Tag: Religious Leaders

Out Of The Rubble A New Leader

It is confirmed that the Iranian leader has been killed and now the speculation on who will lead Iran in this time of war.

Now we have an answer to that probing question….

Iran’s powerful clerical body is moving toward a dynastic handoff at the very top. Three Iranian officials who spoke to the New York Times say Mojtaba Khamenei, the 56-year-old son of slain supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has emerged as the leading candidate to inherit his father’s post after meetings of the Assembly of Experts on Tuesday. An announcement could come as soon as Wednesday, though some clerics reportedly worry that naming him now would make him an even bigger target for the US and Israel. CNN reported over the weekend that “father-to-son succession is frowned upon in the Shiite Muslim clerical establishment and particularly in a revolutionary Iran that came about after toppling a widely reviled monarchy.”

But Mojtaba, long influential but rarely seen, is closely aligned with the Islamic Revolutionary Guards, and the officials say the Guard is strongly backing him as the safest pair of hands in a crisis. Analysts say his selection would signal dominance by Iran’s most hard-line security forces, though a Tehran-based commentator predicts a backlash from parts of the public already angered by the regime’s lethal crackdown on protesters. Two other finalists, cleric Alireza Arafi and revolution founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s grandson Seyed Hassan Khomeini, are viewed as relative moderates. One political ally has argued Mojtaba could surprise as a reform-minded figure, likening his potential role to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s—while others, including President Trump, warn Iran could simply end up with a leader as tough as the last.

Another hard core extremist to take the reins of government.

Now the question will be will this succession be for the good or the bad?

Will the Shia faithful accept this succession from father to son which is not something that is done with Shia religious leaders?

And the waiting begins.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Forced Religion?

I do not usual comment on religion but there are times when I must step up and say my peace.

Recently Donald the Orange made a speech where he promised a ‘task force’ to impose Christian ideology…..

In recent campaign stops and on social media, Donald Trump has reprised lies aimed at inciting his Christian-right base against Joe Biden. These tirades, centered on the false charge that the Biden administration is persecuting Christians, aren’t just Trump’s typically dubious claims. Much like Trump’s lies about a stolen election, they are designed to immerse his loyalists in a grievance-laden alternative reality in which Trump alone can rescue them from an evil government threatening their freedom.

In a Dec. 19 speech in Iowa, for example, Trump pledged, “As soon as I get back in the Oval Office, I’ll also immediately end the war on Christians. I don’t know if you feel it. You have a war. There’s a war.” Speaking just after the Colorado Supreme Court disqualified him from appearing on the state’s GOP primary ballot, Trump tied this “war” to his own legal woes. “Under crooked Joe Biden, Christians and Americans of faith are being persecuted and government has been weaponized against religion like never before. And also presidents like never before,” he added. “I always say Al Capone was treated better than I was treated.”

Trump has promoted the theme of Christian persecution in the past, but is elevating it again as these legal issues mount. His clear purpose is to deflect attention from his own criminal liabilities by insinuating that the same Biden administration he falsely claims is unfairly targeting him for prosecution is similarly persecuting religious Americans.

Unsurprisingly, Trump’s ardent supporters see his and their “wars” as tied together. When he was indicted in a Manhattan court on charges that he illegally covered up hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels, his backers compared this supposed persecution to that of Jesus Christ. In a Truth Social video two days after his Iowa speech, Trump made this persecution pact complete. He contended that under Biden, “Christians and Americans of faith are being persecuted like nothing this nation has ever seen before.” Trump has also echoed wild and debunked claims from congressional Republicans about anti-Catholic bias by the Biden administration and the FBI in particular.

https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/trump-2024-christian-right-truth-social-rcna132082

Sorry but I will not be forced to believe.

I have my religious beliefs and I shall retain them….so screw trump.

What will be next?   The Morality Police?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

The Accuser Becomes The Accused

In the past all the abuse issues that the Catholic church as been dealing  with has the protestants condemning the church for allowing….basically covering up the abuses by the clergy…..

Personally I am no fan of organized religion basically because it is hypocrisy at its highest….the leaders lie and cheat….and that is where this post picks up…..

Now the Southern Baptist Convention is at the heart of a controversy…..

An outside investigation released Sunday by the Southern Baptist Convention found that survivors of sexual abuse were ignored, or worse, for decades by clergy. The almost 300-page report mostly addresses leaders’ handling of reported abuse, the Washington Post reports, but includes details on individual cases. “While stories of abuse were minimized, and survivors were ignored or even vilified,” the report says, “revelations came to light in recent years that some senior SBC leaders had protected or even supported alleged abusers.” Members expressed shock at the scope of the problem in the nation’s biggest Protestant denomination.

“I knew it was rotten, but it’s astonishing and infuriating,” said Jennifer Lyell, whose abuse case is included in the report. She once was the convention’s highest-paid female executive. Internal fights over how to handle abuse cases have gone on for years, and leaders have objected to comparisons with the abuse in the Catholic Church, arguing that the number of Southern Baptist cases is much lower. “This is a denomination (that) is through and through about power,” Lyell said, per the Post. “It is misappropriated power. It does not in any way reflect the Jesus I see in the scriptures.”

In an opinion piece that went up Sunday on Christianity Today, Russell Moore writes that “crisis is too small a word” for what the Southern Baptist Convention faces now. “It is an apocalypse.” Moore has been on the convention’s Executive Committee and called for the investigation; he was expecting bad behavior to be found. But “the investigation uncovers a reality far more evil and systemic than I imagined it could be,” he writes. Moore says he’s attended his last committee meeting and likens the leaders’ behavior to a criminal conspiracy. “It’s even more than just a crime,” he writes. “It’s blasphemy.” You can read the full piece here.

The SBC has decided to head off the bad news as best they can…..

The depth of the problem surprised almost everyone, but the themes revealed in Sunday’s bombshell report on sexual abuse and coverups within the Southern Baptist Convention are not new to Christa Brown. She says she was sexually abused as a child by a minister, and she has been fighting for decades to bring light to the issue. Prompted by a motion Brown posted on Monday, the SBC’s Executive Committee voted Tuesday to publish a previously secret database of people accused of committing abuse. Per the Washington Post,the committee also voted to issue a public apology and direct rebuke of former General Counsel August Boto.

“I’m grateful for what we saw today, truly. I am also waiting and hoping for real action and not just words,” Brown said, according to the Post. “Not words, not lament, not thoughts and prayers, real meaningful action that will help survivors.” The decision to release the list was made during a Zoom meeting of the 68-member board that serves as the administrative arm of the SBC. During the meeting, interim committee President Willie McLaurin said: “Now is the time to change the culture. We need to be proactive in our openness, in our transparency from this moment forward.”

The committee’s statement of apology focused on a 2006 letter in which Boto decried Brown’s use of “hyperbole, argumentative language, strident tones, [and] pejorative adjectives” and said “continued discourse between us will not be positive or fruitful.” That letter is seen as emblematic of a systemic, longstanding dismissiveness and hostility toward abuse survivors by SBC leaders. Per the Tennessean, the committee said in its apology that it “rejects this sentiment in its entirety and seeks to publicly repent for its failure to rectify this position.” According to Kentucky Today, SBC counsel says the list will be reviewed prior to release, “with names of abuse survivors, names of potential confidential witnesses, and uncorroborated allegations of abuse redacted.”

So sad that clergy use their position of power and influence to abuse….when caught they cry and beg…..but how much crying did these people do before they were caught?  And how long have they been preying on their flock?

I may be a bad person but their is no forgiveness from me…..ever.

Turn The Page!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Pope Makes My List

It is no secret that I have little use for organized religion….all of them….and now I can add the Pope to my list that I keep on a roll of toilet paper…..

These so-called pastors need to worry about people’s souls and stay out of their personal lives and decisions.

What got me fired up was something the Pope had to say about people with pets.

Pope Francis isn’t happy with people who forego having children and opt for pets instead. While discussing parenthood at the Vatican, Francis called the idea of being childless “a form of selfishness,” per AFP. “We see that some people do not want to have a child,” said the pontiff. “Sometimes they have one and that’s it, but they have dogs and cats that take the place of children. This may make people laugh but it is a reality.” And in his view, it’s a damaging reality because it amounts to “a denial of fatherhood and motherhood and diminishes us, takes away our humanity.”

It’s not the first time Francis has spoken out on the issue, declaring in 2014 that the idea of couples having a dog or cat instead of a child is “another phenomenon of cultural degradation.” For those who cannot have biological children, Francis encouraged adoption and used the example of Joseph, presented in the Bible as the “foster-father” of Jesus, per Vatican News. “Having a child is always a risk, whether naturally or by adoption,” he said. “But it is more risky not to have them, to negate fatherhood or motherhood, be it real or spiritual.”

Seriously?

He tries to blame pets for the problems the Church is having.

Apparently he worries that fewer children would mean less money flowing into the church coffers.

I do not trust a dude in a funny hat and dress…..I trust my friend MoMo a thousand times more than some priest.

Turn The Page!

Enjoy your Sunday….Be Well and Be Safe….

“lego ergo scribo”

Closing Thought–04Aug21

Trump’s re-election was ‘preordained by God”…..

Seriously.

Like the author of this op-ed I seldom comment on religious beliefs for those are personal decision and those of the people that believe them….but from time to time there are stories that makes it impossible for me to ignore them.

“Preordained by God”?

St. Louis Post-Dispatch editorial board penned a scathing indictment of evangelical preachers who told their followers to view former President Donald Trump’s potential victory in the 2020 election through the lens of Biblical prophecy — and thus making them blind to the reality of Trump’s loss.

“Editorially, we try to avoid opining about religious faith,” wrote the board. “But invoking divine guidance to advance partisan causes smacks of the worst kind of manipulation, opening the door to abuse and financial exploitation. Pentecostal and charismatic Christian leaders have laudably begun insisting that the false prophets among them cease and desist.”

Previous reporting has detailed how Trumpism became a fertile ground to radicalize white evangelicals around the country, and how religious extremists encouraged the “Stop the Steal” lie and the subsequent attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6. There have also been links between the evangelical movement and the QAnon conspiracy theory, which recycles centuries-old anti-Semitic paranoia about shadow elites cannibalizing and brutalizing young children.

And faith leaders in positions of trust have furthered along this conspiratorial thinking, wrote the board.

“‘Why were most of the prophets wrong when it came to predicting the outcome of the 2020 election?’ host Jan Markell, founder of Olive Tree Ministries, asked on her ‘Understanding the Times‘ Christian radio show on June 25. She followed that question with a lengthy series of pre-election recordings in which a variety of prominent evangelical preachers claimed that God had told them Trump would be reelected,” wrote the board. “‘Trump will win. … He will sit in that office for four more years, and God will have his way in this country,’ author and self-proclaimed prophet Kat Kerr stated in one of the clips Markell played. Several others followed, including one by evangelist Pat Robertson and another by Jeremiah Johnson (who has since publicly repented).”

“Such quackery also can be deadly dangerous, such as when many protesters, claiming divine inspiration, joined in storming the Capitol on Jan. 6. ‘Jericho March’ cofounder Rob Weaver was among the preachers who claimed divine guidance in directing followers toward Capitol Hill,” wrote the board, which concluded by promoting the propheticstandards.com petition website calling on preachers to reject “the spiritual manipulation of the prophetic gift for the personal benefit of the prophet or of his or her ministry.”

(rawstory.com)

What more to say?

Not a damn thing…religious quackery!

Turn The Page!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Those Religious Hypocrites

I seldom write on religion….for one I do not care much for organized religion….butt mostly because most of the leaders are outright hypocrites….they rail about everything from protesters to fornicators to gays to Muslims…..and only the weak minded believe their babbling…..for most prove over time that they are NO better than the rest of us regardless on how much scripture they spout.

This post is about the fate of a staunch evangelical, Jerry Falwell….preachers and head of Liberty University, the university that teaches family values…..

It seems that he and his wife have been caught up in some sort of sex scandal…..

Jerry Falwell Jr. made several different headlines earlier this year, including when he told students they could come back to Liberty University during the pandemic, made a cringey face mask “joke,” and stepped down from Liberty after an odd photo of him emerged. Now, in an exclusive statement to the Washington Examiner, Falwell explains he’s been suffering from depression, prompted by an affair his wife, Becki, had with a former family friend who then threatened to expose the affair and tried to extort them. Falwell says he and Becki met 21-year-old pool attendant Giancarlo Granda in 2012 at a hotel in Miami Beach, and the couple was “so impressed by his initiative” they included him in a real estate deal. Shortly after, however, Becki entered into what Falwell calls an “inappropriate personal relationship” with Granda. “I lost 80 pounds,” Falwell says of his reaction after discovering the affair.

And it soon became a “roller coaster” and a “Fatal Attraction-like situation” after the Falwells tried to distance themselves from Granda, Falwell says, claiming that Granda got “increasingly angry and aggressive” and threatened to out the affair and embarrass the couple and Liberty University unless they paid him “substantial monies.” Media outlets had reported on Granda’s ties to the Falwells last year, which included whispers of “racy” photos involving the three. Granda denies to the Examiner any type of extortion attempt, calling the claim “defamatory” and promising that “the WHOLE truth will come out.” The one silver lining for the Falwells: They reconciled after the affair. “Becki and I forgave each other, because while her indiscretion may have been more obvious and apparent, I realized that there were important smaller things I needed to do better, too,” Falwell says

The “Other Guy” has come out of the woodwork……

The news about Jerry Falwell Jr. has finally clarified: The evangelical leader tells the Wall Street Journal that he is indeed out as president of Liberty University in Virginia. Falwell says he submitted his resignation to the school’s board Monday night after conflicting reports about whether he had or had not resigned. The confusion apparently stemmed from negotiations over how much money he is due. His resignation follows a tumultuous few weeks. Coverage:

  • His view: “The board put me on leave, took away my duties as prez, and that’s not permitted by my contract,” Falwell told the Journal. “And they put me on leave because of pressure from self-righteous people.”
  • Scandals: First came the photo he posted on social media, with his pants open and his arm around the waist of his wife’s female assistant, whose pants also were open. Then came the Reuters story detailing how his wife, Becki, had a years-long sexual relationship with a younger man, and how Falwell would watch them having sex. And before all that, Falwell took flak for his decision to bring students onto campus in March amid the pandemic, notes Axios.
  • The code: Falwell may call his critics “self-righteous,” but they in turn see hypocrisy. The Liberty honor code for students reads, “Sexual relations outside of a biblically ordained marriage between a natural-born man and a natural-born woman are not permissible at Liberty University.”
  • His wife: While Falwell, 58, has been influential in politics and an ardent supporter of President Trump, his wife, 53, is also a political figure, notes Reuters. Among other things, she served on the advisory board of Women for Trump, and she spoke at CPAC on a panel with her husband and Donald Trump Jr. last year.
  • Other man: Giancarlo Granda says he met the Falwells in 2012 at age 20 when he worked at a Miami hotel as a pool attendant. Jerry Falwell has acknowledged his wife’s affair, but he calls Granda an “extortionist,” adding, “Most of what that guy said … is not true.” BuzzFeed detailed in 2018 how the three went into business together.
  • The shift: Politico reports that Jerry Falwell attempted to buy out Granda from their business venture in 2015, just before getting involved with Trump’s campaign. Granda sees it as an attempt by Falwell to erase evidence of their relationship before taking on a bigger national profile. Falwell “admired Trump’s strongman public persona,” Granda tells the outlet. “Also, there was a noticeable personality change after Trump was elected. He was drunk on power and felt like he could get away with anything.” Falwell’s endorsement of Trump was seen as pivotal for his 2016 candidacy

Not to fret if you are a supporter of Falwell…..he will get out of his presidency of Liberty with a wad of cash……

Jerry Falwell Jr. has officially resigned from Liberty University, and he told the Washington Post Tuesday night that he’ll get $10.5 million in severance, as specified in his contract. That’s because he resigned in good standing, without being formally accused of or admitting to any wrongdoing. “The board was gracious not to challenge that,” he tells the newspaper. “There wasn’t any cause. I haven’t done anything.” He’ll get $2.5 million over two years, the equivalent of what his salary would have been during that same period, and he’s agreed not to work for a competing university during those years. At the end of that period, he’ll get the rest of his severance in retirement. A source tells Fox News Falwell has agreed to consult for Liberty during the transition to a new president.

His resignation comes, of course, on the heels of a controversial photo showing him with his wife’s scantily-clad assistant, which was quickly followed by Falwell’s admission that his wife had had an affair. Reports have claimed the affair lasted years and Falwell would watch his wife and her lover have sex; Falwell claims the man tried to extort the couple, and his wife denies Falwell watched, per Fox News. Her alleged lover on Tuesday issued new accusations against Falwell, claiming he shared inappropriate photos of a Liberty student; Falwell tells the Post it was simply a funny, non-sexual image of a friend of his daughters-in-law. Also Tuesday, Falwell confirmed it was President Trump’s former fixer Michael Cohen who helped him years ago when someone tried to blackmail the Falwells over sensitive photos. Cohen claims he asked Falwell, as a “personal favor,” to endorse President Trump during the 2016 campaign.

Really?

Doing what demagogues do…..blame someone else for their screw ups…..instead of manning up they go into excuses….I am old enough to remember Swaggart’s sex scandal……

Falwell is typical……My thinking that evangelicals are hypocrites and have seen nothing to change my mind as of yet.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

From “Can’t Fix Stupid” Files

Evangelicals have been in the forefront of the anti-sheltering protests…they have even tried to hold services against the law from local rules….

Sadly there is a downside to these idiots that are helping the virus spread among the faithful…..

Countless non-fundamentalist churches in the United States, from Catholic to Lutheran and Episcopalian, have embraced social distancing during the coronavirus pandemic and temporarily moved their activities online. But many Christian fundamentalists and evangelicals have been irresponsibly downplaying the dangers of COVID-19 and doing so with deadly results: journalist Alex Woodward, in the U.K.-based Independent, reports that the pandemic has claimed the lives of more than 30 pastors in the Bible Belt.

“Dozens of pastors across the Bible Belt have succumbed to coronavirus after churches and televangelists played down the pandemic and actively encouraged churchgoers to flout self-distancing guidelines,” Woodward reports. “As many as 30 church leaders from the nation’s largest African-American Pentecostal denomination have now been confirmed to have died in the outbreak, as members defied public health warnings to avoid large gatherings to prevent transmitting the virus.”

https://www.salon.com/2020/05/03/evangelical-fundamentalists-who-openly-defied-social-distancing-guidelines-are-dying-of-coronavirus_partner/

I am a cynic….and there is so much I could say about this turn of events….but I choose to not rub in the idiocy it took to bring this upon the faithful.

Then there is that idiot that makes My Pillow…..a born again crackhead that got his inspirational book out just in time for the pandemic….when people are looking for something to help them in this time of need.

I do not believe in coincidences….it is all about the cash not the faith……

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

A Pope Speaks

The Church has had many problems with sexual abuse recently and as usual the way they handle it is by sweeping the incidents under a rug and move on to the next abuse case.

An ex-Pope has decide to come out of retirement and throw his two cents around……as if anyone will listen…..

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI has emerged from the shadows with a new letter that assigns blame for the clergy abuse crisis. In a 6,000-word letter whose authenticity was confirmed by Benedict’s personal secretary, Benedict begins by writing that his remarks are intended “to assist in this difficult hour.” At the National Review, Michael Brendan Dougherty succinctly follows the thread of his argument: that the “revolutionary spirit” of the ’60s made its way into the church. “Possessed by that spirit, arrogant theologians determined on creating ‘another Church’ destroyed the traditional moral theology of the Faith, leading to a complete breakdown of moral discipline in the clergy and even a generalized spirit of blasphemy, which Benedict intimately and unforgettably connects with the phenomenon of child abuse,” Dougherty writes. Here are major quotes from the letter and some reaction to it:

In pointing a finger at the sexual revolution of the 1960s, Benedict writes that graphic sex education and porn became commonplace as a result of the “egregious event,” and “the mental collapse was also linked to a propensity for violence. That is why sex films were no longer allowed on airplanes because violence would break out among the small community of passengers. … Part of the physiognomy of the Revolution of ’68 was that pedophilia was then also diagnosed as allowed and appropriate.”

He goes on to detail the “collapse” of Catholic moral theology “that rendered the Church defenseless against these changes in society,” citing the “vehement backlashes” by theologians against a 1993 encyclical commissioned by Pope John Paul II. Ultimately, he blames the crisis on the abandonment of God in modern society: “Western society is a society in which God is absent in the public sphere and has nothing left to offer it. And that is why it is a society in which the measure of humanity is increasingly lost. At individual points it becomes suddenly apparent that what is evil and destroys man has become a matter of course.” The Washington Post notes Benedict’s letter “shows the unprecedented and awkward position facing the ideologically divided Roman Catholic Church, which has—for the first time in six centuries—two potential authority figures who hold sometimes-differing views.” It goes on to size one pope’s response up against another, noting Francis has taken a much different approach than Benedict’s theology- and history-based one, focusing on “the corrupted power of clergy and … systemic problems that result in coverup.” The National Catholic Reporter rounds up criticism from theologians who called out the letter for not addressing “structural issues that abetted abuse cover-up, or Benedict’s own contested 24-year role as head of the Vatican’s powerful doctrinal office.”

At the National Review, Dougherty raises a different point. “The very fact of this letter—its lucidity and depth of thoughts—can’t help but inspire a question from Catholics. Why did this man resign from the office of the papacy? The stated fears were ones of incapacity, but in this letter, he demonstrates an acute view of the Church.”

Why not?  Boomers are being blamed for everything else that goes wrong from dandruff to the crucifixion….. then why not sexual abuse by priests?

Benedict needs to go back to his lavish villa and spend the rest of his days in contemplation on WW2….or go to the Papal work shop and build a desk or something…..but stay silent and polish those Gucci shoes.

The Death Of Malcolm X

On 21Feb1965 Black leader Malcolm X was assassinated in NYC……..

In New York City, Malcolm X, an African American nationalist and religious leader, is assassinated by rival Black Muslims while addressing his Organization of Afro-American Unity at the Audubon Ballroom in Washington Heights.

https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/142725

The question still remains……why was he killed?

Malcolm X (El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, born Malcolm Little) was an influential and inspirational figure to the Afro-Americans in the United States.  A powerful orator, excellent debater and willing to preach “The price of freedom is death,” led for his personality and teachings to be printed across the U.S. and the world.

There are three possible answers.  Three—because each on its own isn’t satisfactory.  Examining the motives behind the killing inevitably leads for more questions to be asked and before you know it, you’re in too deep.

https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/142725

Many people do not like Malcolm X because of his supposed hate for white people….some of that is warranted but after he returned from the Hajj his tone changed for the better to include all people…….

I offer a few videos for those interested…..

https://youtu.be/iAgNk4LzbIw

This video is a long piece but should be seen to understand the man and the movement he inspired……

https://youtu.be/i7klC1zR60M

This one is a short video that was made for children to acquaint them with the man…..

https://youtu.be/lERbO006Ppk

Malcolm X was more than the negativity that is always bought up when his name is mentioned…….he should be required for any history of America.

Will Secularism Return?

When I was working in the Middle East, 1979-1984, I found that many of the countries that I visited were secular…..that is the people were not bound by any religious beliefs or attitudes…..countries like Iraq, Syria, Egypt, Jordan, Palestine, Lebanon, etc…..since I left the Middle East Sectarianism has taken control of the people’s lives……countries that now a days we would consider as governed by religion.

I guess that war will make a lot of people turn to religion for help understanding many things and government would be no exception.

I recently read an article that covers this thinking and what is happening in the Middle East…..

When one thinks of conflict in the Middle East, religious factors are probably among the first that come to mind. But, nowadays, competing strategic interests and imperial ambitions play a much larger role than religious or sectarian cleavages in defining regional politics. This is potentially a positive development.

Consider the struggle for regional influence between Saudi Arabia and Iran. Despite having long been viewed as a result of the Sunni-Shia divide, the competition is really between two opposing political systems: Iran’s revolutionary regime, bent on changing the regional balance of power, versus Saudi Arabia’s conservative monarchy, which seeks to uphold the old regional order.

In this context, Iran’s support of the Arab Spring uprisings makes sense. In an Arab-dominated Middle East, non-Arab Iran is the natural enemy; but in a Muslim Middle East, the Islamic Republic of Iran is a potential hegemon. So Iran was quick to back free elections, predicting that voters would bring Islamists to power.

https://www.aspistrategist.org.au/the-political-decline-of-religion-in-the-middle-east/

I have noticed that social media is help in the spread of more non-religious considerations especially in what may become the new Iraq……

Rayyan Hadidi was 18 years old when he lost his faith. It was July 2006, and he was on his way to school when he stumbled upon a cheering crowd that had gathered near a local mosque. The group, made up mostly of mosque leaders and worshippers, had encircled two men accused of volunteering with the Iraqi police force, which many saw as a puppet of the American occupiers. Al-Qaeda gunmen brandished their arms, preparing to execute the men, as the crowd shouted, “Allahu akbar.” Hadidi stared at the two men, flinching when he made eye contact with one of them just before they were both shot.

https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/07/iraq-secular-sectarian-election-mosul/564452/

For me that is good news…for like I said before I remember a secular Middle East of my youth….I realize that this will not make a difference to those hateful individuals that wants to blame all problems on a religion.

Part of the rise of extremist Islam came from the sands of Arabia for these Arabs follow an extreme form of Islam known as Wahhabism…..since the King decided to put his son in charge there has been some movement to marginalize the religion……

To cement his power, Prince Mohammed has in the past year marginalized establishment religious scholars, detained critics and neutralized members of the elite by arresting relatives, prominent businessmen, and officials and stripping them of much of their assets.

In doing so, Prince Mohammed has subjugated the kingdom’s ultra-conservative religious leaders through a combination of intimidation, coercion and exploitation of religious dogma particular to a Saudi strain of ultra-conservatism that stipulates that Muslims should obey their ruler even if he is unjust. Islam “dictates that we should obey and hear the ruler,” Prince Mohammed said.

https://lobelog.com/whither-wahhabism/

Are the Saudis leading the way?  Not in my book…they are just given the illusion of change……some minor reforms but the religion thing will remain.

And why is the MSM ignoring all the protests in Iraq since the election?

Although popular unrest is nothing unusual in Iraq, one key factor that has emerged is that all Iraqis have the same concerns, irrespective of their ethno-sectarian background. This fact could be a reason why the mainstream media have attempted to sidestep the protests and failed to give the demonstrations the attention they deserve because they prove that Iraqis are sick and tired of the sectarian nightmare that Iran exported to their country.

http://www.iraqdailyjournal.com/story-z17501228