The MSM and world have been rather silent about Ahmadinejad’s anti-semitism. Some tools even thought to take a picture with him, as if he were some cuddly celebrity, not a madman with designs on genocide. Or even really bad on human rights.
Fortunately On Faith columnists actually showed intolerance for intolerance (for a change):
Thursday’s dinner is framed as an “international dialogue” on the topic, “Has Not One God Created Us? The Significance of Religious Contributions to Peace.” President Ahmadinejad has manipulated such dialogues repeatedly into a platform for spreading intolerance, and there is no reason to think that this event will be any different.
It is disturbing enough that a leader who has worked so ruthlessly to close off channels for free expression at home should be given an opening to expound his views here. But the invitation to President Ahmadinejad comes amid a rapidly accelerating deterioration of religious freedom and other human rights in Iran, including prolonged detention, torture, and executions often based on the religion of the accused.
The Iranian Parliament currently is finalizing a new Penal Code that for the first time would legally enshrine the death penalty for so-called apostasy, putting the members of many religious minority communities at grave risk. More than 20 Baha’is currently are in prison in Iran on account of their religious identity, and two Christian men were charged with apostasy earlier this month.
However unlike the columnists who are correct in this case, I see now reason to ascribe good intentions to the religious groups who will sup with Ahmadinejad tonight. They aren’t misguided. They’re evil.
Anne Bayefsky had some harsh but fitting words for the tolerance shown Ahmadinejad:
In its entire history, the United Nations General Assembly has never adopted a resolution dedicated to denouncing and combating the scourge of antisemitism in all its forms. Now we know why. Less than half of U.N. members are fully free democracies and among them there is no consensus that discrimination and demonization of Jews and the Jewish state is wrong.
On the contrary, at the U.N. vicious antisemitism is met by a round of applause.
The tolerance of tyranny was even too much for Ha’aretz:
Ahmadinejad’s fourth visit to New York was held against the backdrop of the disintegration of the international effort to impose sanctions on his country in an attempt to curb its nuclear program. According to an assessment by Military Intelligence presented to the cabinet this week, Iran is “galloping toward a nuclear bomb” and mastering the technology for enriching uranium, while the diplomatic and economic battle against it is ineffective.
Israel is justifiably concerned about the naivete with which Ahmadinejad was received by the American media, as well as the world’s growing tendency to view him as a legitimate leader and cease efforts to stop the Iranian nuclear program. The calls by the Iranian president to destroy Israel deserve the strongest condemnation, and we must continue the diplomatic struggle against them.
Where’s were the editors of NYT and Washington Post? Did I miss something?
Crossposted on Soccer Dad.
