Iran President to Send Letter to Pope (says Iranian Daily)

Reuters ^ | 05/18/06 | uncredited

[mojito]

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is writing a letter to Pope Benedict, following an unprecedented letter to U.S. President George W. Bush earlier this month, a newspaper said on Thursday.

"President Ahmadinjad's second letter is for Pope Benedict and will be sent in the next days," Jomhuri-ye Eslami newspaper, which is close to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, quoted unnamed sources as saying.

The newspaper gave no details of the letter's content. Iranian officials were not available to comment.

In the first direct communication between the two countries' presidents for more than two decades, Ahmadinejad wrote a long missive to Bush this month in which he questioned his commitment to Christian values and criticised U.S. foreign policy.

Some Iranian analysts and Western diplomats interpreted the letter as a veiled offer to open talks with Washington on the dispute over Iran's nuclear programme.

But Washington has said it has no intention of holding direct talks with Iran on the issue.

Britain, France and Germany, the European Union's three biggest powers, plan to offer Iran a package of incentives to try to induce Tehran to freeze a uranium enrichment programme which the West suspects could be used to make atomic bombs.

Ahamdinejad has ruled out halting nuclear fuel work in return for incentives, saying the Europeans were offering "candy for gold".

[mojito]

He's declaring war on western civilization, again, just so we don't miss it this time.

[frogjerk]

Is he going to lecture the Pope about Jesus and his teachings?

[plain talk]

What? He wants the Pope to convert now?

[nonliberal]

This guy is going to get writer's cramp.

[llevrok]

Is he going to lecture the Pope about Jesus and his teachings?

I think he just wants one of those nifty cardinal miters....

[A CA Guy]

Dear Pope, thank you for the Christians you sent to see me, I have beheaded them so they can travel half fare back to you.
Pleasure any time, the grand wizard if Iran.

[Billthedrill]

Dear Pope - people keep asking me if you are Catholic. I do not know what this means. They also ask whether you defecate in the woods. Sometimes you Westerners are very strange...

(signed) yer buddy,
Nads

[mrsmith]

"Letters, we get letters,
we get stacks an' stacks of letters . . .

Dear Perry . . . would you be so kind,
to fill a request, and sing the song I like best? "

(Yes, the david letterman theme is a rip-off of (or paean to) the one used on the Perry Como Show!)

[Philistone]

If he thinks Ratzinger is Jean-Paul II, he's in for a BIG surprise...

[Publius]

Yesterday on another thread I pointed out that we might be witnessing not only an Islamic declaration of war, but an indication that former Soviet nukes, passed from the Ukraine via Iran to al-Quaida, might well be assembled to detonate in the capitals of European Christendom. I pointed out that the nuking of Vatican City would get 1 billion pissed-off Catholics ready, willing and eager to launch a final crusade against 1.5 billion Muslims.

I was talking theoretically yesterday.

Now I'm not so sure. If this letter is another "declaration of war" written according to the Koran and the Haddiths, then Ahmadi-whack-job is announcing his target.

As I said yesterday, I wouldn't want to be in his sandals for anything if he plays this card.

[BoBToMatoE]

He's declaring war on western civilization, again, just so we don't miss it this time.

-----

I've got to believe that is what this is. Maybe I am wrong, but this guy is a nut job and how better to get his kicks other than to declare war on western civilization.

[AlaninSA]

Whatever the Official Nutcase of Tehran wants...we Knights are prepared to stand with our Pope. Bring it on, terrorist.

Please FReepmail me if you'd like to be added to or removed from the KofC ping list.

[river rat]

I wonder how the citizens of Iran feel -- watching their "leader" put their families in the middle of a nuclear Holocaust?

There can be no way to distinguish between the lunatic militants and the "moderate" Muslims once the SHTF....

Semper Fi

[EricT.]

Is the Pope allowed to use the phrase "Get Bent"?

[OpusatFR]

Inviting him to join Islam.

I hope Papa Benedict has a good sense of humor to make up for a billion ticked off Catholics.

[atomicpossum]

Send in the nuns.

[OpusatFR]

" I pointed out that the nuking of Vatican City would get 1 billion pissed-off Catholics ready, willing and eager to launch a final crusade against 1.5 billion Muslims."

Yup. ~and called a Just War. Even a Jesuit would have to agree...then again, maybe not.

Are they still Catholic?

[frogjerk]

Yup. ~and called a Just War. Even a Jesuit would have to agree...then again, maybe not. Are they still Catholic?

Barely.

[Publius]

The first time a pope spoke on this matter, it was to declare the First Crusade.

Pope Urban II's exact words were, "Quod Deus vult."

[mojito]

I recall reading an article the other day (although, sadly I don't recall the publication) where the writer of the piece had received phone calls from friends in Tehran, sobbing with fear and anger because their madman President had signed their death warrant after his comments on the need to annihilate Israel. I confess that I feel for those Iranians, and for their families. I would feel the same if I was in their ghastly situation. That said, this evil man is putting my family in jeopardy, and I believe that the sooner he is dealt with - harshly and without remorse - the better off the world will be.