Iranian have an average Internet speed that is about a tenth of the global average but has one of the highest total number of Internet users in the Middle East. The Iranian government has a long struggle with social media and Internet sites to prevent access to uncensored news and Western influences. Shirazi reflected that view in saying that faster Internet means more access to “immoral and inhumane” videos and photos, rumors, and espionage. In other words, the outside world. It is hard to enforce Medieval rules for women and minorities when the rest of the world is flagrantly engaging in 21st Century living.
Of course, his preference for slow connectivity may reflect his rather slow learning curve. Makarem (whose ancestors were Jewish and converted to Islam) previously said that the Holocaust was “nothing but superstition.” Perhaps with faster Internet, he might be able to review some of those post-1943 sites and sources.
He also has issued a fatwa against dogs. Iranians would like to own dogs and asked Shirazi why Muslims are told that dogs are unclean when there is no mention of dogs in the Quran (Koran). In 2010, he responded by issuing a fatwa against dogs and said that they are unclean under Sharia law and their unclean status is based upon riwayahs, reliable narrations (hadith) handed down from the Prophet Muhammad and his household. He further denounced pet ownership as “blindly imitating the West” that would produce evil outcomes. In response the Iranian ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance banned all advertisement related to keeping, buying, and selling pets.
It is not clear what the Ayatollah would say to your using high-speed Internet to keep a virtual dog, but I expect it would not be good.
Source: JPost
LOL!
If you think Mr. Shirazi is upset now, wait until someone tells him about 4G.
Oh my…. Just get ATT to install it…
I think Iran has 20 more years before a major revolt overthrows the current regime.
I wonder if this guy is just trying to slow down the 24/7 news cycle. The dog thing is out-of-bounds though.
pualette, The youth of Iran DID REVOLT 4 years ago. Obama left them out to dry. His Bay of Pigs.
If inserting himself between the young and their internet fix doesn’t get the youth of Iran to revolt, nothing will.
I use software to squelch ads of all ilks.
There are plenty of converts between Islam and Christianity, especially here in the US where it is not a death sentence.
Muslim women, in general, in a subservient roles simply take the lead in very few things in their own lives – including their religion, but it still happens that they convert.
My current girlfriend is a catholic who was married to a Muslim man for 20years, she was never asked to convert (the man thought his homeland filled with barbarism), but she was familiar with the SATX Islamic community. There were regular losses due to conversion.
As for the dog thing? Just strange.
@samantha
FWIW, I disable javascript on my Kindle, or some sites will overpower me with those annoying ads. Also, I have stopped watching any new shows on some channels, like The CW, because of the ads. Sometimes less than 5 minutes between them, and often for other shows on the same network. Even if you dvr them, it is too much work to watch them.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
And Goolge fiber, AT&T, and Verizon would love to offer Iran 1gbs fiber optics to businesses and homes and kill the copper DSL service.
You know those triple play plans. Google telecom wars on copper. Why? Why not. Don’t forget to put them on the NSA share plan.
Samantha, Good comment. These fundamental Christian leaders here will be doing the same here soon. Tongue is firmly in cheek!
That could be. Pretty serious proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran. My bet is on a big payday though.
Things are changing. Faster internet service will go to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards first, for military application.
Two battalions of Iran’s Quds Forces, which is the overseas branch of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, moved to Iraq. There they work jointly with Iraqi troops to retake control of Tikrit.
Meanwhile, US President Barack Obama declared that he doesn’t rule out any options with regards to ISIS.
Sounds to me like the ‘ol Ayatollah dude is in the middle of cutting his own deal for a provider of high speed Internets. Kind of like that prez over there does with all his back-door business deals. Remember, religion comes to a screeching halt when cash is on the table.
Like every religion, those with influence try to stop progress. Once it becomes unstoppable, those with influence then attempt to take credit for said progress. Nothing new.
There are millions of Islamic women all over the Western world now, ostensibly subject to Western culture, but when is the last time we’ve heard of a single Islamic women converting to Christianity or another religion? There must be something else going on in Iran that is making leadership fearful. Perhaps it is the same as here now, lack of civil rights and personal freedoms.
As for internet speed, it’s less of an issue for wireless connectivity, which comes with monthly bandwidth allotment, such as 5 gigabytes. A single, high definition movie downloaded can mean as much as 5 to 10 gigabytes of bandwidth. No one is going to use up their monthly wireless allotment on a single movie.
Too much of Internet traffic now is mostly adverts. The last thing I will ever do is pay more money for more speed, just to be even more of a conquest for corporate America? There are newspaper sites serving up two or three kilobyte stories, then jamming 3 to 5 megabytes of adverts with every page serving, and there is no shame in it for them. Thank God I can disable images on my mobile browser, making the page load much faster than with the fastest connection with images enabled.
“… faster Internet means more access to “immoral and inhumane” videos and photos, rumors, and espionage.”
It would also mean more access to sacred writings and teachings from imams. Didn’t he think of that?
Religion is suppose to be about persuading people to choose good over evil, life over death, sacred over the profane, etc. If he removes their ability to choose, then this is political and not religious. Government forces people how to act while religion persuades people through speech about what they should choose. That is the proper separation of church and state, a notion that apparently Iran doesn’t yet understand. We did not help the situation when Bush established Iraq and Afghanistan as Islamic Republics whose supreme law of government is the Quran.
That dood is a T-bagger of the anti-intertubes sort.
I can understand why this turd hates the idea of dogs being pets. Dogs make us more humane and appeal to our better nature. That is very unIslamic for fanatics like him. It is tough to ignore those puppy dogs eyes when they appeal to you.
I guess he’s trying to keep the sexting, texting, and porn watching down. And all the useless advertising that is shoved at people. But, it’s a losing battle.
But dogs???
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter