Nazis for the 21st Century
I was going to write about Jimmy Hoffa today, but this story was just too important to ignore.
Iran's parliament passed a law this week that sets a public dress code and requires non-Muslims to wear a special insignia. Jews, Christians and Zoroastrians would be forced to wear a yellow, red or blue strip of cloth, respectively, on the front of their clothes, according to the newspaper.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060519/wl_canada_afp/iranrightsreligion
So if this isn't a clear sign that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is an Iranian Hitler, I don't know what is. Think they wont be using this insignia to persecute non-muslims? The Nazis didn't just start by sending the jews to Aushwitz, they started by ghettoizing them and identifying them with the "Yellow Badge" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_badge#Timeline . Iran is a highly religious nation with a penchant for oppression, so why is it not feasible for them to begin some Nazi-like actions? All too often we see signs of disaster without doing anything about it. We let the genocide in Rwanda not only start, but continue because we were too slow to react. The Sudan has been mired in civil war and genocide because the West is unwilling to step in. North Korea suffers famine, Cambodia faced the massacre of millions because nobody stepped in when people were crying for help.
Okay, so the world is really overpopulated and would actually prosper if there were a bunch of genocides, but we are morally responsible to protect the innocent. We cannot wait for the genocide to happen because by that point we will have missed an opportunity to avert disaster. Imagine if the Senate passed a law that stated all homosexuals must wear a pink triangle pinned to their shirt at all times. That would open them to all kinds of discrimination and likely violence from homophobics. They would certainly be denied the equality with everyone else that they deserve. It might quickly become the badge that keeps them out of public places. Some shop owners might not allow anyone labeled with the pink triangle to enter, just as we did with brown skin in the time prior to the Civil Rights Movement.
Just put yourself in Iran and tell me how it would feel to walk around the street being forced to wear a mark identifying your religious affiliation. This is in a nation that is known for being violently protective of Sharia laws and there are plenty of lunatics willing to beat or even kill someone simply for not being Sunni, Shiite or whatever else they are. Unfortunately I have been looking at MSNBC (though it's not propaganda like Fox News, it's trash and just horrendous news) all day and all they have talked about is that stupid Jennifer Wilbanks (that pointless runaway bride story from a year ago) and searching for Jimmy Hoffa. Maybe it's just me, but shouldn't news be on the news? I'd think that a Nazi-like action by a rogue government would be the major story. But they've got Pamela Turner (another one of those stunning blonde teachers who is fooling around with her 13-year old student...why didn't I ever have one of these? Check that, why can't I find a woman that gorgeous now?) and her myspace naughtiness, The Da Vinci code (horrible reviews, by the way http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/da_vinci_code ), more about immigration and some on Jennifer Wilbanks again. Not only that, but it's the same exact footage I saw 20 minutes ago and it's not exactly fine quality camera-work. Still nothing about Iran.
One of the reasons why the Holocaust, Khmer Rouge, Great Leap Lorward, Rwandan genocide and Stalinist collectivization deaths were so great was that the rest of the world ignored warning signs and didn't make attempts to step in until after the damage was done. We should have known that there was more to come when the Jews were ghettoized in 1933. So we should know that this isn't the last we will hear about the Islamist tyranny in Iran oppressing other religious groups. We should know that genocides are common in history, that people are always looking to oppress those who see the world in a different way. I for one am scared about the other Muslim nations following Iran's lead if we don't step in. What's to stop the Saudi's from doing this? Don't say I didn't warn you...
Iran's parliament passed a law this week that sets a public dress code and requires non-Muslims to wear a special insignia. Jews, Christians and Zoroastrians would be forced to wear a yellow, red or blue strip of cloth, respectively, on the front of their clothes, according to the newspaper.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060519/wl_canada_afp/iranrightsreligion
So if this isn't a clear sign that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is an Iranian Hitler, I don't know what is. Think they wont be using this insignia to persecute non-muslims? The Nazis didn't just start by sending the jews to Aushwitz, they started by ghettoizing them and identifying them with the "Yellow Badge" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_badge#Timeline . Iran is a highly religious nation with a penchant for oppression, so why is it not feasible for them to begin some Nazi-like actions? All too often we see signs of disaster without doing anything about it. We let the genocide in Rwanda not only start, but continue because we were too slow to react. The Sudan has been mired in civil war and genocide because the West is unwilling to step in. North Korea suffers famine, Cambodia faced the massacre of millions because nobody stepped in when people were crying for help.
Okay, so the world is really overpopulated and would actually prosper if there were a bunch of genocides, but we are morally responsible to protect the innocent. We cannot wait for the genocide to happen because by that point we will have missed an opportunity to avert disaster. Imagine if the Senate passed a law that stated all homosexuals must wear a pink triangle pinned to their shirt at all times. That would open them to all kinds of discrimination and likely violence from homophobics. They would certainly be denied the equality with everyone else that they deserve. It might quickly become the badge that keeps them out of public places. Some shop owners might not allow anyone labeled with the pink triangle to enter, just as we did with brown skin in the time prior to the Civil Rights Movement.
Just put yourself in Iran and tell me how it would feel to walk around the street being forced to wear a mark identifying your religious affiliation. This is in a nation that is known for being violently protective of Sharia laws and there are plenty of lunatics willing to beat or even kill someone simply for not being Sunni, Shiite or whatever else they are. Unfortunately I have been looking at MSNBC (though it's not propaganda like Fox News, it's trash and just horrendous news) all day and all they have talked about is that stupid Jennifer Wilbanks (that pointless runaway bride story from a year ago) and searching for Jimmy Hoffa. Maybe it's just me, but shouldn't news be on the news? I'd think that a Nazi-like action by a rogue government would be the major story. But they've got Pamela Turner (another one of those stunning blonde teachers who is fooling around with her 13-year old student...why didn't I ever have one of these? Check that, why can't I find a woman that gorgeous now?) and her myspace naughtiness, The Da Vinci code (horrible reviews, by the way http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/da_vinci_code ), more about immigration and some on Jennifer Wilbanks again. Not only that, but it's the same exact footage I saw 20 minutes ago and it's not exactly fine quality camera-work. Still nothing about Iran.
One of the reasons why the Holocaust, Khmer Rouge, Great Leap Lorward, Rwandan genocide and Stalinist collectivization deaths were so great was that the rest of the world ignored warning signs and didn't make attempts to step in until after the damage was done. We should have known that there was more to come when the Jews were ghettoized in 1933. So we should know that this isn't the last we will hear about the Islamist tyranny in Iran oppressing other religious groups. We should know that genocides are common in history, that people are always looking to oppress those who see the world in a different way. I for one am scared about the other Muslim nations following Iran's lead if we don't step in. What's to stop the Saudi's from doing this? Don't say I didn't warn you...
posted by Dan Pasternack at 12:41 PM
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