Following the issue about the cartoon in The Columbus Dispatch I did a quick research on the cartoons published in the state-run newspaper Kayhan whose head is appointed by the Supreme Leader. The result? See it for yourself,
- US is the Nazi Germany.
- Jews are fat and always hold a gun.
- Arabs are fat and are America’s defecation.
- Jews are like snakes.
- Holocaust is a myth perpetuated to prepare pretext for murdering Palestinians.
- Americans are torturer thugs.
One of the cartoons is shown here, the rest are available in the photoblog
p.s. If you like technical details, I managed to extract the entire collection of cartoons published in Kayhan using a Matlab code.
[...] Comments Kamangir (Archer) – کمانگیر » Blog Archive » Offensiveness: A Proprietary Right on Do not Panic! You are not a Cockroach!ella on Do not Panic! You are not a Cockroach!Mohammad on [...]
Pingback by Kamangir (Archer) - کمانگیر » Blog Archive » Do not Panic! You are not a Cockroach! — September 6, 2007 @ 9:21 pm
You’re the best. Thanks.
Comment by serendip — September 6, 2007 @ 9:46 pm
Archer
Great stuff. Thank you.
I’ve just looked at some cartoons at Saudi newspapers.
- majority were about States and/or Bush – Bush as devil, america as devil or a fat capitalist/imperialist exploiter, depicted in some cartoons as a fat guy standing with hidden can of gasoline in one hand and in other hand holding an obvious sign “democracy”, and so on, and so forth
- fewer were about democracy (equal, according to some cartoons, to explosives and terrorism)
- couple were about other countries.
But USA is the most “popular” subject at the moment, even more popular than Israel.
And some people think cockroaches are bad!!!
Comment by ella — September 6, 2007 @ 11:51 pm
Kamangir jAn,
Your argument is really quite offensive. You are suggesting that what?…Iranians should stop the Kayhan from publishing anti-semetic cartoons before we start complaining about the odious racism on display at the Columbus Dispatch?…A really silly argument indeed. What does the Kayhan publishing racist material have anything to do with the wrongness of promoting bigotry against Iran and her people by an American paper? You speak as though Iranians bear some collective responsibility for the Kayhan cartoons, which we don’t.
The sewer cartoon is a display of bigotry, not a political statement about Iranian foreign policy. By portraying Iran as a sewer, the author is dehumanizing Iran and her people, pure and simple. Dehumanization is the first step in the road to genocide. Defending the cartoon is really unconscionable.
Comment by Hanif — September 7, 2007 @ 1:21 am
Excellent stuff! Thank you for making it public! THANK YOU!
Comment by armilnov — September 7, 2007 @ 6:50 am
The big Jewish nose! The anti-Semitic symbol has been around for centuries, so it’s good to see that Iranian cartoonists are keeping the old traditions.
Comment by Roman Kalik — September 7, 2007 @ 7:47 am
Don’t know if you would like to do this, but you’ve been nominated.
:D
I will link this post too. Once more, this people are hypocrites: they critisize others for the things they are doing once and again…
Comment by Vorzheva — September 7, 2007 @ 11:11 am
[...] has an informative post on the matter as well, please check her blog out. Kamangir also writes a post comparing the image to similar forms of propaganda and dehumanization in [...]
Pingback by Iranian Truth - Øقيقت ايرانى » Iranians Depicted as Cockroaches by US Newspaper — September 7, 2007 @ 11:30 am
The difference is that at least racism and bigory in the U.S. is not an official policy of the state, however, in Iran, the bigotry and xenephobia is promoted by the official government. Check this out:
And let’s look atCPMI report on the Iranian Education System and text books that demonizes just about everybody. The curriculum is basically an indoctrination of hate:
Indoctrination of hate by official government of Iran:
http://www.edume.org/
BRUSSELS — The Iranian education system is preparing its students for a global war against the West in the name of Islam, according to an independent study of 115 textbooks and teachers guides released today. With Tehran accused of seeking to develop a nuclear weapons arsenal and the United States dispatching a second aircraft carrier to the Gulf, the report by the Center for Monitoring the Impact of Peace highlights the uphill task Washington faces trying to persuade Iranian youth to distance themselves from the hard-line Islamist regime. The study, which claims to be the first of its kind, catalogs how pupils as young as 9 are conditioned to take part in a global jihad against such “infidel oppressors” as Israel and the United States. “Hate indoctrination is a professed goal of Iranian textbooks,” said the report’s author, Arnon Groiss, a Princeton- and Harvard-educated journalist who also has written critical studies of the Israeli, Palestinian, Syrian, Saudi and Egyptian education systems. According to Mr. Groiss, Iranian pupils learn from an early age that the Islamic republic is in mortal combat with Western powers bent on its destruction. One 11th-grade textbook, quoting former spiritual leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, refers to the United States and its allies as “the World Devourers” and says that if they “wish to stand against our religion, we will stand against their whole world and will not cease until the annihilation of all of them.” Students are drilled for battle from age 12, when they are obliged to take defense-readiness classes, according to the study by the Israel-based nongovernmental organization. Some also are drafted into the Revolutionary Guard and other elite combat units, where they are taught how to handle shoulder-propelled rocket launchers, the study says.
Through stories, poems, wills and exercises, martyrdom is glorified as a means of defending the Islamic republic and attaining eternal happiness, the report says. A Grade 10 textbook on “defense readiness” boasts that during the eight-year war with Iraq in the 1980s, half a million students were sent to the front and “36,000 martyrs … were offered to the Islamic Revolution.” Describing Iran’s school system as a “global war curriculum,” Mr. Groiss said the emphasis on military training from such a young age instilled a “siege mentality” among many students. “It is a form of child abuse to install such notions in children’s minds,” he told journalists at a briefing in the European Parliament in Brussels…
http://wpherald.com/articles/3230/1/Study-Iranian-textbooks-promoting-global-jihad/quotHate-indoctrinationquot-is-goal.html
The exclusionary hateful discourse from the medieval jihadist Islamic Republic, weekly Death chants sanctioned by mosques and clergies, glofrifying death over life, celeberating death of children as young as ten in the name of allah, all this keeps the Islamist connected to old immoveable tribal conceits and ‘frozen by decree’ Muslim traditions. It stands to reason that in a place where ideas do not move, but are rather replaced with zillions of rules learnt by rote, pretty soon you have a population incapable of true original reasonning and other innovations.
Comment by serendip — September 7, 2007 @ 2:47 pm
AL-HARAMAIN v. BUSH SURVEILLANCE HEARING
Only in America an Islamic Foundation in the U.S. can sue President of the United States:
Only in America, suspected organization helping terrorist groups can sue the President of the United States.
Not many people have heard of a court case that goes by the name Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation v. George W. Bush. But it’s currently at the center of a far-reaching legal struggle over terrorism, surveillance, and the United States Constitution that’s being played out in the courts.
On August 15, 2007, the Al-Haramain case made its way to San Francisco, where the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments prior to making a ruling — a ruling that (no matter which way it goes) will inevitably be appealed to the Supreme Court, where it will be settled once and for all.
http://www.zombietime.com/al-haramain_surveillance/
Comment by serendip — September 7, 2007 @ 2:58 pm