Iran Again
It seems that a week can't go by without Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad making the news. Although this one doesn't have much to do with the Holocaust, it does confirm my thoughts on the Iranian President. Ahmadinejad is not the sort of guy you want to befriend. Although some revisionists were happy to see a head of state call the Holocaust a "myth," this is the same head of state who has banned open Christian witness to Muslims. This government sends spies to monitor Christian groups and believers are routinely discriminated against. Iran typifies Islamic fundamentalism. The Iranian revolution of 1979 supported many radical Islamic groups in Arab countries around the world. In the years since their revolution Iran has supported Islamic fundamentalists who have terrorized the world. Now we see that Ahmadinejad has banned Western music.
The only hero of this piece is Ali Rahbari, the conductor of the Tehran Symphony Orchestra. Rahbari conducted Beethoven's 9th Symphony and then proceeded to get out of the country. Revisionists would do well to condemn Ahmadinejad and his regime. Those who would ban music and disallow freedom of religion and freedom of speech should always be denounced. Ahmadinejad is not the sort of "friend" revisionists need or should accept.
Iran Revives Broadcast Ban on Western Music
By Nasser Karimi
Associated Press
Tuesday, December 20, 2005; Page A25
TEHRAN, Dec. 19 -- President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has banned all Western music from Iran's state radio and TV stations -- a throwback to the 1979 Islamic revolution, when popular music was outlawed as "un-Islamic" under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
The official IRAN Persian daily reported Monday that Ahmadinejad, as head of the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution, ordered the enactment of an October ruling by the council to ban all Western music, including classical music, on state broadcast outlets.
Ahmadinejad's order means the state broadcasting authority must execute the decree and prepare a report on its implementation within six months, according to the IRAN Persian daily.
Earlier this month, Ali Rahbari, conductor of Tehran's symphony orchestra, resigned and left Iran to protest the treatment of the music industry in Iran.
Music was outlawed by Khomeini soon after the 1979 revolution. Many musicians went abroad and built an Iranian music industry in Los Angeles.
But as revolutionary fervor started to fade, some light classical music was allowed on Iranian radio and television; some public concerts reappeared in the late 1980s. Since Khomeini's death in 1989, pop music has been creeping into Iranian shops.
In the 1990s, particularly during the presidency of reformist Mohammad Khatami starting in 1997, authorities began relaxing restrictions further. These days in Iran, Western music, films and clothing are widely available. Bootleg videos and DVDs of films banned by the state are widely available on the black market.
The ban enacted by Ahmadinejad applies to state-run radio and TV. But Iranians with satellite dishes can get broadcasts originating outside the country.
The only hero of this piece is Ali Rahbari, the conductor of the Tehran Symphony Orchestra. Rahbari conducted Beethoven's 9th Symphony and then proceeded to get out of the country. Revisionists would do well to condemn Ahmadinejad and his regime. Those who would ban music and disallow freedom of religion and freedom of speech should always be denounced. Ahmadinejad is not the sort of "friend" revisionists need or should accept.
Iran Revives Broadcast Ban on Western Music
By Nasser Karimi
Associated Press
Tuesday, December 20, 2005; Page A25
TEHRAN, Dec. 19 -- President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has banned all Western music from Iran's state radio and TV stations -- a throwback to the 1979 Islamic revolution, when popular music was outlawed as "un-Islamic" under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
The official IRAN Persian daily reported Monday that Ahmadinejad, as head of the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution, ordered the enactment of an October ruling by the council to ban all Western music, including classical music, on state broadcast outlets.
Ahmadinejad's order means the state broadcasting authority must execute the decree and prepare a report on its implementation within six months, according to the IRAN Persian daily.
Earlier this month, Ali Rahbari, conductor of Tehran's symphony orchestra, resigned and left Iran to protest the treatment of the music industry in Iran.
Music was outlawed by Khomeini soon after the 1979 revolution. Many musicians went abroad and built an Iranian music industry in Los Angeles.
But as revolutionary fervor started to fade, some light classical music was allowed on Iranian radio and television; some public concerts reappeared in the late 1980s. Since Khomeini's death in 1989, pop music has been creeping into Iranian shops.
In the 1990s, particularly during the presidency of reformist Mohammad Khatami starting in 1997, authorities began relaxing restrictions further. These days in Iran, Western music, films and clothing are widely available. Bootleg videos and DVDs of films banned by the state are widely available on the black market.
The ban enacted by Ahmadinejad applies to state-run radio and TV. But Iranians with satellite dishes can get broadcasts originating outside the country.
posted by Freeman @ 10:44 AM
2 Comments:
At 6:49 AM,
Anonymous said…
<< Ahmadinejad is not the sort of guy you want to befriend. Although some revisionists were happy to see a head of state call the Holocaust a "myth," >>
Well, since my comments on this keep getting deleted at the Revisionist Forum, I want to reiterate that these radical Muslim countries do not have freedom of speech, and if Revisionists become too closely associated with them they will lose.
It is not a question of "getting the word of Revisionism out" but doing so credibly. That can't be done if Revisionism becomes seen as sponsored by Islamic propaganda.
If the Iranian President and others really want to help they can support Revisionists who are imprisoned for Thoughtcrimes.
Also, the idea of an Islamic Revisionist conference is a joke. Revisionists would be far safer in the United States, where the most they will have to worry about is not overstaying their visas and where terrorism is limited to placards and stinkbombs from the JDL.
What is needed is exactly what Germar Rudolf advises, "cautious mainstream Revisionism."
~ Scott Smith
At 11:38 AM,
Bradley R. Smith said…
Scott: I agree that what we really need, and what we would really prefer as well, is a "mainstream" revisionist movement. That's where I began and where I ecxpect to end. Nevertheless, I was condemned from the beginning as an anti-Semite, condemned as a racist, condemned as a hater, condemned, condemned and it never ended. There is (almost) no one in the mainstream in America who is willing to talk about revisionist issues.
It was that way in 1979 when I got into this, and nothing has changed. One way to get out to the mainstream is to follow the story and demonstrate the vaule of revisionist arguments to it. I think it wise, if chancy, to use the rising tide of revisionist comment in the Muslim world to further the case for revisionism. We do not have to accept Iranian politics, do not have to agree with all Iranian cultrual values.
But why not point out, as I have been doing recently, that revisionist arguments are spreading quickly through the educated Arab and Muslim worlds? It's the truth. And I rather have to agree with one very sensible comment by the Iranian president.
If the Europeans were ashamed of European behavior toward the Jews before and during WWII, and felt the need to give Jews land, they should have given them land in Europe, not land on another continent owned by another poeple who did not want to give up their own land to foreigners. What could be simpler? What American politician is ever going to say it?
We can follow the growth of revisionism around the world without compromising our own values. Why not? I am willing to say the same thing to Arabs as I am to Istraelis and Americans. Intellectual freedom is either there for all of us, or it's not there. I understand that in much of the Arab/Muslim world, it is not there.
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