Overnight the retrial of Hashem Aghajari concluded. This time the offenses charged and the guilty verdict brought the penalty down from death to three years (with credit for two years time served) and post-release civil penalties. I wrote about his case in the context of the run-up to the elections in February:
I spent part of yesterday evening reading From ijtihad to wilayat-i faqih: The Evolving of the Shi’ite Legal Authority to Political Power by Abbas Amanat. The "why" is unimportant, though the proximal cause was looking up the press coverage on Professor Hashim Aghajari ...
I'm not the only one in East Blog-i-stan to be concerned that a US-Iran War is in the making. Juan Cole's blog, Informed Consent, has Iran in Bush's Sights, which I recommend highly. Wampum's readers are not monkeys who merely imitate, but following the links will expand one's education, so that our readers will not need the linking teacher. That is a redaction of the opening quote that twice cost Hashem Aghajari his life-in-law, and reading Abbas Amanat is highly recommended.
Posted by at July 21, 2004 06:07 AM | TrackBackGlad I'm not the only one! I got a sick feeling yesterday when leafing through the front section. Buried on page 8 or so was a thing about Bush looking into the links between Iran and terrorism. Same sick feeling I got a bit over a year ago when they were "investigating" links between Iraq and terrorism.
Scared all over again,
Phyllis