Their latest, but not their last until we stop them:
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.
"There's no reason to believe they won't pass this," said Rabbi Hier. "It will certainly pass unless there's some sort of international outcry over this."
The Iranians under the mullahs make no secret of who they wish to kill and how they wish to kill, yet too many in the West pretend they just don't mean it.
The clash is coming.
UPDATE: Arthur K. emails a couple of articles that are interesting in different ways. First, CBS mocks the blogs for running with the yellow cloth story above, saying it does not identify Jews and non-Moslems:
Instead, the draft law is aimed at encouraging more traditional dress among Muslims, particularly women. An attempt at reigning in some of the more liberal, Western-leaning changes in Iran’s society is newsworthy in and of itself. But it’s not quite the rise of some Fourth Reich that it seemed for a time in the wake of the initial story.
First of all, if the story was completely false, one could say that evil enemies aren't always, uniformly, and in every matter, evil. But this story isn't quite completely false. Just a national dress code.
You know, given that the Left already thinks Bush is Hitler, one shudders to think what they'd say of him if he proposed a law to encourage more traditional dress, particularly for women. Really, just how low are our standards for Iranian behavior that "just" a national dress code is considered merely newsworthy but not worthy of even mild condemnation?
Of course, it isn't this simple either. The source for the story, Amir Taheri, defends it even though the text of the law itself is more like what CBS states:
As far as my article is concerned I stand by it. The law has been passed by the Islamic Majlis and will now be submitted to the Council of Guardians. A committee has been appointed to work out the modalities of implementation.
Many ideas are being discussed with regard to implementation, including special markers, known as zonnars, for followers of Judaism, Christianity and Zoroastrianism, the only faiths other than Islam that are recognized as such.
Ah, not quite just the dress code. As with many things, the details are in the administrative rules that implement the law.
UPDATE: The Canadian paper that broke the story is apologizing for the mistake. Until we see how the law is implemented, aren't they jumping the gun a little?
Still, I am jealous. Would that our papers were so willing to apologize for their reporting ...
