Execution of web programmer in Iran may be imminent | Hacker News Reader

Execution of web programmer in Iran may be imminent

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46 pointsmichaelpinto32 comments

These 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.

The 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.

I'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.

I 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.

Stalin 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.

My understanding is that Castro is quite anti-religious just like any other communist leader (confirmed by Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_Cuba). Hitler was in conflict with Christian churches as well since he was essentially building his own religion and did not want competition. I was born in a country where religion was systematically mocked and religious people had to hide their beliefs. Yet somehow getting rid of the religion did not make people any nicer. I am glad that it is not the case in ex-SU anymore. Tolerance and letting people be whatever they want to be is the way to build a stable society. In the US it may seem like many fanatics are religious, but having seen many examples of the opposite I do not think fanaticism and religion are strongly correlated.

He didn't make the connection, and you'd have to be specifically looking for it to read that into his statement, I think. I read it as just a list of some of the qualities of the Iranian state.

And gizmo is right, there have been brutal dictators who use religion as a cudgel, and there have been those who haven't.

How can people say things like this? Do you seriously believe that if Santorum were to be elected, the US would begin to participate in religion fueled executions? Or more importantly, do you think Santorum supports these actions?

No, not immediately, but Santorum and the American religious right in general make no secret of their disdain for this country's founding principle of the separation of church and state, and are clearly eager to impose their religious dogma on the rest of us – see the current far-right platform issues of abortion and now birth control, for instance. They really won't stop until they can impose christian notions of morality on the entire country.

So while Santorum himself is unlikely to bring on religious-based executions even if he did become president, a vote for him is a vote that the country continue down this frightening and destructive path. Stay on that path long enough, and eventually we end up where Iran is now.

http://handthatfeedsyou.blogspot.com/2012/01/yes-santorum-is... doesn't leave much room for doubt that he wants to create an islamic-style theocracy but using catholic dogma.

Throughout 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.

That'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.

That'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.

I'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.

I 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.

Thank you. At least someone gets the point.

Good. 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.

You're confusing "country" with "government".

I 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.

I'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.

Persia 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.

incidents 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.

Even 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.

They say it wasn't too bad about 30 year ago, either.

"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.""

As 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.

Is there a link to a more tangible 'take action' page?

Human beings are the worst sort of people.

And 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.

That's not what atheism means. Do us all a favour and stop calling yourself one.

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