Bush, Ahmadinejad, Mithradites, and Saudi Jinn

Comments and Analysis

An Acquaintance contacted me this afternoon and talked about Presidents Bush and Ahmadinejad. She noted that this morning, in fact hours earlier, Bush had called the Iranian leader a 'tyrant'. She though that was not the proper title or adjective to use because, she said, the man was elected as an underdog against the chosen candidate of the powerful clergy. Ok, she added, the elections are restricted and framed so that only those who pose no threat to the clerical regime can run- still, the man won. Even if most people were disappointed and stayed away from the polls.
I asked her what she thought Bush should call Ahmadinejad that is more accurate and reminds people of the man's strange world views and possible aspirations. An idiot, she told me right away. But leaders don't call each others 'idiots', I reminded her. It is so un-statesman-like (I broke it into three slow syllables). She did not seem convinced.

Which caused me to think: maybe she was right. 'Tyrant' may not be the right word in this case. If only because most of our Arab allies are at least as 'tyrannical'- none of them has ever been elected in a free election. In the Middel East, a leader who is not a tyrant is soon dead or, if he is lucky, in exile. Still, an idiot does not sound a....'presidential' thing to say. I know, nor is sh-t, but that word was not mentioned publicly in an open forum. Besides, IT happens.

Personally the term tryant is much maligned these days. Two thousand years ago it merely described a certain type of ruler and did not repersent any form of judgement about his behavior. In those days everybody was at least a tyrant- I know that Mithradites was even worse, at least one of the several Mithraditeses was.

Back to Saudi Arabia and the 21st Century: A teacher in the Saudi city of Jeddah had to finally call in the cops. Alarabiya TV reports today that this teacher was contacted by someone from Africa and told that some 'Jinn', evil spirits to you kaffir infidels, are in possession of his life and his destiny, unbeknown to him. He was to pay a sum of money to be rid of the pesky spirits and somehow find some old treasures belonging to an ancestor of his. The man, now good and greedy, was strung along, and ended up paying huge sums of money either by wire transfer or directly to the agents of this 'African' shaikh. In the end, when they failed to come up with maps to the purported treasure, he went to to police. I wonder what magnet madrassah- this innocuous term is a school to most of you- he taught at.

Cheers
Mohammed