Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has wasted no time showing what an extremist he really is whether by denying the Holocaust, moving Israel to Europe or banning Western music. Intermixed with this however he’s also shown that he doesn’t really have a terrific grip on reality. For example, in addressing the U.N. General Assembly in December he said that one of his aides told him that “a light surrounded him when he took the podium.” Ahmadinejad took this as a religious sign and added that “all of a sudden, the atmosphere changed, and for 27 to 28 minutes, the leaders did not blink.”

In Iran, a country that has no shortage of religious nuts, these words border on sacrilege as Shiite texts outlaw claims of revelations. Of course, a more worldly explanation is that the “light” was simply a spotlight being shown on the speaker and that the atmosphere changing was simply people being polite while listening to the speaker. Maybe he’s used to guns firing into the air and zealots chanting “death to America” at every speech he’s been part of so the quietness of the UN may very well have seemed like the work of a celestial being. I wouldn’t be surprised if he also commented about Allah making his voice sound like 1000 warriors–which to you and me we would say was the work of a microphone and PA system. Such infidels we are.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 3rd, 2006 at 12:31 am by Insider and is filed under Loons. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.