The metal door to the synagogue swung open and a small boy skipped across the courtyard. He looked puzzled at the three people who stood before him, two of whom were clearly not Iranian. He led us up some steps to the temple, where I slipped a skullcap on to my head. A lady came towards us, smiling. “Are you Jewish?” she asked.
“No,” I replied. “Sorry.”
My friend Annette and I went inside anyway, past a table of food laid out for Passover, and sat at the back as an elderly man read from the Torah in front of eight others.
I'd never have guessed that my first time inside a synagogue would be in Tehran, but Iran is full of surprises. It has a fundamentalist leadership that many in the West believe to be as nutty as a box of pistachios. But it also has a population of 65 million, most born after the 1979 Islamic Revolution (which culminated in the return from exile of Ayatollah Khomeini 30 years ago this month), and far removed from the dour and menacing stereotype often portrayed on the 10 o'clock news. The ordinary Iranian people are by far the friendliest and most welcoming I've met in more than 20 years of travelling....Link
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Obama Stays the Course on Bagram............
The Justice Department today said it would adhere to the Bush administration's position that detainees imprisoned at a U.S. air base in Afghanistan have no right to challenge their confinement in U.S. courts. Last month, U.S. District Judge John Bates gave the new administration an opportunity to refine its position in cases involving four detainees incarcerated at the Bagram prison, located on a converted Soviet base about 30 miles north of Kabul. They are seeking the same rights as prisoners held at the naval base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba -- more than 200 of whom are challenging their detention in habeas proceedings in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia....Link
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