A few days Ago I was driving home from work and as always I was listening to the radio in the car. Being one of those people who have lost their taste for modern music and becoming more interested in politics and current affairs, BBC radio 4 has recently become my favourite (or the most bearable) radio station to listen to, since it seems to be the most reasonable and the least bias off all the rest of them.
Between 5 and 6 PM every Monday to Friday there is a programme on radio 4 (funnily enough) called PM. The programme normally debates and discusses the issues of the day and events happening around the glob. Quiet often they have an interviewee from political elite or members of public commenting on these issues.
The interviewee in yesterday's program was a Middle Eastern lady who was outraged by the attitudes of her government and extremists in her country toward women and the institutional suppression of women that is slowly but surely taking place in her country. An attempt aimed to push women out of the main stream and into the margins of that society.
As she was explaining a new scheme seems to have been set up in her country's capital, to divide the busses into two different section (men in front and women in the back). Apparently unaware of the scheme she boards a practically empty bus and takes a sit in front of the bus right behind the driver. A few stops into the journey some (obviously religious) men board the bus and right away go to this lady and tell her she is not allowed to sit in front of the bus and has to go to the back section. But being a free spirited lady she refuses to do so and challenges their claim. As she was explaining, the rest of the journey was quiet hellish for her as these men went on to harass her, shout abuses at her and even at one point physically intimidate her.
So now she is planning to sue the buss company.
However by the account of other women who were interviewed in the program her legal action would not be successful. These women were claiming that this is a institutional attempt by the extremist faction within the government and the society who are the most powerful, to push women out of the society and into the kitchen. They were talking about signs being posted in the streets of the capital saying “women, dress modestly or else” or some conservative families stopping their daughters from going into higher education”
As it was claimed by these women, over the past few years a new wave of religious conservatism has taken over their country and in the process women were removed from most of the key jobs and today all the judges sitting on the Supreme Court panel are religiously conservative men. Even in some sections of society higher education has been cancelled for the girls and absurdly enough, there are some proposals to make men and women walk on different sides of street to avoid all contacts
When a BBC journalist raised the issue to a prominent religious figure in the country he claimed that this is the way God intends for them to be and in their religion all contacts between men and women outside home should be avoided.
Would you like to guess which country and capital they were talking about?
No it was not Iran, it was not Afghanistan or Pakistan either, and surprisingly enough it was not even Saudi Arabia. However the country in debate was no other than Middle East's only self-proclaimed democracy Israel, and the company was the second biggest bus company in Jerusalem
Now for anybody who does not believe me, please go to BBC official web site and listen to the recorded version of PM programme for Wednesday 18th of April 2007 and find out for yourselves.
So in answer to those people who think religious extremism or as some would like to put it, religious fascism is confined to Islam and Muslims I say think again.
The incident above is only one example a many more happening every day in a country that claims to be dead enemy of the fascists, a country whose people ironically are becoming neo-fascists themselves and yes I not afraid to say that the above incident is a fine example of JEWISH FASCISM.
Now if that is how they treat their own, one can only imagine what is their attitude toward their neighbours or the poor Palestinian or non-jewfish people in their society.
It is needless to repeat the claims of racial discrimination against the non European Jewish immigrants who live in Israel. Individual accounts that are all published over the Internet and well documented.
So as you see racism, fascism and wickedness is not confined to only one society or group of people. Its root is in the total selfishness and arrogant of individuals who in the end care about noting and no one but themselves. This is originated in a dark part of human nature and is live and well in every society specially those who claim to have eliminated it.
The only difference is in the way these societies go about this business and present (or better-said miss-present) it to the rest of the world. The more money media power and skills to spin a society or their politicians have, the better they can hide their wickedness and miss-present their misconducts
So in response to the questions that was asked by our friend Fariba Moghaddam in her article (Yekee Johood o Mosalman), I am afraid to say that discrimination against others is not confined to Islam or Muslims but it is an evil phenomenon deep rooted in human nature.
I guess in the end in comes to ones selfishness and persistence to see him/ herself above the rest. Now those with money, power, skills and callousness are able to do it more calculated and elegantly disguised and those without make a more clumsy but equally ugly job of it.
However it is only fair to say that, not all the people in this world are crazy warmongers and radical fascists. In fact the in any society quiet majority are those who want a peaceful life without any conflict with their neighbours. But unfortunately norm is not very exciting or appealing and that's why the people with most extreme views are the ones who make all the noise and get all the attention.
This is the same everywhere from Washington to Moscow, from London to Baghdad and from Tel-Aviv to Tehran. All it takes is a few extremist idiots of the same conviction with a significant amount of money and political resources in their disposal and vela, you have got the recipe for disaster
As for your question about the roots of anti-Semitism I should say that I have been asking the same question for a very long time now and have done a fair bit research on it.
My conclusion was that this phenomena is a mainly Muslim and Christian issue as it has roots in the early teachings of these religions (not necessary correct versions)
Although there are few differences in the details, one can easily find reasons Anti-Semitism in their early teaching by the homophobic priests and mullahs. That's why this phenomenon have created conflicts between Jews and mainly these two groups
First the Mainly Christian Europe and the second one is the Muslim Middle East
Christian Churches have always blamed Jews for the crucifixion of their lord and Muslims have always exaggerated the conflicts between prophet Muhammad and the Jewish community in Medina and being religion and supposedly word of God no one have dared to challenge these teachings trough the history.
Of course through the years social and economical problems have quiet often put stresses on these societies and people being people have always looked for an escape goat and some one to blame.
In the case of Europe the Jews were the easiest targets to pick on since they were one of the few minorities and the supposed teachings of Europe main religion (Christianity) did not favour them either. Unfortunately these fatal mistakes went unchallenged and unreformed for over a few centuries in Europe until finally in the mid last century a mad man named Adolf Hitler committed one of the most horrendous crimes against humanity and murdered 6 million of these people.
But to anyone who thinks Nazi Germany was the only anti-Semitic state in Europe I say think again. Just take a step back and think what was Hitler's purpose.
In the end he wanted to ethnically cleanse Europe from its Jewish population and being a bloodthirsty mad man he resorted to mass murder. Although Hitler was defeated and his criminal activities were stopped but the roots of anti Semitism in Europe did not parish.
So in years later for those who still wanted to get rid of European Jews, but did not want to be associated with Nazis anti or Semitism, their policy became to get Jews to leave Europe voluntarily. Hence they got their best weapon out. In case you did not guess the best weapon against religion is religion itself. And so it came a dubious plot ironically enough from an English politician named lord Balfur.
To most of people especially those with a strong religious conviction Balfur Declaration was the best thing that happened to European Jewish community as it seemed to have given them a home and supposedly sympathised with their suffering.
But if one dares to take an step back and have another look at this plot without being blinded by religious convictions, it can easily be observed that this plot was designed to get Jewish community to leave Europe Voluntarily and to put it blunt to make them some one else's problem. So in that context it was the best disguised and yet the biggest and most effective anti Semitic act of all times
However the plan did not work as intended, as most members of Jewish community in Europe were more clever than falling for it. On the other hand being another ill plotted Western conspiracy (just like many others) it have backfired badly in the Middle East and started a new wave of conflicts by opening old wounds and intensifying conflict over land and resources. Also for a few die hearth religious groups on each side their religious beliefs played a role in fuelling the conflict further.
Today's war in Middle East is mainly over land and resources by people who are caught in the middle of this madness mostly through no choice of their own.
On the other hand Iran is a totally separate issue. Right until the Arabs invasion of our country, we did not have anything against the Jews in fact on the contrary we were always friendly and fair. We have helped these people whenever possible and Iran was a safe heaven for them through centuries.
After Arabs conquered and destroyed most of our country and culture and imposed their own sick inferior culture upon us in the name of Islam, the monster of anti-Semitisms started to show itself in our country as well. However until the revolution of 1979 this was a fairly small problem, as most of our people remained fair-minded and free spirited.
Even today almost all of Iranian nation have noting against Jews and in many cases quiet like them and admire their unity and conviction. If there is an objection and complain it is against the unjust and criminal actions of Israeli government and the blind Western support for it.
Being a fair-minded nation we would not have it any other way. And for those who are quick to condemn these objections, may I remind hem that if is was not because of this fair-mindedness we would have never become friend of Jews and saved them from the tyrants of Babylon in the first place.
But unfortunately during the past quarter century our country have been hijacked by a group of evil and dangerous mullahs and their cronies who make these anti Semitic noises in the expense of our reputation, not because they care about people of Palestine but because they want to create conflicts and chaos in the region in order to insure their own survival.
But however much we might hate these mullahs and be in dispute with them we do not want a foreign intervention (Military or other wise) in our country and those who are inviting US or Israel to attack their country are traitors to their own people and motherland regardless of their religious or political conviction.
