Thread: Iran

Iran is really interesting because it's an example of a government that is lead by neither economical, nor ideological principles, but religious ones. That is quite unusual.

(although I realise it's probably not "interesting" if you find yourselves in trouble with such a government..... particularly if it uses the death penalty etc, like Iran does - or if you get fed up and want some change....).

In Europe, religion stopped being able to influence governments some time between the protestant reformation and perhaps the 19th century... People stopped believing.. and even those who do, do not believe that it is God's will for the Church to run any countries, or for Biblical rules to be the law of any country (imagine living in a country with old testament laws applied!)
It seems that in Islam, it's common for people to believe that Islamic laws should be national laws.


As long as Iran does whatever it wants to do within it's own borders, it's not my business. Although I'd think it would be much better if the death penalty wasn't used or any torture or discrimination against women was stopped.

There is so much propaganda surrounding Iran that it's impossible to know whether most people support the present government or not. Whether they want a Western style "democracy" or not. Since the present governement got instated by a popular revolution, I imagine it could be taken down by a popular revolution too..... if people really wanted to. Or???

Another problem - so many Iranians have left the country that perhaps the people who could achieve change are no longer around! There are SO many Iranians who have sought political asylum in Europe. My impression is that they were just fed up with the situation in Iran. I know a few such people and although they are not strongly anti-Iran, they are definitely do not support the current regime.

It would be good if it was possible to run a fair referendum there and find out what people really wanted.

My grandfather has been travelling regularly to Iran since the 1960s for business (he stopped a few years ago). He says he really enjoyed the trips before the revolution, but after that he didn't enjoy going there anymore. Previously it was possible to have a nice beach holiday in Iran apparently, but post-revolution, it wasn't. However, there was no change at all in business for him.

I agree about what Mischa said about Saudi Arabia. The only thing the two countries have in in common is that Islamic law is state law. Seems to me it is more harshly implemented in Saudi Arabia though. I don't like Saudi Arabia.

"Interesting" comments by the Saudi leadership to the US revealed by Wikileaks (bomb Iran). Why would they want that?

Originally Posted by Hanna

Iran is really interesting because it's an example of a government that is lead by neither economical, nor ideological principles, but religious ones. That is quite unusual.