Ahmadinejad’s Letter to Merkel
The Iranians today released the full text of President Ahmadinejad’s letter to German Chancellor Angela Merkel. I posted on this back on July 22. After reading the letter, I understand why Merkel didn’t bother to reply.
Ahmadinejad, after buttering up Merkel, informs her: “This is really an astonishing phenomenon in today's world. The propaganda machinery after World War II has been so colossal that has caused some people to believe that they are the guilty party by historical accounts and must pay the penalty fort [sic] the wrongs committed by their forefathers for successive generations and for indefinite period of time.” He’s talking about the Holocaust, obviously, since it is one of his favorite subjects. But I can’t help but wonder if he believes that Germany ought to get its eastern territories back?
And talk about internal logic. Everyone should forget the Holocaust, or whatever took place in Europe during the war, because it happened sixty years ago. But then Ahmadinejad launches into a diatribe about the creation of Israel . . . sixty years ago.
He also commits a mistake often made by Muslims in dialogue with Christians: Ahmadinejad praises “the teachings of the divine prophets, the teachings of Abraham, Moses and Jesus Christ (peace be upon him) and the Prophet Mohammad (peace be upon him).” I know nothing about Merkel’s religious beliefs. She was an “Ossi” and a young communist, but now she heads the Christian Democratic Union. If she is a believing Christian, Ahmadinejad in his letter denied the principle belief underpinning Christianity—namely the divinity of Jesus Christ, relegating him to the lesser status of prophet.
In my opinion, this letter is even stranger than Ahmadinejad’s earlier treatise to George Bush. Why not spend his time trying to convince her that Germany’s proposed sale of more submarines to Israel could destabilize the region? (I do not mean to imply that I believe it would; quite the opposite.) How did he expect Merkel to respond? “Hey, Mahmoud, you’re right on! Let’s get those damned Jews?”
