Obama in Tehran
A friend sent this picture along from Tehran. Obama wears a shiny grey suit straight out of an 80s movie, and is pictured with Shemr Yazid, a legendary villain in Shia lore, the general of a usurping caliph in the 7th century. The message on the billboard is: “Be with us, (ba ma bash), Be safe…(Dar aman bash)” The suggestion is that Obama is with the bad guys so people should side with the regime to be safe; because the caliph Yazid was famous for broken promises. My correspondent says the message requires considerable religious/historical knowledge on the part of passersby. I see that the Guardian picked it up last week, and pointed out that the billboard suggests that Obama is a Muslim.
Fairly nice photo (?) of Obama, on that wall?
Shemr & Yazid were not the same character. Yazid was the evil Caliph & Shemr was his henchman who beheaded Imam Hussein (IH):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shimr_ibn_Thil-Jawshan
The billboard depicts Shemr. The annual Ashura mourning of IH’s martyrdom at the hands of his oppressors is probably the topmost religious event in Iran. The imagery of that battle is widespread in the Iranian political discourse. The gov’t claims that it represents IH & its enemies from the Shah to the US & Israel represent Yazid. In the 2009 pro-democracy protests, Mir Hussein Moussavi’s supporters would chant slogans claiming he’s on IH’s side. The MEK uses an analogous religious imagery. So both the religious imagery and its political invocation are well-known to the average Iranian. And the smaller caption on the billboard claims that the same statement, “Be w/ us, be safe,” was uttered by both Obama in 2013 & Shemr. I don’t see why it would imply that Obama is necessarily a Muslim. Too bad Obama is also a Hussein.
I think there is a better chance obama is in Tehran than Jerusalem
anybody
” The message on the billboard is: “Be with us, (ba ma bash), Be safe…(Dar aman bash)” The suggestion is that Obama is with the bad guys so people should side with the regime to be safe;”
Perhaps those words are what the people depicted in the billboard are suggested to be saying?
Lol, I take offense to that remark, good sir. For I have a shiny grey suit just like that one, which I purchased from a fine gentleman’s shop in Palestine in 2012 for 700 NIS.