Iran's Jews learn to live with Ahmadinejad

[Logan13]

I think that this gives us all a little perspective on the topic of Jews in Iran. It is not as bad as some thought and not as good as others believed.

Iran's Jews learn to live with Ahmadinejad
Guardian.UK
June 27, 2006

Maurice Motamed has one of the loneliest jobs in the Middle East. When Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made his controversial Holocaust statements, the sole Jewish MP in Iran's 290-member Majlis (parliament) felt he had no option but to confront him.
"When our president spoke about the Holocaust, I considered it my duty as a Jew to speak about this issue," Mr Motamed said in his office in central Tehran. "The biggest disaster in human history is based on tens of thousands of films and documents. I said these remarks are a big insult to the whole Jewish society in Iran and the whole world."
Mr Ahmadinejad, president of an overwhelmingly Muslim nation, has not apologised. But Mr Motamed said the president had since qualified his statement by insisting that he had not denied the Holocaust and he was not an anti-semite.
Mr Motamed represents Iran's 25,000-strong Jewish community, the largest such group in the Middle East outside Israel. Since 1906, Iran's constitution has guaranteed the Jewish community one seat in the Majlis. The Armenian, Assyrian and Zoroastrian minorities together hold another four seats.

Although he took on Mr Ahmadinejad over the Holocaust, Mr Motamed supports the president on other issues, including the stand-off with the US, Europe and Israel over the country's nuclear programme. "I am an Iranian first and a Jew second," he said.

He acknowledged there were problems with being a Jew in Iran, as there were for the country's other minorities. But he said that Iran was relatively tolerant. "There is no pressure on the synagogues, no problems of desecration. I think the problem in Europe is worse than here. There is a lot of anti-semitism in other countries."

Most of his family, including his mother, father and sisters, left after the 1979 revolution that brought Ayatollah Khomeini to power, as did 75,000 other Jews, heading mainly for Israel, the US and Europe. But Mr Motamed, 61, an engineer, opted to remain. "I love my homeland."

Jews have been living in Iran in large numbers since Cyrus the Great freed them from slavery when he captured Babylon in 539BC. Members of the Jewish community in Iran today, for the most part, keep a low profile and many Iranians are unaware of their presence. Mr Motamed said there were about 14,000 Jews in Tehran, which has 20 active synagogues; 6,000-7,000 in Shiraz; 2,000 in Estafan and small groups scattered throughout the rest of the country.

He confirmed Jews and other minorities were all excluded from "sensitive" senior posts in the military and judiciary. And the authorities refuse to allow Jewish schools to close on the sabbath, a normal working day for the rest of Iran.

But Mr Motamed said there had been improvements in other areas. Legislation was introduced three years ago overturning a judicial practice of awarding more compensation to the families of Muslim accident victims than to those of Jews. And when he complained in the chamber about a TV soap opera regularly portraying rabbis as evil, he said the speaker of the Majlis expressed support for him.

Nasser Hadian-Jazy, associate professor of political science at Tehran University and a childhood friend of the president, said Mr Ahmadinejad was keen to put the Holocaust row behind him.

"I asked him, 'Are you anti-Jew?' He said, 'I am not.' I said, 'Why not go to a synagogue to express regret for what Iranians have done to Jews?' ... He said, 'I have another idea, a better idea.'

"He will do something to show he is not anti-Jewish. I hope he will do it soon. He will make a gesture to the Jews in Iran and that has implications for Jews elsewhere. What he will say is very important and will remove the idea that he is anti-semite."

Saeed Jalili, Iran's deputy foreign minister and another close friend of Mr Ahmadinejad, said the Jewish seat in the Majlis "tells you that we have no problems with Judaism" but he added that he had not heard of any planned gesture by Mr Ahmadinejad.

"The Jewish community in this country are very fairly treated ... Of course, a symbolic gesture is good and well, but we think that what we do is more than symbolic."

[Kärnfysikern]

The funny thing is if I had posted this you would have said its liberal propaganda

Kind of ruins the Ahmadinejad=Hitler reincarnate doesnt it?

[Logan13]

The funny thing is if I had posted this you would have said its liberal propaganda

Kind of ruins the Ahmadinejad=Hitler reincarnate doesnt it?

I would not have said that Johan, because as I admitted in my post, I was unsure about this particular scenario prior to this. I quest for the truth, and sometimes it is different than I originally perceive. It does not change Ahmadinejad's words that he stated over and over about Israel. And if you read the whole article, you would see that Jews do not have access to positions of power in Iran. To insinuate that the article was all pro-Iran would be intellectually dishonest...

[Kärnfysikern]

I would not have said that Johan, because as I admitted in my post, I was unsure about this particular scenario prior to this. I quest for the truth, and sometimes it is different than I originally perceive. It does not change Ahmadinejad's words that he stated over and over about Israel. And if you read the whole article, you would see that Jews do not have access to positions of power in Iran. To insinuate that the article was all pro-Iran would be intellectually dishonest...

No no I know jews are discriminated over there and thats ****ed up. Especialy when Irani leaders probably scream that there is opression in israel.

But they are not beeing pushed into the ovens.

What I found suprising was that dudes unyielding support for his homeland and the nuclear program. Irani first jew second.
Why cant minorities in the west be the same

[Logan13]

No no I know jews are discriminated over there and thats ****ed up. Especialy when Irani leaders probably scream that there is opression in israel.

But they are not beeing pushed into the ovens.

What I found suprising was that dudes unyielding support for his homeland and the nuclear program. Irani first jew second.
Why cant minorities in the west be the same

This really is what caught my eye in this article as well. Patriotism, even in a country like Iran is a great thing IMO. I believe that the minorities in the west actually have the freedom to not be patriotic, I do not see any other reason for this.

[Kärnfysikern]

This really is what caught my eye in this article as well. Patriotism, even in a country like Iran is a great thing IMO. I believe that the minorities in the west actually have the freedom to not be patriotic, I do not see any other reason for this.

Patriotism is mostly good. But it can also lead to things like Nazi germany. Patriotism sure, militant patriotism no thanks.

Einstein said it best

That a man can take pleasure in marching in formation to the strains of a band is enough to make me despise him. He has only been given his big brain by mistake; a backbone was all he needed. The plague-spot of civilization ought to be abolished with all possible speed. Heroism by order, senseless violence and all the pestilent nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism - how I hate them!

But its comon sense that if you live in a country you should like it, if you dont like it leave it. To bad that minorities nowdays feel that the countries they move to somehow owe them something. **** that.

The world sorely lacks comon sense.