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May 19, 2006
Never Again: Mad Mullah-Iranian edition
In 1941, Nazi SS and Police General Reinhard Heydrich, Head of the Sicherheitsdienst (SD or Nazi Security Service), issued an order requiring Jews to wear a yellow 6-pointed “Star of David.” A portion of the document, above, is translated below.
Here are my guidelines for the enforcement of the Police Decree Regarding The Identifying Emblem for Jews dated 1 September 1941. In those cases where the use of the emblem is related to transportation I have the agreement of the Reichsminister of Traffic, Reichsminister of Mail and the Reichsminister of Aviation.
I) Identifying Emblems for Jews.
a) the Emblem for Jews must be worn by all Jews sewed to the garment on the left chest at heart level so it is obvious. In addition to being worn in public it must also be worn in places like private air raid shelters where problems might occur if Jews were not identified. Jews are required to care for these emblems and keep them clean. This Central Agency for Jewish Emigration is charged with the distribution of Jewish Emblems. The State Union of Jews in Germany and the Jewish Cultural Community in Wien (Vienna) and Prag (Prague) will be involved in those cities.
The penalty for refusing to wear the star was death.
The yellow Star of David patch has become a symbol of the horror of the Nazi's systematic attempt to eliminate the entire Jewish people, a crime that began by visually marking the Jews as the dreaded "Other," someone -- something -- to be avoided.
"Never again!" cried the world after the liberation of the death camps.
This morning I read this.
Human rights groups are raising alarms over a new law passed by the Iranian parliament that would require the country's Jews and Christians to wear coloured badges to identify them and other religious minorities as non-Muslims.
[...]
Iranian expatriates living in Canada yesterday confirmed reports that the Iranian parliament, called the Islamic Majlis, passed a law this week setting a dress code for all Iranians, requiring them to wear almost identical "standard Islamic garments."
The law, which must still be approved by Iran's "Supreme Guide" Ali Khamenehi before being put into effect, also establishes special insignia to be worn by non-Muslims.
Iran's roughly 25,000 Jews would have 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.
[...]
It would make religious minorities immediately identifiable and allow Muslims to avoid contact with non-Muslims.
A spokesman for the Iranian Embassy in Ottawa refused to comment on the measures. "This is nothing to do with anything here," said a press secretary who identified himself as Mr. Gharmani.
"We are not here to answer such questions."
The Simon Wiesenthal Centre has written to Kofi Annan, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, protesting the Iranian law and calling on the international community to bring pressure on Iran to drop the measure.
[...]
Mr. Ahmadinejad has repeatedly described the Holocaust as a myth and earlier this year announced Iran would host a conference to re-examine the history of the Nazis' "Final Solution."
He has caused international outrage by publicly calling for Israel to be "wiped off the map."
I won't hold my breath, waiting for the U.N. to respond to the 21st-Century resurrection of Heydrich's order.
But who is prepared to deny that we ought to take the Iranians at their word, when they say that Israel must be wiped off the map?
Posted by Mike Lief at May 19, 2006 07:13 AM
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Comments
So Iran is dishing out religious superiority, nuclear build-up and now dress codes to "avoid contact" with non-Muslims. It's getting pretty scary over there. I wonder what people think of this peace-loving religion now.
Posted by: Vermont Neighbor at May 19, 2006 12:11 PM
Burn this evil Islamic civilization to the ground! Burn it in the flash of a nuclear fire! Iran will certainly be destroyed by Israeli or American nuclear weapons one day. The question is whether it will be destroyed before or after they have killed millions of Israelis or Americans with their own nuclear weapons.
Posted by: Red Stater at May 19, 2006 06:51 PM