Free Republic

DUBAI, Nov 5 (Reuters) - Iran said that the United States would "be hit hard" if Washington did not implement a ceasefire in Gaza, the country's Minister of Defence was quoted as saying by the semi-official Tasnim news agency on Sunday. "Our advice to the Americans is to immediately stop the war in Gaza and implement a ceasefire, otherwise they will be hit hard," Mohammad-Reza Ashtiani said.

Human rights observers warn that Iran plans to execute a woman whose sentence to stoning has drawn international condemnation. Contacts inside in Iran say authorities in Tehran have given the go-ahead to prison officials in Tabriz to execute Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, possibly as early as Wednesday, though it's not clear yet by what method,

Here is an example of sleight of hand on an international scale in a matter of hours. The Good News (Misdirection)Thursday Iran announced it will free Sarah Shourd today. Sarah was one of the three American hikers arrested when they accidently strayed in to Iran July 2009. They were accused of being spies. The official story states “It is traditional in Iran to release prisoners as a gesture of clemency to mark the close of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, which ends this week.” This is wonderful news for Shourd’s family and the America, but we must not forget...

In Iran, every year dozens of woman are condemned to whippings, to stoning, or to other forms of punishment, all of which make one's blood run cold... Pope Benedict XVI is currently interceding for Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani. Yet, Sam Harris has actually argued that “you can get a rationale for killing people for adultery out of the New Testament.” Oddly, Jesus did not know this and 2,000 years of Christianity does not know this. Sam Harris is either the greatest biblical scholar in history or he is mistaken. One may suspect that he may be mistaken and thus, an Albuquerque...

...Daniel Dennett has been busy conducting a “study” via which he seeks to—surprise—besmirch Christianity: the “study” consisted of interviewing a grand total of five—count them 1, 2, 3, 4, 5—people. But what have others had to say? Richard Dawkins: nothing. Sam Harris (and the Reason Project): nothing. Dan Barker: nothing. PZ Myers: now we are getting somewhere... Theocracy Watch: nothing. People For the American Way: nothing. Americans United for Separation of Church and State: nothing.

In this and the following segments we will consider: the Qur′an, atheists and political activists and the Pope, Christianity and Jesus... Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani...has been “subjected to 99 lashes with a whip, administered in the presence of one of her two children.” This appears to be a minus one version of the Qur′an’s commandment in Surah 24:2, "The woman and the man guilty of illegal sexual intercourse, flog each of them with a hundred stripes. Let not pity withhold you in their case, in a punishment prescribed by Allah, if you believe in Allah and the Last Day. And let...

The lawyer of an Iranian widow, Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, who was sentenced to death by stoning for adultery, has claimed that she has been subjected to '99 lashes' for "spreading corruption and indecency" in Tabriz prison after a false picture was published by the Times newspaper on 28 August this year for which it has already apologised. The unveiled photograph in question, published by the British tabloid Times, was reportedly not that of Sakineh, but of another woman of that country named Susan Hejrat, who lives in Sweden.

Sakineh Mohammadi-Ashtiani, an Iranian woman sentenced to death by stoning for adultery, has also been sentenced to 99 lashes for a photo published of her without a headscarf, according to her son. Mohammadi-Ashtiani's son Sajjad said they learned of the new punishment from released inmates. The Times of London published on August 28 a photo of a woman without a headscarf that it said was Mohammadi-Ashtiani, however on September 3 it said the attribution of the photo, which it received from one of her lawyers that has fled Iran, was incorrect. The photo "... is certainly not that of my...

Mr Mostafaei, 37, is the human rights lawyer who represented Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, the Iranian woman sentenced to death by stoning for alleged adultery. He was forced to flee in July after he severely embarrassed the Tehran regime by broadcasting the woman's plight to the world. Unable to catch him, the Iranian police seized his wife, with her brother and father, and held them as hostages in Tehran's infamous Evin prison. His wife was incarcerated for 14 days. She was released only when Mr Mostafaei reached the safety of Norway and was beyond the regime's reach. But whether the Iranian...

BRASILIA (Reuters) – Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has called on Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to allow a woman sentenced in Iran to death by stoning to accept an offer of asylum in Brazil, local media reported. The sentence imposed on Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani for an extra-marital relationship, which she denies, has caused an international outcry. It has been suspended pending a review by Iran's judiciary but could still be carried out. "I call on the supreme leader of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to permit Brazil to grant asylum to this woman," state radio reported him as saying on...

Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, a 43-year-old mother of two, said she thinks of nothing other than hugging her children and that she was mentally broken when authorities flogged her 99 times in front of her then 17-year-old son, Sajad. She thanked the world for launching the campaign for her release but said part of her "heart is frozen". "Every night before I go to sleep, I think who would throw stones at me?", she said. The message was read by Mina Ahadi, of the Iran Committee against Stoning (ICAS), at a press conference in Conway Hall, in London, this morning ....