In order to show discrimination against the minority population of Iran one has to shown discrimination that does not exist with the general Muslim population as well. There are certain members on this forum who find it their goal to try to show that Iran hates minorities and tries to show that Iran treats them like complete crap. Think for a second. Who spends all their time trying to prove a nation hates their minorities rather than try to discredit it? Obviously some kind of hidden agenda or personal belief system exists with those individuals.
Does discrimination against the minority population exist inside Iran? Sure it does. Is it enough to make their life a living hell? Absolutely not and by reading this thread you can come to your own conclusion on how Iran treats their minority population. Let?s start by talking about how Jews are discriminated against inside Iran. If a Jew converts to Islam that individual gets to inherit all of the family property. This has never happened so that is not a problem that the Jews of Iran are ?losing sleep over?. Jews inside Iran have reported that they have had a hard time rising up to managerial jobs in government positions. That statement alone indicates that the Islamic regime of Iran is hiring Jews to work for the government when unemployment rates with the general population who is mainly Muslim stands high in the double digits. One should also note that there are only 30,000 Iranian Jews inside Iran. How many of them could possibly hold government jobs for a large number of them to complain to foreign press about not being promoted?
Iranian male Jews are not required to join the mandatory Iranian armed services when they turn the legal age which is 18. Is that good/bad? Iranian male Jews are not allowed to hold senior ranking positions within the Iranian armed forces. How many Iranian Jews really want to join the armed services for this to have a great impact on their life?
Jews are allowed to have their own schools inside Iran, but must be open on Saturday which is a rule for all schools inside Iran. Are the students required to attend on Saturday? While the law clearly is silly, there is no law that says the Jews of that school have to attend school on Saturday. The principals of these schools are primarily Muslim, although again there is no law that requires them to be Muslim.
Yes, there have been arrests of Jews in the past. They had been charged with spying and were given lengthy sentences. The chargers were eventually dropped and these Jews are now free inside Iran. Can we link this to Iranian discrimination of Jews? In order to do so you would have to show that such things do not happen to the majority Muslim population. Could one show that? Is the Muslim population roaming around Iran with their heads up unafraid of the government speaking their mind? The fact is the same thing does happen to the majority Muslim population probably on a daily basis. Therefore, the only thing this will show is that the regime of Iran is bad for all their people and not just the minority population.
Inside Iran the state controls the media. Newspapers are constantly shutdown. However, Iran is not Saddam?s Iraq. Iranians inside Iran are permitted to have satellites which pick up signals from outside Iran. A handful of these signals come from our very own Los Angeles, California.
Below is a list of quotes mainly from Jews themselves, both inside Iran and outside Iran. All the quotes have come from reliable news organizations. These are the words of the people themselves.
If one still wishes to attempt to show that Iran is a dangerous regime where the Jews are suffering, then this is probably the most important piece of information you will get out of this thread. If they hate Iran so much then they can leave . Iran?s Jews have come out and said ?The identity of Iranian Jews is not tradable for any amount of money?. This statement was directed at a Jewish group who has offered all Iranians leaving Iran to move to Israel for $10,000.
Iranian Law ? Jews Allowed One Permanent Seat in Parliament
Iran's population is 70 million. Iran's Jewish population is 30,000 at its highest, which means .0428% of Iran's population is Jewish. So technically they should only have .0428% say in Iran's Parliament yet they have .3448% say. In fact they do not have to have a seat at all and their voice does not have to be heard, but under Iranian law their voice must be heard.
Iranian Jews speak out about travel to and from Israel
BBC
"Whatever they say abroad is lies - we are comfortable in Iran - if you're not political and don't bother them then they won't bother you "
""In the last five years the government has allowed Iranian Jews to go to Israel freely, meet their families and when they come back they face no problems," says Mr Mohtamed."
"It's not a problem coming and going; I went to Israel once through Turkey and once through Cyprus and it was not problem at all," she says."
"He says there is also a way for Iranian Jews who emigrated to Israel decades ago to return to Iran and see their families."
?Despite the offence Mahmoud Ahmedinejad has caused to Jews around the world, his office recently donated money for Tehran's Jewish hospital.?
Jews inside Iran speak to ABC News about life inside Iran.
ABCNews
"The relations between Jews and Muslims, between 70 million Muslims and 30,000 Jews, are very good," says Mohaber."In Israel, the situation for Iranian Jews is quite misunderstood."
"[The Islamic regime] made very good respect for me all the time, and did not care about my religion after the revolution," says Mohaber, who avoided a general purge of Jews from the officer ranks after Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution.?
?He notes "some difficulties," including restrictions on government employment, but says that Mr. Ahmadinejad's questioning of the Holocaust, while very unwelcome, "has no effect on our daily life." The president's fierce anti-Zionist speeches culminated with Iran hosting a controversial Holocaust conference last December.?
"There have been different voices [coming] from the government, so people felt unsafe," says Mr. Seleh. "But our existence here has always been separate from politics in Iran, and we always had peaceful coexistence with the Muslim community."
"There is always [talk] outside the country that religious minorities are under pressure," says Mr. Motamed. "It is important to say that what people say about minorities is completely wrong,"
"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."
Iranian Jewish Leader's letter to Iran's President
BBC
"Mr Yashayaei said the Holocaust was a fact of history and not a myth and accused the Iranian president of ignorance and political prejudice."
"Mr Yashayaei described the Holocaust as one of the most obvious and sad events in the 20th Century."
Iran?s Ex President says Holocaust is NOT a myth
BBC
?President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad brought international criticism when he called the Holocaust a "myth" last year.
Mr Khatami said the Holocaust was a "massacre of innocent people, among them many Jews", Iran media reported.
?He added: "We should speak out if even a single Jew is killed. Don't forget that one of the crimes of Hitler, Nazism and German National Socialism was the massacre of innocent people, among them many Jews."
Iranians Jews in Israel Return Back to Iran
JPost
Standing and fretting inside his empty shop on Jerusalem's Rehov Ben-Yehuda, Ishak (not his real name), a 51-year-old Jewish-Iranian who is in Israel now only for a final visit, said the jewelry shop he opened here never sold anything, the renters to whom he leased a property did not pay and his heart began to fail him from the stress of monthly mortgage payments and no income.
So 10 months ago gray-haired Ishak gave up on the Zionist dream and began to move his family and belongings back to Iran. He filled some of his numerous suitcases and trunks with the Persian carpets, silverware, and home decorations he came here with, and flew to Turkey with his two sons. There they sent their new Israeli passports by express mail back to his daughter in Israel. Then they took out their Islamic Republic of Iran passports and boarded a flight to Teheran.
"I have a lot of Muslim friends and they all knew I'd moved to Israel," he said. "They asked me, 'Why did you come back?'" His Jewish friends in Iran already knew the answer.
Despite the declaration last week by Iran's president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that Israel must be wiped off the map, the Shihab missiles displayed in Teheran with "Israel" painted on them, the broadcasting of anti-Semitic films on national television and the much-publicized trials of 13 Jewish Iranians on spy charges, Ishak insists that life in Iran is far better for Jews than life in Israel.
"If you have problems there, people help you - and they know you are Jewish," said Ishak, who has now briefly returned to Israel to sell his shop and leave for good. "But here, everyone is looking out for himself. You can't trust anybody."
Ishak is not the only recent immigrant who prefers his Islamic birthplace to his Jewish homeland. Jerusalem's Jaffa Road and Rehov Ben-Yehuda are lined with shopkeepers originally from Iran who say they are desperate to go back - some to visit, some to live.
"My parents came for a visit and left two months ago," said Avi, who owns a shoe store on Jaffa Road. But the elderly couple has no intention of moving here.
"The Jews there live very well," he explained. "When [Ayatollah Ruhollah] Khomeini got in power he said there is a difference between Persian Jews who are from Moussa (Moses) and Zionist Jews."
"I thought that here it was good. I thought that all the Jews leave their doors unlocked and no one stole. But the Israeli people are not cultured. They are rude and disrespectful. In Iran people trust each other and when they give their word they keep it. Here you need a lawyer to get anyone to keep their promise."
Jews landing in Israel from Iran discredit ban on Hebrew teaching in Iran
JPost December 25, 2007
?Several families waiting in the arrival hall of the airport for the immigrants hotly contested Shraga's statement. They claimed there was no ban on studying Hebrew in Iran, and that Jewish schools have not been forced to shut down.?
?An Iranian Jew who immigrated to Israel six years ago, however, said that families continued to communicate with each other by phone without too many problems. From Israel, one can dial directly to Iran, and from within Iran, many families are using VoIP technology to communicate with their relatives in Israel via the Internet. ?
?"Ninety percent of the Iranian people, even though they are exposed to anti-Israel incitement and propaganda, have no real problem with Israel and the Jews," the Iranian-Israeli said.?
The State Department?s travel information website states that ?Iran creates hostile environments for minorities such as Christians and Jews?. This is Christmas in Iran
Christmas in Iran Photo Gallery
http://conflictiran.blogspot.c...christmas-in-iran.html
Look at this picture: http://photos1.blogger.com/blo...1/1600/149342_orig.jpg
By lighting up the heart of Tehran with Christmas lights one can only agree Iran is definitely creating a hostile environment for the Christians of Iran.
Guardian corrects wipe Israel off the map with regime occupying
?The following correction was printed in the Guardian's Corrections and clarifications column, Saturday July 28 2007
In the article below we reported that last year President Ahmadinejad said (quoting the late Ayatollah Khomeini) that Israel should be "wiped off the map". A more literal translation of the statement he made in 2005, at The World without Zionism conference in Tehran, is "the regime occupying Jerusalem must vanish from the page of time".?
Does discrimination against the minority population exist inside Iran? Sure it does. Is it enough to make their life a living hell? Absolutely not and by reading this thread you can come to your own conclusion on how Iran treats their minority population. Let?s start by talking about how Jews are discriminated against inside Iran. If a Jew converts to Islam that individual gets to inherit all of the family property. This has never happened so that is not a problem that the Jews of Iran are ?losing sleep over?. Jews inside Iran have reported that they have had a hard time rising up to managerial jobs in government positions. That statement alone indicates that the Islamic regime of Iran is hiring Jews to work for the government when unemployment rates with the general population who is mainly Muslim stands high in the double digits. One should also note that there are only 30,000 Iranian Jews inside Iran. How many of them could possibly hold government jobs for a large number of them to complain to foreign press about not being promoted?
Iranian male Jews are not required to join the mandatory Iranian armed services when they turn the legal age which is 18. Is that good/bad? Iranian male Jews are not allowed to hold senior ranking positions within the Iranian armed forces. How many Iranian Jews really want to join the armed services for this to have a great impact on their life?
Jews are allowed to have their own schools inside Iran, but must be open on Saturday which is a rule for all schools inside Iran. Are the students required to attend on Saturday? While the law clearly is silly, there is no law that says the Jews of that school have to attend school on Saturday. The principals of these schools are primarily Muslim, although again there is no law that requires them to be Muslim.
Yes, there have been arrests of Jews in the past. They had been charged with spying and were given lengthy sentences. The chargers were eventually dropped and these Jews are now free inside Iran. Can we link this to Iranian discrimination of Jews? In order to do so you would have to show that such things do not happen to the majority Muslim population. Could one show that? Is the Muslim population roaming around Iran with their heads up unafraid of the government speaking their mind? The fact is the same thing does happen to the majority Muslim population probably on a daily basis. Therefore, the only thing this will show is that the regime of Iran is bad for all their people and not just the minority population.
Inside Iran the state controls the media. Newspapers are constantly shutdown. However, Iran is not Saddam?s Iraq. Iranians inside Iran are permitted to have satellites which pick up signals from outside Iran. A handful of these signals come from our very own Los Angeles, California.
Below is a list of quotes mainly from Jews themselves, both inside Iran and outside Iran. All the quotes have come from reliable news organizations. These are the words of the people themselves.
If one still wishes to attempt to show that Iran is a dangerous regime where the Jews are suffering, then this is probably the most important piece of information you will get out of this thread. If they hate Iran so much then they can leave . Iran?s Jews have come out and said ?The identity of Iranian Jews is not tradable for any amount of money?. This statement was directed at a Jewish group who has offered all Iranians leaving Iran to move to Israel for $10,000.
Iranian Law ? Jews Allowed One Permanent Seat in Parliament
Iran's population is 70 million. Iran's Jewish population is 30,000 at its highest, which means .0428% of Iran's population is Jewish. So technically they should only have .0428% say in Iran's Parliament yet they have .3448% say. In fact they do not have to have a seat at all and their voice does not have to be heard, but under Iranian law their voice must be heard.
Iranian Jews speak out about travel to and from Israel
BBC
"Whatever they say abroad is lies - we are comfortable in Iran - if you're not political and don't bother them then they won't bother you "
""In the last five years the government has allowed Iranian Jews to go to Israel freely, meet their families and when they come back they face no problems," says Mr Mohtamed."
"It's not a problem coming and going; I went to Israel once through Turkey and once through Cyprus and it was not problem at all," she says."
"He says there is also a way for Iranian Jews who emigrated to Israel decades ago to return to Iran and see their families."
?Despite the offence Mahmoud Ahmedinejad has caused to Jews around the world, his office recently donated money for Tehran's Jewish hospital.?
Jews inside Iran speak to ABC News about life inside Iran.
ABCNews
"The relations between Jews and Muslims, between 70 million Muslims and 30,000 Jews, are very good," says Mohaber."In Israel, the situation for Iranian Jews is quite misunderstood."
"[The Islamic regime] made very good respect for me all the time, and did not care about my religion after the revolution," says Mohaber, who avoided a general purge of Jews from the officer ranks after Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution.?
?He notes "some difficulties," including restrictions on government employment, but says that Mr. Ahmadinejad's questioning of the Holocaust, while very unwelcome, "has no effect on our daily life." The president's fierce anti-Zionist speeches culminated with Iran hosting a controversial Holocaust conference last December.?
"There have been different voices [coming] from the government, so people felt unsafe," says Mr. Seleh. "But our existence here has always been separate from politics in Iran, and we always had peaceful coexistence with the Muslim community."
"There is always [talk] outside the country that religious minorities are under pressure," says Mr. Motamed. "It is important to say that what people say about minorities is completely wrong,"
"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."
Iranian Jewish Leader's letter to Iran's President
BBC
"Mr Yashayaei said the Holocaust was a fact of history and not a myth and accused the Iranian president of ignorance and political prejudice."
"Mr Yashayaei described the Holocaust as one of the most obvious and sad events in the 20th Century."
Iran?s Ex President says Holocaust is NOT a myth
BBC
?President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad brought international criticism when he called the Holocaust a "myth" last year.
Mr Khatami said the Holocaust was a "massacre of innocent people, among them many Jews", Iran media reported.
?He added: "We should speak out if even a single Jew is killed. Don't forget that one of the crimes of Hitler, Nazism and German National Socialism was the massacre of innocent people, among them many Jews."
Iranians Jews in Israel Return Back to Iran
JPost
Standing and fretting inside his empty shop on Jerusalem's Rehov Ben-Yehuda, Ishak (not his real name), a 51-year-old Jewish-Iranian who is in Israel now only for a final visit, said the jewelry shop he opened here never sold anything, the renters to whom he leased a property did not pay and his heart began to fail him from the stress of monthly mortgage payments and no income.
So 10 months ago gray-haired Ishak gave up on the Zionist dream and began to move his family and belongings back to Iran. He filled some of his numerous suitcases and trunks with the Persian carpets, silverware, and home decorations he came here with, and flew to Turkey with his two sons. There they sent their new Israeli passports by express mail back to his daughter in Israel. Then they took out their Islamic Republic of Iran passports and boarded a flight to Teheran.
"I have a lot of Muslim friends and they all knew I'd moved to Israel," he said. "They asked me, 'Why did you come back?'" His Jewish friends in Iran already knew the answer.
Despite the declaration last week by Iran's president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that Israel must be wiped off the map, the Shihab missiles displayed in Teheran with "Israel" painted on them, the broadcasting of anti-Semitic films on national television and the much-publicized trials of 13 Jewish Iranians on spy charges, Ishak insists that life in Iran is far better for Jews than life in Israel.
"If you have problems there, people help you - and they know you are Jewish," said Ishak, who has now briefly returned to Israel to sell his shop and leave for good. "But here, everyone is looking out for himself. You can't trust anybody."
Ishak is not the only recent immigrant who prefers his Islamic birthplace to his Jewish homeland. Jerusalem's Jaffa Road and Rehov Ben-Yehuda are lined with shopkeepers originally from Iran who say they are desperate to go back - some to visit, some to live.
"My parents came for a visit and left two months ago," said Avi, who owns a shoe store on Jaffa Road. But the elderly couple has no intention of moving here.
"The Jews there live very well," he explained. "When [Ayatollah Ruhollah] Khomeini got in power he said there is a difference between Persian Jews who are from Moussa (Moses) and Zionist Jews."
"I thought that here it was good. I thought that all the Jews leave their doors unlocked and no one stole. But the Israeli people are not cultured. They are rude and disrespectful. In Iran people trust each other and when they give their word they keep it. Here you need a lawyer to get anyone to keep their promise."
Jews landing in Israel from Iran discredit ban on Hebrew teaching in Iran
JPost December 25, 2007
?Several families waiting in the arrival hall of the airport for the immigrants hotly contested Shraga's statement. They claimed there was no ban on studying Hebrew in Iran, and that Jewish schools have not been forced to shut down.?
?An Iranian Jew who immigrated to Israel six years ago, however, said that families continued to communicate with each other by phone without too many problems. From Israel, one can dial directly to Iran, and from within Iran, many families are using VoIP technology to communicate with their relatives in Israel via the Internet. ?
?"Ninety percent of the Iranian people, even though they are exposed to anti-Israel incitement and propaganda, have no real problem with Israel and the Jews," the Iranian-Israeli said.?
The State Department?s travel information website states that ?Iran creates hostile environments for minorities such as Christians and Jews?. This is Christmas in Iran
Christmas in Iran Photo Gallery
http://conflictiran.blogspot.c...christmas-in-iran.html
Look at this picture: http://photos1.blogger.com/blo...1/1600/149342_orig.jpg
By lighting up the heart of Tehran with Christmas lights one can only agree Iran is definitely creating a hostile environment for the Christians of Iran.
Guardian corrects wipe Israel off the map with regime occupying
?The following correction was printed in the Guardian's Corrections and clarifications column, Saturday July 28 2007
In the article below we reported that last year President Ahmadinejad said (quoting the late Ayatollah Khomeini) that Israel should be "wiped off the map". A more literal translation of the statement he made in 2005, at The World without Zionism conference in Tehran, is "the regime occupying Jerusalem must vanish from the page of time".?
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