Iran Jews express Holocaust shock

[IndianaGreen]

Last Updated: Saturday, 11 February 2006, 20:04 GMT

Iran Jews express Holocaust shock

By Sadeq Saba
BBC News

The chairman of Iran's Jewish Council has strongly criticised the country's hardline president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for saying the Holocaust was a myth.

In a letter to the president, Haroun Yashayaei said the leader's remarks had shocked the international community and caused fear in Iran's Jewish community.

Mr Yashayaei described the Holocaust as one of the most obvious and sad events in the 20th Century.

Six million Jews were killed in Nazi persecution during World War II.

This is the first time that a senior Iranian Jewish leader has openly criticised President Ahmadinejad for denying the Holocaust.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4705246.stm

[bluestateguy]

1. It would seem to me that Iranian Jews should have a valid asylum claim

This Ahmadinejad fellow is a real pile of shit.

[demosincebirth]

12. Why in the hell would Jews want to live there anyway?

[henslee]

15. They have great delis?

[demosincebirth]

30. Who? the Iranians?

[Kber]

22. There has been a jewish community in Iran

since the exile to Babalon. They stay because it's their home, I guess.

[Coastie for Truth]

23. In my life time (I am 65) the Jewish community was over

250,000 in Iran alone.

BTW - my wife's uncle was married to a Iraqi Sephardi (from Baghdad). She has since passed away. Their oldest daughter is married to a North African Sephardi.

Check out

PS - Sephardi deli is different then European deli - and they don't play Klezmer

[Kber]

24. My dad's cousin is married to a Sephardic man from Yemen

his family emigrated in the 1980's from a region their family had called home for thousands of years.

[Copperred]

31. Hebrews been in Assyria a long time.....

The Pashtuns lived there up till i think the 3rd/4th century BC.

[Colorado Blue]

27. People have lived in Middle Eastern and Central Asian

communities for thousands of years.

These were their homes.

Here's some information on the Middle Eastern and North African communities:

http://www.jimena.org/

Iran did not expel its Jews after 1948, however when the mullahs came to power about 50,000 of the estimated 75,000 Iranian Jews, left.

[rockymountaindem]

2. That's chutzpah!

I hope this doesn't bring down the wrath of the Iranian government, which to its credit, is fairly tolerant of religious minorities contrary to neighboring regimes.

[glaeken777]

4. doesn't sound very tolerant to me

If making a simple statement of protest would be enough to bring down the wrath of the regime, I'd say it's not tolerant at all.

[LynnTheDem]

6. Ask Joe WIlson about that. nt

[IndianaGreen]

5. Bahais are persecuted in Iran

Since 1979, the government of Iran has systematically sought to deprive its largest religious minority of the right to a full education. Specifically, the Islamic Republic of Iran has for more than 25 years blocked the 300,000-member Bahá’í community from higher education, refusing young Bahá’ís entry into university and college. The government has also sought to close down Bahá’í efforts to establish their own institutions of higher learning.

http://bahai.org/dir/worldwide/persecution

More here:

http://www.bahai.us/content/view/97/171/

[glaeken777]

7. there you go

Bahai's are probably the most live-and-let-live religion on the planet, unless you count Unitarians.

[iverglas]

36. there's always a little more to the story

Baha'i sites may not be the best source for information about the status of Baha'is in Iran, and the background to it.

Factual commentary is not easy to come by; demonization certainly occurs. And religious power struggles became political power struggles between the dominant religious/political group and the minority, as is oft the case.

Nonetheless, many people who worked in opposition to Pahlavi and subsequently in opposition to Khomeini were reasonably, in my opinion, bitter about the global sympathy generated by Baha'is for themselves, and reasonable to point out that the Baha'is were a bit of a classic case of the "first they came for the ..." problem. Pahlavi came for everybody at all points on the opposition political spectrum and the Baha'i community didn't have much to say about it, and then the Islamists came for the Baha'is.

That said, I must of course proclaim my great distaste for any policy that treats people differentially on the basis of their religion. Otherwise, it would surely be obvious that I support the persecution of the Baha'is of Iran. Or at least it would surely be proclaimed by someone here, in short order, that I did. Someone who would undoubtedly have been yapping about how all Muslims are responsible for stopping the bad acts of a few Muslims.

I guess I should get around to pointing out that -- while I never represented any Iranian Baha'is, almost all of my Iranian refugee clients having been opponents of both Pahlavi and Khomeini and fearing persecution on the ground of political opinion, although I did represent one Zoroastrian with very particular reasons for fearing persecution on the ground of religion, and one Christian Iranian with vague fears of such persecution -- I represented a member of a Muslim family in Iran who were deeply involved in assisting Iranian Jews trying to flee the country.

Oh look. Muslims assisting persecuted Jews. Me representing one who feared persecution for such overtly political acts in support of persecuted Jews. What's the world coming to?

Just an aside.

[fujiyama]

38. I believe

Zorastrians are as well. But many of them left Iran long ago. A big community resides in India. I believe India took in some Bahais as well.

[sandnsea]

8. This is a new president

A supposed hardline religious just elected last June, so I think it's kind of hard to say what kind of government Iran has now.

[ck4829]

9. Iran persecutes Moderate and Liberal Muslims for crying out loud

One of my Biology Professors is a very Secular and Progressive Muslim who was born and raised in Iran, but he felt as though he had to flee as soon as the Theocracy took over.

[barb162]

16. I know a guy like that but he was a physics professor

He was a Christian and fled when the theocrats got in and they were physically threatening him.

[Colorado Blue]

29. I have several Iranian friends - most Muslim, one Jewish

couple. They couldn't deal with the intolerance and the restrictions, so they came here.

[Colorado Blue]

28. Yes - that took guts. Good for him.

[fujiyama]

37. I'm not sure

if tolerant is the word I'd use to describe Iran after the Islamic revolution.

[MrSlayer]

3. Hmm, anyone want to make a pool on how long this guy lives?

I give him a week.

[High Plains]

10. I'll take that melodramatic bet.

[MrSlayer]

11. Ok let's make the stakes melodramatically high.

Say 10 Trillion dollars or so? :P

[daleo]

13. This might surprise some people

"Iran's small Jewish community of about 30,000 is recognised by the Islamic Republic and there is even a Jewish member of parliament.

Iranian Jews normally do not interfere in political issues and they often support the country's stance on the Arab-Israeli conflict.

In a gesture of loyalty to the Islamic Republic, Mr Yashayaei told the Iranian president that his comments on the Holocaust were against the teachings of the leader of the Iranian revolution, Ayatollah Khamenei."

From the BBC link.

[BayCityProgressive]

14. Iran is horrible

and treats Jews and all other minorities like dog shit. The only reason Jews are there is because Iran wont allow them to leave. I am so sick of the Iran apologists on this website. I do not wish to see Iran bombed but they are a horrible vile country. Check amnesty international and just look at the disgusting things that Iran does.

[barb162]

17. I agree; any time the fundies get in, kiss your right s goodbye

[IndianaGreen]

21. Anytime ANY fundies get in, in ANY country, kiss your ass goodbye

Whether they are Islamists stoning a rape victim in Africa, ultra-Orthodox Jews attacking women rabbis at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, or Christian Jihadists persecuting LGBTs in America, it is all the same to me. Religion can either bring out the best in people, or the worst, and what we have seen in the last few years is how the extremists have hijacked religion to bring out the worst in people and in society.

[daleo]

18. But if Iran harbors intentions to destroy Israel

Out of some crazed anti-semitism, why does it still have a Jewish minority inside the country? Normally when societies hate or scapegoat a minority they expel them or worse, not refuse to let them go.

Amnesty condemns plenty of countries for human rights violations, as they should. That includes Israel and the U.S., as well as Iran.

[Ben Ceremos]

19. Even better,

go their yourself and stop talking trash. I've been there i9n the last 2 years. Yes, youth want "freedom", but most of the ones I met said giving up sovereignty and their vision of Shia society and law is not negotiable. Pretty hardcore attitude against foreign interference, but a general tolerance for the differences that are evident. Now, please remove foot from your mouth.

[No Exit]

20. I'd be willing to bet that the countries complained about by our

powers-that-be, including Iran, are no worse than is the U.S. under George W. Bush.

U.S., heal thyself.

[megatherium]

26. When you were in Iran, did you talk to any gay people?

Iran practices judicial murder of homosexuals.
http://hrw.org/english/docs/2005/11/21/iran12072.htm
So there are evidently sharp limits to their "general tolerance."

Of course, I don't support war against Iran; I understand the terrible history of western (particularly American) interference in their country, and I am certain that even if they were trying to acquire nuclear weapons, their motivation would be defensive.

[Zhade]

34. How about "the Iranian government is horrible".

For one thing, that's a more accurate statement.

[Psephos]

40. You think that's bad, you should see what they do to their minority Arabs

Google it sometime.

Peace.

[Spankydem]

25. I understand they've been there hundreds of years....

but maybe its time to pack up and get the hell out of there.

[daleo]

32. If the U.S. attacks Iran they could suffer a backlash

Another good reason not to go to war.

[IndianaGreen]

33. If the US attacks Iran, many innocent people will die or be wounded

Look at how many innocent people we have killed in Iraq, over 100 dead Iraqis for each person killed on the WTC attack. Bush is a bigger terrorist than bin Laden!

[slackmaster]

35. A bunch of them moved to California in the '70s

I had a high school classmate (class of 1975) who was an Iranian Jew. His father was a big-shot medical doctor. He told me there were several other Persian Jewish families in our suburb.

[Andromeda]

39. That took guts.

Haroun Yashayaei had better watch his back.