Children and Guns

Many horrifying events have taken place in the past few months which have caused people to question and debate the prevailing accessibility of guns. It is my understanding that a distorted interpretation of the Second Amendment advocated by a strong gun lobby has contributed to a culture of violence in America. The right to bear arms has been misconstrued. It is interpreted as an eternal disposition that stands beyond and above the passage of time and the chances and changes of the world. A perception has been cultivated that guns are indispensable part of American culture and religion symbolizing identity, strength, and family protection.  

We need sane and reasonable gun control policy. I also believe we need a profound educational process in order to reverse this culture and replace it with a peaceful one.

Although I am sure that guns have protected some people in dangerous situations I still believe that gun control needs to be implemented and enforced much more strictly. Guns have also been known to cause and increase aggressiveness. Among the industrialized countries, the United States has the highest number of death and injury caused by firearms. The Second Amendment was written at a time when bearing arms meant bearing a musket. Today, however, we are witnessing automatic guns with large capacity magazines that can kill many people in a second. The number of people guns can injure or kill in only a matter of seconds make them highly volatile and potent instrument that need to be regulated by strict laws.

Guns have only one purpose and that is to shoot a bullet at a very high speed at a target. Its goal is to destroy whatever the object may be, and that includes a person as well. It seems to me a deeper examination of the issue, free from the fierce partisan polemics and zealous passions that have fogged rational discourse, is necessary if a way out is to be found.

Guns are not toys and never will be. Unfortunately many young lives have been lost due to easy accessibility of guns. Find more on children and guns in this eye opening article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/29/us/children-and-guns-the-hidden-toll.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20130929

Mohammad Nourizad’s Summons to Sweeping Away the Idea of “Untouchable”

 

Mohammad Nourizad is an Iranian activist and journalist advocating freedom, religious tolerance, and peaceful coexistence. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammad_Nourizad

His summons are reminiscent of declarations by reformers who opposed ecclesiastical malpractice, religious dogmas, and persecution of "heretics" in Europe and advanced transition from medieval mentality to modern thinking and from the Inquisition to free inquiry.


I invite all the people of Iran and the world, in particular the Shi’ites, to accompany me in sweeping away the ideology of the ritual “untouchable” [i.e. Najis نجس *]. This ideology has gone too far with its indirect comments regarding certain groups of human beings, with the consequence that Iran’s reputation is harmed, and such actions are attributed to Iran’s immaturity and unwisdom. These days, the problem we Iranians face is not that we are governed by a group of the ultimate self-interested people, who do not follow any regulations and laws; rather Iranians’ real problem is their incorrect and unwise understanding of Source of Imitation [i.e. Maraji'**], the supreme Shi’ite legal authorities, and Islamic officials’ distribution and promotion of such misunderstandings in governmental fiats.

In this summons, I directly consider the ignobility of the Sources of Immitation**, who with their misunderstanding and misinterpretation of the Qur’an and and Islam via the religious authorities label pagans, communists, Baha’is, and atheists “untouchable” [i.e. Najis نجس]. With this feeble-minded and cowardly fatwa, they take away established citizenship rights from a group of our fellow-countrymen.

Arise and respond to my summons as follows:

As an individual or as a group go on visits to the homes of Baha’is and atheists, and associate with them in love and harmony. Bring them gifts as expressions of repentence and shame for having made them subjects of maltreatment and persecution. Eat food together with them. The next day after your visit, directly or indirectly distribute news about your visit through uncensored media and social networking tools. There is no solution except for the separation of our practices and principles from those misunderstandings of the Sources of Imitation**. We should demonstrate that in our human and religious consciousness, all humans have been created clean, good, and noble, and an inclination towards any particular belief system can never make anyone dirty or unclean.
 
Accompany me in this great summons to demonstrate the following:
If it is agreed that pagans and atheists are unclean because of an incorrect understanding of the Qur’an, the believers in God and those who say their prayers at night, who with their actions and manner have been taking advantage of the station of scholars, of the Qur’an and of the example of the prophets ˗ no doubt they are far more unclean and dirty.
In this summons, we do not want to cleanse the blessed beauty of our Baha’i, communist, and atheist fellow-countrymen because of such unjust and incorrect understandings and fatwas. Instead, we strive to eliminate the filth of [the idea of] untouchables from the face of humanity, from faith, from Islam and from Shia Islam, and to demonstrate the following:
Our spiritual authorities and Sources of Imitation** do not have permission and are not able on behalf of God to divide the servants of God into bad, good, clean, unclean, and untouchable. They cannot give benefits and privileges to some people whom they consider good, nor can they deprive even bad people of their well-established human rights.
—

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<div data-href=”https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=717124578315161&amp;set=a.153879031306388.40015.153044948056463&amp;type=1″ data-width=”550″><div><a href=”https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=717124578315161&amp;set=a.153879031306388.40015.153044948056463&amp;type=1″>Post</a> by ‎<a href=”https://www.facebook.com/m.nourizad”>محمد نوری زاد</a>‎.</div></div>

* The Islamic term is najis, “ritually unclean”: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Najis. This law of Islam, originally referring in the Qur’an to certain animals and bodily fluids, has been extended by many Shi’ite clerics to Baha’is.
** Plural of Marja’ al-Taqlid, or “Source to Imitate”, a designation of certain Shi’ite Grand Ayatollahs. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marja%27

Source:

https://www.facebook.com/m.nourizad

Translation by Iran Press Watch

http://www.iranpresswatch.org/post/9369?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+iranpresswatch+%28Iran+Press+Watch%3A+The+Baha%27i+Community%29

 

It's Clear Humans Are Changing World's Climate, Panel Says

 




Declaring that "human influence on the climate system is clear," a U.N.-assembled panel of scientists "it is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century."

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which brings together hundreds of researchers from around the world, adds that "warming in the climate system is unequivocal and since 1950 many changes have been observed throughout the climate system that are unprecedented over decades to millennia."

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/09/27/226746611/its-clear-humans-are-changing-worlds-climate-panel-says

The time has come to look into the ghosts of the past: From Tehran's Khavaran* to Santiago's soccer stadium

The bloody overthrow of the democratically- elected socialist government of Dr. Salvador Allende in Chile by the military junta in September 11, 1973 continues to be one of the most blatant cases of political repression and the violation of human rights. Images of the coup are still hauntingly captivating, reflecting a looming betrayal and fall of Shakespearean proportion.

Marxist regimes of the 20^th century have left us with a painful legacy of dictatorship, mind control, and economic failure. In retrospect, it is also true that the rise of Marxist hegemony was often used as scare tactic to justify military dictatorships during the Cold War and in pursuance of the strategy of containment. 

Allende tried to experiment with the idea of socialism with a human face. Whether he was on the right track, democratic processes should have been allowed to act as the final arbiter of his presidency. Instead, brutal forces were unleashed to sabotage Allende’s legal government. A coup d'etat was staged and the presidential palace was bombarded. Allende died, democracy was wounded and  Santiago’s soccer stadium was turned into a venue for torturing and killing students, workers, and intellectuals. 

Allende’s last presidential speech still resonates forty years later:

Placed in a historic transition, I will pay for loyalty to the people with my life. And I say to them that I am certain that the seed which we have planted in the good conscience of thousands and thousands of Chileans will not be shriveled forever.

They have strength and will be able to dominate us, but social processes can be arrested neither by crime nor force.

* Khavaran is a cemetery located in Tehran. It is the site of unmarked mass grave for thousands of political prisoners executed during 1988 mass execution.

http://www.irantribunal.com/index.php/en/