Irfan Yusuf: In a web of dangerous lies

The Iranian President, Mahmud Ahmadinejad, is the Islamic world's answer to the neo-Conservatives. He unnecessarily and obsessively manufactures conflict. He behaves ruthlessly with political opponents. And he is ever ready to use religious and cultural difference as an instrument of hatred.

Eight centuries ago, Saladin couldn't imagine liberating Jerusalem without his Jewish doctor-cum-rabbi Maimonides. But for Ahmadinejad, it seems the only liberated Jerusalem worth having is a non-kosher one.

Iran is complex and fascinating. Iranians are more fanatical about football than religion. Literacy rates exceed 90 per cent, and 70 per cent of the population is under 30. More women than men attend university.

Indeed, some have suggested that Iranian Muslims are culturally more European than their co-religionists from Bosnia. But neo-Conservatives will use any excuse to play the pipes for America's next war.

A proven method of drumming up support for a war is to give your audience a simplistic view of the enemy, even if it means telling outright lies. Supporters of the war with Iraq told us the Iraqis were conspiring with al Qaeda and were hiding weapons of mass destruction. Subsequently, we all learned these alleged "facts" used to justify the invasion of Iraq were lies.

We were also told the Coalition of the Killing would establish order and restore resources to Iraqis. Yet in the five months since a Shiite Muslim shrine was destroyed, more than 25,000 Iraqis have died in sectarian violence.

As if one military debacle wasn't enough, neo-Conservatives are telling lies to convince us of the need to fight another Middle Eastern country. This time, the tactic has been exposed. It started last month when Canada's National Post newspaper published an opinion piece from American writer Amir Taheri, claiming the Iranian Parliament (or Majilis) passed legislation regulating dress codes for religious minorities.

Taheri's story appeared with a 1935 photo of a Jewish businessman in Berlin with a yellow Star of David sewn on to his overcoat. The message was simple - Iran is the next fascist power and must be stopped even if it means war.

The Taheri article was picked up by Murdoch newspapers, including the New York Post. In pursuit of an anti-Iran jihad, conservative leaders began issuing fatwas.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper denounced the proposed law. US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack described the measure as "despicable" and reminiscent of "Germany under Hitler".

Even Australia's John Howard was reported in the Australian Jewish News as comparing Iran to Nazi Germany.Then the Sunday Times reported Iran's only Jewish MP, Maurice Motamed, as declaring that the story was a complete fabrication. Motamed's denial was unequivocal, and was based on his eyewitness account of debate over what turned out to be a bill regulating aspects of Iran's fashion industry.

So how did such an obvious lie find its way into reports of major newspapers and speeches of prime ministers? It appears the paper was misled by an organisation devoted to prosecuting Nazi war criminals.

According to a March 25 report by Tom Regan of the Christian Science Monitor, Canada's National Post sought confirmation of the veracity of the story from Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre for Holocaust Studies.

On the day Taheri's piece was published, the National Post cited Rabbi Marvin Heir of the centre's LA office as declaring the proposed legislation to be "reminiscent of the Holocaust", adding that "Iran is moving closer and closer to the ideology of the Nazis."

Such attempts to compare a modern leader's pronouncements to the Nazi murder of six million Jews might be regarded as an insult to the dead and their traumatised survivors.

Certainly, this was how the New York-based magazine the Jewish Week viewed the situation. Its editor-at-large, Larry Cohler-Esses, reveals how Rabbi Abraham Foxman, associate dean of the Wiesenthal Centre, responded to an inquiry from Jonathan Turley-Ewart, deputy editor of the National Post.

Turley-Ewart's question: "As per our conversation, I'm looking at running this, but I have not been able to confirm its veracity. Particularly, I want to make sure that part saying Jews will have to wear a yellow stripe and Christians a red stripe is, in fact, true."

Rabbi Foxman's email response, delivered one hour and 14 minutes later, was simple: "Dear John. The story is absolutely true."

Since the lies were exposed, the National Post has issued a full retraction. Yet this episode illustrates how easy it is for lies and propaganda to be used as a pretext for war.

* Irfan Yusuf is a Sydney lawyer and occasional lecturer in politics at Macquarie University.


Reader commment:

So was Irfan Yusuf's article about criticising the Iranian President or US neo-Conservatives? After the first paragraph it descended into the usual liberal anti-American ranting. The fact is that Iran does oppress women and homosexuals (women cannot even attend football matches) and it is seeking nuclear weapons for no good purposes (war on Israel). As for the civil war in Iraq - that is the fault of crazy religious zealots in the Middle East more than the fault of the Americans trying to promote freedom. Stick to being a lawyer - at least then we know you are only making up arguments to suit the client that pays you!
- - - posted by Michael Graham, 12.40pm June 23, 2006