Latest Hitler: how lies become news. (false story about Iran in the media, again)

Note to readers: I plan on spending more time on my other blog Rutherfordian-Economics and that was one reason for such little blogging here for the last month.

This post was orginally meant for Thom Hartman's Board as a piece on Irans drift toward fascism and taking on the traits of Nazi Regime. But since it turns out to be a hoax, I kind of wanted to save it for a case study. And with the speed of information on the internet both bloggers on the left and right have have fallen into the trap of bad information. It will always be a matter of what is done when questions arise. So instead of being as Dan Rather that tried to say the documents were questionable but the general facts are wrong, bloggers need to admit that the information is false and move on to explore the general issues that surround it.

The post started out withIran eyes badges for Jews.

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.

"This is reminiscent of the Holocaust," said Rabbi Marvin Hier, the dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles. "Iran is moving closer and closer to the ideology of the Nazis."

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.
...
"The world should not ignore this," said Rabbi Hier. "The world ignored Hitler for many years -- he was dismissed as a demagogue, they said he'd never come to power -- and we were all wrong."

Mr. Farber said Canada and other nations should take action to isolate Mr. Ahmadinejad in light of the new law, which he called "chilling," and his previous string of anti-Semitic statements.

"There are some very frightening parallels here," he said. "It's time to start considering how we're going to deal with this person."

As I have said before, I could care less what Mahmood believes or thinks, but I do care about what he does and his word has indicated what direction he wants to go. (Note: It looks like they took the content off the internet, the page comes back blank.)

But David Frum thinks this is Unfair to Iran:

But wait a minute - it is unjust to accuse the mullahs of getting the idea of badges for Jews from the Nazis. The truth is: the Nazis got the idea from the mullahs!

The first world leader to require Jews to wear distinctive badges (a yellow belt and a yellow conical "dunce" cap) was Haroun al-Rashid, the Abbasid caliph, who ruled in Baghdad in the era of Charlemagne, the late 700s and early 800s.

Haroun's idea was later copied by the popes, but long after it vanished from the Christian world it endured in Islamic countries. Even in our own time, one of the final acts of the Taliban in Afghanistan was to attempt to enforce a distinctive badge on that country's Hindu minority.

Everything old is new again, I suppose.

But it does remind that when groups like CAIR propose that "Islamophobia" explains the bad press Muslim regimes receive in the West - and call for the US government to act against this supposed menace - well, it may be time to ask (as one of Islam's great prophets put it),

"And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?"

I wonder which one of Islam's great prophets it was. And lastly:
Say Anything/Iran:Badges for Jews

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says he wants to "wipe Israel off the map", rants and babbles like Hitler, denies the Holocaust, and now this?

How big does the writing on the wall have to be, folks?

Links:
ThomHartman's Board/Latest Hitler: how lies become news. (false story about Iran in the media, again)
Breaking: Ahmadinejad to send a Letter to the Pope
Iran May Make Non-Moslems Wear Badges