Not an unlikely Iranian TV hit whatsoever

ARTICLE: "Iran's Unlikely TV Hit: Show Sympathetic to Plight Of Jews During the Holocaust Draws Millions Each Week," by Farnaz Fassihi, Wall Street Journal, 7 September 2007, p. B1.

You have to understand Sunni domination of Shia for the vast majority of Islam's history to see why Persian Shia would identify with Jews being persecuted in Europe. From the outside of today's propaganda being issued by Tehran, it seems counter-intuitive, but that's a domestic regime legitimacy function, not something based in any past grievances.

Truth is, relations between Persians and Jews have historically been pretty good, and there is much identification between the two in terms of being persecuted minorities.

Khomeinism was the break with this, and Ahmadinejad certainly plays that card with great gusto to justify his attempts to revive the dead revolutionary spirit of the place. Khomeini aspired to be a pope for all Islam, so he played up the pan-Islamic angle by focusing all anger on Israel (near devil) and the US (far devil). Osama tries similar stuff today, although the Salafists can't help doing pleasure (killiing Shia) before business (killing Americans), and thus AQI overreached so badly in Iraq (let's be honest, AQI f--ks it up everywhere they've ever gone, but we buy their propaganda just like with lap up Ahmadinejad's, and if we weren't such pussies about nukes we'd be a heckavu lot more likely to look past that transparent manipulation).

The learning curve is steep my friends, especially on the Shia and Iran. The best thing about all this war talk with Iran is that our media gins up stories like us as a result.

Comments

[Louis Heberlein]

During the early Middle Ages Islamic leaders tolerated, protected, (and utilized) Jewish communities while the ignorant general public in newly Christianized barbarians' states in Western and Central Europe persecuted and expelled Jews. While both the Christian and Islamic secular leaders utilized the Jewish communities' people and money related services, the Western leaders tolerated their crude persecutions.

The leaders pragmatic political reason for forcing Christianity on their barabarian peoples was much the same as in the early Islam spread, to unite, 'civilize' feuding tribal groups to strengthen political, military and economic abilities and focus them on external threats and opportunities.

I understand that Islamic leaders - particularly Abbasid leaders -even reached out to the pragmatic Christian leaders of new states to remain neutral or become allies in the main struggle against the Byzantine Empire.

Those historical experiences became curltural insights ... 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend' .... is not a simple slogan

[zenpundit]

Shiism is a religion of the downtrodden and the oppressed with a particular reverence and centrality of/for martyrdom and ultimate divine justice against corrupt, worldly, persecutors. This goes back to the original Shi'at Ali ( "the Party of Ali") unhappy over the Caliphate succession to Muhammed. See Kepel, Roy, Lewis etc.

Violent antipathy toward Jews is indeed a novelty of Khomeiniism, of which Ahmadinejad was an original subscriber but even Ahmadinejad, in his anti-semitic dog and pony shows, felt compelled to invite some ultra-orthodox Hasidim extremists - who are rigidly anti-Zionist themselves- to Teheran in order to demonstrate to Iranians that he wasn't against all Jews, per se, just Israelis.

Running the series may be an internal factional swipe at Ahmadinejad, who plays around with Holocaust denial.