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Human Rights Groups Push To Save Condemned Programmer In Iran
First time accepted submitter debiangruven writes "Human rights Groups are making one final plea to save the life of Canadian programmer, Saeed Malekpour, who was sentenced to death for writing a program to upload photos to the Internet. From the article: 'Malekpour's supporters have created Facebook pages and websites in his support dating to at least 2009. Amnesty International has requested on its website that concerned individuals write Iranian authorities inside and outside the country to demand that Malekpour not be executed."
Islam is shaping up to be the modern day Nazi movement. Intolerant and bent on world domination.
These noble savages have their own way of living.
We shouldn't interfere even in emotionally charged situations such as this. It's the white man's burden.
The guy confessed thinking they'd let him go. Later, when he realized he was risking his life, he took it back. How can people defend him?
Brilliant. Excites young people in the Green Revolution, and provides massive disincentive to programmers and engineers. Atlas won't just shrug, Atlas will give Iran the middle finger on the way out. This is much more powerful than any international protest or letter writing campaign. But if the campaign spares the individual programmer's life in the meantime, it's still time well spent.
Gently reply
i notice you have a reagan signature. maybe you would enjoy his numerous speeches about the virtuous god-fearing mujahideen freedom fighters, and their battle against the godless communist aggressors in the 1980s? because there are a large number of such speeches. they are at the reagan archives, you can google them.
When we talk about Iran, we say that their government wants to control the freedom of it's people. In the United States, we say that laws "protect" the freedom of it's people. Maybe people forget where the laws come from? Every government is hell-bound on censoring the internet right as we speak, and there's little anyone can do with online posts, we cannot fight back with the weapons they control...
Any sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice.
I support other countries in their endeavors to punish thoughtcrime. When a citizen of a nation rebels against his or her masters, the citizen is no longer a citizen, and deserves death.
It is reprehensible to think that your leaders want anything but the best for you, and to publicly state otherwise is treason of the highest kind. It offends me when ignorant fools try to spread lies and propaganda in order to overthrow legitimate governments. They do this only to create chaos and destruction. Their desire is only to seek power for themselves, but at what cost?
How many people have to die so these heretics can get their power? 10? 100? 1,000,000?
His plan clearly was lacking the logic of the 7 cubes of time, and in trying to see within the triangle, he exposed himself as the fraud that he is. Only by covering himself in the blood of his fellow conspirators can he prove his loyalty to the Iranian government and redeem himself. None shall be as weak as this man, for in doing so they will peer within the soul of Satan and go mad.
Well, Israel's hoping to grope Iran's cunt in the next few months, but will Syria become destabilised before or after? It's all about hearts and minds, and that means highlighting a few individual injustices in their back yard while you turn a blind eye to what you've done over the past decade and what you're about to do.
Besides, this victim of the abomination that is capital punishment looks to have been an adult of average or above IQ, and we err against punishing light-skinned people who know the consequences of their actions in the US, right?
Isn't Iran known for doing exactly the opposite of what it's told? Should try reverse psychology instead.
The Middle East is 1000s of years behind the rest of the world; look at how they treat women. TEAM AMERICA!
doesn't sound any worse than executing someone for selling drugs
It doesn't matter if you've got relatives there, or if the only archaeological remnant you want so see of some civilisation lies there, or it has the best undisturbed nature reserves... just don't go there. As soon as you go to such a country, your life is theirs. Before you go on holiday, check if your destination is a democracy with reasonable laws and institutions. If not, don't go.
I am quick to criticize the US government for drifting away from protecting our rights and freedoms, but there is really no comparison with a country like Iran. In the US, when the government considers establishing a national firewall, the citizens criticize the government without fear; in Iran, protesting the firewall that is already in existence can result in being arrested or beaten up by the police. The fact that we can even compare the US to an enemy like Iran, without worrying about angering the censors, shows you just how many freedoms we still have in this country.
Palm trees and 8
I am guessing they are for executing anyone that writes a program to upload anything to the interwebs. I'll bet they even discussed trying to put this provision into ACTA.
* Carthago Delenda Est *
Obama (as will Gingrich/Santorum/Romney/Whoever replaces him) can have anyone killed anywhere in the world without due process, based on a secret court meeting in secret to assess secret evidence. Everyone involved has legal immunity.
Execution does not fit the crime of making software that uploads images. The US government would not execute someone for doing this, and no government should, because the right to draw a breath is a basic human right which should only be denied in the most extreme of cases (which this does not remotely qualify).
Arguments about political or religious relativism do not apply, in this case, for several reasons:
1: We aren't talking about a fine, some community service, or a few months in jail. The stakes are much higher.
2: We aren't talking about a person who deliberately exercised civil disobedience while within a country that has such punishments, he was just passing through after having done something harmless in a completely separate country.
3: We aren't talking about laws that make a good attempt to balance the protection of safety and commerce against personal freedom; we are talking about the legislation of a code of morality based on ancient myths.
While it is true that all governments, including America, wrongly impose their own interests on others, it is also true that these laws are oppressive and backwards and entirely based on a religion that is equally oppressive and backwards. We are entering an era, as a species, where we will not be able to function while simultaneously abiding such deleterious nonsense.
People who are stuck in the past like this, to the detriment of those around them, should be ridiculed for it, and should be called to account for it. The harm they cause should be stopped.
American citizens ARE the victims, but our enemy is not Muslims, or some nameless and faceless turban-sporting brown person. In fact, Christians pose more of a threat to our way of life than any foreign government. Need proof? Read up on proposed policies by Santorum or Romney.
Our enemy is our government. They are the ones taking away our civil rights, encroaching on our free will, intentionally unbalancing poverty and wealth levels to maintain the status-quo. They are the terrorists - not some fictional enemy Muslim.
On a level of personal opinion, I think all religion is entirely bullshit, and the world as a whole needs to focus on reality and planning for the future instead of arguing over some unimportant stories of the long-distant past.
If the only way you can accept an assertion is by faith, then you are conceding that it can't be taken on its own merits
Iran
You're trying to convince "our ideology failed in the real world 100 times but in principle it's great" lefties by pointing out that the real world requires compromises ?
I love your optimism, man. Just love it.
in revolutionary iran, code executes you!
We could also go on that it would have passed in the 30s if not for DNC opposition. And if your REALLY want to go back, slavery would have been outlawed decades before it was if not for the DNC opposing it.
Those were conservative Democrats. Most of them (huge blocks of Southern Democrats, in particular) changed to the Republican party during the 60s. They're still the same dirty conservatives as they always were, no matter what the party name.
Christians murdered people as soon as they got political power. Muslims murdered people as soon as they got political power. And during the few times in history when Jews managed to seize power, they murdered people too.
The lesson, in case this isn't obvious to you, is that ideology by itself confers no moral advantage whatsoever. Once a group has political power its principles are distorted to suite the needs of the elite.
The guy is not Canadian. People say that he is Canadian because they want to pressure the Canadian government into taking action. He is not a Canadian citizen though. He was merely a permanent resident. In addition to that, it was reported in the past that, while living in Canada, this guy had blogged defending the government of his country - i.e., Iran. Apparently, after moving to Canada, he still felt a very strong connection with his country (i.e., Iran) and he felt that he had to voice his support to his government - namely, the same government that now is planning to execute him. I am not saying that he deserves the sentence or anything like that. But really, this is something the Canadian government should not get involveld into. The guy is Iranian, he spent most of his life there, and for the most part he supported the crazy regime they have there - even after moving to Canada. What the heck did he move to Canada for if he was so in love with his country? He should have just stayed there.
hate is the opiate of the masses. Easy on those doses...
damaged by dogma
Incidentally, I think you need to read your philosophy coursebook a little more closely. An "atheist" is someone who does not believe in the existence of any gods. That is *it*. Rejection of belief in gods does not, in and of itself, require acceptance of the postulate "you should just be rational."
While it is true that many atheists would probably agree with the statement "you should just be rational," most will have very different ideas about what constitutes "rationality" in any given circumstance and some may object entirely. And in any case, accepting even this statement doesn't reject the possibility of making and honoring laws. Doing so could be considered a very rational behavior (the argument is left to the student).
Being an atheist also does not, in and itself, require rejection of a religion. Many sects of Buddhism, for example, deny the existence of any gods and as such are atheist. New-age weirdos can deny the existence of god as well and still believe in auras and energies and what-not. Again...many atheists might also reject these belief systems, but it is not a requirement of the word.
Some might try to argue that there is a chain of reasoning at work...something like rejection of god means rejection of religion which means rejection of religious codes of morality which means rejections of any code of morality which means acceptance of the only possibility left which is "you should act rationally," but such a chain of reasoning is philosophically sloppy with incorrect assumptions each step of the way. Though being an atheist doesn't automatically make someone a rigorous philosopher, so plenty of atheists might think this way.
I am also curious about how it has been "mathematically proven that there never are any rational course[s] of action." Mathematics generally deals with the modeling of quantifiable relationships, whereas "rationality" is more in the domain of psychology, sociology, economics, and perhaps philosophy. Does the proof look like this?:
Let x = .33333... (repeating infinitely)
let y = 1/3
therefore: x = y
therefore 3x = 3y
therefore (3)(.3333...) = (3)(1/3)
therefore (.9999...) = (3/3)
therefore (.9999...) = 1
therefore there is never a rational course of action.
Seems pretty unlikely to me.
sorry, i dont know how you get around that one.
So, the wretchedly atavistic mullahs are planning another outrage against humanity? Despicable, horrible, maddening – but not at all out of atypical of religious fundamentalism, whatever its stripe. May I be candid? Of course I may: Don’t think for a moment that your favorite, tax-exempt place of worship doesn’t also harbor those would love to kill YOU, too, for actions they consider apostasy. America, much to their chagrin, however, just won’t let them. But an outright jeremiad here is not what’s needed. Not sure that human rights groups, with all due respect, will have much effect either. In fact, this poor man’s fate may be sealed. But, here, in the United States, we can at least be led to a single, inexorable conclusion by the ghastly actions of theocratic regimes like that of Iran: Religion has been—and will continue to be--the single-most monolithic impediment to human progress that one can envision. Worse than ignorance, which is curable, the religious fundamentalist is joyously immune to reason and implacably antipathetic to knowledge outside the narrowed scope of his/her tunneled vision. We can only hope traditional Darwinian processes will ultimately select them for extinction—in which case, we may visit their fossilized remains in museums. Much as we do with the dinosaurs and other relics from a bygone era.
Your comments are intrinsically self-contradictory. You state “all religion is entirely bullshit” – which is preceded (and then ends with) a cautionary admonition which instructs us that we are bigots to think that way. You can’t have it both ways without impeaching the credibility of your position. If you look at any serious exegesis of history, you tend to find periods of so-called religious zealotry are almost always concomitant with – and, indeed, can be said to be etiologically linked to-- periods of regression, intolerance, ignorance and violence. When, for example, in 1600, Friar Giordano Bruno proposed a post-Copernican, solar-centric model of the universe, he was stripped naked and burned at the stake by the Catholic Church. And, he was a member of the fucking church. American fundamentalist religiosity and the sharia-based judicial system of Iran are not entirely dissimilar: Both are predicated on superstition, intolerance and embody a philosophy which is inimical to human nature and antithetical to progress. Your commentary also introduces and conflates political memes and shibboleths with an interesting but ultimately confusing amalgamation of both. Am I a bigot or not for thinking as you do, that “all religion is entirely bullshit?”
You say: "The fact that we can even compare the US to an enemy like Iran, without worrying about angering the censors, shows you just how many freedoms we still have in this country." I say: Read the Patriot Act --
It's a normal religion, not a farce. ALL superstition is bad.
Don't follow witch doctors, you don't need Sky Fairies. Think for yourself.
"This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
I've written code to do this from scratch no less then five times. What do you expect from a culture where a man kills his wife because she dared to have a female child? LOL, yeah... they are going to take over the world with their religion that condemns science and knowlege. Some day we'll talk about Muslims like we discuss the Neanderthal.
Oh come on, this isn't a troll. Yes, not all Muslims are THAT stupid, but the majority of them are so much worse.
The sad thing is that Iran is home to some of their best and brightest, but I have a feeling those who aren't so daft will abandon their religion in time.
All the while MPAA and RIAA celebrate the pirate's well earned sentence.
The DeCSS programmer might feel a bit different about US desires towards him.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeCSS
Also some kidnapped canadians might feel a bit different as well, since USA kidnapped them to be tortured in Syria.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extraordinary_rendition
The New testament was written from the position of weakness. After Jesus's death, lots of theological wringing was needed to explain the powerlessness away and transcendentalize the rewards to the faithful. Once Jesus's program succeeded and Christianity took earthly power, the Church employed all earthly means to retain it.
A similar transformation took place in Judaism in our time. For two millennia it was a point of central creed in Judaism that they will be collected in Israel only by the Messiah. But the second world war and the successful founding of the state of Israel made Judaism throw that theological ballast overboard. The Messiah, the transcendentalization of the hopes of the powerless Jews, is no longer needed as slowly but surely the state of Israel aided by the modern-day Egypt (USA) is conquering back the realm of David and Solomon.
Wow, that's actually kind of beautiful -- with the same beauty as a good mathematical proof or Man's most efficient invention: the spork.
GeekDad, TED speaker, Wipeout loser, author of Brain Trust
Sorry all, I meant to leave this comment on the 140 byte Tetris post. Please disregard. Atrocities to Iran programmers have very little to do with sporks.
GeekDad, TED speaker, Wipeout loser, author of Brain Trust
We can invade a country and kill thousands and spread mass destruction in order to find and kill one bad man...
But we can do nothing to save one good man.
This is what's wrong with America.
-- Senior Software Engineer, Attorney appearance services, locallawyerapp.com.