This is so f*cked up you couldn't make it up! Iran is considering badges for Jews, Christians and Zoroastrians, while also forcing *all* Iranians to wear what the nutcases there are claiming is standard "Islamic" clothing, by which I guess they mean what they deem to be the standard.

Since 1979 these crackpots have been giving the world one of the best examples of why there should be a complete separation between churches (any churches) and the state.

Now that the dwindling numbers of Iranian Jews and Christians will be wearing their stars, oops, I mean, "badges," how long before we start hearing about increased attacks against and persecution of them?

Real or not real?

[ May 19, 2006, 10:38 AM: Message edited by: jsieds ]

I hope it's false, then. Because otherwise, really, it's a sign the folks running Iran, and not just Ahmadinejad, have totally gone over the edge.

I guess we wouldn't need badges since we would be killed outright. No need to waste the money. Edit to add: We may want to read some desenting views first. Those are hard to find in the USA press but may be quite common in Middle Eastern countries, including Israel itself. Their reaction to the Iranian's "words" in Persian were probably more subdued than what would be expected when about to be "wiped off the map".

[ May 20, 2006, 05:33 AM: Message edited by: sportinlife ]

And the original story has now been retracted.

Thank you for this story, Fantomas. Until the revolution in Iran in 79 Jews and Muslims in Iran got along just great. No animosity. Now the radical Islamists are stirring up hatreds against the Jews, Armenian Christians and what few Zoroastrians live there. And of course Bahai Faith members are killed and tortured in terrible ways in Iran. Just dreadful.

Story is a hoax.

But there was the old lady who asked for a ride and turned out to be a man. The person whose stomach was lined with wax after eating cup of noodles. The man who picked up a woman in a bar and had his kidney cut out....

Yes, it apparently was a hoax:

From the Associated Press
TEHRAN — Iran’s parliament is debating a draft law that would discourage women from wearing Western clothing, increase taxes on imported clothes and fund an advertising campaign to encourage citizens to wear Islamic-style garments.

The draft received preliminary approval Sunday and lawmakers debated it this week, but the conservative-dominated parliament has not passed the bill. If adopted, the measure also will require approval by the Guardian Council, a hard-line constitutional watchdog.

Legislators strongly denied a Canadian newspaper report that the measure included provisions requiring Jews, Christians, Zoroastrians and other non-Muslims to wear a patch of colored cloth on the front of their garments.

The National Post, quoting “Iranian expatriates living in Canada,” said the law would require “Iran’s roughly 25,000 Jews 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.”

In Tehran, legislator Emad Afroogh, who sponsored the bill and chairs the parliament’s cultural committee, said, “It’s a sheer lie. The rumors about this are worthless.

“The bill is not related to minorities. . . . There is no mention of religious minorities and their clothing in the bill.”

Iranian Jewish lawmaker Morris Motamed said, “Such a plan has never been proposed or discussed in parliament. Such news, which appeared abroad, is an insult to religious minorities here.”

It turns out you can.

The original "news" story quoted an Iranian "offical" who does not exist who heads a department that also does not exist.

Another reminder that "hearing about" something or even seeing it in print or on the internet doesn't necessarily mean that it's actually true. Have to admit that, because the Taliban had made non-Muslims were yellow patches in Afghanistan, I accepted this without questioning its veracity. In this case, I'm certainly glad that it wasn't true, and will remember better in the future to question the story.

Actually, it looks like it was a psy ops plant by Benador Associates, a right-wing, neocon outfit whose members and associates include the likes of war profiteer Richard Perle, Laurie Mylroie, Victor Davis Hanson, A.M. Rosenthal, Alexander "I'm in Control" Haig, Yale professor and Unabomber target David Gelernter, and Michael Ledeen, who's been linked to Iran-Contra scandal and the Niger uranium purchase forgeries, and was printed in a real paper that's owned by Sir Conrad Black, a controversial conservative figure who's been embroiled in a scandal over financial improprieties at Hollinger, a company he owns (that controls the Chicago Sun-Times, the Daily Telegraph, and other papers). The people behind the story, however, are standing by it, all facts and reality to the contrary. So we need to stop hating America, people!

BTW, why did they create this story anyway? Because they thought they could, and, as Talking Point Memo says, they want the seeds planted in the public consciousness if and when they start bombing Iran....

BTW2, Judy Miller, the canned NY Times-based Bush admin shill, apparently is again on the beat, coordinating her anti-Iran propaganda with recess appointee UN Ambassador John Bolton!

Thank you for the new info fantomas. I'm glad this story turned out to be bogus. And thanks for telling us what neocons were involved in creating this lie. But of course the Bahai Faith members are tortured and killed in Iran. But you know I read that Iran has become one of the world's major centers for sex reassignment surgery. Apparently the Islamic government does not bother the surgeon who performs the srs procedures.

Yeah, thanks for the latest spin on this bogus story you brought to the board, FT. Nothing like a little deflection and accusation to accompany an apology, huh? Sorry, my bad; there was no apology. So back to your old mantra: It's all Bush's fault!

Spin? It's your crowd who first put it out there, in newspapers, not me. The story, if it was true, would have been unconscionable. But as it is, the very neocons you waltzed along with in 2000 and 2004 were the ones who planted it in the paper, to the extent that the Wiesenthal Center and people all over believed it. As to Bush's involvement, who knows? I didn't mention him at all, you did. But I guess since you're working inside you'd know about this better than I. If *I* create a story like this, without links or attributions to a US or Canadian paper, then I'll apologize. As it is, where's your apology for being such a good little Bush-Cheney booster? Parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus.

So why did you post it then? Perhaps a little research first, to see if it was true, would have been more prudent. (Just who do you think you are--some pseudo-federal judge running around posting everything under the sun???)

Alas, forever your rush to run in here and blame everything on some vast, right-wing conspiracy.

That tin foil hat you're wearing has GOT to be rusted by now.

But it's not. So stop the dodging, bobbing and weaving. gmg is correct.

[ May 23, 2006, 11:39 AM: Message edited by: MIB ]

Verbus tuas ipse dicens.

In the original post, Blanche....

E pluribus unum.

Now shut the heck up or I'll have to bitch slap the both of ya!

It gets so bizarre it's almost comical...now it appears that George W. Bush has invited Amir Taheri, the right-wing author of the discredited story about the Iranian badges and a member of that wacko neocon PR outfit, Benador and Associates, to the White House to consult on Iraq as an "expert." From the White House's own press pages:

How did a Bush supporter on here put it? "It's all Bush's fault..."