No, it's not shocking that Iranian textbooks would teach hatred of the U.S. and Israel and urge students to wage jihad and seek "martyrdom." What is interesting is "U.S. academic" Shireen T. Hunter's contradicting the claims of an Iranian human rights activist that the books teach hatred and urge martyrdom. It's just Third World countries' distrust of "neocolonialist" powers, you see.
To think otherwise -- for instance, that the jihad ideology transcends whatever geopolitical factors are used as a pretext at the moment, and predates European colonialist aspirations -- would be Islamophobic. "Study says Iran textbooks urge martyrdom," by Thomas Wagner for AP:
LONDON - Textbooks used in Iran's schools are instilling students with hatred toward the West, especially the United States, and urging them to become "martyrs" in a global holy war against countries perceived to be enemies of Islam, a new study says.
An Iranian human rights activist, Ghazal Omid, praised the findings, saying they prove hard-liners in Iran are using the books to turn children into "ticking bombs."
However, a U.S. academic who specializes in Iran and Islam, and a former Iranian teacher said they believe the textbooks are a reflection of Iran's history and its deep suspicions of the West, not an effort to turn students into terrorists.
The books emphasize the teachings of the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and repeatedly refer to the United States as the "Great Satan" and to Israel as "the regime that occupies Jerusalem," said the study by the Israel-based Center for Monitoring the Impact of Peace.
Omid, who fled Iran and wrote "Living in Hell," an autobiography about her experiences there, urged changes to textbooks in Iran and elsewhere in the Middle East.
"I am an Iranian, a practicing Muslim woman, who sees it as her responsibility to stand up to hard-line Muslims who use Islam to brainwash children of that faith, in particular Iranian children, who the Iranian government is turning into ticking bombs," she said.
Omid, who lives in Canada, spoke at a news conference in London on Wednesday with study author Aron Groiss, director of research at the Center for Monitoring the Impact of Peace.
Calls to Iranian officials for comment were not immediately answered.
The study analyzed 95 textbooks and 20 teacher's guides used at Iran's state-run schools. Groiss said the curriculum "reflects Iran's belligerent intentions which should sound the alarm to anyone who is committed to peace and stability in the world."
The study noted, however, that Western culture "is not rejected in principle" in the books and that the attitude to other religions is generally "not hostile." The books include discussion sections on respecting other religions and don't say people should be forced to convert to Islam.
That's not the same as saying war should not be waged in order to place all peoples under Islamic law.
Shireen T. Hunter, a specialist on Islam and Iran at the Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University in Washington, said it was a mistake to portray Iranian textbooks as manuals for creating terrorists.
"In some ways, they simply reflect the deep distrust of Third World countries about the policies and motivations of the great powers, which they see as neocolonialist," she said.
"When such textbooks promote martyrdom they are referring to the sacrifices needed to defend Iran against foreign enemies as Iraq during the Iraq-Iran war."
In Tehran, Mostafa Mirzaian, an Iranian freelance political researcher who worked as a high school teacher in Iran in the 1980s, agreed.
"It is natural that a government, formed after an anti-West revolution and an eight-year war with Iraq, inserts such items in school textbooks," he said.
"But it has no remarkable effect. You saw when American wrestlers came to Iran for a competition in January; Iranian teenagers warmly welcomed them. Also, you don't see any attacks on the 25,000-member Jewish community in Iran."
Of course, no mention is made of the concept of dhimmitude, unbelievers' existence under Islamic law as "protected peoples," whose subjugation is enshrined in law per Qur'an 9:29.
Textbooks used in Iranian elementary schools included stories and poems that hailed martyrs such as those who died in the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war, Groiss said. Another picture book for 10-year-olds provides a basic acquaintance with weaponry, explosives and
military tactics, he said.
The study quotes one passage from a book for 10th graders as saying: "During the eight years of Holy Defense (the Iran-Iraq war), more than 500,000 school students were sent to the fronts. 36,000 martyrs, thousands of missing-in-action, invalids and liberated (prisoners of war) of this sacrificing section were offered to the Islamic Revolution."
A passage from a book for eighth graders says God gives "eternal Paradise to anyone who becomes a martyr in the cause of God. He considers martyrdom a great victory."
The United States is referred to as the "Great Satan," the "World Devourer" and the "Arrogant One" in the books, and Israel is shown on maps as "Occupied Palestine."
The study is the latest to call for textbook reform in the Islamic world. Such efforts are under way or planned in Egypt, Jordan and Kuwait to remove slurs against non-Muslims or promotions of extremism and terrorism. Israeli textbooks have undergone revisions since the 1990s to remove anti-Arab bias and present a more balanced account of Palestinian views and aspirations.
Teaching children to commit suicide for their 'faith' is nothing more than criminal child abuse.
"The books emphasize the teachings of the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini ..."
Like his ideas of old men pleasuring themselves with babies? Then as they get a little older, prepare them for martyrdom.
What inspirational thought leaders Islam produces! Starting with Mo himself!
Yeah, I've heard of Shireen T. Hunter. I would like to put her in a sleeping bag, then zip it all the way closed except for a small hole for her to breath through. Then, have 11 women, each 300+ lbs, in turn pass gas through the breathing hole.
Mayber those vapors would bring Shireen to her senses.
Also, you don't see any attacks on the 25,000-member Jewish community in Iran."
Uh, down from 80,000 before the Islamic revolution in 1979.
Details, details.
So much for the " tiny minority of extremist hijacking the religion of peace " mantra. Such a view is not worthy of being classified as a ' theory ', regardless of how many times President Bush and the media repeat it. It is a mantra. Either you mentally practice it or you don't.
The Iranian ruling class is desperately trying to generate a maximum amount of hate and contempt for the West. Using Islam no doubt as a vehicle for such hate and contempt for what better source to accomplish such a task? For the purpose of deflecting internal opposition to their own repressive, backward, impoverished society also built upon Islam.
Again what better source to build an impoverished, backward , repressive society than Islam?
From the limited Iranian Islamic mind whatever problem or obstacle you face Islam is the solution....even it Islam is the problem. That is the Catch-22 typed situation the Iranian ruling class is now and has been facing for some twenty something years from a social engineering point of view.
---Nossy
Naturally, of course, the creeps who wrote the textbooks will NOT be trying to "martyr" themselves. They will remain safely out of harm's way while they encourage their children to just throw away their lives for nothing. Liars. Cowards. Hypocrites.
Ms. Shireen T. Hunter is a specialist in misunderstanding. Her thesis or claim that "In some ways, they simply reflect the deep distrust of Third World countries about the policies and motivations of the great powers, which they see as neocolonialist" gets an "F." As if the religious rulers of Iran do not hang people in public and send weapons to Iraq and Lebanon and elsewhere about the globe in the colonialization by Iranian Islam of the Middle East. Moreover, I suspect that the professors who taught her to spin this crap in her doctoral thesis and later on as a respected member of the Academy of Dhimmi also deserve Fs as well and to be thrown out of Academia for gross incompetence and gross ignorance.
Iran was "de- colonialized" from England after World War II and was very little affected over the last 1000 year history by the United Kingdom during its Islamic period. England shares little of Iran's values or culture.
The learned doctor also overlooks the affect of political Islam on British society today. She appears deeply ignorant of the Moslem invasion of the West. She mouths platitudes about history that are ill conceived and ill expressed.
She also has apparently never read the Khomeini (may God find a suitable punishment for the man) who is sickeningly clear in his 1981 speech to celebrate the birth of Mohammed (may God find a suitable punishment) about his motivation and the motivation of the current nation of Iran that the Mullahs set up:
"The real Day of God is the day that Amir al mo’menin drew his sword and slaughtered all the khavarej and killed them from the first to the last. The Days of God are when Allah, the gracious, the almighty, causes an earthquake.It is when He slaps on the face. It is when he causes a hurricane. He whips this people to become humans. If the Amir al mo’menin wanted to be tolerant, he would not have drawn his sword killing 700 people in one go In our prisons we have more of the same kind of people who are corrupt. If we do not kill them, each one of them that gets out, will become a murderer! They don’t become humans. Why do you Mullahs only go after the ordinances of prayer and fasting? Why do you only read the Quranic verses of mercy and do not read the verses of killing? Quran says; kill, imprison!Why are you only clinging to the part that talks about mercy? Mercy is against God. Mehrab means the place of war, the place of fighting.Out of the mehrabs, wars should proceed, Just as all the wars of Islam used to proceeded out of the mehrabs. The prophet has [had] sword to kill people..Our [Holy] Imams were quite military men. All of them were warriors. They used to wield swords; they used to kill people. We need a Khalifa who would chop hands, cut throat, stone people. In the same way that the messenger of God used to chop hands, cut throats, and stone people. In the same way that he massacred the Jews of Bani Qurayza because they were a bunch of discontent people. If the Prophet used to order to burn a house or exterminate a tribe that was justice.The lives of people must be secured through punishment. Because, the protection of the masses lies beneath these very punitive executions. With just a few years of imprisonment things don’t get fixed. You must put aside these childish sentimentalism. We believe that the accused essentially does not have to be tried. He or she must just be killed. Only their identity is to be established and then they should be killed."
Typical that a "scholar" from Georgetown would back the Islamic POV and agenda. That institution is a disgrace to the Catholic Church...I wish that the Vatican would rescind its approval of it....
All while the ayahs and imams who know what's right for all of us wear silk underware beneath their robes, hiding deep in their bunkers. Every day they put on their silk underpants to martyr themselves another day. They will be wearing silk when pig eating Christians and Jews come to bring them their personalized designer pig-skin body bags. Where they're going, they can have the textbooks say whatever they want.
"It is natural that a government, formed after an anti-West revolution and an eight-year war with Iraq, inserts such items in school textbooks," he [Mostafa Mirzaian[ said.
WtF?
No it is 'natural' at all. That is what totalitarian regimes do.
Oh, but it's all right to force students to swallow state propaganda because Iran is a 'third world' country.
What utter drivel.
So everyone agrees, this is a war between Islam and Christianity. As I said before, the Jews are just being used as scape-goats in this mess.
Here are a few excerpts from some Iranian textbooks:
8th grade:
"Exalted God orders the Believers in many verses in the Holy Koran to fight the Jihad in the cause of God and kill the oppressors. He gives the glad tidings of forgiveness and eternal Paradise to anyone who becomes a martyr in the cause of God. He considers martyrdom a great victory."
11th grade:
"O Muslims of all countries of the world! Since under the foreigners’ dominance gradual death has been inflicted on you, you should overcome the fear of death and make use of the existence of the passionate and the martyrdom-seeking youths, who are ready to smash the borders of unbelief. Do not think of keeping the status quo. Rather, think of escape from captivity, of deliverance from slavery, and of attack against the enemies of Islam. Glory and life are in fighting, and the first step of fighting is [the existence of] will. After that, there is the decision that you forbid yourselves to [submit to] the supremacy of world unbelief and polytheism, especially America."
10th grade:
"The birth of one baby in the United States of America puts 100 times more pressure on the Earth's resources, and on the natural environment, than the birth of a baby in Bangladesh. Because the living of one American individual is linked to the consumption of more food and clothing, the possession of a private car, more communication and transportation, and the generation of more refuse and pollution, while the lifestyle in Bangladesh is such that it does not require great quantities of mineral resources and energy.
One American family has an impact on the natural environment 40 times more than an Indian family, and 100 times more than a Kenyan family."
------------
The author of such masterpieces is, of course, Ayatollah Khomeini.
"[Shireen T. Hunter] a U.S. academic who specializes in Iran and Islam, and a former Iranian teacher said they believe the textbooks are a reflection of Iran's history and its deep suspicions of the West, not an effort to turn students into terrorists."
-- from the article above
"Academic"? She's the Lady MacBeth of Washington think-tanks, who managed to push her husband Robert forward, even managing to get him, under -- bien sur -- Carter, an appointment as Ambassador to NATO. J. B. Kelly was in Washington in those days, and took his measure --and hers. Power couples, power couples, even those semidemihemi-quavering power couples, and especially those with the more aggressive of the two being the woman -- a Washington sight. One thing Kelly did vividly recall in his encounters with Shireen Hunter, is how unpleasant she was in her obvious contempt for the American government and American people.
Shall I tell you what the Iranians in exile, the real exiles, think of Shireen T. Hunter? Or can you guess?
She's somehow ended up, has she not, by dint of being Iranian, as some kind of pseudo-expert, with a title on the door, at one of those Centers for Strategic Thisandthat -- a little like the sociologiset Judith Kipper, who was coming back from something sociological somewhere, and her plane stopped in Cairo, and she fell in love with the exotic Muslim Arab east, and though she knows nothing about Islam, and hence nothing of significance about that Muslim Arab East she finds so attractive, she's been pushing and promoting herself ever since, and her bluff -- according again to Kelly and a few others -- has never been called.
Washington, Think-Tanks. Those "experts." Those "position papers."
Those Mr. and Mrs. MacBeths.
Iran turns out fanatics. Saudi Arabian funded schools turn out lunatics and American schools turn out homosexual pacifists doped to oblivion wanting a national Hillary Clinton mommy.
Now if you were a betting man Horace....just who do you think in this shooting fight is going to win it?
The lunatics who are teaching violence or the queers indoctrinating sex is the definition of life?
Money bet is on the jihad as there just aren't enough trigger pullers in the homeschoolers patriotic homes. America is going to use up it's first wave as the European cartel and communist Russian and Chinese intend on muslim fodder and then whatcha gonna do when comrade Ivan comes calling for you?
The problem isn't Islam. America could wipe it out in 2 years in revolution and 15 minutes with nukes. The problem is Rockefeller controlled National Education and the Ford and MacArthur foundations turning American kids into bayonet bait for the globalists.
Read the National Bolshevik's manifesto out of Russia. Putin is one of them. They mean to bury America behind our ocean fortress and then come in and wipe us out.
This supposedly direct dictation from God (unlike the Bible-which is considered inspired). This a rationalization for exploitation of unbelievers. It's sick. Very sick.
009.029
YUSUFALI: Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued.
PICKTHAL: Fight against such of those who have been given the Scripture as believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, and forbid not that which Allah hath forbidden by His messenger, and follow not the Religion of Truth, until they pay the tribute readily, being brought low.
SHAKIR: Fight those who do not believe in Allah, nor in the latter day, nor do they prohibit what Allah and His Messenger have prohibited, nor follow the religion of truth, out of those who have been given the Book, until they pay the tax in acknowledgment of superiority and they are in a state of subjection.
Sounds like they should rename that organization "The center for the whitewash of Islam by naive Christians".
Another bit about Shireen T. Hunter:
She is now the head of some phony "Islam Reform" project at the Carnegie Foundation.
That is the place that doles out the money left by dour and thrifty Andrew Carnegie. Now in these heady 501(c)(3) days -- was there ever an alphanumeric as magical, as full of promise? --- the spectacle of the donors leaving money, or establishing foundations that will dole out their money supposedly in ways they would approve, or leaving art works or collections of art that are not, by the terms of the gift or bequest (I know my James Casner), are not to be deaccessioned and whispering they would ne'ere de-accesion -- those museum heads go right ahead and de'accession.
Well, now comes Vartan Gregorian. A man used to flattering -- but just the right amount, just the right way -- the rich, first on behalf of the New York Public Library, and then for Brown University, which he briefly headed, before leaving it again, for Upper East Side opulence, and those town-houses, and those unbeatable News York rich, so much more fun even than the nicely-maintained campus of Brown, with its greensward, and its John Carter Brown Library, and all the rest of it.
Now Gregorian grew up in Tabriz. He has fond memories of Tabriz, where he lived under the Shah -- the Shah in whose reign the treatment of non-Muslims reached a height of fairness and tolerance that never was equalled before, in the history of Islamic Iran, nor of course since. Now Vartan Gregorian may not know much about the concept of the "najis." He may not know about Shah Abbas and the forced conversion, overnight, of Jews and Armenians. He may not know that even into the twentieth century, Jews in Iran could be executed for daring to go out in the rain -- I doubt if he has read the work of Lawrence Loeb on the Jews of Iran. I doubt as well that he has read the work of Mary Boyce, the great historian of Zoroastrianism, who like Lawrence Loeb, actually lived among those she studied and wrote about.
He lived, that is, in a brief moment, an interlude in Iranian history. That interlude was made possible by a Shah who was as secular, as westernized -- both he, and his court -- as even Ataturk. So when Vartan Gregorian, in his sentimental way, writes his memoir about growing up in Tabriz, and remembers, for the inquisitive Charlie Rose, all about Sa'adi and Hafiz and the E.C. Browne wonders of Persian poetry, does Vartan Gregorian ever stop to think that just perhaps his own private Tabriz, and his lucky escape, as a young man, from Iran, has nothing or very little to tell us about the Islamic Rebpublic of Iran, or about that learned theologian Ayatollah Khomeini, or Khamenei, for that matter, or Ahmadinajad, or indeed about very much of use for the Infidels of this world who need, desperately, not to be fooled about Islam, and certainly not to be fooled by this "project" of Islamic reform which consists, at the Carnegie, of hiring such dismal people as Shireen T. Hunter, and Vincent Cannistraro (if you want to know what's been wrong with the American government, what has kept it from finding out, until very late and very imperfectly, about the theory and practice of Islam, simply look at the likes of Vincent Canjnistraro, from 1948 to 1987 a counterterrorism "expert" at the National Secuirty Council, and subsequently some kind of counterterrorism bigshot at the C.I.A. -- his statements are an unbroken horror of misundersanding, appeasement, and transparent apologetics.
So what's going on at that Carnegie Foundation? And why doesn't Vartan Gregorian, a smooth man, a man used to unctuously courting the rich, beginning but hardly ending with Brooke Astor in his old Literary-Lions days, start pulling up his socks, and if he cannot bring himself to listen to his old friend Vahakn Dadrian about Islam, then at least stop funding this nonsense and start funding the brave apostates -- Ibn Warraq, Ali Sina, Azam Kamguian, Wafa Sultan, Nonie Darwish, Walid Shoebat -- who are the real truth-tellers, and the ones who need to be helped, supported, publicized, and not the Shireen T. Hunters, the Vincent Cannistraros, or the assorted Khaled Abou el Fadls who are on the Carnegie dole.
Do the decent thing, Gregorian. You spent so many years raising money for the library. Read, for god's sake, about what Islam teaches. Readd, for god's sake, about the history of Jihad-conquest and the subjugation of non-Muslims under Islam.
When you've read, at the very least, "The Dhimmi" and "Islam and Dhimmitude" and "The Decline ofr Eastern Christianity Under Islam," when you begin to sniff, by the way, which way the winds of political and intellectual fashion are now blowing (Hint: they're beginning to blow our way, the way of Jihad Watch, the way of no-nonsense realism about Islam, both here and in Western Europe), then one assumes you will, at long last, have whatever sentimental scales (that boyhood in Tabriz) need to fall from your eyes.
And then you will be able to find people and projects to support who wish to instruct, and protect, the legal and political institutions of the Western world, and their social arrangments as well. And the million Iranians in exile, many of whom are truth-tellers and are apppalled by the likes of Shireen Hunter, are ready for you to interview, if you have -- as you should -- some sudden vacancies to fill.
She has been the head of this project at Carnegie, but above she is identified by what must be her permanent base of operations:
"Shireen T. Hunter, a specialist on Islam and Iran at the Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University in Washington."
In other words, one more recruit to the swelling army of well-paid apologists gathered together under the tireless leadership of Major General John Esposito. Perhaps she shares quarters with Yvonne Haddad. What a place, that place must be. That Roman soothsayer, who meets another soothsayer on the Capitoline Hill, had nothing on one of these apologists running into another, at the "Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding" in Washington.
Life Insurance for Pali Suicide Bombers
http://sheikyermami.com/2007/02/11/life-insurance-for-pali-suicide-bombers/
A concise essay on the evil of Islam
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=26769
While most is known to JW readers, the article is still worth reading, as it examines Political Islam - the dominant force in Islam.
And
"The Appetite of Tyranny", by G.K.Chesterton, written almost 90 years ago. Now on LGF, JW and other such sites, we have characterised this war as not a war between civilisations but one between civilisation and barbarism. In this essay, Chesterton defines the essence of barbarism, but in the context of Prussia. Some of the language is not quite consonant with our PC times, nonetheless, this essay of Prussian barbarism and barbarism in general. The Islamic menace that we face is the barbarian again but in the guise of a religion.
A few quotes - Substitute Prussian for Islam and the coat fits.
Barbarism - For we do not mean anything that is an imperfect civilisation by accident. We mean something that is the enemy of civilisation by design. But (in our meaning) barbarism is not a matter of methods but of aims.
or
Do what he (Prussian) will, he cannot get outside the idea that he, because he is he and not you, is free to break the law; and also to appeal to the law.
or
The definition of the true savage is that he laughs when he hurts you; and howls when you hurt him.
or
Do what he will, he cannot get outside the idea that he, because he is he and not you, is
free to break the law; and also to appeal to the law.
The Appetite of Tyranny
It must be obvious now that despite the efforts of many in the blogosphere and else where, the MSM is reluctant to place the spotlight on Islam. Bill Warner comments about this, and posits some reasons why this is so. The first is fear. The other is shame.
If the MSM is reluctant to examine Islam in the religious context, then another direction of critique has to be found. G K Chesterton's definitions of the barbarian, which Islam fulfills quite handsomely, is just that other way.
The essay is really a must read.
Turkey calls Islamic Jihad 'Nationalism'-
Orhan Pamuck left the country in fear of his life....
http://sheikyermami.com/2007/02/11/the-struggle-of-orhan-pamuk-and-turkeys-intellectuals/
Hugh's Lady MacBeth of Washington has tried to out a damned spot or two of blood before. Her 1992 book "Iran Under Khomeini" contains this prediction in an Amazon editorial review:
"Recognizing that economic necessity tempers ideological excess, Shireen Hunter suggests that the Islamic regime will likely survive and Iran will be reintegrated into the international community in the 1990s..."
Yeah. OK.
Three Italian women (tourists) raped and stoned to death in Kapverdic Islands.
One seems to have survived:
http://sheikyermami.com/2007/02/11/3-italian-women-raped-stoned-kapverdic-islands/
I visit Jihad Watch almost everyday and tell others...we should all do the same. These posts are our bread and butter, no matter how bitter.
Respect to you all
Newsflash: the Qur'an urges martyrdom.
Nothing surprising. marx mullah nexus INSEPARABLE. Or call it communism and thisisnotislam. Take your pick. Same same.
Cadaverous India has always been the above. Not CHINA. With laudable vibrant COURAGE and WIT
CHINA offered ( to dhimmi great great india ):
" Should you require any assistance in dealing with your marxists, we are EVER READY ". Amen ! SO be it !! ( my personal opinion )
Idiots are never shown any clemency even by GOD.
jud:
" But, why don't any of us ever really fight back"?
One solitary non pc Indian ( HINDU ) in contemporary India tossed a gem of wisdom:
" When you kill, slaughter in millions. World will bow down to you. When you decide to cheat and steal do so in trillions, zillionsss whatever. Banks will come forward to negotiate with you ".
Now I will spice it up with my own gem of wisdom. Remember always, to assert that your " inner voice " is inspiring you to do whatever you do. And call it " calibrated ahimsaaic gandigiri " , if at all anyone is left with any tongue to demand an apology.....
Shireen T. Hunter, a specialist on Islam and Iran at the Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University in Washington, said it was a mistake to portray Iranian textbooks as manuals for creating terrorists.
"In some ways, they simply reflect the deep distrust of Third World countries about the policies and motivations of the great powers, which they see as neocolonialist," she said.
Quick, name all the United States' Colonies.
The only reason that overwhelmingly illiterate Third World countries have this deep distrust of the great powers is that they are spoon fed that idea by wackos like her.