I like the idea of presenting an “alternative” Christmas message, a practice London’s Channel 4 televison station has adopted since 1993. The message typically aires several hours after the Queen’s traditional message and the topics are usually designed to intrude on the Christmas spirit – I love it! This year, the station has signed up the moronic leader of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to lay waste to all things Western in his alternative address. Apparently taking time away from his midnight trysts with leaders of similar ilk - nimwitted, half-educated, and narcissistic folks like Hugo Chavez in Venezuela and Raul Castro in Cuba – the little twerp Mahmoud took aim at the U.S. by nonchalantly inserting himself into the mind of Jesus, on whose behalf he was happy to speak. You can read more about his address here, but I wouldn’t leave you without a little taste:
If Christ was on Earth today undoubtedly he would stand with the people in opposition to bullying, ill-tempered and expansionist powers. If Christ was on Earth today undoubtedly he would hoist the banner of justice and love for humanity to oppose warmongers, occupiers, terrorists and bullies the world over. If Christ was on Earth today undoubtedly he would fight against the tyrannical policies of prevailing global economic and political systems, as He did in His lifetime.
While giving Mahmoud a pass on the implicitly odd occasion of a Muslim waxing philosophical on the preferences of Jesus, I take greater issue with the implication in his message that the U.S. is the enemy to humanity that Jesus would help defy. Apparently, lost on Mahmoud is the wonderful irony that his own state is equally guilty of the trespasses he identifies. To take just one example, I’m guessing those of the homosexual persuasion don’t view Iran as ”hoist[ing] the banner of justice and love for humanity…” since, you know, homosexuality is a crime punishable by death under that country’s theocratic regime.
