You write the lead, again

OK, it's time for another edition of "You Write the Lead." So you are a reporter for a mainstream newspaper in North America and you are sent to cover this rally of Iranian pilgrims headed to Mecca. What is the lead? Click here for exerpts from the text. (Hat tip to Rod Dreher at the Dallas Morning News editorial blog.) Is this the pull quote?

We, the pilgrims who have come to the house of God, condemn the plots and the measures taken by the international Zionism -- the deceitful Satan who spreads heresy, polytheism, and idolatry, enslaving human beings with a new method. It abuses the divine religion of Moses. It takes Satanic measures, and arouses the world's hatred towards this divine religion, and its true followers. We denounce these criminal acts. We call upon the world of Islam and the free peoples to take significant measures to thwart the Satanic policy of this camp.

Or is this the pull quote?

The American and British governments, which permit the torture of suspects, and the spilling of their blood in the streets, and the tapping of citizens' phone calls without a court order, do not have the right to claim they are defending civil rights.

Or, perhaps, should we assume that the preacher is the Islamic version of, oh, Pat Robertson?


Please respect our Commenting Policy