Free Republic

What could the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the National Iranian American Council (NIAC) possibly have in common? CAIR founders had close ties to Hamas, Palestinian Sunni Islamic extremists. NIAC and its main spokesman, Trita Parsi, have become apologists for the regime in Tehran, which exports a rival Shiite brand of Islamic extremism. Sunnis and Shias. We all know the story. They hate each other worse than Irish Catholics and Irish Protestants. Right? Well, no. As I pointed out in Countdown to Crisis: the Coming Nuclear Showdown with Iran, Sunnis and Shias get along just fine when it...

The Mullahs' Voice By Kenneth R. Timmerman FrontPageMagazine.com February 23, 2007 Iran’s ruling clerics have a new unofficial spokesman in Washington, who can talk circles around their official ambassadors. His name is Trita Parsi, and he is a protégé of Francis Fukayama, the policy heavy-weight who has now turned against the Bush agenda of promoting freedom in the Middle East as an antidote to terror. In a remarkable round-up of official Iranian government views, presented as “objective” analysis on C-SPAN this past Saturday, Feb. 17, Parsi urged the United States government to “open up diplomacy and dialogue” with Iran’s rulers...

Hey, sucias. I got this email from Lylah today. She didn't realize I could see the BCC addresses. She is tattling on me to all my agents and publicists, as if they'd CARE. Like they're my EMPLOYERS or something, which they're not. Hilarious! Ironically, she spelled Patrick's name wrong. Note to the public: If Lylah Alphonse is not the LA Lyla that has been stalking and insulting me on my blog, I truly apologize for assuming it was her. Lylah is threatening to sue me. For libel. .... Here's the letter: "Alisa, Several people told me today that I was...

NEW DELHI: Lt. Gen (Retd) A M Sethna, member, National Commission for Minorities, and president, Delhi Parsi Anjuman, is touching 80, and has an interesting story to tell about the Parsi identity crisis that dates back to the 1940s. This was a time when the affable general was a cadet and it was mandatory to wear a badge with one’s religion inscribed on it. “It was part of the uniform. For Christians, you had to even mention if you were Pros [Protestant] or RC [Roman Catholic],” Sethna remembers. “When I was asked what I was, I said ‘Parsi’, and the...

They have decreed that any Parsi man marrying outside the community will cease to be recognised as one of its members. Originally from Iran, the Parsis practice Zorastrianism. There are only 130,000 Parsis left around the world, of whom about 55,000 reside in India's financial capital, Bombay, or Mumbai. New rule Parsi women have for years been threatened with excommunication if they marry outside the community but now this rule has been extended to men. Their families, too, will not be initiated into the community if they marry out of it. The only good thing about this resolution is that...