Life of Jews in ‘Islamic’ Iran
Apr 28th, 2007 | 8 responses
(Photo courtesy Ramin Farahani, who has made a film on Iranian Jews.)
The Iranian Jews make up the largest community of Jews in the Middle East outside Israel.
But despite what appears to be a dwindling minority under constant threat of persecution, Iranian Jews say they live in relative freedom in the Islamic Republic (of Iran), remain loyal to the land of their birth, and are striving to separate politics from religion, reports The Christian Science Monitor.
“They caution against comparing Iran’s official and visceral opposition to the creation of Israel and Zionism with the regime’s acceptance of Jews and Judaism itself.
” ‘If you think Judaism and Zionism are one, it is like thinking Islam and the Taliban are the same, and they are not,’ says Ciamak Moresadegh, chairman of the Tehran Jewish Committee. ‘We have common problems with Iranian Muslims. If a war were to start, we would also be a target. When a missile lands, it does not ask if you are a Muslim or a Jew. It lands.’
” ‘Jews here have great Iranian roots – they love Iran,’ says chairman Moresadegh. ‘Personally, I would stay in Iran no matter what. I speak in English, I pray in Hebrew, but my thinking is Persian’.
“The continuous Jewish presence in Iran predates Islam by more than a millennium. One wave came when Jews sought to escape Assyrian king Nebuchadnezzar II around 680 BC; others were freed from slavery by (Iran’s) Cyrus the Great with the conquest of Babylon some 140 years later…”
For the detailed story please click here…
8 Responses to “Life of Jews in ‘Islamic’ Iran”
Swaaraj: The overwhelming majority of Persian Jews have left Iran due to persecution and now live in the State of Israel or the USA.
I notice that the Jerusalem Post has a blog, The Persian Abyss by Reza Zarabi, at http://blogcentral.jpost.com/index.php?blog_id=48
Very Interesting Swaraaj. One of your best.
I have been told of Shia Islamic persecution against Christians in Iran by Christian Iranians that migrated to the United States even before the Shah was deposed.
I think, back then, I correctly chalked it up to the backwardness of a third world country. Moral objectivity being largely unheard of among the massive uneducated Iranian Islamic majority. So it stands to reason that these Jews are most likely unjustly persecuted and that is the reason for their apparent political capitalization.
However Jews do seem to go “ga ga” over other Jews in the news as if there were nobody else on the planet that mattered. Much as Muslims do. Maybe its a cultural thing, I have no idea, but one thing is for sure; Few on this globe are more persecuted than the Palestinians.
Sorry–*capitulating*–not capitalization……oh.
“But despite what appears to be a dwindling minority under constant threat of persecution, Iranian Jews say they live in relative freedom in the Islamic Republic (of Iran)”
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Are you actually gullible enough to believe this? Do you really believe the Jews of Iran are free to state the truth? Iran is not a free country for anyone, let alone Jews. Do you honestly believe these people are expressing their own feelings rather than being coerced by the mullahcratic regime?
They are also being coerced into claiming that the Iranian regime’s genocidal hatred of Israel, and its threats to perpetrate a nuclear holocaust against its people, does not really amount to hatred of Jews themselves. I think the mullahcrats get their talking points from western leftists who claim anti-Zionism and the desire to eliminate the state of Israel isn’t really antisemitism.
JEW JEW JEW
CONTROL THE BANKS
MEDIA
GOVERNMENTS
ARMIES
DRUGS
PROSTITUTION
JEWS ARE ALQAEEDA & TALIBAN
START 2 THINK FOR YOUR SELF
AND STOP ANALING JEWS
However Jews do seem to go “ga ga†over other Jews in the news as if there were nobody else on the planet that mattered.
I don’t know why I’m bothering, but for your information, Jews have a long and disproportionate history of speaking and acting on behalf of the downtrodden and victimized. Witness, as one example, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner. Jews don’t just go “ga ga” over other Jews, even though it would be understandable if they did based on history’s example.
I suppose that Goodman and Schwerner are two examples, but you get my drift. This was one common instance.