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Execution of web programmer in Iran may be imminent
- michaelpinto 15y ago"A computer programmer from Canada faces imminent execution in Iran for the actions of another person, which he had no control over, a human rights group says. Saeed Malekpour wrote a program to upload photos to the Internet, an accomplishment that could cost him his life, Amnesty International reported Friday. Authorities in the Islamic Republic claimed his program was used by someone else to upload pornography and charged him with "insulting and desecrating Islam.""
- tomjen3 15y agoAnd the worst thing is that there is nothing we can do about it. Stupid, ignorant, malignant people will win and those in the right will loose. And people wonder why I am an atheist... To hell with this world.
- Deestan 15y agoThat's not what atheism means. Do us all a favour and stop calling yourself one.
- frisco 15y agoThroughout this case, I've felt like the charges are just a pretext. They wanted to get this guy for something, and they used this as a justification. I find it really hard to believe that someone in the Iranian Justice Department-equivalent was looking for porn sites and checking out the source code. There must be something else going on here; this is just misdirection.
- mrleinad 15y agoThat's another point of view. It may be the case this is just another part of the media campaign against Iran, created to demonize them, and justify the upcoming war.
- tanoku 15y agoThat's offensive. That's a ridiculous accusation charged with incredible amounts of political bias which trivializes on the life of another human being. You should be ashamed.
- mrleinad 15y agoI'm not trivializing his life! I don't deny the fact that he's going to be killed over a stupid thing, and that the Iran regime should be ashamed for that. I sincerely hope this could be stopped somehow. But still, there is a media campaign against Iran which I think no one can deny, and the fact that this story surfaces now, well, makes me think. That's all.
- srl 15y agoI have to (partially) agree with you. Iran executes people for the most B.S. of reasons all the time, and we rarely hear about it, and we certainly don't get as much of it as we've been getting of this guy. That's not to say that this guy isn't actually facing a death sentence, or that his life is somehow worth less because [[typical convoluted reasoning to support such statements]]. But these stories (and similar others) may be more interesting as an indicator of relations between the west and Iran than of the internals of Iranian politics.
- mrleinad 15y agoThank you. At least someone gets the point.
- tomjen3 15y agoGood. If a country can be destroyed just by saying the truth, it should be. A country exist only to ensure its populations freedom, liberty and prosperity. In this Iran has failed miserably.
- mrleinad 15y ago
- reader5000 15y agoI agree but I don't know enough to figure out what. But it is very hard to believe any government no matter how theocratic would waste time and resources on a guy who wrote a script to upload pictures to the internet, who doesnt even live in the country. Makes no sense.
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- baconner 15y agoHe does not have dual citizenship in the us or anywhere else. No idea where you got that or the bit about the FBI. He is an Iranian citizen who lived in Canada until he returned to visit his dying father and was arrested.
- sliverstorm 15y agoAh shoot, I got this story mixed up with another. My mistake.
- mrleinad 15y agoI'll repeat my comment on another thread with the same topic: How about flooding Twitter with mentions to @chavezcandanga (President Hugo Chavez, from Venezuela), asking him to ask the Iranian president to do something about this? They're very close, and his twitter account is really active. I tweeted him a similar link a while ago, but some mass action is required.
- drzaiusapelord 15y agoThese are the fruits of theocracy, authoritarianism, and ultra-conservatism. Oh well, I wish people who support Santorum and other theocrats will learn from this, but they won't. In 10 years I could be hung for writing software for planned parenthood. The theocracts' favorite stick is execution.
- killedbydeath 15y agoThe connection between authoritarianism and religion is pretty weak. Most XX century authoritarian countries which terrorized their citizens where anti-religious. Take a look at the history of the Soviet Union where hundred of thousands of people were prosecuted and killed for being religious. Extremes are dangerous in general.
- JoshTriplett 15y agoI'd suggest generalizing a bit. Fanaticism causes severe problems, whether that fanaticism comes from religion or from any other belief system that people hold so strongly that they can't tolerate any questioning of it.
- gizmo 15y agoI don't think that's accurate. Lenin and Stalin were pretty anti-religious. So was Mussolini. But I can't think of any other authoritarian regimes that were specifically anti-religious. Franco wasn't anti-religious. Neither was Hitler. Nor Castro. Nor any of the dictators in the African countries. We've had lots and lots of dictators and totalitarian regimes, few of which were anti-religious.
- DanBC 15y agoStalin managed to kill quite a few million people, so that's one important anti-religious figure if you're using (crass) "kill-count" as a statistic. Also, Mao Zedong was anti-religious, and is estimated to have killed between 40M and 70M. > Nor any of the dictators in the African countries. Well, yes, there are horrific genocides and mass murders and atrocities in Africa supposedly in the name of religion. I agree that evil is done by both atheists and believers.
- evolve2k 15y agoIs there a link to a more tangible 'take action' page?
- ajays 15y agoPersia was such a wonderful and open culture at one time. It breaks my heart to see such brutality in the name of religion. I wish I could appeal to the Persian people and their proud history, and tell them that incidents such as this will go down as dark blotches in their history.
- sliverstorm 15y agoincidents such as this will go down as dark blotches in their history Not necessarily. The victors write the history books you know, so if they manage to come out on top it will go down as their crowning moment of glory.
- bilbo0s 15y agoEven if they lose they could come out on top. Victors write history, but the vanquished ... if they are crafty ... write legends. And then you are in REAL trouble. The crucifixion of the Christ was only the first step in Christianity's eventual conquest of Rome.
- wisty 15y agoThey say it wasn't too bad about 30 year ago, either.
- jimfl 15y agoHuman beings are the worst sort of people.
- mvanveen 15y agoAs a teenager, I helped create a photo sharing site. I am just as guilty as Saeed Malekpour. Software engineers don't deserve to be killed just because of the ways in which people use their software. Technology, by itself, is not good or evil.