Iran: Jews and Christians must wear ID badges

[vonkaar]

Human rights groups are raising alarms over a new law passed by the Iranian parliament that would require the country's Jews and Christians to wear coloured badges to identify them and other religious minorities as non-Muslims.

"This is reminiscent of the Holocaust," said Rabbi Marvin Hier, the dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles. "Iran is moving closer and closer to the ideology of the Nazis."

Iranian expatriates living in Canada yesterday confirmed reports that the Iranian parliament, called the Islamic Majlis, passed a law this week setting a dress code for all Iranians, requiring them to wear almost identical "standard Islamic garments."

The law, which must still be approved by Iran's "Supreme Guide" Ali Khamenehi before being put into effect, also establishes special insignia to be worn by non-Muslims.

Iran's roughly 25,000 Jews would have to sew a yellow strip of cloth on the front of their clothes, while Christians would wear red badges and Zoroastrians would be forced to wear blue cloth.

"There's no reason to believe they won't pass this," said Rabbi Hier. "It will certainly pass unless there's some sort of international outcry over this."

Bernie Farber, the chief executive of the Canadian Jewish Congress, said he was "stunned" by the measure. "We thought this had gone the way of the dodo bird, but clearly in Iran everything old and bad is new again," he said. "It's state-sponsored religious discrimination."

Ali Behroozian, an Iranian exile living in Toronto, said the law could come into force as early as next year.

It would make religious minorities immediately identifiable and allow Muslims to avoid contact with non-Muslims.

Mr. Behroozian said it will make life even more difficult for Iran's small pockets of Jewish, Christian and other religious minorities -- the country is overwhelmingly Shi'ite Muslim. "They have all been persecuted for a while, but these new dress rules are going to make things worse for them," he said.

The new law was drafted two years ago, but was stuck in the Iranian parliament until recently when it was revived at the behest of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

A spokesman for the Iranian Embassy in Ottawa refused to comment on the measures. "This is nothing to do with anything here," said a press secretary who identified himself as Mr. Gharmani.

"We are not here to answer such questions."

The Simon Wiesenthal Centre has written to Kofi Annan, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, protesting the Iranian law and calling on the international community to bring pressure on Iran to drop the measure.

"The world should not ignore this," said Rabbi Hier. "The world ignored Hitler for many years -- he was dismissed as a demagogue, they said he'd never come to power -- and we were all wrong."

Mr. Farber said Canada and other nations should take action to isolate Mr. Ahmadinejad in light of the new law, which he called "chilling," and his previous string of anti-Semitic statements.

"There are some very frightening parallels here," he said. "It's time to start considering how we're going to deal with this person."

Mr. Ahmadinejad has repeatedly described the Holocaust as a myth and earlier this year announced Iran would host a conference to re-examine the history of the Nazis' "Final Solution."

He has caused international outrage by publicly calling for Israel to be "wiped off the map."

Iran does not yet have nuclear weapons, but Tehran believed by Western nations to be developing its own nuclear military capability, in defiance of international protocols and peace treaties.

The United States, France and Israel accuse Iran of using a civilian nuclear program to secretly build a weapon. Iran denies this, saying its program is confined to generating electricity.

[vonkaar]

It'd be cool if they made the Agnostics wear Rambo headbands.

[Diekan]

Hey! There's an idea... maybe we should come up with something like that too! I dunno maybe we can make every US citizen carry a national ID card or something... now there's an idea!

[Adivina]

That's a scary parallel to the past right there. Nazi revival incoming in Iran.

[Muglack]

I don't see what the big deal is. Iran is a Theocracy. Their brand of Islam is incredibly Isolationist. They want to have little or no contact with other religions. Seems to me they are only doing their citizens a favor by identifying people that don't share their beliefs. It's clear in the article that they aren't picking on Christians and Jews, that's just a headline to make people go "OH MY GOD! HITLER INCARNATE!", but I don't think that's the case.

[Captain Insano]

It'd be cool if they made the Agnostics wear Rambo headbands.

yah that would be cool. Everyone already owns a machine gun over there so you might as well look the part.

[mofish]

Time to start bombing methinks.

[Thon]

that's what this is going to come down to.

i can't fathom what they think is going to happen. whatever technology they think they have, however strong they think they are. they're going to get rolled faster than you can blink an eye, once the Iraqi's have enough troops to shoot back at insurgents.

they're really more than a half century behind us technologically. they're going to learn that the microchip > oil, very quickly

[mofish]

I think they are just making sure there isnt an inkling of sympathy left for their government anywhere in the West.

Mission Accomplished!

[Tikker]

it's kind of ccc that none of you see a parallel between them indentifying non-muslims and the way you are all hyped about identifying immigrants

[Arlos]

I dunno, there's a very large issue with us bombing Iran. A LARGE chunk of the people in power in Iraq have VERY strong ties to Iran. They also have very large personal militias, who are quite well armed. (Think Al-Sadr and his forces, and multiply it several times). They're quiet now, because the Shiites are getting a big chunk of the pie, despite those Iranian ties.

If the US ever bombs Iran, though, all hell is going to break loose. Guarantee you that every one of those militias is going to rise up and start taking out US soldiers. It'll make the current fighting there look like a tea party.

-Arlos

[Adivina]

it's kind of ccc that none of you see a parallel between them indentifying non-muslims and the way you are all hyped about identifying immigrants

That's a scary parallel to the past right there. Nazi revival incoming in Iran.

Doesn't anyone who is claiming this is nothing like Nazism find it just a little ironic that the Jew's are being forced to wear yellow stripes? Come on people, its almost like the color was chosen purposely to be insulting and reference the yellow stars of the past identification in the Nazi Regime.

[Minrott]

I'm just curious, but if you're a jew, why the fuck would you live in Iran?

[Thon]

considering that iran and iraq fought a war that lasted for almost the entire 80's, i doubt there's much love lost between them

[Phlegm]

considering that iran and iraq fought a war that lasted for almost the entire 80's, i doubt there's much love lost between them

The faction that was in control of Iraq during the war was sunni muslim. Now the people running the place is mostly shiite, same as the regime in Iran.

[Thon]

a million casualties and almost decade war isn't erased by an election

[Arlos]

Except that a lot of the people now in power in Iraq are VERY friendly with Iran. Some of them fled Iraq into exile and stayed in Iran while Saddam was in power. Remember, it was the Sunnis who pushed the war with Iran, the Shiites were not behind it. Sunni/Shiite divisions are more important to people there than national divisions in some ways.

-Arlos

[Ganzo]

I'm just curious, but if you're a jew, why the fuck would you live in Iran?

cause your family lived there for a period of last 3000 years without any problems

[Minrott]

Ok, I can understand that. They've got balls is all I'm saying. Brass ones. That's like the Globtrotters relocating to 1940's Birmingham.

[Phlegm]

Not true. Canada paper apologizes for erroneous story on Iran passing law requiring badges for non-Muslims. From Associated Press:

(AP) A Canadian newspaper apologized Wednesday for publishing an erroneous story last week claiming that an Iranian law would require Jews and Christians to wear badges identifying them as religious minorities.

The National Post article Friday caused an international uproar. Tehran on Wednesday summoned Canada's ambassador to its foreign ministry.

Iran's conservative parliament last week began debating a draft law that would discourage women from wearing Western clothing and encourage citizens to wear Islamic-style garments.

The Post erroneously said the bill included provisions requiring Jews, Christians and other non-Muslims to wear a patch of colored cloth on the front of their garments.

That incorrect description appeared to many as a chilling throwback to Nazi Germany when Jews were forced to wear the yellow star of David.

The United States, which is locked in a standoff with Iran over its nuclear program, criticized the bill. The Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, a Jewish human rights group, had sent a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan asking him to investigate, according to the National Post.

Iranian officials labeled the newspaper account a lie and a copy of the bill, obtained by The Associated Press in Tehran on Saturday, made no mention of requiring special attire for religious minorities.

Iranian state television reported Wednesday that Ambassador Gordon Venner had been summoned to the foreign ministry. The meeting comes on the heels of comments by Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who said Friday that while he couldn't vouch for the accuracy of the National Post report, he believed Iran was capable of such actions.

"Unfortunately, we've seen enough already from the Iranian regime to suggest that it is very capable of this kind of action," Harper said. "It boggles the mind that any regime on the face of the Earth would want to do anything that could remind people of Nazi Germany."

Douglas Kelly, editor-in-chief of the National Post, ran a lengthy column on page 2 Wednesday explaining that the story was based on a column by Amir Taheri, an Iranian author and journalist, and two expatriate Iranians living in Canada.

"We acknowledge that on this story, we did not exercise sufficient caution and skepticism, and we did not check with enough sources," Kelly wrote. "We apologize for the mistake and for the consternation it has caused not just National Post readers, but the broader public who read the story."

Taheri, on his Web site, wrote that the National Post misinterpreted his original column bit insisted that his sources in Tehran's parliament tell him that the concept of badges for religious minorities has been discussed for several years.

Relations between Canada and Iran cooled after the 2003 death of Iranian-Canadian photographer Zahra Kazemi, arrested by Iranian authorities while covering a demonstration. In November, an appeals court has upheld the acquittal of an Iranian intelligence agent and ruled Kazemi's death was not premeditated.

[Drem]

zzzz

even if it did happen it'd get rolled over in a decade or two. the taliban didn't bother with uniforms and just went straight to ethnic cleansing... they, like the nazis, like the iranians would be after them, were destroyed

[Lueyen]

it's kind of ccc that none of you see a parallel between them indentifying non-muslims and the way you are all hyped about identifying immigrants

/sigh

Illegal Alien <> Immigrant

[Captain Insano]

I watched Rambo First Blood today and just got totally pumped! Movies like that make me want to punch crippled kids.