# Will Egypt Have an Iran-Style Revolution? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [January 30, 2011, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-egypt-have-an-iran-style-revolution/569520 "2011-01-30T16:48:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-egypt-have-an-iran-style-revolution/569520/121 "2011-02-09T16:14:18Z")
[Speaking of Iran . . .](http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/babylonbeyond/2011/02/iran-mousavi-egypt-hosni-mubarak-tahrir-ahmadinejad.html) > [@](#): > > The Iranian judiciary on Wednesday rejected a request by opposition leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karubi to hold a rally Monday in support of the antigovernment uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt, the Iranian Labor News Agency reported. > > “If an individual truly shares the brave Egyptians and Tunisians motivation, then he will participate in the rally to be held on [Friday], the anniversary of the Islamic Revolution’s victory, along with the government and the nation,” said Iranian Judiciary Spokesman Gholamhoseyn Ezhe’i. > > “On the other hand, choosing another day [to hold a rally] means these individuals wish to be in a separate front and will create divisions,” he added. “This is a political act but the people have to be aware, and if required, they [people] will respond to them.” > > Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has characterized the protests in Tunisia and Egypt as an “Islamic awakening” similar to Iran’s own 1979 Islamic Revolution, the 32nd anniversary of which is to be celebrated Friday across Iran. Mousavi and Karrubi, meanwhile, have likened the protests in the Arab world to the antigovernment protests they led following the 2009 disputed presidential elections. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-egypt-have-an-iran-style-revolution/569520/122 "2011-02-09T16:24:50Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > [Speaking of Iran . . .](http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/babylonbeyond/2011/02/iran-mousavi-egypt-hosni-mubarak-tahrir-ahmadinejad.html) Heh, I think Mousavi and Karrubi are far closer to the truth. So, I suspect, does Ali Khamenei. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Dick\_Dastardly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c4cdca/32.png) [@Dick\_Dastardly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dick_Dastardly)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-egypt-have-an-iran-style-revolution/569520/123 "2011-02-09T18:14:09Z")
> [@Ibn\_Warraq](#): > > Ok, first of all it’s hilarious that you are so paranoid about the use of sources that you won’t accept information from US or “entity” sources, but you apparently think wikipedia, the on-line encyclopedia that anyone can edit is reliable. > > Thanks for posting that, because you just made my day. > > Beyond that Los Angelos is not the same as Beverly Hills. The vast majority of Iranian-Americans who live in Beverly Hills are not Muslims they are Jews. > > Beyond that, nothing you’ve quoted suggests that they are fans of the Shah. > > You think Vali Nasr is “a clown”? > > He is considered one of the world’s foremost experts on the Shia. > > Please explain to me why you’re a better authority on the Shia, either or Lebanon, Iraq, or Iran than him. > > Do you even speak Arabic? > > Anyway, if you want others, I’d recommend Trita Parsi who’s written of Hezbollah’s anti-Semitic statements. As I’m sure you know from his name, he’s Iranian as is Hamid Dabashi. > > Finally, I notice you chose not to address the fact that France shut down their TV station for claiming that the Jews were responsible for the spread of AIDS. > > So, let me ask you again and this time do me the courtesy of answering, do you think it’s anti-Semitic to claim that the Jews were responsible for the spread of AIDS? > Finally, I noticed you conveniently I’m just using wikipedia to point out to anybody reading that a large number of Iranians did end up there due to the 1979 revolution. I could find other sources to make the same point. I don’t see this as being something you can really argue with. And I don’t know the views of every individual who’s been on Hezbollah TV in Lebanon. I don’t think they can be held responsible for them any more than Fox can for people calling Obama a Nazi or whatever on Fox. I’m not saying that I’m a better authority on the region than anybody else, what I’m saying is that the people you’re talking about all make their living in the US foreign policy/commentating/lobbying business, one that is uniformly anti-Hezbollah. They say the things the people paying their wages want to hear, or otherwise the people who fund the think tanks and foundations they work for go out and hire new people. ---
**Author:** ![FinnAgain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/finnagain/32/12500_2.png) [@FinnAgain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FinnAgain)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-egypt-have-an-iran-style-revolution/569520/124 "2011-02-09T18:21:01Z")
Not that Dick’s obfuscation and apologia for racists thugs isn’t charming (or convincing!), but again, [Nasrallah in his own words](http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_context=7&x_issue=11&x_article=1158): > [@](#): > > If they (Jews) all gather in Israel, it will save us the trouble of going after them worldwide. (Daily Star, Oct. 23, 2002) > [@](#): > > If we searched the entire world for a person more cowardly, despicable, weak and feeble in psyche, mind, ideology and religion, we would not find anyone like the Jew. Notice, I do not say the Israeli. (New Yorker, Oct. 14, 2002) ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-egypt-have-an-iran-style-revolution/569520/125 "2011-02-09T18:23:39Z")
> [@Dick\_Dastardly](#): > > I don’t think they can be held responsible for them any more than Fox can for people calling Obama a Nazi or whatever on Fox. Interesting analogy, given that I think that Fox can reasonably be held to be responsible for a great many such claims, with its repeated quotations of Birthers, its open support for the Tea Party movement, and similar activities. ---
**Author:** ![FinnAgain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/finnagain/32/12500_2.png) [@FinnAgain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FinnAgain)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-egypt-have-an-iran-style-revolution/569520/126 "2011-02-09T18:31:18Z")
It’s okay Tom. Hezbollah can’t be found responsible because all that racist shit that gets said on their network is just an aberration, and Dick is not just supporting a pack of racist thugs because they oppose Israel (oops, “Entity”) and the US. In fact, to prove that his argument cleaves to the highest standards, he will provide cites of how many times Hezbollah’s TV station provided official retractions and condemnations for all the racist shit that they were shocked, shocked, to see broadcast over their airwaves. I’m sure we won’t even have to wait long for such cites. ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-egypt-have-an-iran-style-revolution/569520/127 "2011-02-09T18:31:30Z")
> [@Ibn\_Warraq](#): > Hey, Ibn. Do you think Iran’s going to have an Egypt-style revolution? You tried, but the army didn’t come through. Think it might happen again? ---
**Author:** ![Ibn\_Warraq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e19b73/32.png) [@Ibn\_Warraq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ibn_Warraq)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-egypt-have-an-iran-style-revolution/569520/128 "2011-02-09T18:41:26Z")
> [@Dick\_Dastardly](#): > > I’m not saying that I’m a better authority on the region than anybody else, what I’m saying is that the people you’re talking about all make their living in the US foreign policy/commentating/lobbying business, one that is uniformly anti-Hezbollah. They say the things the people paying their wages want to hear, or otherwise the people who fund the think tanks and foundations they work for go out and hire new people. Dude, do you even know who Hamid Dabashi is? You think he’s a tool of the US foreign policy establishment and “the entity”? For those not aware, he a professor at Columbia who’s been extremely critical of both Israel and the US. In fact, he was actually at one point attacked and accused of anti-Semitism during the whole “Columbia Unbecoming” incident. He’s not even a huge hater of Hezbollah, he just doesn’t try and pretend they don’t do things like distribute the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Now, if you want to argue that people who treat the Protocols of the Elders of Zion as actual historical documents and who put out news reports claiming the Jews are responsible for the spread of AIDS, then go ahead and argue that. One last thing. Please drop the constant references to “the Zionist entity”. Anti-Israel Muslim and Arab intellectuals and reporters, with exceptions stopped using that term long ago and just say Israel instead. It doesn’t make you look like someone who’s sympathetic to the Palestinian cause, it makes you look like someone who’s trying way too hard to look sympathetic. ---
**Author:** ![Ibn\_Warraq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e19b73/32.png) [@Ibn\_Warraq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ibn_Warraq)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-egypt-have-an-iran-style-revolution/569520/129 "2011-02-09T18:50:26Z")
> [@E-Sabbath](#): > > Hey, Ibn. Do you think Iran’s going to have an Egypt-style revolution? You tried, but the army didn’t come through. Think it might happen again? I’d like to think so, but I don’t know. I was hoping that the Green Revolution would be successful, but unfortunately not. Iran is one of those place where people who try staring into crystal balls usually wind up with faces filled with glass. ---
**Author:** ![FinnAgain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/finnagain/32/12500_2.png) [@FinnAgain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FinnAgain)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-egypt-have-an-iran-style-revolution/569520/130 "2011-02-09T19:11:42Z")
> [@Ibn\_Warraq](#): > > Dude, do you even know who Hamid Dabashi is? It’s almost like Dick is using an argument that reflexively tries to handwave away facts that are critical of Hezbollah. Indeed, the similarity is _uncanny_. ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-egypt-have-an-iran-style-revolution/569520/131 "2011-02-09T20:18:27Z")
I don’t think the Green Revolution is over yet. It’s a hope, but I think it’s a solid one. Your people know what the regime can do. And what is known can be countered. Let’s see how the next elections go. ---
**Author:** ![Dick\_Dastardly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c4cdca/32.png) [@Dick\_Dastardly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dick_Dastardly)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2011, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-egypt-have-an-iran-style-revolution/569520/132 "2011-02-10T17:48:08Z")
> [@FinnAgain](#): > > Not that Dick’s obfuscation and apologia for racists thugs isn’t charming (or convincing!), but again, [Nasrallah in his own words](http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_context=7&x_issue=11&x_article=1158): This is the kind of thing I’m on about. This is just some Zionist propagada outlet. There’s no actual original text of Sheik Nasrallah, peace be upon him, saying those things. The actual translation may be completely different. And with a quick google search, how about this : _Eugene Goodheart asks whether I am familiar with two statements he attributes to Hizbullah’s secretary-general, Sayed Hassan Nasrallah (Letters, 7 September). Goodheart uses the inflammatory quotations to accuse Nasrallah of being ‘an anti-semite with fantasies of genocide’. If I am unfamiliar with the statements, it is because they are in all likelihood fabrications. The first (‘If they [the Jews] all gather in Israel it will save us the trouble of going after them worldwide’) was circulated widely on neo-con websites, which give as its original source an article by Badih Chayban in Beirut’s English-language Daily Star on 23 October 2002. It seems that Chayban left the Star three years ago and moved to Washington. The Star’s managing editor writes of Chayban’s article on Nasrallah, that ‘I have faith in neither the accuracy of the translation [from Arabic to English] nor the agenda of the translator [Chayban].’ The editor-in-chief and publisher of the Star, Jamil Mrowe, adds that Chayban was ‘a reporter and briefly local desk sub and certainly did not interview Nasrallah or anyone else.’ The account of Nasrallah’s speech in the Lebanese daily As Safir for the same day makes no reference to any anti-semitic comments. Goodheart’s second quotation – ‘They [the Jews] are a cancer which is liable to spread at any moment’ – comes from the Israeli government’s website at [http://tinyurl.com/99hyz](http://tinyurl.com/99hyz). For the record, a Hizbullah spokeswoman, Wafa Hoteit, denies that Nasrallah made either statement._ _Goodheart wonders whether, as a former captive of Hizbullah, I may have succumbed to Stockholm syndrome; may I ask in return whether he is succumbing to the disinformation that passes for scholarship and journalism in certain quarters in the United States?_ \*[Is Nasrallah an anti-Semite? | Louis Proyect: The Unrepentant Marxist](http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2007/02/06/is-nasrallah-an-anti-semite/) \* ---
**Author:** ![Dick\_Dastardly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c4cdca/32.png) [@Dick\_Dastardly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dick_Dastardly)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2011, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-egypt-have-an-iran-style-revolution/569520/133 "2011-02-10T17:52:25Z")
> [@Ibn\_Warraq](#): > > Dude, do you even know who Hamid Dabashi is? > > You think he’s a tool of the US foreign policy establishment and “the entity”? > > For those not aware, he a professor at Columbia who’s been extremely critical of both Israel and the US. In fact, he was actually at one point attacked and accused of anti-Semitism during the whole “Columbia Unbecoming” incident. > > He’s not even a huge hater of Hezbollah, he just doesn’t try and pretend they don’t do things like distribute the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. > > Now, if you want to argue that people who treat the Protocols of the Elders of Zion as actual historical documents and who put out news reports claiming the Jews are responsible for the spread of AIDS, then go ahead and argue that. > > One last thing. > > Please drop the constant references to “the Zionist entity”. Anti-Israel Muslim and Arab intellectuals and reporters, with exceptions stopped using that term long ago and just say Israel instead. > > It doesn’t make you look like someone who’s sympathetic to the Palestinian cause, it makes you look like someone who’s trying way too hard to look sympathetic. Ever since the entity voted in large numbers for the fascist party that Lieberman heads and he started demanding that all citizens should swear an oath of loyalty to the state I thought that digging up the Zionist entity thing to describe the situation there worked really well. Or I could have gone for “usurpers.” That one used to be a favourite three or four decades ago. ---
**Author:** ![Ibn\_Warraq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e19b73/32.png) [@Ibn\_Warraq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ibn_Warraq)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2011, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-egypt-have-an-iran-style-revolution/569520/134 "2011-02-10T18:37:50Z")
> [@Dick\_Dastardly](#): > > This is the kind of thing I’m on about. This is just some Zionist propagada outlet. There’s no actual original text of Sheik Nasrallah, peace be upon him, saying those things. The actual translation may be completely different. And with a quick google search, how about this : > \* Ok, you’re being really illogical. You’re insisting you don’t trust any American or “entity” outlets to the point where you refuse to respect Middle Eastern professors but you think some blogger who calls himself “the Unrepentant Marxist” and is the head of “the Marxist Mailing List” is a reliable source who we don’t have to worry about allowing his ideological biases to affect his reporting. Furthermore, he claims that “Brendan” from Crooked Timber disproved Saad-Ghorayeb’s quote of Nasrallah, but when you click on the link, “Brendan” says nothing of the sort that has been quoted. Either your source, “the unrepentant Marxist” is incompetent or a liar. Get better ones if you wish to be taken seriously. Furthermore, Finn’s cite also included translations from MEMRI, so your claim that we have to worry about them not being properly translated is absurd. MEMRI’s translations of Arabic and Farsi articles are always of exceptionally high quality. That is not my opinion, but the opinion of Charles Haberl, the Director of the Middle Eastern Studies Department at Rutgers. What MEMRI is criticized for is deliberately hunting for the most incendiary articles in the Arab media and republishing them. However, if MEMRI translates one of Nasrallah’s speeches as referring to the Jews as descendants of apes and pigs then that is what Nasrallah did. ---
**Author:** ![Ibn\_Warraq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e19b73/32.png) [@Ibn\_Warraq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ibn_Warraq)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2011, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-egypt-have-an-iran-style-revolution/569520/135 "2011-02-10T19:04:16Z")
> [@Dick\_Dastardly](#): > > Ever since the entity voted in large numbers for the fascist party that Lieberman heads and he started demanding that all citizens should swear an oath of loyalty to the state I thought that digging up the Zionist entity thing to describe the situation there worked really well. Or I could have gone for “usurpers.” That one used to be a favourite three or four decades ago. So then you’re saying that you’re more than happy to applaud people who distribute copies of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, claim that the Jews are responsible for spreading AIDS, insist that Jews are the descendants of apes and pigs, and set off bombs on buses loaded with Jewish schoolchildren because you don’t like Avigidor Lieberman? That’s really bizarre. Similarly, you’ve yet to explain why you dismissed Hamid Dabashi as being a conduit of American and Zionist propaganda. Please explain to me why he’s not to be trusted and if that means that we shouldn’t trust any professors from Columbia University. ---
**Author:** ![Dick\_Dastardly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c4cdca/32.png) [@Dick\_Dastardly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dick_Dastardly)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2011, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-egypt-have-an-iran-style-revolution/569520/136 "2011-02-10T19:14:43Z")
> [@Ibn\_Warraq](#): > > So then you’re saying that you’re more than happy to applaud people who distribute copies of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, claim that the Jews are responsible for spreading AIDS, insist that Jews are the descendants of apes and pigs, and set off bombs on buses loaded with Jewish schoolchildren because you don’t like Avigidor Lieberman? > > That’s really bizarre. > > Similarly, you’ve yet to explain why you dismissed Hamid Dabashi as being a conduit of American and Zionist propaganda. > > Please explain to me why he’s not to be trusted and if that means that we shouldn’t trust any professors from Columbia University. It doesn’t matter what the guy calls himself, what matters is what he did – actual factchecking and he found the facts to be bogus. I’m happy for people reading this to make up their own minds about how accurate any of your quotes or other stuff is. Mine too. I’ll leave the last word on this to you. ---
**Author:** ![Ibn\_Warraq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e19b73/32.png) [@Ibn\_Warraq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ibn_Warraq)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2011, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-egypt-have-an-iran-style-revolution/569520/137 "2011-02-10T19:21:56Z")
> [@Dick\_Dastardly](#): > > It doesn’t matter what the guy calls himself, what matters is what he did – actual factchecking and he found the facts to be bogus. Except it didn’t. When you click on his link to “Brendan” from Crooked Timber, Brendan says something completely different from what he quoted. Like I said, your source is either a liar or incompetent. Moreover, your source doesn’t dispute Nasrallah claiming Jews are the descendants of apes and pigs. If someone claims Jews are the descendants of apes and pigs is it fair to call them anti-Semitic? Also, why would you want to support or revere someone who claims Jews are the descendants of apes and pigs? Also, you’ve yet to explain why you dismiss Hamid Dabashi’s assertions. By doing so you seem to be admitting that you’re dismissing him because his findings don’t jibe with the way you want to view the conflict. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-egypt-have-an-iran-style-revolution/569520.md?page=6)