Analyst's note: The new "Fritz Kuhn" drops his mask. The petulant adolescent darling of the Leftist media, Reza Aslan, is a Board member of the National Iranian American Council, a group that genuine Iranian pro-democracy forces regard as an apologetic vehicle for the Islamic Republic of Iran. Thus it was no surprise to find Reza Asian's article published in The Atlantic discussing how we have misjudged Iran's Ahmadinejad. Don't be surprised ... just because he looks like a typical Amderican in the picture below .... Asain really doesn't think like us.
"[....]It might seem shocking to both casual and dedicated Iran-watcher that the bombastic Ahmadinejad could, behind Tehran's closed doors, be playing the reformer. After all, this was the man who, in 2005, generated wide outrage in the West for suggesting that Israel should be "wiped from the map." But even that case said as much about our limited understanding of him and his context as it did about Ahmadinejad himself. The expression "wipe from the map" means "destroy" in English but not in Farsi. In Farsi, it means not that Israel should be eliminated but that the existing political borders should literally be wiped from a literal map and replaced with those of historic Palestine. That's still not something likely to win him cheers in U.S. policy circles, but the distinction, which has been largely lost from the West's understanding of the Iranian president, is important....
It is a common claim that Ahmadinejad's saying that he wanted to wipe Israel off the map was mistranslated, but the New York Times -- of all people -- exploded the claim here in 2006. Is Aslan guilty of sloppy research, or of intentional deception? You be the judge.
A few gems from the liberalizing, secularizing reformer Ahmadinejad:
Thug-In-Chief: U.S. staged 9/11 to assure Israel's survival
Ahmadinejad: Qur'an-burning a "Zionist plot" that will bring about Israel's annihilation
Iran's Thug-In-Chief predicts removal of "the Zionist regime from the world scene"
Iran's Thug-In-Chief: Jews "only appear to be human," Iran working to "rescue the American people"
How about you, Reza? Do you agree with your hero that Jews "only appear to be human"?
More background on this patently deceptive Islamic supremacist: Aslan has called on the U.S. Government to negotiate with Ahmadinejad and Hamas -- that is, with some of the most barbaric and genocidally-inclined adherents of Sharia. He has even praised the jihad terror group Hizballah as "the most dynamic political and social organization in Lebanon," recalling the useful idiots and fellow travelers who used to praise Stalinist Russia and even Hitler's Germany for their social services apparatuses."
"[....]It might seem shocking to both casual and dedicated Iran-watcher that the bombastic Ahmadinejad could, behind Tehran's closed doors, be playing the reformer. After all, this was the man who, in 2005, generated wide outrage in the West for suggesting that Israel should be "wiped from the map." But even that case said as much about our limited understanding of him and his context as it did about Ahmadinejad himself. The expression "wipe from the map" means "destroy" in English but not in Farsi. In Farsi, it means not that Israel should be eliminated but that the existing political borders should literally be wiped from a literal map and replaced with those of historic Palestine. That's still not something likely to win him cheers in U.S. policy circles, but the distinction, which has been largely lost from the West's understanding of the Iranian president, is important....
It is a common claim that Ahmadinejad's saying that he wanted to wipe Israel off the map was mistranslated, but the New York Times -- of all people -- exploded the claim here in 2006. Is Aslan guilty of sloppy research, or of intentional deception? You be the judge.
A few gems from the liberalizing, secularizing reformer Ahmadinejad:
Thug-In-Chief: U.S. staged 9/11 to assure Israel's survival
Ahmadinejad: Qur'an-burning a "Zionist plot" that will bring about Israel's annihilation
Iran's Thug-In-Chief predicts removal of "the Zionist regime from the world scene"
Iran's Thug-In-Chief: Jews "only appear to be human," Iran working to "rescue the American people"
How about you, Reza? Do you agree with your hero that Jews "only appear to be human"?
More background on this patently deceptive Islamic supremacist: Aslan has called on the U.S. Government to negotiate with Ahmadinejad and Hamas -- that is, with some of the most barbaric and genocidally-inclined adherents of Sharia. He has even praised the jihad terror group Hizballah as "the most dynamic political and social organization in Lebanon," recalling the useful idiots and fellow travelers who used to praise Stalinist Russia and even Hitler's Germany for their social services apparatuses."
