continuation of that. why not put a moderate islamist on, that would be alternative, not someone who is famous for being a cunt. and that isn't based on misrepresentation. he has some fucking repellent beliefs and he uses islam to justify them.

george bush does degrade christianity as well imo

I'm not religious, but I do think that there is something in faith and belief, and when people who have power use bombs and guns and get people killed and then justify it with religion they are degrading their faith, and even as someone who doesn't give a fuck about religion it degrades my faith in humanity

happy xmas btw

 

[Wolveryeti]

To you too, man

I dunno though. My basic principle is I'd rather listen to people no matter how horrible their views than just write them off. You should keep your enemies close and all that jazz. In fact I find people with horrible views quite interesting.

 

[Wolveryeti]

Also, what has Ahmedinajad really *done* other than preside over the status quo and provide some juicy soundbites? It's easy to complain from a western perspective about how awful it is that he hasn't changed the laws to remove some misery, but we should know from personal experience that creating new statute is much easier than rolling it back. He is also a product of his own society. We all have skeletons in our closet from the environment which shaped us.

 

[isitme]

But this thread isn't about him and what effect he can have on islam (and to be honest, Iran is one of the liberal countries as far as theocracies go)

it's about the fact that he got the 'alternative christmas message' in england. an islamic fundamentalist isn't fucking alternative

 

[albionism]

Its a shit shit descion. The guy is in charge of a regime that hangs people for being gay.

This.

No matter how much one may hate the war mongers in washington, this fucker oversees the public hanging of people for being gay and
the execution of women for being raped.

 

[Dillinger4]

You are all talking about it.

 

[JimW]

I don't think it is as simple as labelling Ahmedinajad a thug and writing him off.

Worse than that from what I understand. he earned his political capital as an officer with the Basiji during the Iran-Iraq war with special responsibility for training the squads of children they sent in as human minefield clearers on a dodgy promise of martyrdom with a key hung round their necks.
Story here: http://www.matthiaskuentzel.de/contents/ahmadinejads-demons

 

[adc069975]

You are all talking about it.

It's just shits and giggles isn't it? A complete ratings winner.

 

[Dillinger4]

It's just shits and giggles isn't it? A complete ratings winner.

And that is what counts.

 

[adc069975]

I really wish they could get in touch with Layla Anwar and have her do it though. <3

 

[stretchy18]

Fucking morons. Ooh take that america! Let's hope he talks about holocaust denial as well eh? Pricks. Apolitical clueless pricks. Look how naughty we are.

^^^^^^Nail on the heed

 

[isitme]

It says on the news that Israel called it a national embarassement

 

[adc069975]

It says on the news that Israel called it a national embarassement

lol

 

[Zachor]

I'm surprised Zachor hasn't literally exploded

No but this has definitely lit my blue touchpaper.

Seasons Greetings to all.

 

[GarfieldLeChat]

Channel 4 have whored one of the most valuable slots they have for cheap sensationalism.

erm grow up get a sense of perspective it's tv ffs...

 

[fractionMan]

who the fuck is this amemebejajreaarad anyway?

 

[SpookyFrank]

it's disgusting to degrade islam like that as well. specially 'for kicks'

No it's not, fuck 'em. As for degrading christianity, simply look around you and tell me we're not doing a bloody good job of that as it is.

 

[Dillinger4]

Some people are for it, and some other people are against it.

Everything is going to plan.

 

[bi0boy]

Next year: Robert Mugabe on how colonialists have fucked up his country

 

[Zachor]

Next year: Robert Mugabe on how colonialists have fucked up his country

You could sum up that future speech as 'Its got nothing to do with me Guv'

With any luck Mugabe could be doing his speech from a cell at The Hauge.

 

[elbows]

Here is the full text of his speech:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/dec/25/ahmadinejad-christmas-message

Much like a UN speech of his I listened to once, its full of heavy religious sentiment, with a few things in there about the dodgy regimes of the world.