Standing By His Column

Amir Taheri is standing by his column, which accompanied another piece in the Canadian National Post claiming that Iran had passed laws requiring non Muslims to wear identifying badges or color schemes.

REGARDING the Iran dress code story, it seems that some media outlets used my column as the basis for reports that jumped the gun.

As far as my article is concerned, I stand by it.

The law has been passed by the Islamic Majlis and will now be submitted to the Council of Guardians. A committee has been appointed to work out the modalities of implementation.

Many ideas are being discussed with regard to implementation of the dress code - including special markers, known as zonnars, for followers of Judaism, Christianity and Zoroastrianism, the only faiths other than Islam that the Iranian regime recognizes as such. The zonnar was in use throughout the Muslim world until the early 20th century and marked out the dhimmis, or protected religious minorities. (In Iran, it was formally abolished in 1908).

I have been informed of the ideas under discussion thanks to my sources in Tehran, including three members of the Majlis who had worked to block the bill since it was first drafted in 2004.

I do not know which of these ideas, if any, will be eventually adopted. We will know once the committee appointed to discuss them presents its report, perhaps in September.

Interestingly, the Islamic Republic's authorities refuse to issue an official statement categorically rejecting the concept of dhimmitude and the need for marking out religious minorities.

I raised the issue not as a news story, because news of the new law was already several days old, but as an opinion column to alert the outside world to this most disturbing development.

Hot Air is not impressed with Taheri's statements, and cites some discrepancies between his statement today and the original statement. It would appear that he's walking back on some of his earlier comments without issuing a retraction or correction. In other words, he's pulling a Krugman - it's only an op-ed piece and not news so don't hold me accountable for my fact-checking.

That's not the way it works. You are held accountable for your fact-checking and in this case it appears suspect. Fake but accurate doesn't cut it.

Ace Pilots thinks that this could be pre-war propaganda, but as I earlier noted, there's no reason to exaggerate or fake news to make this heinous regime appear even worse. The mullahs have been threatening genocide against Israel, threatened the US and anyone else who might try and stop Iran's nuclear program, which they swear is for civilian purposes despite the fact that we keep getting news that Iran has highly enriched uranium, the purpose of which is for nuclear weapons - not civilian needs.

The thing is, Iran has been considering ways to differentiate between Muslims and non Muslims - and this has been debated since 2004. Is it only a matter of time before such a law is enacted, and should we even wait for this kind of barbarism to come to pass? Tigerhawk thinks that offering potential victims of such a law refuge is the right thing to do. I agree.

Others noting Taheri's statement: Powerline, memeorandum, The Jawa Report, and Blue Crab Boulevard.