Friday, January 16, 2015

Question I asked at the Frontline Club in Jan 2014

Question I asked at the Frontline Club a year ago, on how the new oil exploration technology will change the supply and demand of oil and how it will effect Iran's economy:




Tuesday, January 13, 2015

The Cartoon that Resembled Ayatollah Khomeini

In 1990, a young 19 year old Iranian cartoonist by the name of Hasan Karimzadeh drew this cartoon which was published in a magazine called Farad.

The young cartoonist had intended to make a statement about the budget cuts in football and Iran's football players being at a disadvantage compared to their competitors. Instead his cartoon sparked the wrath of Islamic fanatics who thought the cartoon resembled Ayatollah Khomeini and the mob demanded the 19 year old to be executed.

Karimzadeh was eventually sentenced to 10 years imprisonment, as well as 50 whip lashes and a financial fine. The magazine officials also received prison sentences, whip lashes and financial fines and the magazine was closed down.

And this saga of cartoons offending some people continues ...

Sunday, January 11, 2015

"Islam Does Not Allow Killing"

There seems to be no end to the naivety of some simpletons in the West. Listening to the LBC radio talk show after the cold blooded terrorist attack on the Charlie Hebdo headquarters in Paris, I was dismayed to learn the penny has still not dropped for so many people here in UK.

One listener, who described herself as a homosexual teacher of religious studies at a school in London was more concerned about the imminent Islamophobic backlash on her "Muslim brothers and sisters" than the danger the Western civilisation faces right now from radical Islam. 

Another non-Muslim listener phoned and pretended she understood Islam better than the terrorists who carried out the attack, by saying "Islam does not allow the killing of another human being".

Honestly I know these people wish well but they really have not got a clue. They have not got a clue about Islam and they have not got a clue about where the real danger lies and they have not got a clue how to tackle this serious threat to the Western way of life that so many people have benefited from living under, since the second world war.

There is no Islamophobia in the UK. If there was, then there wouldn't be so many Muslims wanting to come to UK and instead we would be witnessing Muslims leaving UK in large numbers. British Muslims enjoy equal opportunity policies like others and are in all key employments, just take a look at who works in the Home Office and the many Muslim case workers in the Home Office who decide the fate of asylum seekers coming to this country.

Does the non-Muslim Westerner, who thinks she knows Islam better than these Muslim radicals and claims Islam does not allow the killing of another human being, really think any potential Muslim radical will be impressed by their ignorant assertions?

The fact is that Islam does allow killing and even encourages killing of infidels. A potential radical Muslim studying Islam in state authorised religious schools and madrassas up and down England will learn that up to 900 men of the Banu-Qurayza tribe were beheaded in one day and their women and children were sold as slaves by the direct orders of the prophet of Islam.  
The potential Muslim radical will also learn about the dissident poetess Asma Bint-Marwan, who was put to death by the direct orders of Mohammad for her poems which mocked the prophet and his followers.

Does the non-Muslim Westerner who knows nothing about the religion of Islam and its history really think he or she can impress the potential Muslim radicals more than what they will learn from reading the Islamic scriptures and from listening to the Imams preaching from mosques and madrassas throughout England?

It really is time to wake up for those who want to remain in a state of denial. The Western way of life is under real threat and the way to combat this threat is not to delude yourself by thinking Islam is a religion of peace and that Islam does not allow the killing of other human beings. You will impress no one by making such apologetic statements. 


Sunday, January 04, 2015

The Missing $4.1 Bn from the National Development Fund

Rouhani's cabinet members at first flatly and explicitly denied the recent accusations by Iran's Majlis over the illegal withdrawal of $4.1 Bn from the National Development Fund. The row between the two bodies got so heated up that each side threatened the other with legal action.

What further added to the confusion and unclarity of the situation was the different and at times, conflicting statements by two of Iran's supervisory bodies, the Audit Institution  and the General Inspection Organisation.

The threats of legal action however, now seem to have subsided to reach a compromise instead, with the government no longer denying the withdrawal, as it did so explicitly to begin with, but claiming that the withdrawal from the fund did take place although it was not illegal. 

The government spokespersons now use words like"secret" and "special" to justify the legalities of the withdrawal without giving more specific details.

It is clear for Iran observers however that the government finances, after the falling price of oil, are in deep trouble. The entire budget of Rouhani's administration was based on two assumptions that sanctions will be lifted and the oil price will remain above $100 per barrel.

This "secret" and "special" withdrawal from the National Development Fund to make ends meet follows other recent unprecedented measures by the government to bring in much needed cash, such as the %30 rise in price of bread, conscripts being able to buy their National Service and IRGC affiliated companies including the holdings and foundations under the Supreme Leader's control having to pay taxes.

For more than three decades, the Islamic Republic's closed and uncompetitive economy has managed to survive on the huge windfalls of petro-Dollars, now it seems finally the good old days are over and unless some drastic changes take place, Iran's rule of theocracy  will face a similar collapse to that of the Soviet Union.