Grand Ayatollah Says High Speed Internet Is "Against Moral Standards" 542
An anonymous reader writes A Grand Ayatollah in Iran has determined that access to high-speed and 3G Internet is "against Sharia" and "against moral standards." However, Iran's President, Hassan Rouhani, plans to renew licenses and expand the country’s 3G cellular phone network. A radical MP associated with the conservative Resistance Front, warned: “If the minister continues to go ahead with increasing bandwidth and Internet speed, then we will push for his impeachment and removal from the cabinet.” “We will vigorously prevent all attempts by the [communication] minister to expand 3G technology, and if our warnings are not heeded, then the necessary course of action will be taken,” he added.
Maybe it would be good if the Ayatollah wins? (Score:5, Interesting)
Wait a minute (Score:5, Interesting)
Where in the Koran does it mention bandwidth? or the speed in which information is made available, since it has nothing to do with what information is available, just the connection speed?
Re:If the Grand Ayatollah's against it.... (Score:2, Interesting)
Around 1992-3, the Internet was operating at kB/s. It was fast enough for the Usenet and exchange of texts. There was very little junk, only one virus of note, and people were nice and out of the way to help. It encouraged reading, learning, communicating with real people and, in general, growing. Even slashdot, when it appeared, was interesting. The only thing that would break your concentration were talk (which you could turn off in your .bash_rc) and email.
Fast forward to 2013. The Internet is operating at Gb/s speeds in the civilized countries and at Mb/s everywhere else. Most of the content in porn, spam, fake illegal downloads, various scams and viruses. The chances you'll be talking to a bot that is trying to swindle you out of something are huge. Even if you switch your mobile off, the phones of your wife, kids, dog, colleagues, or other people on the subway continue to beep and annoy. Computers analyze your traffic and try to predict where are you going to spend your money next and make you change your mind.
Amen, Ayatollah, give me back the internet of yore.
Temptation (Score:5, Interesting)
It is interesting that one of the basis of most religions is the freedom to choose. Most religions allow people to choose to do good or choose not to. Why does the Muslim religion seem to want to control everything? Conversion by force, death sentence for converting to another religion, hiding women's bodies so not to tempt men and now censorship. What would a religion have to force it's followers to conform? What proves a person's faith is the ability to resist temptation. Look at the trials of Job. If the people need to be "protected" from temptation then their faith is weak.
Re:If the Grand Ayatollah's against it.... (Score:5, Interesting)
About as well as it did the last time..
You see, letters in the hebrew language are also numbers. There is no W so V is used in it's place or in other words, V and W are interchangeable. It so happens that V is also 6 so when you type www, you are typing 666. That's right, every time to go on the World Wide Web, you are paying homage to the beast.
That was the early rallying cry to why the internet was evil and should be removed. Of course some people who actually knew better checked up on those facts and it turns out a little different. [av1611.org]
Re:If the Grand Ayatollah's against it.... (Score:5, Interesting)
About as well as it did the last time..
You see, letters in the hebrew language are also numbers. There is no W so V is used in it's place or in other words, V and W are interchangeable. It so happens that V is also 6 so when you type www, you are typing 666. That's right, every time to go on the World Wide Web, you are paying homage to the beast.
That was the early rallying cry to why the internet was evil and should be removed. Of course some people who actually knew better checked up on those facts and it turns out a little different. [av1611.org]
Except that 666 isn't the number of the beast, it's actually 616. Google it, number of sources other then the one I put down.
http://theologica.ning.com/pro... [ning.com]
Re:Maybe it would be good if the Ayatollah wins? (Score:5, Interesting)
You mean like in Syria where the end result has been ISIS? The Iranian people are actually moving towards more freedom on their own. They've voted in a pretty liberal (for that part of the world) President, they have more religious freedoms then most of that part of the world and isn't much different in some ways as American allies such as Saudi Arabia where they have morals police who will execute you on the spot and women have even less rights then Iranian women.
It's all a weird game where our friends are just as bad as our enemies, just that there is a lot of propaganda from both sides.
Re:Same thing from ultra-orthodox Jews. (Score:2, Interesting)
There is a meaningful difference. In Iran the government chooses the rules and you have no choice but to comply. In New York the followers of the rabbis choose if they want to comply. They are acknowledging that the various communications technologies are tools, that can be used for good or ill, and they are trying to choose what they believe is good. They are choosing, not the government.
Re:Wait a minute (Score:4, Interesting)
The article doesn't give reasoning, but as he has no objection to high-speed internet once the filtering is in place I'm guessing his objection isn't to the technology but the content. The internet is full of things that would be regarded as corrupting by many in Iran. Not just the obvious pornography and blasphemy - this is a country where forign films often have to be edited to raise the necklines of women's clothing or chop of the arms off an unmarried couple so they aren't holding hands.
Re:Same thing from ultra-orthodox Jews. (Score:3, Interesting)
I have a Jewish friend in who co-runs a computer repair service in NYC. They've told me that when a rabbi calls for assistance, they inevitably have among the largest stashes of porn you can imagine. And the wives all have accounts on dating services.
So where is it (Score:4, Interesting)
I am of the same opinion, and I can provide evidence. ...Fast forward to 2013. The Internet is operating at Gb/s speeds in the civilized countries and at Mb/s everywhere else. Most of the content in porn, spam, fake illegal downloads, various scams and viruses.
So where is the "evidence" you claim to have? Your "evidence" seems to have originated from your gut. There is a lot less porn on the internet than you think [bbc.com]
Religion is at the root of many wars (Score:3, Interesting)
Its not that religion is evil, or that it does not have significant purpose. Its just that people use it as a means to carry out their own agenda hiding behind the myths and teachings that were misunderstood or misinterpreted. Religion is just a way to get people to follow you and to make you fear going against them because its going against a God. Iran is just another Country bent on keeping the information of the real world away from its people. Only instead of a dictator you have a religious figure who tries to control people through religion. Don't think for a second the Muslims are any more peaceful then the Christians, or Jews or any other religion. Wars throughout history have had significant meaning over differing religions. Unfortunately, religion has backfired on keeping peace in the world. It has only worsen and created conflicts and in many cases has shed more blood then it has saved. It was never meant to happen that way, but it has.
Let it self-destruct or interfere and prolong it (Score:4, Interesting)
To meddle in something that is none of your business merely tends to give credibility to whatever you disagreed with in the first place.
“Never argue with an idiot. They will only bring you down to their level and beat you with experience.” - George Carlin.
“Never argue with a fool, onlookers may not be able to tell the difference.” - Mark Twain.
So if Iran or wherever wants to pass stupid edicts, just let it go ahead.
Have some respect for Iranians to recognize a horse's ass for what it is.
If a stupid government passes a sufficient number of dumb edicts that they eventually make themselves irrelevant.
Or maybe we should interfere and start another war which would surely help support a dumb regime (on both sides).
Re:If the Grand Ayatollah's against it.... (Score:5, Interesting)
In general, there are 4 stages to Islamic conquest.
1) When they are a tiny minority they only want to live, and worship, in peace.
2) Once they are a bigger minority, they start demanding special laws to respect their religion and culture. This is happening in many European nations right now. These special laws may directly oppose fundamental rights in western countries.
3) Once they are a sizable minority: they drop the mask, and the gloves come off. Time to violently overthrow the existing religion and culture. This has been going on throughout Islamic history. This is going on in Thailand right now.
4) Once Muslims are in charge, it is no different than any other mid-east nation.
Even getting to stage 2 is too much for many Americans. Lots of Americans do not want to give up stuff like freedom of speech, or freedom of press, freedom of religion.
You just described the rise of Christianity in the Roman empire.