Tuesday, September 11. 2007
Iranian TV Airs Jewish-Muslim Love Story
Posted by Joerg Wolf in US Domestic and Cultural Issues on Tuesday, September 11. 2007
The hour-long drama, "Zero Degree Turn," centers on a love story between an Iranian-Palestinian Muslim man and a French Jewish woman. Over the course of the 22 episodes, the hero saves his love from Nazi detention camps, and Iranian diplomats in France forge passports for the woman and her family to sneak on to airplanes carrying Iranian Jews to their homeland. (...)Wow, I did not expect this from Murdoch's Wall Street Journal to be honest.
Iran is home to some 25,000 Jews, the largest population in the Middle East outside of Israel. Iran's Jews -- along with Christians and Zorastrians -- are guaranteed equal rights in the country's constitution. Iran's Jews are guaranteed one member of parliament and are free to study Hebrew in school, pray in synagogues and shop at kosher supermarkets. Despite Mr. Ahmadinejad's statements, it isn't government policy to question the Holocaust, and the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, hasn't endorsed those views.
Meanwhile, The Heathlander shows US cartoons "demonising Iran."
The Wall Street Journal was not being honest. They were being ignorant.
Iranian Jews are not free to use Hebrew or conduct their religious lives free from Islamic oversight. They are not allowed to leave Iran as a family. Only as individuals with valid business reasons. Religious pilgrimage to Israel is not permitted. Nor is visiting relatives in Israel or the US. There is a quota system that keeps Jews out of universities.
I recall the Soviet Union and it's western apologists also claimed Jews had the same freedoms as other citizens. That was nonsense and so is the talk of Iran treating it's Jews fairly.
[url]http://www.jewishsf.com/content/2-0-/module/displaystory/story_id/30720/edition_id/576/format/html/displaystory.html[/url]
Reid of America:
Stopy lying.
Jews of Iran were offered a bribe of $30,000 to leave Iran, why are they stiil there?
The world is not what you think it is.
Stay in your part of the world and leave others alone.
I do wonder though what would happen if an infidel man were to fall in love with a Muslim woman?
[url]http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,501646,00.html[/url] (English)
It is of course permissible for a Muslim man to marry a non-Muslim woman, assuming she belongs to the people of the book (monotheistic, pre-muhammedanic religions like Judaism, Christianity, Zoroastrianism et cetera). Those people are generally allowed to live under all kinds of institutionalised discrimination.
The article can only be surprising to someone who is under the false impression that Iran's religion of state is European antisemitism or Nazism. Jews are not objectionable because of their race, but only in so far as they refuse to be subjugated by Islamic law or even dare to maintain a state on land previously conquered by Islam.
Read up on the subject of human rights in Islam in this article by Egon Flaig: [url]http://www.fr-online.de/in_und_ausland/dokumentation/?em_cnt=999893&em_cnt_page=1[/url] (German)
If a Jew wants to marry a Muslim woman, he has to convert to Islam. That also goes for Christians or Zoarastrians.
That a Muslim woman cannot marry outside of her faith has been part of Islamic Law for teh longest time.
A Muslim man, on the other hand, can marry non-Muslims and they can maintain their religion.
The 25,000 Jews who are styding in Iran like their life over there. And they are the most ancient of the Iranian people.
While the amount of abuse Dhimmis suffer in the Islamic world is quite appalling, they have internalised their role in society to such a degree that they will usually remain loyal to their oppressors, who deprive them of human dignity.
Nevertheless, those minorities have dwindled dramatically in the last century due to increased pressure and opportunities for emigration.
We have a reserved seat in the Iranian Parliament for a Jewish representative. A Muslim has to have 300,000 votes to be seated as a MP.
We also have 1 reserved seat for Chaldean Christians, one fro Assyrian Christians, 2 for Armenian Christians and one for Zorastrians.
This has been the case since 1905 Constitution.
The dimmi issue is irrelevant to Iran - there were many Armenians, for example, who fought in Iran-Iraq War and were martyred.
Why don't you come to Iran and speak with these Jews? And other minorities?
But do not let facts confuse you.
How many seats are reserved for Bahai?
None since they are not recognized as an official religions; just like Scientology in Germany.
Why don't you guys in Germany offer the Bahai of Iran citizenship so they could all come to Germany and live there? Better yet, why don't you get your American friends to do so?
pen name says "Why don't you guys in Germany offer the Bahai of Iran citizenship so they could all come to Germany and live there?"
I agree that nations that believe in human rights should offer Iranian Bahai citizenship. They are being killed in large numbers by the Islamic regime.
And pary tell me where are all the bodies?
I guess those 55,000 Jews that left Iran after the Revolution were all bribed. As well as almost half the Christian Armenian population.
Since there are only around 25,000 Jews left in Iran it is heartening to know that every single one of them is studying. Course maybe they are studying Israeli and American immigration pamphlets?
The figure of 55,000 corresponds to pre-Revolution estimate of the number of Iranian Jews.
Many left but many have stayed.
Why are you so keen on uprooting ancient communities and transplant them elsewhere?
Why don't you come to Iran and meet these Jews?
Perhaps the world is not the way you think it.
How about we come and meet the homosexuals you've hanged? Perhaps your country is exactly the way we see it.
They had raped young boys, that is why they were tried, convicted, and executed. I cannot accept sexual crimes against children and believe those criminals do deserve death sentence.
I'm aware that's the claim but is that the fact? These were kids themselves.
I have no doubt everyday life in Iran is quite tolerable for minorities (even gays if the various documentaries on Link TV are valid sources) and that day-to-day existence is most likely typical of any country. The fact is Iran has a serious cultural problem that even Iranians seem willing to admit to (exept Pen Name) even though they are quite proud of their land and heritage.
More countries than America have problems with Iran and unless you want to be paranoid about it, there must be a logical reason.
We have many cultural problems and some of them are not amenable to change within the next few decades - it will take longer.
We are a pricky country and very jealous and protective of our sovereignity and perogatives as an idependent state.
That many countries have problems with Iran is immaterial to me - it is better to be respected as an independent country than liked as a lackey of US & EU.
As I said before, if you want to come to us, accept us teh way we are or leave us alone.
You do not need us and we do not need you. You can trade with the rest of the world and so can we. You can get you gas from Russia and North Africa and we can sell our energy to Pakistan and states further East.
From a high of 140,000 plus in 1948 to 1979 over 60,000 Jews left Persia. Then after the Revolution another 60,000 left to a low point in the early 80's of probably 20,000. I've seen serious and unserious claims of a revival of Jewish residents to anywhere from 30,000 to 40,000 but except for today have never seen anyone claim that the numbers have rebounded to 55,000.
Most of the Jewish community after the Revolution, probably rightly considering that the Shah considered them and their contacts with Israel useful, fled immediately. One of my teachers in graduate school had run a private high school for girls in Teheran until she was informed that Muslim girls could no longer be taught by a Jew and the school was seized. The rest that could did so soon after Habib Elghanian was tried and executed for, among other charges, having a "...friendship with the enemies of God..." It's like reading about Moloch in the Old Testament.
My sister, attending a predominantly Jewish school before the Iranian Revolution was kicked out of her Hebrew Language class because her Persian Jewish teacher stated: "Only Jews should study Hebrew.". Prejudice works both ways.
At any rate, my offer still stands. Come to Iran and ask those Jews why they continue to live in Iran.
So was your sister exiled as a result of not learning Hebrew?
I think by now, for anyone who has done some basic research, Jews have been part of Iran and the Middle East region for thousands of year.
Whether you think this TV program is true or not is not relevant here. What I think is important, is that Iranians get to see that love and fraternity between Muslims (even Iranians) and Jews is possible and even a romantic ideal through this story. I can't believe people in the West are throwing stones at this TV show when they should be quite pleased at this positive political turn.
They throw stones because it contradicts their image of how the owrld is or should be.
Jews in Iran are much well treated than Arabs in Israel. All this noises about Jewish mistreatment of Iran are prelude for nuclear attack on Iran. They want to control Iranian oil and energy resources. Jews are used just as goats.
I'm always astounded to read how many simplistic views are uttered even on this blog: Iran, the warmongering nation of Anti-Semitic and Anti-Everything Nuclear Freaks. Iran, the wonderful, unfailable, perfect country.
In fact, it's even more surprising considering that reports from insiders do not seem to paint such a controversial picture: Much of the media hype seems to be only about the Iranian government, not the Iranian people. Iranians often seem to welcome Westerners (incl. Americans). Jews live in Iran. There is a difference between (esp. official) attitudes to Jews and those to "Israel". There remain severe problems with human right violations, esp. regarding executions, crimes carrying the death penalty, and - obviously - political opposition. Nonetheless the overall picture seems to be one where people praise the friendliness and hospitality, if not curiosity of the Iranian population.
I can't tell. I've never been to Iran (unfortunately). But it seems odd that people can forget any moderation in their attempt to describe Iran either as heaven or hell.
We can't all travel to Iran. But we can read first-hand accounts. How about this one, from a Jewish-American woman who started blogging during 3.5 years she lived in Iran?
http://viewfromiran.blogspot.com/
I never ever intended to make the case that Iran is the greated place of Earth to live.
My intentions have always been to shed light on the issues.
In the final analysis, we have a different culture, tradition (artistic, musical, intellectual, philosophical, etc.), our own history and our own politics.
If you want to have dealings with us accept us the way we are.
Else leave us alone.
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