Iran talks should weigh fatwas on nuclear arms: US bishops
Iran talks should weigh fatwas on nuclear arms: US bishops, Yahoo News via AFP, Jo Biddle, October 30, 2014
(Religion as a motivator? We have been told that the Islamic State is not motivated by any religion. What about the refusal of the Islamic Republic of Iran to permit inspections of its suspected nuke facilities, it massive support for terrorism and its abysmal human rights record? They must be of little if any importance, because none of them could be motivated by the Religion of Peace. An unwritten fatwa? Surely, that has to be binding since they say it is. Right. — DM)
“Iran is a very, very religious culture. It is also a very modern culture. And it is not all like the caricature of the fanatic religion that we see depicted too often … and the fatwa needs to be looked at in that light.”
“I would argue that we ignore the influence of religion as a motivator and validator at our own peril,” said Stephen Colecchi, a leading USCCB official.
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Washington (AFP) – Less than a month before a deadline to reach a nuclear deal with Iran, US Catholic bishops are urging negotiators not to underestimate the power of fatwas by Islamic leaders banning atomic weapons.
In a ground-breaking visit, a six-strong delegation from the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) travelled in April to the holy city of Qom to meet with top Shiite leaders in a bid to bridge gaps between Iran and the West.
“Iranians feel profoundly misunderstood by America and the West,” said Bishop Richard Pates, the chairman of the USCCB’s committee on international justice and peace, speaking publicly about the trip on Wednesday.
As the West seeks to negotiate a deal by November 24 to rein in Iran’s suspect nuclear program, the USCCB delegation argued Washington, in particular, should pay more heed to Iranian assertions that stockpiling and using nuclear weapons would be against the fundamental principles of Shiite Islam.
Iranian leaders say Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei issued a fatwa against nuclear weapons in 2003 and has reiterated it several times since.
No text of the fatwa appears to have been written down, but the Iranian religious leaders told the bishops’ delegation that it was “a matter of public record and was highly respected among Shia scholars and Iranians generally,” Pates said.
In their talks, the Irani leaders assured the delegation that nuclear weapons “are immoral because of their indiscriminate nature and their powerful force of destroying all types of innocent communities,” Pates told the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Tehran has repeatedly denied that it is seeking to develop the atomic bomb, saying its nuclear program is for civilian energy purposes only.
But the West, and the grouping known as the P5+1, remain deeply skeptical, arguing that the Islamic republic must take “verifiable actions” to show the world that its program is for peaceful purposes only.
– Modern culture –
“I would argue that we ignore the influence of religion as a motivator and validator at our own peril,” said Stephen Colecchi, a leading USCCB official.
He said he believed the US State Department was not seriously factoring in Iranian religious objections to weapons of mass destruction as part of the negotiations.
“Iran is a very, very religious culture. It is also a very modern culture. And it is not all like the caricature of the fanatic religion that we see depicted too often … and the fatwa needs to be looked at in that light.”
In the ongoing nuclear negotiations, the fatwa “does not have every relevance, but it does have some relevance,” Colecchi argued, saying it was “pervasively taught and defended in Iran.”
“And the possibility of changing the fatwa overnight is non-existent. This is what should be taken into account by diplomats … it would undermine the whole teaching authority of their system.”
“It’s inconceivable to a Catholic that the pope would do it like that, and it’s inconceivable to them that an ayatollah or a supreme leader would do that,” Colecchi added.
University of Maryland academic and expert Ebrahim Mohseni said a recent study found that some 65 percent of Iranians believed producing nuclear weapons was against Islam.
Technical experts from the P5+1 — Britain, China, France, Russia, the United States plus Germany — plus Iran were continuing to meet Wednesday to hammer out a deal, with the November 24 deadline looming.
So far no date has been set for the next round of high-level talks.
US Secretary of State John Kerry was meanwhile hosting a dinner late Wednesday for EU foreign policy chief Cathy Ashton, who is stepping down after leading the negotiations with Iran as part of the P5+1 group, to thank her for “her leadership,” State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.
“It’s not a working dinner, but certainly we wouldn’t be surprised if Iran was discussed.”
Explore posts in the same categories: Christians, Iran, Iranian nukes, IslamTags: Catholic bishops, Fatwa, Iran, Nukes, the Islamic State
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WarSclerotic 
October 31, 2014 at 1:36 AM
Reblogged this on danmillerinpanama and commented:
This is the most insane proposals I have encountered thus far, and they just keep coming. Watch out! Incoming! Duck!
October 31, 2014 at 3:20 AM
Reblogged this on A Conservative Christian Man.
October 31, 2014 at 11:56 AM
This article is too funny.
That’s right, bet your life on religion, the religion of Satan.
Talk about shallow thinking, the only thing the Bishops (and most of the public) know is “Islam is a religion” and that’s the extent of their thinking. The only religion they know anything about is Christianity so they think Islam must be like Christianity, except for some fanatic Muslims who really don’t understand their own religion. God forbid the Bishops should ever read the Koran and learn the truth.
Iran would never use a nuclear weapon, or even build one, really? Like the Christian churches were a stumbling block to Hiroshima or the firebombing of Dresden or Tokyo, or the nuclear arms race for ever after. Ha, what a joke.
And what is this? Is it an anti-Semetic Joke, are they trying to eliminate some competition, have the Bishops gone over to the dark side, or is there some self-interest involved, is it just their feeble and inane attempt to regain some long lost relevance by touting religion as the solution? The objective of the leaders of Iran is power, religion is just the utopian fantasy they feed their “useful idiots” to control them and to get them to rampage against their enemies so the leaders can get more power. Just like Communism was the religion the leaders of the Soviet Union used to enslave their own people and to attempt, eventually, to control and rob the whole world. And just like Mohammed used Islam as a justification for what he really wanted, to raid more caravans and rape and pillage his way through Arabia.
That’s right Bishops, bet your life on the religion of Islam, it’s only cost the world over 200 million lives and counting so far, but I’m sure we can trust them now when they say “they would never…”
Ever hear of Taqiyah?
October 31, 2014 at 12:44 PM
Makes you wonder if in fact the inmates ARE running the asylum!!