Sunday, April 01, 2007

What does Jesus have to do with it?   [Michael Rubin]

I have been discussing off-line with other analysts this story from the Islamic Republic News Agency:

The Association of Iranian Jews…renewed its commitment in a message issued on the threshold of the Jewish religious festival of the Passover, which starts Monday night.

"In obedience to the instructions of Jesus, in the new Iranian year, which has been declared year of national unity and Islamic solidarity, Iranian Jews voice their readiness to defend all national interests of Iranians and to observe the guidelines set by Supreme Leader (Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei) for the sake of strengthening national unity and solidarity in the fight against present-day pharaohs," the message said.

Two possibilities emerge: Either revolutionary apparatchiks who know nothing of Judaism or Christianity are penning pro-Islamic Republic solidarity messages in other peoples' names—in which case ignorance is astounding as no one caught the mistake—or Iranian Jews living in the Islamic Republic (there are still around 20,000) are signaling that something is very wrong.

04/01 02:20 PMShare