Who Said That?
Thursday, September 25, 2008 at 11:48AM 
"This belief and endeavor is the key to unity and the
constructive interaction among nations, countries, the people of the world and
all the true justice-seekers. Without any doubt, the Promised One who is the ultimate
Savior, together with Jesus Christ and other holy Saviors, will come. In the
company of all believers, justice-seekers and benefactors, he will establish a
bright future and fill the world with justice and beauty. This is the promise of God; therefore it will be fulfilled. Let's play a part in the fulfillment of all this glory and
beauty. I wish for a bright future for all human beings and the dawn
of the liberation of and freedom for all humans, and the rule of love and
affection all around the world, as well as the elimination of oppression, hatred
and violence. A wish which I expect will be realized in the near future."
Please leave your guess in the comments section below. Please no cheating or google searches!
Kim Riddlebarger
As many of you correctly guessed, this is an excerpt from Ahmadinejad's recent speech before the UN.Click here: Full text of President Ahmadinejad's address before UNGA
Reader Comments (27)
I am not sure what Obama point you meant. The one where I said he is Messiah like or the one where I said he is influenced by new age spirituality? I have heard him say that he tries not to let his spiritual beliefs influence his political positions due to his belief in the separation of Church and State. He also made a remark like this in his abortion position. He does talk about his theology or spirituality which is really irrelevant but I think he probably does it to win votes.
I was not aware that Islamic believers are looking for a promised one. I thought Mohamed was the promised one and he was already here. Is he supposed to come back again or what? He didn't resurrect from the dead did he? Who is the promised one in Islamic thought? Maybe Obama is the promised one to Islamic believers. That was uncalled for- I sometimes get hopelessly cynical about politics.
You are probably right about the silent and spoken theocracies and trying to legislate morality. Prohibition is a prime example- as D.G. Hart said in the interview on the White Horse in the other day; all that did was provide the Mafia to get a foothold in many major U.S. cities.
For more info, check out these two sites. The first is Wikipedia (dubious reliablity) the second is Encyclopedia Brittanica Online.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahdi
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/358096/mahdi#tab=active~checked%2Citems~checked&title=mahd%C4%AB%20--%20Britannica%20Online%20Encyclopedia
This weeks quote was a bit confusing to me- it showed me that I have much to learn about Islam. It was my assumption that most Muslims were innately violent and hated most non-Muslim people. Or, at least did not have much desire to understand other cultures besides their own. The quote seemed to be too fair minded and too magnanimous in its reaching out to others to be from an Islamic believer. I thought they were much more narrow in their thinking then this quote portrayed. There must be many different groups of Muslims who believe very different things like their are a variety of Christian denominations. The ones we hear about in the news are of the violent and terrorist variety. Unless this is just a smokescreen to try to put on a nonviolent face in order to hide their true intentions.
I also thought that Islam was basically a fairly consistent and logical system of thought which I do not think this quote conveys. The quote seems to try to bring together different religions with a "lets just all get along" type of mentality. All in all the quote is quite bizarre- I guess it makes sense that it is coming from a politician who is more concerned about popularity then any type of system of truth.
I've begun to see that Islam as a religion isn't monolithic, made of one seamless fabric; but is, in fact, more a patch-work quilt. Devout Muslim would likely deny this observation. On a strictly pragmatic analysis, though, Islam does appear to include a rich variation of sub-groups.
Armchair analysis (so, very amateurish): The Iranian President, Ahmadinejad, is an extremely canny leader--he knows what sells on the world market of ideas and, to an extent, he peddles those ideas (so long as they comport with his beliefs). But he's also a mystic who believes in the second coming of his sub-group's messiah, the Mahdi. His language reflects this mystical bent. It so happens that his mystical beliefs and the world's mystical beliefs roughly coincide--a happy twist of events from his perspective.
Sidenote: A few days after 911 I was in a bookstore that was situated near a military academy (Royal Military College, Kingston, ON, Canada). I sat beside a swarthy looking gentlemen who started a conversation with me. It turned out he was the father of a Colonel in the Egytian military forces who was studying abroad for a year. The father was an Arab and a devout Muslim who was stunned and ashamed by the actions of the hijackers, fellow Arabs. He completely disavowed any connection with them, their actions, and their ideology. He explained that his neighbourhood in Cairo was multi-religious: Jews, Christians, and Muslims had been happily living side by side for years without any incident. With genuine bewilderment, he said, 'We are all very friendly towards each other.' The motives that prompted 911 were beyond his comprehension.
It was clear this Muslim, who was very cosmopolitan, had more affinity with me, a Christian, than he did with his so-called brothers who had flown planes into populated zones.
I've kept his conversation, particularly his disavowal of Muslim violence, in the forefront of my thoughts over the years. I don't know what became of him or his son, the Colonel. But I hope his attitude has remained intact.