:eek: http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=11fbf4a8-282a-4d18-954f-546709b1240f
I am horrified by the similarity to Nazi Germany. Iran was bad, I knew that, but this seems like the first step on the road to genocide. Has this sort of thing ever happened without massive persecution follwing? Am I overreacting?
Even that article had one person who says it isn’t true, and one who says it is. (Maybe more “balanced” reporting that requires a pro- and con- on every issue) I do hope it isn’t true, however.
Given Islam’s long history of mistreating dhimmis, does this really surprise anyone?
I think they have a group of people who just sit around and try to think up new ways to piss off the Israelis.
The Taliban required Afghan Hindus to wear yellow badges. Whether they persecuted them otherwise I don’t know. If not, perhaps the regime just didn’t last long enough to get around to it.
They were too busy keeping Muslim women in line, I think. But once that was all taken care of, I’ve no doubt harassment and expulsions would follow.
I’m a bad, bad person, because that struck me as really funny.
I am thinking this is false or a rogue report.
AFAICT, what appears to be definitely true is that the Iranian parliament is promoting traditional Iranian and Islamic fashion as a pushback against increasingly influential Western fashion trends:
I can’t find any documentation on the allegation of colored badges for non-Muslims. If it’s true, however, then no, I don’t think the OP is overreacting to be horrified about it. That sort of attempt at ethnic labeling and segregation is never a good sign.
I think this sort of complacency is misplaced. After all, Europe in the early 20th century had a long history of mistreating non-Christians, but that doesn’t mean that Nazi Germany’s yellow badges for Jews weren’t a very, very bad sign of exceptional mistreatment to come.
IMHO we definitely should be surprised and horrified if any modern nation tries to single out its religious minorities with mandatory forms of public identification. The fact that the same country may also have persecuted religious minorities in the past doesn’t justify indifference or refusal to protest at the emergence of new persecutions.
But we shouldn’t waste our indignation on alleged persecutions that we don’t have convincing evidence for. Personally, I am currently remaining in a state of suspended outrage, waiting for a better cite.
Pointing out people that are different, because they’re different just isn’t good. Human nature tends to rank things and if the minority is marked (or unmarked, and thus, being marked all over again) some people are going to draw conclusions between the two that don’t quite exist.
I see little good coming from anything like this. What if we made AIDS patients wear bracelets that had to always be showing? Sure, there’d be a big movement to keep the equality, but some people would find it an excuse to punish or persecute. I’d think that some fundies in this country would love pointing out how AIDS is punishing people and point to the bracelets as a sign of god, or some other similar rubbish.
The Talibans stated that these badges were intended to protect the non-muslims by making clear to everybody that various laws didn’t apply to them. They strongly denied they were intended to help persecuting them.
There are serious doubts about the acurracy of the original article…
Well, that link was posted above. I don’t think that it is enough to cast "serious doubts on the story, in fact, I’m not sure either article has enought information or is based upon a reliable enough source to know which is actually true. I agree with Kimstu:
However, if it is true, whoa nellie…
IMHO, this report smells like a propaganda piece to me. It plays directly into the hands of those who would foment war hysteria and the demonisation of the Other.
It needs to be checked out and verified or disproved as soon as possible. What Iranian ‘expatriots [sic]’ are the source, and what axe, if any, do they have to grind?
United Press has this:
Who would put about such a hoax? And to what end?
Defamation? The Iranian regime has a lot of enemies, at home and abroad.
Sevastopol!
I like your post, and do not remember when I would have disagreed, but now I have to ask you:
Are you serious about your question?
The media-war should be discussed more, but you are naturally aware of it?
It is the mother of all wars.
Henry