When Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad released 15 (illegally held, by all objective accounts) British prisoners this week, he claimed that he was doing so "on the occasion of the birthday of the great prophet [Muhammad] . . . and for the occasion of the passing of Christ." Further, on behalf of the Islamic Republic government and the Iranian people Ahmadinejad "forgave those 15." Both the rhetoric and the release are (unwittingly) ironic.
Consider that the 15 prisoners were innocent to begin with, and that therefore they were unjustly imprisoned. Further, having committed no crime in need of forgiveness, they were unnecessarily pardoned. How strange, then, to say that their release is an appropriate recognition of the death of Jesus Christ. For the message of Good Friday and Easter is that the truly guilty go free, fully forgiven, and that this comes at the price of an innocent sacrifice -- exactly the opposite of what happened this week, in other words.
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