April 15, 2008 - By Simon Bennett

The following two stories appeared on the English language section of the AKI news agency site yesterday. We don’t believe any British media outlets picked them up. We reproduce them as they offer an interesting insight into Iranian culture in general and Sharia in particular. We do hope that those, particularly those in The Church, who apparently are prepared to seek some form of accommodation with Sharia in Britain, are taking note!

Story 1: Women need to be veiled!

A top Shia cleric in Iran has said that unveiled women are a serious danger to Iranian society as they cause men to be “transformed into beasts”.

“Women without the veil are a danger that the authorities underestimate,” said Hojatolislam Seyyed Ahmad Elmalhoda, a powerful cleric who leads the Friday prayers in Mashad, a site considered sacred for Shia Muslims as it houses the shrine of Imam Reza.

“This situation is very serious in that if men see these bad women, they will turn into beasts, and then the whole of society will have to pay the consequences.”

According to the Shia cleric, women who do not respect conservative Islamic dress rules are “sources of all that is bad in society.”

“Respecting the chador (a long, black cloak that covers the arms and legs and is usually worn with a hijab) is the law of the state and the authorities must severely punish anyone who does not respect this law, in the same way that they punish thieves and murderers,” said Elmadhoda.

He is who is also a member of the Council of Experts – a powerful body of 86 senior clerics which elects, supervises and can dismiss the country’s supreme leader. He was speaking to journalists who were reporting on president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s visit to the shrine of Imam Reza.

“A women who does not wear the entire veil is like a fire which burns anyone who comes into contact with her,” said Elmalhoda.

“Our youth, even those who are educated by families who believe and respect the words of the Prophet, when they come into contact with this fire [the women who are not properly veiled] they burn and become ash,” he said.

Story 2: Seven synagogues demolished in one day!

Tehran, 15 April (AKI) – Seven ancient synagogues in the Iranian capital, Tehran, have been destroyed by local authorities. The synagogues were in the Oudlajan suburb of Tehran, where many Iranian Jews used to live.

“These buildings, which were part of our cultural, artistic and architectural heritage were burnt to the ground,” said Ahmad Mohit Tabatabaii, the director of the International Council of Museums’ (ICOM) office in Tehran.

“With the excuse of renovating this ancient quarter, they are erasing a part of our history,” said Tabatabaii.

He called for the government to intervene to stop the work commissioned by the local authorities.

A group of residents of Oudjalan have also sent a letter to the mayor of Tehran asking him to suspend the renovation work being carried out in the suburb.

Source for both stories: here .