Bahrain: Newspaper closed for publishing a report that insults Iranian President Ahmadinejad

by Kal El on June 24, 2009 · Comments

The insult? Someone alleged he was of Jewish ancestry. Only in the Arab world would some imbecile consider that an insult. I mean, anyone with half a brain recognizes the contributions that the Jews have made to the modern world (Advances in medicine, science, etc…).

Bahrain blocks paper after Ahmadinejad ’slur’

Bahrain shut down its oldest daily newspaper for “violating the country’s press code,” the official news agency reported Monday, a day after the paper published a report that suggested Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was Jewish.

The paper, Akhbar Al-Khaleej, or “Gulf News,” was shut down as it was about to to print late Sunday night and is to remain shut until further notice, a note on the paper’s website explained.

The official BNA news agency carried the same notice but did not elaborate on the nature of the violation and the reasons behind the abrupt closure were unclear.

The AFP news agency reported that staff at the newspaper said the action followed the publication on Sunday of an article on Iran in which a female member of Bahrain’s Consultative Council, Samira Rajab, came down hard on the Iranian government and suggested that Ahmadinejad was Jewish.

“Islamic Republic — Popular Fury,” an opinion piece by Rajab, was a harsh critique of the current events taking place in Iran, which is facing the worst unrest since the 1979 revolution due to disputed election results, and discussed a live debate that took place between the incumbent and his reformist challenger Mehdi Karroubi.

Rajab wrote: “In a televised live debate between Mehdi Karroubi and Ahmadinejad, Karroubi took a jab at Ahmadinejad’s origins and said ‘my full name is Mehdi so and so Karroubi’ so what is your full name?’”

Rajab went on to write that Ahmadinejad stated his name but failed to mention his “real” surname “which all Iranians know to be Jewish and that is what Karroubi was trying to get at.”

The question of Ahmadinejad’s origins have been raised before by the son of one of the republic’s conservative Ayatollahs, Mehdi Khazali, who wrote on his website that the president had changed his family name form the originally Jewsih name Saborjhian.

British newspaper the Guardian also reported that this family had changed its name for “a mixture of religious and economic reasons.”

Check out the article here. It has a screenshot of the blockpage message in Arabic.

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  • nomadiqueMC
    okay, so if your point was solely that shutting down the newspaper was an overreaction, and an assault on the freedom of the press to editorialise on matters which they believe to be significant, then you would have my full agreement.

    but your assertion that "...only in the Arab world would some imbecile consider that an insult..." is total tripe. seriously boys and girls, you are clutching at the proverbial straws here.

    let me clarify - because jewish people have made a significant contribution to the development of western civilisation (a point on which you will get no argument from me), then any person regardless of their religion, or nationality for that matter, should be proud and grateful to be called jewish?

    how ludicrous.

    men and women of all nationalities, faiths and races have the right feel, and express, pride in their origins. this goes to the very heart of issues of both individual and collective identity. to suggest that a proud and prominent catholic, for example, was islamic would create an equally strong and vitriolic reaction from the catholic community, and rightly so. people of all creed should have the right to assert and defend their identity.

    to suggest that Ahmadinejad should simply 'suck it up' because jewish people are good people is pointlessly provocative, and simply insults your presumably loyal audience, branding them as mindless zealots, without contributing to the broader issues at hand.
  • funkybarfly
    Why should Ahmadinejad's supposed Jewish ancestry preclude him from being a devout Muslim today?.I was brought up Catholic even though my family tree suggests I have some Jewish ancestry;my Catholicism was never questioned even though I made this known.I am Atheist now.The point is that Muslims have an irrational hatred of Jews.Oh! and I never had a priest or a Christian Brother tell me that Jews were the spawn of pigs.Do you think this might have something to do with Ahmadinejad's indignation?
  • funkybarfly
    My schadenfreude is off the scale!.The fact that there appear to be some cracks forming in the Muslim esprit de corps is very heartening;the more infighting the better.Even though the newspaper has been censured,it still means the jounalist had the gumption to put the idea forward in the first place:Kudos!
    Ahmadinejad's self professed bigotry coming back to bite him on his own hairy ass is delicious in it's irony.
    It is nothing short of astounding to me that the one nation in the Middle East that can be used as an example of what can be achieved when there is real democracy and intelligence is used as a means to slur someone!.
    It is hoped that if Ahmadinejad is ousted then Mousavi and the bogus band of towel-headed clerics summarily follow.
    The Iranians have come this far,they might as well keep going.All or nothing must be the battle-call now.They may never get another chance.I hope subversion catches on in the Arab States like Rock'n'Roll did in the West in the 50's.A WOP BOP ALOOBOP A WOP BAM BOOM!
  • hellosnackbar
    Hear ! Hear! FBF and come to think of it.
    What the fuck have Muslims in general and Arabs in particular have to be proud of?
    Maybe I haven't experienced the esoteric thrill of passing my camel riding test!
    I'll be singing Tutti Fruiti all day!
    Viva La Revolution or whatever the Farsi equivalent is.
    And it's not a towel( as one middle eastern gent once reminded me)it's a little SHEET.
  • funkybarfly
    My mistake,hellosnackbar.As towels are generally used after one WASHES,it makes perfect sense that baboons would have no need for such items.
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