12/18/06: Iranian Questions Worth Considering
Iranian Questions Worth Considering
The Capital Times :: EDITORIAL :: A9
Monday, December 18, 2006
Daniel "Jim" Guilfoil Monona
Dear Editor: In the 1970s Edgewood College had students from Iran on the campus. In my logic classes some of them observed that what I was teaching was not consistent with their culture. They wondered what their families and tribes would do if confronted by children who "thought for themselves."
I thanked them for their questions and offered a similar experience that Edgewood faculty and students had, in the Western culture: that of questioning their church or faith. Those in authority are not accustomed to having their judgments questioned by those who are unequal to them in power or status.
I think of the use to which the Holocaust is being put by politicians in Iran and Israel, and the way this use is being reported by the media. This Iranian Conference on the Holocaust is being used by some to support the claim that Israel was established by European interests to divide oil countries into factions that could be manipulated by colonial powers. The Holocaust was a tool to support Israel. How would a young Iranian question these things?
There were Armenians, Ukrainians, Gypsies, etc., killed as groups by Nazis, Soviets, and others during World War II. Why are the Jews singled out as exceptional and used to make a nation state? Why did European powers use an orientalist perspective to establish a Jewish state?
Again the question of the Iranian students. How do I question what my family, my tribe, my people say?
The Capital Times :: EDITORIAL :: A9
Monday, December 18, 2006
Daniel "Jim" Guilfoil Monona
Dear Editor: In the 1970s Edgewood College had students from Iran on the campus. In my logic classes some of them observed that what I was teaching was not consistent with their culture. They wondered what their families and tribes would do if confronted by children who "thought for themselves."
I thanked them for their questions and offered a similar experience that Edgewood faculty and students had, in the Western culture: that of questioning their church or faith. Those in authority are not accustomed to having their judgments questioned by those who are unequal to them in power or status.
I think of the use to which the Holocaust is being put by politicians in Iran and Israel, and the way this use is being reported by the media. This Iranian Conference on the Holocaust is being used by some to support the claim that Israel was established by European interests to divide oil countries into factions that could be manipulated by colonial powers. The Holocaust was a tool to support Israel. How would a young Iranian question these things?
There were Armenians, Ukrainians, Gypsies, etc., killed as groups by Nazis, Soviets, and others during World War II. Why are the Jews singled out as exceptional and used to make a nation state? Why did European powers use an orientalist perspective to establish a Jewish state?
Again the question of the Iranian students. How do I question what my family, my tribe, my people say?
Submitted by wnpj on Fri, 01/05/2007 - 5:27pm.