The Rants of Issachar

Yesterday the National Post published a news story and column by Iranian born analyst Amir Taheri claiming that Iran was passing a national dress code that included yellow strips of cloths for Jews with red for Christians and blue for Zoroastrians. The story was supported by the Simon Wiesenthal Center and Iranian expatriates in Canada.

Today, the Post has printed a front page story saying that the Iranian embassy, the lone Jewish member of the Iranian parliament and the small Jewish community in Iran are all denying the story. OUCH.

This is three days after the post publishes Warren Kinsella's attack on the Globe and Mail over their own front page error.

I can't actually find the original story on the National Post's website. If they've taken it offline, that's a definite no-no. The appropriate response to accidentally publishing a false report is to add an update to to the page correcting your error, not to try to "unpublish" it. I'll see if I can find the story in the electronic edition after I get my account registered on Tuesday.


I must admit I found the story surprising, but not unbelievable. This is the same regime that's busy trying to build a nuclear bomb and taking the stance of "try to stop us and the Jews get it". This is the same regime that sent waves of youths as young as 12 out to clear minefields (by rolling around until they set off a mine and killed themselves), during their war with Iraq. (They did give them little plastic "keys to paradise"). This is the same regime whose President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad supposedly served as a Basij instructor during that war. This is the same President who says that Israel should be wiped off the map.

The story may not be true, but it's not out of character either...

Posted by:  Anonymous

Your skepticism is valid.

The story about the plastic keys and children being sent over minefields is also false.

-Jahan

Posted by:  issachar

Jahan...

While reliable first hand accounts of the human wave attacks are hard to come by, they're not quite a scurilous rumour. The BBC is apparently has enough confidence in the story to stand behind it 25 years later.

Given the totalitarian nature of the mullah's regime reliable press reports are going to be hard to come by.

The thing is that Iran has been openly sponsoring terrorism for years, they took hostages at an international embassy and they promote so-called "martyrdom" as a good thing.

When a country doesn't have freedom of religion and it's leaders promote anti-Jewish sentiment, a story about oppression of religious minorities is plausible.

When those same leaders promote murderous suicide as a moral good, I am skeptical of any claims that they didn't clear minefields with youngsters. Did they do it? The BBC seems to think so, and it's not implausible for the mullah's regime to have done something so manifestly evil.

Posted by:  Anonymous

I think that when a story which turns out to be false, is considered plausible by an audience, it says something about the audience.

Don't you think so?

-Jahan

Posted by:  issachar

It says something about how the audience perceives the subject.

I think in the case of Iran it says that the west generally thinks that the Mullah's regime is a bad one. I'd say that's due to the regime's support of terrorists, it's pursuit of nuclear weapons, it's unequal treatment of women, the lack of freedom of religion, the lack of freedom of the press, the lack of freedom in general and most recently the Iranian President's denial of the holocaust.

In Canada, we remember that the rape, torture & murder of photo-journalist Zahra Kazemi by the Iranian authorities.

Posted by:  Anonymous

When I was in Iran, people often asked me about America - and they regularly listened to radio broadcasts like the VOA and BBC.

However, in America, hardly anyone ever asks me about Iran (despite the fact that I lived there for 11 years).

Nor have I ever seen any American listen to Tehran radio.

So what can we conclude?

-Jahan

Posted by:  issachar

That despite their oppressive government, Iranians still want to live in freedom as westerners do, but that Americans have no desire to live under oppression?


In all seriousness, Iran has a rich history, but in many important respects, (see above), it is now a backward nation. Why would Americans be interested in it? Why would they want to listen to Tehran radio?


The problem with the mullah's and the strains of Islam they are trying to impose on their country is the belief that the Quran should be forced on people. Ultimately, this is a loser's strategy. A doctrine that must be forced is one that will ultimately fail.

If God wanted His ways forced on his creation He would never have created the world as he did. Full of beauty, free thought and choices. This is not to say that there are not correct and incorrect choices. It is only to say that God created us to make the right ones of our own free will.

This is why the mullah's way of oprression will ultimately fail. It's also why it's inherently wrong.

Posted by:  issachar

Jahan, I'm curious... How is it that you came to live in Iran? Were you born there? How did you come to live in the states? What's your background?

Posted by:  issachar

And how did you find my site? I always wonder how people find their way here...

Posted by:  Anonymous

Hello,

The comparisson says something about the amount of effort Americans make to learn about Iran.

Iranians generally asked questions about America.

They didn't act like they had everything already figured out.

(I was born in America, and my mother is American, to answer your question).

-Jahan

Posted by:  issachar

So I take it your father is Iranian? Or did you study there?