Ahmadinejad’s Blog

Share your thoughts with the Iranian president. He has a blog in Farsi, Arabic, French and English. I tried it in Safari and couldn’t get anything, but it works in Firefox though it’s a bit slow. He claims to be reading each message personally. In fact, that’s his excuse for not posting more often.

Is Ahmadinejad sincere in his desire to communicate with the West, or is he just a cunning propagandist searching for ever more innovative ways to pull the wool over our eyes? In a head-to-head contest with George W. Bush, he has my vote, assuming I could stick my head out of my bunker long enough to get to the polling station.

Here is Hoder’s take on Ahmadinejad’s blog. Iranian expatriate Hoder is the best known Iranian blogger writing in English, and has become something of a spokesman for the Iranian blogosphere.

    It proves Ahmadinejad is a populist rather than a fundamentalist and he’s quite keen to reach the young educated urban Iranians around the world. Also that he wants to communicate with outside world.
    If he continues writing it and if it becomes a real blog, then we should be happy that they’re not going to shut down the blogging services as long as Ahmadinejad is a populist. […]
    Ahmadinejad’s populism is exactly what we should use to protect some other valuable achivements under Khatami. […] This should be the strategy for anyone who want to change something in Iran.

Whether Ahmadinejad is manipulating us or simply communicating, his plan seems to be working. As of today, his blog is ranked 204th in the world on Technorati.

UPDATE: There is an interesting article in the New York Times Week in Review about Ahmadinejad, which makes the point that the West is only playing his game when we get worked up over his confrontational style. As Liosliath put it in the comments below, Ahmadinejad is a “crafty” and “manipulative” communicator. Iranian dissidents have pointed out that by letting ourselves be distracted by Ahmadinejad’s views on Israel and the Holocaust, we fail to ask him the real questions about social injustice within Iran. According to Akhbar Ganji, described by the Times as “Iran’s leading dissident”:

    American institutions like the Council on Foreign Relations and “60 Minutes” on CBS News let Holocaust denial completely overshadow the government’s repression.
    During a 90-minute September meeting with council members in New York, for example, participants said they could only recall a single question put to Mr. Ahmadinejad about limited elections and shuttering the opposition press.
    He was not pressed on rising unemployment, nor on the violent suppression of striking bus drivers protesting low wages, nor on arresting bloggers and confiscating satellite dishes to stifle debate…. Nobody asked about rioting by beleaguered Iranian earthquake survivors who resented giving money to Hezbollah supporters in Lebanon to rebuild houses destroyed by Israel. Mr. Ahmadinejad could have written the questions himself….

I recommend this piece if you are interested in knowing what Iranian opponents of Ahmadinejad are thinking. They seem to feel that the time isn’t right for the U.S. to negotiate with Iran, because the atmosphere is too tense and the disaster in Iraq has put the U.S. in a position of weakness. On the other hand, they advise that Iran is far from “monolithic” and Ahmadinejad will eventually be replaced by more moderate leaders. The disappointing showing of his supporters in last week’s local elections is one sign of movement away from him. The U.S. can help strengthen the Iranian opposition by working for a solution in Palestine, and by taking the spotlight off of Ahmadinejad and placing it instead on “what the Iranian regime has done for its people lately.”

6 thoughts on “Ahmadinejad’s Blog

  1. Liosliath

    Hey, thanks for the links to Ahmadinejad’s blog. I read it before, but I think I need to learn MSA – it’s a bit tedious in English. I think AJ’s intent is manipulative communication, which is somewhere in the middle – as in his interview with Mike Wallace, he sure shows his crafty side.

    I think almost anyone other than Bush would have MY vote. ;)

    Reply
  2. Yahia

    I’m not a politics fan. All I have to say is that the website sucks. It doesn’t work on my nice browser so it’s useless.
    It’s one of the others that were designed with the “optimized for IE on Windows” philosophy.
    ..

    Reply
  3. eatbees Post author

    I agree, if he was a Mac or Linux user it would show he had better taste, but maybe he’s trying to show he’s a “man of the people” like he does with his clothes :)

    Anyway, he got us to talk about him which is probably all he wants.

    Reply
  4. m

    Yahshua is LORD have you read the Peshitta the bible in aramaic this concludes that Yahshua is G-D have you read the torah codes
    this also concludes that Yahshua is G-D Yahshua is JESUS JESUS IS LORD
    HE is the only begotten of G-D HE is the Word of G-D and I know that HE is HE is the MESSIAH
    HE is the only one HE said Shema Israel Adonai Eloheynu Adonai Echad the koran is copied from the bible JESUS is your only hope repent and be baptized in the Holy Spirit before your soul ends up in a horrific HELL I urge you to renounce faith in islam and accept JESUS CHRIST as your personal Saviour please get a bible pray and ask G-D to show you the Truth before it is too late for you and your people JESUS is also JEWISH SALVATION is of the JEWS only thru JESUS the SON of the G-D of Israel Abraham Issac and Jacob remember Jacob’s name was changed to ISRAEL G-D promised the land of ISRAEL to the JEWS if you fight against them you are fighting against G-D himself stop before it is too late for you and your people G-D is going to defend ISRAEL you would know this if you had read the bible

    http://reluctant-messenger.com/God-in-flesh.htm

    http://www.ruachqadim.com/PDF/MarYah.pdf

    http://www.gamla.org.il/english/article/2003/april/win1.htm

    http://www.templemount.org/quranland.html

    Reply
  5. eatbees Post author

    @m the religious freak — I’m really glad you came to my blog, because I’ve been looking for these answers all my life, and now finally they are here! Who is this guy JESUS and why does he spell his name in ALL CAPS? Did he spend his life SHOUTING? I hope so, because otherwise no one would hear his message, and we would all be burning in a horrific HELL as you say. I will run out and tell my Jewish and Muslim friends that they are on the wrong track, and save as many people from HELL as I can. I think I can win about 20 souls to the LORD tonight, because I have a lot of confused friends. Anyway, thanks so much for coming and telling me the news, otherwise I might never have figured out what I’m doing here on Earth. It looked so hard, but it turns out to be so easy. How stupid I was :(

    Reply

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