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Since the Iranian Revolution in 1979, elections in Iran are a symbolic game. Unlike the government advertisements, or propaganda, showing old footage of Iranians at some polling stations that now are typically empty, the people of Iran don’t have any role in electing a candidate to represent them. Whoever the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Khamenei, decides to be the president of Iran will only be in power as a delegate who follows the rules of Khamenei.
Throughout Iran, it is our experience that there are only a few minority groups who support the government and go to the polls willingly on Election Day. However, most ordinary Iranian citizens are forced to put their ballots in the box on Election Day or face losing their government benefits.
As any parent knows, sometimes trying to do right by everyone in a delicate situation can lead to further complications.
Astral Drive Elementary school, in Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia has landed in such a predicament.
To keep pace with the changing composition of its’ families, the school decided to forego Mother’s Day and Father’s Day activities, in favour of “Family Day”.
But, many families in Cole Harbour don’t like the new policy.
More than 400 people have signed a petition, demanding the school re-instate Mother’s and Father’s Day activities (which usually consist of school-children making crafts and cards to bring home).
One of the petition leaders, Heather Bruce, is a single mother, who says the change is disheartening.
“My son, this year was the first year in six years I didn’t receive a card from him because there’s no-one else telling him that that it’s Mother’s Day. Those things are important to teach our kids. To honour, respect their parents and they get that from school, sometimes.”
Her 11-year-old son, Ben, says he agrees.
“I’ve been doing it since I can remember. I’ve done it all the years in school, so, it’s really important to me,” said the grade five student, as his mother watched encouragingly in their living room.
The catalyst for the change was a female student, whose parents are lesbians.
VIENNA -- Wanted: A jester. Wallflowers need not apply.
It's no joke. An Austrian hotel is advertising for a modern-day court fool, who is communicative, extroverted, musical, creative and imaginative.
Applicants are asked to bring – and play – their musical instrument during the job interview. Also welcome: creative costumes. The successful candidate will earn 1,400 euros – around $1,900 – a month.
Hotel director Melanie Franke says those interested should not think they're on a fool's errand in applying. She says the idea is to treat guests like royalty, noting that "jesters were a luxury that royal families indulged themselves in."
The hotel in Austria's Styria province was designed by famed Austrian artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser and Franke says the jester concept fits its hotel's colorful appearance.
Earlier this week, the US government warned Americans to steer clear of Israel's northern Golan Heights. Now the United Nations is cautioning that neighboring Syria's ongoing civil war is likely to spill over the border.
"US citizens are advised to defer non-essential travel to and within the Golan Heights and to exercise an extra measure of caution," read an email sent by the US Embassy in Tel Aviv to American citizens living in Israel.
The warning came after Syrian government and rebel forces engaged in a days-long battle for the border town of Quneitra, with Syrian forces entering the demilitarized buffer zone between Israel and Syria for the first time in decades.
Around the same time, Austria, which is the largest contributor of troops to the UN peacekeeping force stationed on the Golan border, announced that it was pulling its soldiers out of the region.
An encroachment of Islamic law into the German legal system sets a dangerous precedent in Europe.
An appeals court in northwestern Germany has decided a contentious divorce case based on Islamic Sharia law.
The ruling is the latest in a growing number of court cases in Germany in which judges refer or defer to Islamic law because either the plaintiffs or the defendants are Muslim.
Critics say the cases -- especially those in which German law has taken a back seat to Sharia law -- reflect a dangerous encroachment of Islamic law into the German legal system.
As a citizen of Kenya, Malik Obama is the Executive Secretary of the Islamic Da’wa Organization (IDO), which is headquartered in Khartoum, Sudan and is an extension of the Sudanese government – a State Sponsor of Terror led by a President wanted for war crimes. The central purpose of the IDO is to spread wahhabist Islam within the African sub-continent.
The new country of South Sudan gained its independence in 2011 when it essentially voted by a near unanimous margin, to secede from Sudan, which is led by President Omar al-Bashir, a vessel of the Muslim Brotherhood and a genocidal butcher. A significant bone of contention between the now two nations is that South Sudan is the most oil-rich of the two, as the New York Times pointed out during the transition two years ago:
You would think that before a group of Egyptian (Muslim fundamentalist) politicians sat around a table to discuss intelligence strategies about how to deal with their enemies, someone would tell them they would be on live television. But, alas, no one did and well, these politicians – in a meeting chaired by President Mohammed Mursi – discussed, well… intelligence strategies about how to deal with their enemies.
A key moment occurs at the 2:35 mark when Ayman Nour, Chairman of the Ghad Al-Thawra Party begins by suggesting that what he is going to say may not be something that should be said. He then proceeds to enunciate suggestions on how to intimidate Ethiopia into not building a dam that could affect the Nile. One of those suggestions is to send a “task force that will deal with politics and intelligence” into that country instead of diplomats to an “embassy”. He then suggests that Egypt “should intervene in their domestic affairs” and “leak intelligence” of a military nature intended to intimidate Ethiopia.
A little bit later, at the 4:50 mark, comes the crescendo as another Party Chairman outwardly identifies America and Israel as enemies (Mursi does not object).
Children between the ages of six and 16 in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip have been photographed doing life-like military training exercises, fire guns and jump over burning tires, according to the news agency AFP. The camp is organized by the Islamic Jihad movement during a summer school vacation in the town of Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip.
One of the pictures shows young boys dragging a Khaki-clad doll away from an Israeli flag, in what appears to be a re-enactment of the kidnapping in 2006 of IDF soldier Gilad Shalit. He was finally released after more than five years in captivity, as part of a prisoner exchange between Hamas and Israel.
On the photos, boys are also pictured marching and standing to attention as orders were barked at them to instill military discipline. Visitors to the camp, called Generation of Faith, are given AK47s machine guns that are bigger than some of the children holding them. Participants wear black uniforms bearing the camp's slogan in Arabic, with a logo showing two fists, two guns and a map of the Gaza Strip.
AFP reports that the camp organizers expect the participation of up to 10,000 Palestinian children throughout the summer.
While I’m not at liberty to discuss what these Canadian officials said to me, I can share with you what my colleagues and I shared with them.
First and foremost, I thanked the MPs from the ruling party (the Conservative Party) for having in Prime Minister Stephen Harper the most pro-Israel leader on the planet, and for being part of the most pro-Israel government on the planet. Canada is pursuing a principled and profoundly moral position with vigor, integrity and consistency. (see below)
I noted it would be positive if Harper made a state visit to Israel this year to show his solidarity with the Jewish State. On the same trip, he could meet with Palestinian leaders, and visit King Abdullah II in Jordan who needs to be encouraged as a man of peace and strengthened against Radicals trying to bring him down and impose a Islamist regime in Amman.
At the same time, I also thanked the Canadian leaders for showing their deep and profound support for the enslaved people of Iran. The Harper Government last fall cut ties with the Iranian regime, closed Canada’s embassy in Tehran, expelled Iranian diplomats from Canada, and are reaching out directly to the Iranian people to show solidarity with them in their suffering, and calling upon them to overthrow the Ayatollah Khamenei and his cruel dictatorship.
We offered an analysis of the Iranian so-called “elections” coming up on Friday, who some of the key players are, and considered the Ayatollah Khamenei’s objectives.
We discussed the current nuclear threat posed by Iran, including the Israeli Intelligence Minister’s quote that Iran is “very close” to the red line and is preparing to build 30 nuclear warheads per year. We discussed the possibility that Israel may soon have to launch a massive preemptive military strike. I gave them copies of my latest novel, Damascus Countdown, and we talked about the implications of such a preemptive strike, and why much of the world could turn against Israe
For the last two days, I’ve been in Ottawa, the capital city of Canada, and the invitation of various Members of Parliament and Cabinet Members in Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government. I’ve come to thank these leaders for Canada’s extraordinary international support for the State of Israel – I have long argued that PM Harper is the most pro-Israel leader in the world — and to discuss with them the dangers ahead with regards to Syria, Hezbollah, Hamas and most serious Iran and its nuclear weapons program. More on that in a few days when my meetings are complete.
For now we have new developments to process — namely that Israel’s Minister for Intelligence and Strategic Affairs is publicly saying that Iran is “very close” to crossing the red line, and is preparing to build 30 nuclear warheads a year. Such analysis undoubtedly reflects the view of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as Steinitz is a very close friend and confidante of the PM.
This development gives new credence to the view that Israel is waiting for the Iranian elections on Friday to be over, and may in fact be coming to the decision that a massive preemptive military strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities is the Jewish State’s only option to prevent a second Holocaust. In my recent novel, Damascus Countdown, I lay out a scenario of how an Israeli first strike could look, as well as what might happen if Iran draws Syria into a full-blown retaliation.
Let us not grow weary of praying for the peace of Jerusalem, and the region, according to Psalm 122:6. This is more important than ever as war clouds build on the horizon.
Whenever there is a terrorist attack, we’re told that it is not the result of Islam; it’s because some lone wolf misinterpreted Islam. Ok, then how do the aforementioned crocodile feeders explain 78% of British Muslims wanting to abolish free speech by punishing anyone who insults Islam?
That’s one mighty large pack of lone wolves.
This is an important week in the history of modern Iran. Indeed, it could prove a turning point in Iran’s nuclear weapons program and the region’s march towards a major war.
On Friday, millions of Iranians will turn out to vote in national elections, hoping to choose their country’s next President. Actually, the whole exercise will once again be a sham. It might look like democracy on television. But behind the scenes, the forces of the Ayatollah Khamenei will be stuffing the ballot boxes to make sure the Supreme Leader’s personal choice is “elected.” That’s how Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was first “elected” in 2005. That’s how Ahmadinejad was “re-elected” in 2009. That’s how all “elections” are done in Iran. It’s all for show. The only vote that counts is Khamenei’s.
The question this week isn’t whether the will of the suffering Iranian people will prevail. (It won’t.)
The question is simply this: Who does Khamenei want to be the face of the regime?
