ANTISEMITISM

So, that's why I don't get a table at the restaurant...

next time you don't get table at a restaurant because you look Iranian

So, that's why....

I always thought it was because I wasn't cool / hip / good looking enough...or that I never made reservations and just showed up on a saturday night and demanded a table in a good spot...never thought it was my genetic make up that gave me away...Now I know... 

Maryam aziz

We have to be careful in the way we use these terms. Arab is the language spoken by many different countries. In many of these countries we find a whole spectrum of people ranging from very backward to very progressive. What has happened in the history is really history. Some of the Iranian kings were as brutal and inhumane when invaded other countries. Are we  for example proud of Nader shah in the way he treated India, or Mohammad shah Ghajar in the way he treated opponents and many more. I think we should forget about what had happened in the past and focus on a set of principals based on fundamental human rights. fight against all kind of discriminations and unite in fighting this brutal regime. Otherwise we end up fighting each other. There is no need for spreading hatred against Arabs, Kurds, Turks, etc. There are those who want to see various nationalities having verbal abuse against each other and pave the way for bombing  and other violent campaigns. See what is happening in Iraq and Afghanistan. There are powerful lobbies with huge financial and media backings, wanting to see us divided so they can become our saviours when we fight each other. We need to be so clever in diffusing such situations in the future. If we want all these then we dwel on the past and bring all the differences to surface.  

Thanks JJ, your comment is brilliant.

Commenting on JJ's point, after 20 years of working as Uni and college lecturer I was sacked(well, made redundant) because I protested against a colleague who referred to me as an Iranian terrorist a day after July 2005 London bombing and at the time a close friend of mine was badly injured and was in danger of losing her life. they have absolutely ruined my career and my wife had two serious heart attacks as a result of these situations. I took them to court they fined me £12000.00 claiming that I had a vexatious case. I actually taped the guy making more than 10 counts dreadful anti Iranian, Afghanis, and other Muslims. I lost because I could not "convince!" the judge that I was offended. I agree with JJ that we should avoid making racist comments any kind at at all times.

You hate them. They hate you.

VPK, your logic of blaming ALL Arabs for historical, political or religious reasons is the exact type of thinking that leads to racism and discrimination. It's the same logic that discriminates against ALL Iranians at airports for the actions of their government. It's the same logic that breeds hatred of Americans for the actions of their government. The same logic that promotes hatred of Jews because of the actions of the Israeli government. The same attitude that justifies hatred of Arabs for the actions of Hamas and Hezbollah.

Next time you hear something negative about Iranians in America, next time you are fired from your job just because you were born in Iran, next time you don't get table at a restaurant because you look Iranian, it's because:

* Iranians attacked and sacked the American Embassy in Tehran three decades ago and held Americans hostage for 444 days.
* Iranians shout "Death to America" all the time.
* Iranians support terrorism all over the world.
* Iranians want to make a nuclear bomb.
* Iranians stone women for adultery.
* Iranians are followers of Islam -- a religion of hate and violence.

If you think it's fair for Iranians to be treated badly JUST BECAUSE they are Iranian, go ahead and hate Arabs just because they are Arabs. Next time you see a random Arab hate him before he opens his mouth.

ahossieni, Arabs means those who are in POwer

of Arabic countries.  That Ahvazi Arab indeed was Iranian who has lived in IRAN and was killed by an Arabic government of IRAN.  There are Akhoonds who are also raised and lived in IRAN for centuries but still they rather to be Arabs and destroy the Iranians. 

Thank you, VPOK

Your lists justifies dislike of Arabs by IRANIANS.

I am proud of these Arabs, are you?

great Link Darius .... Thank you

National Socialism or Nazism, doctrines and policies of the National Socialist German Workers' party, which ruled Germany under Adolf Hitler from 1933 to 1945. In German the party name was Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (NSDAP); members were first called Nazis as a derisive abbreviation.

But there are lots of contradictions  when it comes to those days .......

Judenrat  being the major one .........

Veiled Prophet of Khorasan

I don't know why you take such a racist sick position.Is Ahmadi Nejad an Arab?The Arab population in Egypt, Tunisia, Syria, Bahrain, Jordan, Yemen ,... have been fighting their brutal regimes in their countries and have been more successful than we have been. What is all these Arabs, Persian nonsense?

90% of Americans and Europeans think we are Arabs anyhow.

I bet that puts you to shame. What a shame?

Kadivar

Could you please tell me which Iranian left support Gaddafi?

If so, please tell them to go to hell.

Some so called socialist groups are actually created and financed by Iranian regime and Gaddafi.

Do independent socialists take the blame?

Does the Stalin-Hitler pact Ring A Bell ?

Stalin-Hitler pact commemorated (VIDEO)

Antisemitism

It is laughable that those who hate Israel and jews so much complain about Iranian antisemitism.

ناسیونالیسم

ناسیونالیسم هدایت

برای آشنایی دقیق و عمیق با افکار و آثار هدایت توصیه میشود کتاب ارزشمند " هدایت، بوف کور و ناسینالیسم" جدید‌ترین نوشته  ماشاالله آجودانی را مطالعه کنید. رضا مرزبان در نقد این کتاب چنین می‌‌نویسد:

"ناسيوناليسم هدايت، از نوع ناسيوناليسم تصعيد شدهء نژادی غرب نبود، که مهاجم و استيلاگر است؛ ناسيوناليسم برانگيختهء ملتی بود که سده ها مغلوب ستم و استيلا گری بيگانه مانده بود و در مقطع هشياری تاريخی، بيزاری و نفرت خود را از آنچه بر وی رفته بود، نشان می داد. نفرت هدايت از اسلام و از عنصر عرب، حاصل اين شناخت بود. و هرچه بيشتر پيش می رفت، برنفرت او افزوده می شد.
"

//ajoudani.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=66&Itemid=36

Why should

it be a surprise that some Iranians are anti Arab? 

• Arabs attacked and sacked Iran taking all they found 1400 years ago.
• Arabs repeated it in 1980 but did not pull it off.
• Arabs tried to destroy our culture and language.
• Arabs burned our book and our history.
• Arabs murdered great Iranian heroes like Babak and Mazyar.
• Arabs to this day put claim to Persian Gulf.
• Arabs brought the most barbaric cult of Islam to Iran.
• Arabs took many Iranians into slavery.
• Arabs in general hate Iranian people.
• Arabs called us Ajam as a racist name.

I wonder if any of that may just have something to do with it. Now their buddies want to trash Hedayat. Is this a surprise; not to me.

Speaking of Contradictions notice "Socialism" in "Nazism"

National Socialism: Definition 


 

Inglourious Basterds - Official Trailer 2 [HD]

well.. well...let's see what we got here

* an anti-semitic

* Racist 

* an opium addict

* homosexual

* the alienated outsider  who killed himself 

* who also has written some great masterpieces of the iranian literature  

all depends on what is it that one is analyzing here ..... 

by the way, it is good to see so many different points of view on the replies here ....... finally you all have something to argue about rather the usual Shariati and Hallaj bashing that you all have in common.....

Thanks Naficy I am starting to believe in you   : ) 

Why's the "Moralist" Left Silent on genocide in Libya or IC ?

Why's the "Moralist" Left which is so concerned about Anti Semitism and or Pacifism

so Silent on genocide taking place right now in Libya or Ivory Coast ? ...

BREAD & CIRCUS: It Ain't about Democracy or HR Stupid, It's About Show Business

As for Antisemitism it was not invented by Reza Shah or even the SUMKA ...

The Protocols of the Elders of Zion

It was rampant amongst the Founding Fathers of the Palestinian Movement amongst which the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem:

Report in German with English Subtitles:

Hitler, The Mufti Of Jerusalem And Modern Islamo Nazism

And that mindset continues to be very rampant amongst the most radical muslim groups like Hamas or the Hezbollah today :

Hamas TV:Jews enemies of Allah -should all be killed

Hamas Spokesmen calls for genocide of all Jews

Palestinian Religious Leader: Jews are the AIDS of the World

by Azarin Sadegh on Mon Apr 04, 2011 12:37 AM PDT

I admire Azarin for hercomment. She gives her view and makes an honest comment, and is not scared of what others think of her and if they are going to judge her as a partial racist, who of course is not. I find her comment refreshing, honest and very valid. Thank you Azarin. I think I partially agree with you.

Serious Historical research is about Empathy NOT Sympathy

Once One get's to distinguish the two:

Sympathy versus Empathy

I think we are a step closer to the deemed "Historical Truth" ...

Something which alas most Iranian Historians fail to do ...

The Likes of Abbas Milani or Mashadollah Adjoudani are only recent and alas very rare examples of what I would regard as reliable contemporary Iranian historians ( even if their works/interpretations can be criticized and refuted following the same pattern of thought).

If So then Gandhi's Non Violence is due to his homosexuality ?

Or deemed Bisexuality ... 

India state bans book hinting Gandhi had gay lover

Which is ridiculous and reductive ...

ONLY TRUTH HURTS ! 

qu'un sang impur abreuve nos sillons ... ( I agree with R2 D2)

Based on that logic we should rewrite the lyrics to the French Revolutionary Anthem:

La Marseillaise: France national anthem - France.com

Mind you I wouldn't mind returning to the French Royal Anthem for that matter ... Hee Hee

Or Stop Reading Tintin :

Ban 'racist' Tintin book, says CRE - Telegraph

Something most people forget that Hergé lived at a time when Congo was a Belgian Colony when he wrote this adventure. Also strikingly Hergé's intellectual evolution in regard to much of the racial prejudice expressed in that controversial album appeared decades later in his excellent The Jewels of the Castafior where he denounced the racism and prejudice against Gypsies:

Combattre les préjugés sur les Tziganes - The Road of the Gypsies

Which in retrospect clearly testifies of Hergé's guilt over his youthful misguided prejudice in his previous colonial album. One can also find many anti semitic comments amongst the Enlightment philosophers who wished to "civilize" the world with emancipated ideas:

Voltaire et le racisme des Lumières

The Very first draft of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights did not apply to people deemed "inferior" in the colonies nor did it concern Women. It was actually thanks to a women Aristocrat Olympe de Gouges that Women's Rights were seriously considered :

Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen (1791)

French Women actually got to vote as late as 1944 / 48:

Woman Suffrage Timeline International

Olympe de Gouges was actually beheaded during the Reign of Terror on grounds of monarchist sympathies because she refused to vote in favor of the execution of the King and Queen. More on her here:

Olympe de Gouges

But I tend to agree with R2 D2 on this ... racism and it's consequences were not fully understood in their magnitude until we discovered the horrors of the Holocaust when American Troops liberated the Camps. Something which they delayed to do very much like in the case of Libya all the more that the US administration FULLY was aware of their existence thanks to a Polish diplomat Jan Karski who had secretly visited the Ghetto as early as the late 1930's ). Watch the very emotionaltestimony of Jan Karski in the "Shoah (1985)" Directed by: ClaudeLanzman Here

People like Hergé, Sadegh Hedayat, Voltaire, Churchill, De Gaulle, Gandhi were products of their time. To Judge them or their works one has to do it in the historical context of their time. It would be reductive to take one controversial text and reduce an entire personality or intellectual contribution in their field to something which in retrospect may appear as shocking.

Does that Excuse them ? Not necessarily but it does help distinguish the bulk of their work and personality from aspects of their work which may have not lasted the test of time in terms of "eternal truth" or "commendable ideas" ...

By not making that effort I'm afraid that any deemed historian only achieves to banalize history and the Truth by interpreting it through a distorted prism:

Banalization of history By Darius KADIVAR

My Humble Opinion,

DK

Related Blogs:

HOLOCAUST A MYTH: Michelle Renouf on Iranian SAHAR TV

Recommended Readings:

Iranian Diaspora Intelligentsia Unite Against Islamic Republic's Holocaust Revisionism By Darius KADIVAR

Banalization of history By Darius KADIVAR

I love Hedayat

Majid-e aziz,

First of all, I love Hedayat, just because of his few works such as The Blind Owl and The Stray Dog. I haven't read Maziar and also I really don't like Hedayat's latest works (ex: Hajagha) because of the change in his voice, using a "mardomi and aamiaamneh" kind of style that I just can't stand.

Next, when I read a literary work, I try to make a distinction between the author and his/her made up characters. I prefer to go with the flow of the narration instead of looking for clues to make some senseless political interpretation in every line or plot in a work of fiction. Actually, as soon as I fall on any political/direct message, the whole experience loses its impact on me, and it becomes a total turn off. 

But on the other hand, it is just me! I truly believe that every book is read in a unique way by each reader! So you could feel free to find Hedayat "nejaad parast", etc…But please let me admire him for writing the most beautiful persian prose and to be one of our greatest national treasures...and honestly, I really don't care if he was a racist in the real life, or if he had a hidden pro-persian agenda. Who cares? So what?

I’ve actually heard that Jean Jacques Rousseau – the author of Emile, well known for being the authority in the education of children, and in spite of his caring (in writing) for the cause of children -- ended up giving his own 5 kids to an orphanage!

Rousseau is not remembered for his nasty treatment of his own kids or for the contradiction between his work and the way he was in the real world!

Like Rousseau, Hedayat is also dead and what is left from him is his greatest work, The Blind Owl and that single book is enough for me to admire him.

Thanks for listening, Azarin

Tis blog not about Kianory

But as long as that SOB is mentioned, me thinks he wrote his thesis in German, in Germany, forget what school. In a historical scale of things, right after Shah and Khomeini, Kianory is  probably the most reactionary Iranian of all time( from 1940's working with Kambakhsh, to '53, to '79,..) he's closely followed by Negahdar.

Not sure what you meant by "  hey had to be in his bldg in late 1350s, the energy was great" 

MG, you know so much about Kianouri

Was he the architect for daneshkadeh fani building or something like this? The man could really talk politics.As much as they say bad about him, they had to be in his bldg in late 1350s, the energy was great.That is what I have heard.

...

R2-D2 jan, time to wake up and actually read the text. There are at least three references for the arguments put forth in here. Would you care to share your references with us?

Hedayt's works in here are basically divided to two parts [ which me thinks are actually three part, early, mid (Tudeh...), late (self-exile and suicide], the author neve claims to cover his entire works, but merely point out to an important overlooked aspect of his writings. For better or worse, there would have been no Golshiri without Hedayat.

Modern Iranian literature would not have been possible without Hedayat, at the same time our Modernism has its own unique character, limitaions, and deficincies. That's all.

P.S. On the flock of German sympathizers into Tudeh besides Hedayat , also recall Kianori ( with his architectual thesis in praise of Reza shah). Latter became a KGB pawn, former was a genius.

Jahanshah

I read that paragraph that you have referenced - However, the overall tone of the article, again, in my humble opinion, is very much accusatory, tending to condemn his works ..... !

Simply put, unfortunately, this article lacks the necessary objectivity of a scholarly article :) !

Conditions of his time

R2-D2, Naficy does point out the impact of conditions at the time

آیا بهتر نیست که مانند برخی از هدایت شناسان، گناه نژادپرستی او را به گردن شرایط اجتماعی و سیاسی دوران رضاشاه بیندازیم و به نقشی که بسیاری از روشنفکران سرشناس آن دوره چون مجتبی مینوی، بزرگ علوی، شین پرتو، ذبیح بهروز و ابراهیم پورداوود در رواج این گونه بدآموزی ‌ها داشته‌ اند، بی اعتنا باشیم؟ یکی از این هدایت شناسان، پژوهنده‌ ی گرامی محمدعلی همایون کاتوزیان است که در کتاب “صادق هدایت: از افسانه تا واقعیت” درباره هدایت و همکارانش می ‌نویسد:”بنابر این مقایسه آنها با نازی ها و فاشیست های اروپایی و همتاهای ایرانی شان خطا خواهد بود. در واقع حرفهایشان تند و افکارشان ساده دلانه و اعوجاج یافته بود، لیکن انگیزه‌ هاشان بی آلایش بود و رفتار سیاسی آنها جای سرزنش نداشت و سرآمد غالب مردانی بودند که از حیث زمان و مکان و موقعیت اجتماعی در شرایطی مشابه به سر می‌ بردند.”

R2-D2

You are contradicting yourself. On the one hand you refer to a Ferdosi's poem which is obsolete now and on the other hand you suggest we should analyse poets and writers and  see the progress they have made in their work. I am certainly confused about what you stand for.

To All .....

who don't fully understand my point of view here:

I believe that all writers, poets, etc. (including Hedayat, and others) should be fully and completely analyzed, critqued etc. with reference to the Standards at the times that they lived -

Again, to critique a writer, or a poet, who lived decades (in case of Hedayat) or centuries (in case of Ferdowsi) ago, using our Sensiblities today (again, 2011), in my humble opinion, is the epitome of absurdity ..... !

Again, Pure And Simple :) !

R2-D2, it is absolutely relevant today!

The examples you give of Jefferson and the "founding fathers" actually reinforces this. I mean, an entire economic and political system of a country was founded on slave labor and the racial division of labor. The racism that is strikingly present in the US is directly related to the form of racism that was established in previous centuries in order to control slave labor and to exacerbate further divisions between the working classes in order to control, regulate and exploit them. All forms of oppression and exploitation is racialized (example; the prison system, sweatshop labor, police brutality, the drug war, etc) and these are the residues, and at time, explicit manifestations of the racism that emerged in the US in the 17-19th centuries. With Hedayat, you claim it is not relevant in our contemporary discourse to critique these writers, I say it is absolutely necessary. Precisely as the author pointed out, similar trends of racism are still present and on the rise in the iranian society that reflect the racist and Eurocentric historiography of the previous generations (such as that of Hedayat), as well as the more contemporary forms of racism against immigrant populations that takes on a global aspect. Similar to the rise of fascism in Europe.

متاسفانه از جز بد کل را بد می بینیم

ما که بچه بودیم از اسلام به عنوان دین پاکی و رستګاری و خوبی صداقت به ما آموزش داده میشد بطوریکه فکر میکردیم هرکس نماز بخواند و روزه بګیرد آدمی والا است  ولی خوب بعدها عکس این ثابت شد یعنی دیدیم که اشخاصی که نماز میخوانند و دروغ هم میګویند و دزدی هم میکنند و اکنون که بسیاری از ما به دست شیادان مذهبی غارت شده ایم مسلم است که بعضی ها همه مشګلات را کلا به نام اسلام مینویسند وحتی آنانیکه خیلی خسارت دیده اند با اسلام وحتی با دین دشمن میشوند نمی دانم آیا این درست است که اګر مثلا در سبدی چند تخم مرغ بد بود بایست قضاوت کنیم که همه تخم مرغ ها بدهستند؟  یا اګر یک مثلا آلمانی دزد بود بایست ګفت که همه آلمانها یا آمریکایی ها دزد هستند؟  خوب به همین نسبت ما که از خلفای عرب خسارات بیشمار دیده ایم نفرت در از این نوع در ما هویدا میشده است  درحالیکه بسیاری از عربان هم هستند که مثل خود ما دچار همان فشاد و آزار شده بودند  و خوب آنان هم بایست از عربان بی زار باشند  مثل اینکه ما از دست هموطنان خود هم آزار دیده ایم  . که شاید این قضاوت درست نباشد   عربان خوب و مهربان هم هستند همانطوریکه ایرانیان کج رفتار و ستمکار هم هستند  آلمانی ها و آمریکایی های خوب و آدم هم هستند و در هر ملتی و قومی خوب بد با هم درهم شده اند  .