President Ahmadinejad's Speech and I

I have just by chance dug up again my Ahmadinejad jottings. They had gone missing. I mean, the notes I jotted down when Iran's President spoke back in early June. A few days before the much disputed elections. I had been invited to attend the ceremonies in memory of Ayatollah Khomeini. They included being addressed by this notorious enfant terrible.
After being searched - no camera allowed - we are ushered into a spacious hall. Sit on comfortable leather armchairs. Behind the podium, the Iranian flag. Colours of which remind me of the Italian tricolore.
I sit near a small, friendly chap from Kuwait, wearing flowing Arab dress.
After listening to readings of Qur'anic verses, and a Syrian female declaiming I know not what in Arabic, we sit for about an hour and chatted. Until, suddenly, Ahmadinejad makes his entry, from a side door/
All hell breaks loose. Like a pious Southern Italian crowd might do in the presence of Padre Pio. People rush to hug him, kiss him, shout at him. Eventually, things quietened down.
The President is not a bad-looking chap. In fact, he looks far better in reality than in the photographs you see in the media. His visage is pleasant and and his expression affable. He wears grey trousers, a nondescript jacket and an open-necked pale blue shirt.
Here is a sample of what he said (after invoking the Hidden Imam), as I took it down, though I can't swear these are his exact words - I mean, as I heard them through the simultaneous interpreter:
'The capitalist system, liberal democracy, the Marxist system - they all were opposing man'
"Liberal ideas have reached a dead end.'
'Ayatollah Khomeini came to hoist the banner of human dignity.'
'Democracy and Liberalism: they have two major shortcomings: 1) exclude the masses from real participation. Power is restricted to a few people. 2) Erosion of human values and ideas, eg promotion of homosexual behaviour.'
'Liberalism also is on the ash-heap of history.'
'Liberal ideas are based on Satanic concepts.'
'Liberal philosophy has reduced people to animal status.'
'The way between economy and Heaven has been cut-off.'
'The best rulers in the world are the most pious.'
'Jesus will come back.'
'Religion in the West is pushed out of the public arena.'
'The holocaust is a historical deception.'
'The Ghaza bombardment...a cold-blooded atrocity.'
'Why do they call the Palestinians terrorists? Because, when attacked, they defend themselves.'
And much else.

I have recently written an open letter to Ahmadinejad, so I won't repeat what I said. Basically, I invited him to be another King Cyrus. To be nice to the Jews and not to attack them. Insh'allah, he will heed my words.
As to his views on liberal democracy, they look remarkably like the views of Pope Pius IX in the 'Syllabus', a list of various ideological errors fashionable in the 19th century.
Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose!