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Wednesday, July 27, 2005

An Iranian group is openly advertising for suicide volunteers again (see here and here for previous examples):

BBC: Iran body seeks suicide 'martyrs'

An advertisement in an Iranian publication has called for people to come forward for "martyrdom operations" against the enemies of Islam.

It is published by an institute managed by one of Iran's most conservative and radical clerics, Ayatollah Masbah Yazdi, who has declared his support for Iran's new President, Mahmoud Ahmedinejad.

The advertisement calls for men and women to enlist with the "Martyrdom Lovers' Headquarters".

It says the idea is to achieve "all-out readiness" against the enemies of Islam - and the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Those who are picked will be specially trained for their missions in different divisions in every province.

To apply, all that is needed are photographs, a form and a copy of a birth certificate.

Worry not, though, the BBC assures us they don't really mean it, because, after all, Iranians would never really be involved in something like this:

This is not the first time Iranians have registered for suicide missions - though in Islam a clear distinction is made between ordinary suicide and martyrdom for a religious cause.

Several people have signed up with different organisations to defend the holy shrines in Iraq and the rights of Palestinians.

But in practice, their pledges are merely symbolic and it is highly unlikely that they would actually go on suicide missions...


2 Comments

If memory serves me, this is the same Iran that used pre-teen boys as human mine sweepers during the Iran-Iraq war. Glad to see that murder and suicide are now voluntary, rather than forced. Does this mean the Mullahs are mellowing?

Heh. That's one way of looking at it.

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