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Monday, October 31, 2011

Iranophobia-palooza!

I first noticed the term "Iranophobia" last year, but in recent weeks Iran has been using the term a lot more:

October 13:
"The repeat of ineffective and stupid methods by hapless and distracted policy-makers in the West (to spread) Iranophobia will again bear no result," Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in an army base in the western city of Kermanshah, the official IRNA news agency reported.

October 25:
US and Europe Seek to Promote Iranophobia

October 28:
'US using Iranophobia to shield Israel'

October 29:
Iran's top investment official says despite the West promoting Iranophobia, the country's foreign direct investment (FDI) index has seen a 124 percent growth in the past two years.

I think there is a great merit in engaging in Iranophobia - the fear of Iran - since Iran is literally threatening the world with destruction. Iranophobia is a healthy and normal reaction to the idea of an unstable nuclear Islamist state headed by irrational people who are consumed with hate and obsessed with destroying their enemies and turning the world into an Islamist 'ummah.

What is interesting, though, is the seeming conscious use of the term by Iran. It appears to me that they see how Westerners are scared of accusations of "Islamophobia" and will react to that charge by overcompensating and overlooking Islamist dangers. They want to create that same dynamic - hoping that the West will vigorously deny this charge of "Iranophobia", because it sounds vaguely racist, and therefore will bend over backwards to distance themselves from anything that seems slightly "Iranophobic."

The irony, of course, is that Iran is rabidly Ziophobic, yet few would consider that term an epithet. That is a very sad commentary on the world today.