Norman Finkelstein on Teaching John Stuart Mill in Iran

Danny Postel, Associate Director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Denver and the author of "Reading 'Legitimation Crisis' in Tehran," asks Norman Finkelstein about his experience teaching John Stuart Mill's "On Liberty" in Iran and his thoughts on intellectual life in the Islamic Republic today.
The interview was filmed in DU's Center for Middle East Studies on April 24, 2014.
For a complete list of Finkelstein's books and his latest blog posts, check out normanfinkelstein.com.

[@phatkaveh60]

Norman is a hero, I would love to hear him speak in person

[@icyfootball5754]

Always impressed by the insights of Prof. Finkelstein.

[@yac7571]

The last two people without cellphone on earth - Made my corona quarantine easier 😂 Thanks for sharing the video!

[@nazsalimi]

So fascinating

[@johnmaisonneuve9057]

Thank you for posting. I always learn something when I hear him speak. This was quite good because we rarely get information about Iran etc.

[@theblueabyss63]

Even us Iranians don’t get to know everything about ourselves. The media is biased on both sides of the argument. the only way is to talk to people and listen to experiences like this one

[@sukruoksuz366]

Mr. Finkelstein is a real hero.

[@lsobrien]

Fascinating.

[@MadJackChurchill1312]

I really appreciated eavesdropping on this conversation had down a corridor 50 metres away from me. Can someone competent check the audio levelling next time?

[@radiantcucumber]

17:40 classic Finklestein quip

[@fatemehm2949]

True!! Iranians have no issues with Iranian Jews inside Iran. We live with them for thousands of years.

[@abeerabdelghany1284]

Wow the intro is a mashrou3 liela song 😅❤❤❤

[@lelz0394]

06:55 no way mashhad is more conservative than Qom lol

[@Mitra-wc2ut]

I’m from Mashhad and you’re 100% right 😂

[@bazoukasegala3459]

The interviewer constantly picturing Iran as intellectual hub and gem of education world, while Norman's response kinda shut him down. It's like Norman is saying "Your'e talking nonsense" in a polite and gracious way .

[@kolsveinnskraevolding]

No, he isn't. Take your Iranophobia somewhere else.

[@hoseinebrahimi4546]

When you are iranian and watching what these intellectuals tell about your country

[@johnd2058]

...you grow a beard and wear sunglasses?

[@hoseinebrahimi4546]

John D i grow beard AND hair and wear sunglasses

[@johnd2058]

@@hoseinebrahimi4546 Ohhhh I see; you look good!

[@michaelsmith8665]

I don't own a cell phone. No interest.

[@incogb6696]

Longest I’ve went is 1 year

[@mehrdadzand386]

How should we judge the animosity that supposedly exist between Iran and Israel that must appear obvious to analyst & commentators of your calibre, but I never heard you to frankly articulate your true assessment in numerous venues you took part about Iran & Israel. Furthermore, I can't believe you are not aware of the phony & ridiculous pretence of animosity that both Iran & Israel pretend that is going on. In fact, I go as far as saying if Israel did exist, Iran would have to help to establish Israel to refocus Arab aggression toward Israel rather than Iran and funnily enough viscera too. Iran has no border with Israel so no territorial dispute and or no ambitious for expansionism can motivate either side against the other and a war between Iran and Israel is somewhat impractical and pointless as there is no reward and a chance to concur territory for either side.

[@Mitra-wc2ut]

Idk if you’ve picked up on what majority of Israeli govt officials have been saying and implying over the last two decades but they do not like Iran and want to indeed start a war with Iran. Israel’s whole motive is to restore what they claim is their right to “god given land” which actually extends out to the border of Iran. They claim that israel, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iraq and part of Iran is theirs LOOOOOOOOOOL. Like can they bffr, their whole goal is to push out indigenous people of each land and claim a stake for themselves. Those countries are rich in resources and minerals. It’s all about greed at the end of the day.

[@nothingmatters321]

Finkelstein here seems to have no analysis of the meaning of anti-semitism in its modern form. It is tightly bound up with a conspiratorial interpretation of US-Israeli imperialism. This interpretation has much to do with the irrational character of financial capital, which anti-semitism tries to attribute to the machinations of the jews. He can't seem to explain the difference between individual animosity to jews, and the kind of global conspiratorial anti-semitism that is quite pervasive in the middle east.

[@BurriedTruth]

The anti-semitism in the middle east has more to do with israel than Judaism, Judaism is considered one of the three main religions in Islamic teachings, and Jews historically have been more safe in Islamic countries than in Europe.

[@user-wl1uz5sb9f]

@@BurriedTruth Where are the jews that used to be living in the arab world? what happened to them?

[@BurriedTruth]

@@user-wl1uz5sb9f are you serious 😂😂😂😂 first of all, you realise Jews and arabs are literally cousins, genetically, and oh yeah fun fact Israel does not want you to know, before “israel” was created on Palestinian land, there were Muslims, Christians and Jews living in Jerusalem long before, and you can find footage as old as 1900 of such, in fact the head rabbi of Jerusalem opposed the UN’s decision to build a Jewish state in 1946. Oh another fun fact, when the romans were slaughtering the Jews, where do you think the Jews went? They took plane tickets? No, they went to the neighbouring muslim countries, and by law in Islam Christian and Jewish localities living in Muslim countries are allowed to practice, live and rule using their religion in their locality. Another fun fact historically Jews were much much safer with their cousins the arabs than in Europe, it seems to me people have forgotten that most of the Jew’s prosecution actually happened by European. Its mind boggling to me how people can just go and throw out claims like you did, you didnt even know that there were jews actually living in the area. Oh, and lastly, go search King David Hotel bombing you will find footage dating back a while ago, thank me later.

[@user-wl1uz5sb9f]

@@BurriedTruth How do you manage to put together in the same reply events that are more than 2000 years apart and think that it makes any sense? Like if history works that way. Despite all your ramblings, the fact is that in 1948 there were around 1.6m jews living in Muslim countries, and it is now down to 32k. Can you explain that please? So, yeah, the Ottomans were quite tolerant for their time (compared to the Christians of their time), but that's not what I was talking about, and you should know it.

[@BurriedTruth]

@@user-wl1uz5sb9f idk maybe the fact that they built a whole country inside another country and they gave whoever from overseas money and home to come travel to that country and kick out the local residents that have been there for 10 generations do they can give those homes to the people who just arrived to the country? Aka Israel? You do know most people in Israel are not local Jews that were living in Palestine for decades but are Jews from all over the world that immigrated there because why wouldn’t you when you get free housing instant citizenship and benefits. How did you even miss that point? The head rabbi of Jerusalem himself opposed building a Jewish state in 1940s Hell the Jerusalem Jews are vehemently anti-israel and anti-zionists. And those are people who are actually locals and did not just prance over from europe