Thursday, February 12, 2009

Joseph, The TV Series in Iran

Iranians, are now for the past few months ,entertained every Friday night with a new TV series on Joseph, the Prophet. Created according to the Quranic tradition and benefiting from common roots from Judaic and Torah teachings, the film is an attractive entity by all means.
Joseph, the son of Jacob , the son of Isac, the son of Abraham is the star of the film. Betrayed by his jealous brothers Joseph is brought up far from his family by an Egyptian aristocrat who realizes his talents and capabilities. His wife however, falls in love with Joseph and facing his refusal to betray her husband, she plots to throw him in prison for eight years. Known as Juzarsif among the Egyptians , he later becomes a key minister and advisor to the Pharoh and saves Egypt during eight years of drought.
This Quranic narration is one of the most attractive and enlightening stories of the Prophetic tradition and there is an analogy made in Islamic and Iranian literature and mysticism between the separation of Joseph from his father and the separation of the spirit from its creator. But more interesting is the analogy with the occultation of the last Imam, Mahdi. We are waiting , as Jacob was, for the appearance of the Saviour . Its also interesting to note that a film about the Children of Israel ,or Jacob is being screened on national TV at a time when Iran is accused of having an anti-Semitic approach at the global stage.
Iranian film makers have produced several successful series on Quranic tradition and Islamic history during recent years. The Virgin Mary and the Men of Angelos were films both based on narrations from the Quran ,yet related to Christian belief. It is surprising for many Christians and Jews to learn that the Holy Quran presents such detailed and vivid narrations related to their faith so firmly and proudly without any prejudice.
The direction of the film is criticised by many viewers, I also feel there are alot of weaknesses in the way Mr. Salahshour has presented the dialogues and the chain of events. The Director is also renown for his sympathy and support for the policies and line of thought of President Ahmadinejad and some people believe he is trying to draw an analogy between the President's economic plans and Joseph's policies as a propaganda strategy for the current government. We have fallen in the habit of waiting for text messages joking about Joseph and Ahmadinejad once every week.

7 comments:

mohammed.husain said...

With all due respect Dr. Ebtekar, when you present to the outside world your criticisms of the filmmaker and Ahmadinejad, much of the outside world doesn't understand what to make of it since we don't have a correct framework or familiarity for understanding the internal dynamics of Iran, or this film. It comes off either as unsubstantiated attacks based on a dislike of personality, or it plays into the hands of the enemies of the Islam and the Islamic republic. I imagine your criticisms are based on substance, and genuinely different approach, but for most of your readers (at least the non-Iranian ones) I imagine it is either misinterpreted or falls on deaf ears.

Anonymous said...

Do you really think the American public gets to find out about your new program about Joseph?????

This is what Americans hear about Islam, about Iran, and about Imam Mahdi:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTdXYExiGDg&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMs39W2slkA&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G20_mk6rRAs&feature=related


what does Iran need to do in order to get this message of "we are not anti-Semite" across to the heart of America???

I'm sure you know the answer Dr. Ebtekar!!!!! so get to it already!!!!! get that KKK-hugging, Holocaust-denying, arrogant little man out of the office already if you want to be taken seriously in the world!!!!

ENOUGH is ENOUGH!!!!!!

or as my beloved Obama said in his Democratic convention speech, just

ENOUGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


"gozasht aan zamaani ke aan saan gozasht"

IMPEACH!!!! IMPEACH!!! IMPEACH!!!!!

Anonymous said...

I just wrote a comment underneath this news article in another website,

http://www.presstv.ir/Detail.aspx?id=83132&sectionid=3510203


and I wanted to copy my comment here too for your readers:


"
and you people believe this old joker of a politician who got humiliated in the primaries??? you get your source of knowledge from what Mike Gravel says???? wake up and smell the coffee! Israel KNOWS it cannot survive if it continues with its old policies, so Jimmy Carter's America in this age of Obama World are going to do everything they possibly can to make sure the only possible solution (one that won't end in a WW-III) will be materialized before it's too late!!!!! the solution is in 2 states, 2 independent, democratic, modern, moderate states living side-by-side in PEACE and under the guidance of the World's number one Morality Teacher, i.e., the Jewish rabbi and son of the Virgin Mary, Jesus Christ the Messiah, who is the son of God for Christians, a historical reality for Jews, and for Muslims: the messenger of LOVE, the one who came before prophet Mohamed and will come again at the end of times in order to restore PEACE in the Holy Land, just as Jimmy Carter the SAINT says in his newest book

p.s. I wish the Pope or Queen Elizabeth (the head of the Anglican church) or some really important Christian authority from the Protestant world would come out and bestow the title of SAINT to Jimmy Carter so that the world will know who they're dealing with! it's time to reverse the humiliation with which the Zionist masters of this world condemned President Carter for 30 years, and to go REALLY vocal and loud through out the entire world in PRAISING this TRUE "Man of God" as the saintly figure that he is! I'm not a Christian so I don't know if Carter's own Protestant denomination (the Baptist Church) is in the business of declaring people as Saints, but I think if it's only the Pope's job to do that, then he should do it no matter the fact that Carter is not Catholic! he should be named "an honorary Catholic" by the POPE!
"

Black Chador said...

I read today that the Government owned Newspaper Kayhan is predicting an attempt at Khatami‘s life if he gets close to winning the next election. Who would try to kill Khatami?

The unelected Mullahs?

Ahmadinejad’s thugs?

Ignorant Basijis?

Rafsanjani nephew?
Who?

Let say just like Benazir, Khatami gets shot and killed by one of these Islamic Radical groups, do they think at that point Iranians would run to their homes and hide under their beds?
I hate to even think of anybody’s assassination but don’t these fools saw what happened when Benazir got killed? Did Benazir’s death help Musharraf in the following election?
I remember in late 90s I was in a business gathering and Benazir was one of the guests’ speakers, at the end I asked her about her ultimate goal, she answered me in two words, “Real Democracy”. The day after she got killed her son told a reporter ‘My mother said the best revenge is Democracy”.
So to the big fool, Shariatmadari of Kyhan, go ahead, encourage your thugs to make the death attempt toward Khatami, even if you and your thugs succeed at the end “Real Democracy” will win and I promise you that I personally will visit you in jail every week to remind you of what Benazir said to me.
To Mr. Khatami, sorry to seem so nonchalant about this death threat about you but we all know that once someone steps in the world of politics anything could happen. That did not stop Benazir and Obama and I am sure it will not stop you from your most basic right. The right to run for any political office your heart desire.

Anonymous said...

doesn't IRI realize why it has lost so many smart, good, spiritual, educated, benevolent, young people who used to actually have believed in their revolution, and their hearts used to beat for their Islamic Republic?!

doesn't IRI realize why it was that Iranians LOVED Ayatollah Taleghani so much? a SAINT who spoke to the innocent hearts of YOUNG people but then after his martyrdom, NOBODY else could even do one tenth of what he did to revive Islam and spirituality in an educated and modern class of "gharbzadeh" youngsters!?!

Ayatollah Taleghani's admirers were willing to stand up to their infidel, non-believer, heretical alcohol-drinking, non-worshipping, non-hejab-wearing parents, they chose to put the "hejab" on even when their entire "gharbzadeh" families were making fun of them!!!

Ayatollah Taleghani's kids were being shunned by their ENTIRE families, even their own aunts and uncles who looked down at these kids as stupid "ommol"! these grown-ups (most of them now in California or the Potomac or other such "saraan-salaatin" neighborhoods in America, living lavish lives and STILL making fun of these old kids for their past CRIMES of having once upon a time "bought the BS of the mullahs") would refuse to invite the parents of these kids to their mixed and westernized weddings just because these youngsters with their stupid "roosary" Hejab would ruin the class and style of the wedding party!

these kids TRULY loved this thing Ayatollah Taleghani was talking to them about at Friday Prayers, it was called "horriyat", "aazaadegi", Freedom!

doesn't IRI realize why it was that Iran started to have the most massive BRAIN DRAIN in its history after Ayatollah Taleghani was poisoned and martyred by his power-hungry rivals who only had one goal in life: becoming the King of Kings in the Islamic Republic and abusing the emptry heads and good hearts of Iranian masses (seeing faces in the full moon) to project a godly image of themselves and turn a whole nation of people who were at least self-described as monotheists into a nation of man-worshippers?!

doesn't IRI realize why the same youngsters whose innocent and good hearts had started to receive the message of Imam Ali (aleyhe salam) eventhough NOBODY in their families even believed in God, stopped going to Friday Prayers, stopped organizing Islamic or revolutionary (22-Bahman) cultural activities at their schools, stopped wearing the Hejab, and decided it was time to leave this DARK society ruled with the same mentality as that of Europe's Middle Ages "zoloom-e johool"? and they left their beloved fatherland not because they were criminals on the run, but because they feared that if they didn't then the HORRIBLE effects of that fundamentalist mentality RULING their society was going to harm their delicate brains too irreversibly?!

these Taleghani kids could start to see little by little, that there would be no future for them in Iran as long as they were not willing to become pretentious LIARS and non-believers in the TRUTH about Islam!!!!!!

I was once one of those Taleghani-loving kids! but I (as a pre-teen) together with my very young teenage brother who was once one of those very very very spiritual young men praying so much that there was going to be a dark sign of the praying stone starting to appear on his forehead, started to see the light very soon!

when my brother found out about "motezaaher" two-faced hezbollahi basijis who would actually purposefully blacken their foreheads so that they would APPEAR pious, he had his own "faraar az madresseh" which is what our Persian Descartes, i.e., Imam Mohammad Ghazzali did when he started to have doubts and started to question everything from the beginning and he started to attempt understanding God from scratch, throwing out everything he had learned until that moment in religious schools!

just like Ghazzali, my brother and I decided to leave IRI and NEVER look back, but can't IRI understand why????!!!!

we took our destiny in our own hands and decided to leave our "Land where my fathers died, Land of the pilgrims' pride", just so that we could finally find FREEDOM of Opinion and could live life without having to PRETEND, which is what 70 million people are doing every single day now in IRI, they have become a nation of "tazaahor" and "riyaa" feeling like they have to pretend to be something they are not if they have any hopes of survival or even success in that society!

doesn't IRI understand this?!!!!!

Anonymous said...

I just read this speech by Mir Hossein Mousavi, the most likely person to win in Iran's presidential elections next June

http://www.kalemeh.ir/pages/3810.php

and I wrote this comment underneath it which I wanted to share with your readers as well, if I may?

----------------------------------
THIS is how you can SAVE Iran, SAVE the region, HELP your brothers and sisters in Palestine get their independent state after 41 years since the WAR they lost, HELP President Obama fight the Taliban and al-Qaeda in that region, and join the club of DEVELOPED countries in the world who deserve to be heard and be treated with respect!

THIS is how Iran can get there, Mir Hossein is the man who can help Iran get there, and until that society matures enough to understand the concept of Party Politics and actually form such establishments, what Iranian RATIONAL and TRULY Muslim politicians should do is use THIS party (The Islamic Republic Party) to attract ALL the GOOD "kheir-khaah" elites under its righteous DEMOCRATIC agenda, get them ALL to endorse Mir Hossein from LEFT AND from RIGHT, marginalize the "bad-khaah", make clear distinction between the believers in Dr. Beheshti's vision of Islamic Democracy and those who are sadly either too radical and "mothajjer" or too naive and "gharbzadeh" to realize what "kheir" is!

THIS I think can ONLY be accomplished by getting ALL the RATIONAL ones (from left or right) to support and endorse Mir Hossein, letting the other two extremes of the spectrum nominate whoever rejects Mir Hossein and Dr. Beheshti's vision, and then in a 3-way election make it CRYSTAL CLEAR for people why they need to come out in DROVES and vote for A RETURN OF IRI TO ITS ORIGINAL PRINCIPLES AS DEMANDED BY THE IRANIAN PEOPLE IN THAT REVOLUTION!

The ship can ONLY be steered toward the right direction IF and only IF Mir Hossein is given the helm of it and has the WIDE support of both side's RATIONAL "kheir-khaah" men! THAT is my DREAM!

actually I'm sure that's actually not just my DREAM, but I think it's what is about to happen! because I just read this


روحانی بیان داشت: «رئیس جمهوری در سیاست داخلی،‌خارجی، اقتصادی، فرهنگی وحتی در سیاست‌های عملی و فن‌آوری، دفاعی و غیره میتواند نقش تاثیرگذاری داشته باشد. معمولا هر کس که پول را در اختیار دارد نقش هم خوهد داشت. طبق قانون اساسی نیز رئیس جمهوری از میان رجال مذهبی و سیاسی باید انتخاب شود. تعبیرات قانونی اساسی نشان می‌دهد که جایگاه رئیس جمهوری در کشور بسیار مهم و رفیع است».

وی گفت:«به اعتقاد من با وجود چند ماه فرصت تا زمان انتخابات، شور و هیجان خاصی را در کشور شاهد هستیم. اینکه مردم با شور حضور پیدا کرده‌اند و بدنبال کاندیداهای مختلف هستند مهم است. به اعتقاد من هرچه تنوع کاندیداها بیشتر باشد راه انتخاب برای مردم آسانتر می‌شود. اگر بجای دو نفر کاندیدا سه نفر باشند انتخاب راحت‌تر میشود. بخصوص اگر این افراد به لحاظ فکری و وابستگی سیاسی و جناحی هم متفاوت باشند که علی القاعده اینطور هست، مردم برای انتخاب راحت‌تر می‌توانند وارد صحنه شوند و کاندیدای مورد نظر خود را انتخاب کنند».


نماینده مقام معظم رهبری در شورای عالی امنیت ملی اظهار داشت: «مقام معظم رهبری همواره تاکید کرده‌اند که در انتخابات و از جمله انتخابات ریاست جمهوری اولین قدم مهم حضور مردم است. بنابراین خیلی مهم است که ما کاری کنیم که مردم هر چه بیشتر به پای صندوق آمده و تعداد رای دهندگان افزایش یابد. زیرا حضور مردم باعث تثبیت انقلاب و تقویت نظام و مایه یاس دشمنان نظام میشود. بنابر این خیلی مهم است که ما انتخاباتی داشته باشیم که مثلا حضور مردم بیشتر از 30 میلیون نفر باشد. این برای ما خیلی ارزشمند است. هرچه تنوع کاندیداها بیشتر باشد شور و شوق مردم هم بیشتر می‌شود».


وی گفت: «من امید وارم که یک انتخابات شکوهمندی در خرداد ماه سال آینده داشته باشیم و این انتخابات منجر به انتخاب فرد اصلح در بین کاندیداها بشود. مهم اینست که هر کس انتخاب میشود بتواند خدمت بیشتری به کشور بکند و مسائل کشور و جهان را بهتر درک کند و بتواند فرهنگ و سیاست و اقتصاد و امنیت جامعه و مسائل اجتماعی را بهتر پیش ببرد. بهرحال آنچه مهم و هدف است استحکام این نظام و رفاه بیشتر مردم و تعالی و پیشرفت کشور است».

in this interview

http://www.aftabnews.ir/vdcjyaeo.uqexvzsffu.html


I think this is evidence of THAT dream being closer to reality than people realize!!!!
thank God!
:-)

Black Chador said...

Yesterday the family of the man who set fire on himself in front of Iranian Parliament buried their loved one. I guess his reason was unemployment and poverty. He and his wife tried everything to support their children even selling her kidney. After this heart ranching incident the Iranian Parliament Speaker Mr. Larijani dismissed this poor man as being an addict and a no good person. Although we now know that this poor guy was just a desperate person and not an addict and he was desperate to find food for his children that does not change what Larijani said about him. These all happened in Iran not in a poor African country. But as heartbreaking as this whole incident was what the Speaker of Parliament said and did was way over the top and until today he has not apologized to the man’s family.
So, since I live in this “Great Satan” country, America I was thinking what would have happened to Speaker Plociy if she had made such an evil remark about an American setting fire on himself in front of the Capital building?
I know Nancy Plociy is much smarter than Larijani to make such a political blunder but let say she did. Do you know what would happen to her next? Her face and her comments will be splattered on every TV screen, people would shout for her resignation and rightfully so. She would apologize and eventually resign from being Speaker of the House but that would not be enough. Within a week or so she will quit being a House Representative and her political career ends right there, all because she made a stupid and mean comment about a desperate father. You see Dr. Ebtekar; I live in the “Great Satan” land not in an Islamic and kind country that live within the Quranic laws of having Mercy on all mankind. In your country, Mr. Larijani is considered a “man of God” a representative of both Islam and the kindness of Quran. So, what do you think will happen to Mr. Larijani next time he steps through the door of Iranian Parliament, would the members shout, Allah ‘o Akbar or would they send Salivate toward this great representative of Islam?