(no subject)

[dreamer_easy]

Pope denounces condom use in Africa - in fact, he says condoms "aggravate" the problem of AIDS. I'm sorry to say it, Your Holiness, but you're lying and you know it. Please stop.

While I'm on the subject of inflammatory quotes, former Iranian prez Mohammad Khamati is scheduled to visit Australia, prompting protest:

Mr Searle told the Age that although Mr Khatami, president of Iran from 1997 to 2005, was regarded as a reformist, he was a sponsor of terrorism, a Holocaust denier and leader of a country that had often threatened to "wipe Israel off the map".

"Only last year, this supposed champion of dialogue called Israel 'an old, incurable wound on the body of Islam, a wound that really possesses demonic, stinking, contagious blood'."

What a revolting comment. Did Khatami actually make it? Googling only brings up other people saying that he said it, and searching various relevant sites, such as the ADL and the Central Council of Jews, brings up nothing. Since Khatami is on record as saying the Holocaust is "an absolute fact, a historical fact", that brings into question the rest of the claim.

Obviously (but this is the Intersplat, so I'd better spell it out) this is not to say that Khatami is a saint who has never made any ugly remarks: I'm only questioning whether that particular quote is accurate. Although I do also question the whole "beyond the pale" thing, the whole "we're not talking to him/her" thing, on the grounds that it is better to jaw-jaw etc.

Comments

[antikythera.livejournal.com]

At some point it becomes hard to believe that the Catholic Church is not deliberately trying to keep some parts of the world subjugated, by sabotaging attempts to keep people healthy.