Iranian Alert -- December 6, 2003 -- IRAN LIVE THREAD

Join Us At Today's Iranian Alert Thread – The Most Underreported Story Of The Year!

"If you want on or off this Iran ping list, Freepmail DoctorZin”

Join Us At Today's Iranian Alert Thread – The Most Underreported Story Of The Year!

"If you want on or off this Iran ping list, Freepmail DoctorZin”

The US media almost entirely ignores news regarding the Islamic Republic of Iran. As Tony Snow of the Fox News Network has put it, “this is probably the most under-reported news story of the year.”

So very true, however our own freedom, in reference to the media anyway, is to come also thanks to the likes of Tony Snow.

Until FOX, it didn't even rate as "under reported" for it wasn't reported at all.

The winds of freedom are blowing in the right direction for everyone at this time.

Yes, it does take time.

I just received a report from Iran regarding yesterdays earlier report of over 20 deaths in Iran at the hands of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard...

hi Doc,

I have heard a different account of the events of south eastern city of Saravan. The reason that people were massing in the streets was a result of a police killing of a driver, not a 10 year old boy (as reported yesterday).

It was good to hear that police didn't open fire on the people but some plain clothes shot at people.

In a BBC Persian interview with Mr, Kambouzia, the MP of the Baluchistan province, He said, the reason for the protests was the result of a killing of a driver who didn't pay attention to Police orders.

Afterward, people went into the streets to protest against the Police behavior in the city and in those clashes some 4 people died.

No police were injured or killed and he added that the interesting thing was that plain clothes militants opened fire, not POLICE.

He also added that police behavior was not good with the people in the province of Baluchistan.

The province of Baluchistan is now in state of emergency.

Top Reformist Lawmaker Beaten in Iran

Friday December 5, 2003 9:31 PM
By ALI AKBAR DAREINI

Associated Press Writer

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Hard-line vigilantes attacked a close aide to Iran's president as he was about to give a speech Friday, repeatedly punching and kicking him, his wife and a witness said.

Mohsen Mirdamadi, a prominent reformist lawmaker who heads the parliamentary National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, was treated at a hospital for a head wound after the attack in the central city of Yazd, his wife, Elaheh Mojarradi, said.

A witness, Mohammad Reza Raji, told The Associated Press by phone from Yazd, that ``as he took the podium, around 15 vigilantes rushed into the hall where Mirdamadi was to speak. They began punching him and kicking him from every side.''

Vice President Mohammad Ali Abtahi condemned the attack, saying it was part of the hard-liners' campaign before Feb. 20 parliamentary elections.

``The attack appears to be a new strategy on the part of hard-liners to intimidate reformers and disrupt their activities ahead of the elections. They have taken up arms now,'' Abtahi told The AP.

Iran is locked in a power struggle between conservatives, who regard themselves as defenders of the 1979 Islamic revolution, and liberals, who wish to relax the religious constraints and create a freer society.

Mirdamadi was in Yazd to meet local officials of his party, the Islamic Iran Participation Front. He is a senior member of the party, the country's largest reformist group.

Hard-line thugs have frequently disrupted gatherings of reformists but are rarely brought to court. Iran's judiciary is run by conservatives, who have imprisoned dozens of writers and political activists and banned scores of liberal publications.

In June, student-led protests against the ruling establishment were effectively halted by attacks from hard-line vigilantes.

Mirdamadi's wife said the assault showed the political situation in Iran ``where hard-liners have a free hand to commit crimes without punishment, while reformist intellectuals and writers are punished for expressing their opinion.''

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-3468973,00.html

"The Egyptian Constitution Should be Amended to Remove Islam as the Official Religion"

December 05, 2003
Middle East Media Research Institute
MEMRI

The Egyptian author Dr. Nawal Al-Sa'dawi, known for her fervent Arab-nationalism and feminism, gave a comprehensive interview to the liberal Arabic website www.elaph.com on September 20, 2003. The following are excerpts from the interview:

'The Egyptian Constitution Should be Amended to Remove Islam as the Official Religion'

Al-Sa'dawi called for amending the Egyptian constitution and eliminating the article that declares Islam to be the official state religion, "because we have among us Copts, and because religion is a matter between man and God and no one has the right to impose his faith, his God and his rituals on others. Therefore, I am one of the die-hard opponents of a religious state, because our God should not be involved in politics in any fashion.

"However, the Copts lived happily and in paramount fairness under the wings of Islam," commented the interviewer. Al-Sa'dawi responded: "We are the sons of one homeland, and we are partners in it, so that no one has to live 'under the wings' of anyone else."

As for the "Islamic culture," Al-Sa'dawi said that it was "part of a general culture based on Christianity, Judaism, and the Pharaoh's heritage. There is no pure culture, but an intertwined relationship among the cultures. I am against differentiating between a Western culture and an Eastern culture. We live in one culture, which is a culture of capitalism, patriarchy, classes, and inferiority that, regretfully, also uses religion as a tool for domination."

Al-Sa'dawi stated that she "knows more about the Koran than Sheikh Al-Sha'rawi: I learned the religions, and compared the Koran with the Torah and the New Testament. Sheikh Al-Sha'rawi never did that; he entrenched himself in the Koran, which is impossible to understand without comparison with other books."

Al-Sa'dawi added: "We are defeated intellectually because we do not have creative people. There was always a connection between creativity and rebellion, between creativity and opposition. But we are born, live our lives and die in fear. Therefore, we do not have rebellion and we do not have opposition… Our crisis is at the same time political and cultural. I do not differentiate between politics, economy, culture, feminism, and sex. They are all interrelated and when one central pillar collapses, the whole building collapses."

Al-Sa'dawi on Arab Leaders

Al-Sa'dawi talked about various Arab leaders, beginning with Anwar Sadat, who put her in jail, and ending with Saddam Hussein. "There is no comparison between Abd Al-Nasser and Saddam Hussein," she explained. "Saddam accomplished fantastic things for Iraq, but he was a murderer. Abd Al-Nasser was not a murderer… My husband, Dr. Sherif Hatata, was jailed for ten years in Abd Al-Nasser's era, and he left [the jail] without a scratch. Abd Al-Nasser was not blood-thirsty like Saddam… Sadat did not liberate Sinai, and even if he did liberate it, at what price?! He sold out the Arab interest and eliminated the Arab League!! We started using the term the 'Middle East,' while in the past we called it 'the Arab world.'

"The fact that the Palestinians are sorry today that they did not join Sadat signifies political ignorance. There is hypocrisy as far as Sadat is concerned, because the present regime is an extension of him… I have no personal quarrel with Sadat, Mubarak, or Abd Al-Nasser, [although] I was persecuted during his time also. I was persecuted by all the leaders, because I belong to the people and not to the leaders."

'Egypt's Democracy is Not Real'

When the interviewer stated that Sadat was "the first one to plant the seeds of democracy in Egypt, and even in the entire Arab world," Al-Sa'dawi responded: "This is the biggest lie I have ever heard in my life. There is no significance to the fact that he issued a presidential decree allowing multiple parties, because what was the result? Our parties are not real parties, but 'paper parties.' Real parties emerge from the womb of society, not from a presidential palace. Was it a democratic procedure to close my association in 1991 because we opposed the Gulf War? Two events demolished the Arab world: Sadat's Camp David and the Gulf War. As a result of these two events we are now in the gutter. If you had followed the Palestinian case, you would have seen how the regimes have been begging America to intervene. By the name of Allah, what could be more humiliating…?

"There should be demarcation between the regimes and the peoples in the Arab world. The Arab despot has always been an agent of the British, and later of American and Israeli colonialism. The only one who deviated somewhat from that was Gamal Abd Al-Nasser… In no way was he like Sadat. Sadat opened the doors to Islamic movements, while Abd Al-Nasser was diligent in fighting and eliminating them."

Concerning the American initiative to democratize the Arab world, Al-Sa'dawi said: "This is a joke. Are we going to continue to beg for everything Western? America will not solve our problems. Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice will not bring us democracy… Do you think that the American occupation in Iraq will bring it democracy..? No nation and no state can attain democracy under occupation."

'Polygamy is a Mark of Shame to all the Arabs'

Al-Sa'dawi disagreed with the interviewer's opinion that, within the democratic process, Islamic groups have the right to try to establish their rule. She said: "They don't have such rights. They are blood-spilling criminals. They included my name and the names of other respected intellectuals and dedicated people in death-lists. If we were to review all their crimes, we would have realized that they were too many to count. If your ideas are different than mine, this is not a reason to kill me… We should distance our God from politics… You can worship the God who satisfies you and fulfills your interests, but you should not impose Him on me or the state, because all the citizens in the state are equal… Why should I, as a woman, be less of a citizen than a man just because the official state religion is Islam? Why does a man marry four wives, and I cannot [marry four husbands]? This is humiliating…

"…How is it possible that a man marries four women? This is moral corruption and an offense to the Koran and Islam. How can he move from one woman's bed to another's? Yikes. By the name of Allah, if my husband went to another woman I would have divorced him. Would a man agree if his wife hopped between men's beds? He would have divorced her… Tunisia outlawed polygamy, and some other Arab countries did the same. Have these countries turned into infidels? Polygamy is a mark of shame to all the Arabs and to all the countries that allow such an ugly behavior."

"But, the Prophet was married to nine wives," commented the interviewer.

"Why do you compare yourself to the Prophet?" answered Al-Sa'dawi. "He did not tell you that you have to do what he did. There is an important Hadith [oral tradition] that says that one of his wives found him, during her night, in another woman's bed and said to him: 'My night, in my bed Messenger of Allah!!!' and he answered her after this scolding: 'Shut up and don't mention it, I will not do it again,' because a prophet and a messenger should be an example of fairness. If the Prophet – who was a human being, erred sometimes and was fair at other times – did make a mistake, why do you want me to follow his errors? I will say it again that man, because of his moral corruption, selects what suits him from Islam…

"A woman who agrees to marry a man who is already married to three other women is a slave and is not fit to be a woman… The female brain is the same as the male's, and may be even better, depending on the environment and circumstances. Which Egyptian male achieved what I have achieved? Even [Nobel Prize laureate] Najib Mahfouz's books have not been translated to more than thirty languages like mine. I am a woman and I have a brain. The human being is the brain and not the sex organs which were made for procreation…

"[The] male takes advantage of religion in order to marry [several times] and satisfy his sexual lusts… I have no personal quarrel with men. I am married and I have a son… I have more male than femalefriends. I am not against men, but against the system that corrupts them… religion is such a system - religion the way it is implemented by the Arab states and regimes… We live a lie, our world today is based on a lie…"

Egyptian Clerics Respond: 'She Should be Executed, Crucified, or Her Limbs Should be Removed'

The Egyptian Islamic weekly Al-Haqiqa asked several senior Egyptian clerics to respond to Al-Sa'dawi. The responses can be categorized into two groups. One group maintained – as stated by Dr. Muhammad Al-Sayid Al-Glind, head of the Islamic Philosophy Department at Dar Al-'Uloum (Cairo), that "the best way to silence this woman is not to respond to her, so that she does not get published." Dr. Rif'at Fawzi, a professor of jurisprudence at the University of Um Al-Qura, said: "If we allow killing Al-Sa'dawi [as a punishment for 'heresy'] we would be committing the same mistake that we did with Salman Rushdi, who would not have been marketable and whose book 'The Satanic Verses' had no value, but when the Fatwa to kill him was issued, he became famous and his book was widely marketed in the world and was translated to many languages. It is better to ignore Al-Sa'dawi."

However, others maintained that Al-Sa'dawi should be punished. Dr. Abd Al-Mun'im Al-Berri, former head of "The Front of Al-Azhar Clerics," explained that "we should ask her to repent within three days, but if she persists with these ideas, she should be punished according to what the Islamic Shari'a [religious law] determined for those who abandon Islam. The ruler, meaning the head of state or government, should carry out the punishment." Sheikh Mustafa Al-Azhari explained that the punishment for anyone who fights Allah and His Prophet is execution, crucifixion, the amputation of opposite limbs or banishment from earth." [1]

[1] Al-Haqiqa (Egypt), October 4, 2003.

http://memri.org/bin/latestnews.cgi?ID=SD62103

Iran court sentences journalist Baqi to 1 year in jail

Payvand
12/5/03

Iran's Revolutionary Court Thursday sentenced journalist Emadoddin Baqi to one year imprisonment on charges of propagating against the Islamic establishment, IRNA reported from Tehran.

Judge Babaei has stressed in the court ruling, a copy of which was faxed to IRNA, that Baqi had been found guilty of propagating against the Islamic establishment and working to the benefit of the opposition groups after the court considered a report by the Information Ministry, Baqi's lectures, notes and interviews, as well as his confessions.

Still, the court has decided to suspend implementing the journalist's term for five years.

"Considering the conditions in which the convict has committed the offenses as well as the related social situation, and in accordance with Article 25 of the Islamic Penal Code, Baqi's sentence will be suspended for five years in lieu with Article 33 of the same law," the ruling stressed.

The court further stressed that the journalist had been acquitted of charges of insulting the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei "for insufficiency of reasons".

Several state institutions had filed complaints against Baqi. They included the public prosecutor, Ministry of Information, the police, the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) as well as certain Majlis deputies.

http://www.payvand.com/news/03/dec/1031.html

Don’t overestimate the impact of Iran’s parliamentary elections

The Daily Star
12.6.03

Iran’s forthcoming parliamentary elections, scheduled for February 2004, will undoubtedly fuel factional rivalries. While the results are difficult to predict, whatever the outcome of the elections, they may not be as important as many have made them out to be. Indeed, parliamentary elections in the Islamic Republic rarely produce substantive political and economic change.

One of the achievements of the 1979 revolution was the creation of a reasonably independent and vibrant legislature. Both in theory, as stipulated in the post-revolutionary constitution, and in practice, the Majlis was a marked improvement over the pre-revolutionary Parliament. Nevertheless, an analysis of the performance of the past six Parliaments shows that despite their relative independence and vibrancy, Parliament, as an institution, does not wield decisive influence over Iran’s destiny.

The first post-revolutionary Parliament was convened in spring 1980 and had to contend with a uniquely volatile political situation, as Iran sought to define the identity and characteristics of the new revolutionary state.

Parliament impeached the Islamic Republic’s first president, Abul Hassan Bani-Sadr, in June 1981, carrying out the process to the letter, thereby undermining the myth that institutional performance in post-1979 Iran is characterized by illegality.

The second Parliament, which was convened in 1984, functioned in a highly ideological political and cultural environment. Iran had gone on the offensive in the war against Iraq and the leaders of the revolution were confident that their brand of Islam was attracting a substantial number of adherents in the region and beyond. In short, the high point of the war and the post-revolution phase consigned the second Parliament to the margins of the Islamic Republic.

Elections for the third Parliament occurred in spring 1988, as Tehran was being showered with Iraqi Scud missiles. This legislature was dominated by the Islamic left, which was, nevertheless, unable to decisively reverse the economic liberalization program of Speaker Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. Despite its inability to stifle Rafsanjani’s ill-conceived reforms, Parliament was perceived as a serious enough threat that both Rafsanjani’s so-called “technocratic” faction and right-wing parliamentarians joined forces against the left. Through its control of the Council of Guardians and other vetting bodies, the Islamic right prevented many left-wing candidates from participating in the elections to the fourth Parliament in April 1992.

Ironically, the fourth and fifth Parliaments inflicted more damage on Rafsanjani’s program than left-wingers could have ever hoped for. Both were dominated by right-wingers representing well-entrenched commercial and ideological interests, who ensured that then-President Rafsanjani’s title of “Commander of Construction” became nothing but a cruel joke outside his circle of followers. The fourth and fifth Parliaments illustrated how Iran’s legislature, despite its comparative qualities, could be subject to manipulation by powerful factional forces.

The sixth parliament, elected in February 2000, raised the expectations of millions among Iran’s reform-oriented electorate. It was supposed to work alongside President Mohammad Khatami and the entire reformist-controlled executive to bring about real and substantive changes. Unfortunately, this was not to be. For the umpteenth time, Iranians had forgotten that those who wield decisive power in the Islamic Republic are not subject to elections.

As we approach elections for the seventh Parliament, there is ever-growing speculation about whether this will play a decisive role in the seemingly perennial battle between reformists and conservatives. Analysts could be making the same mistakes as they did in the past. For example, Siamak Namazi, the director of a well-known consulting firm in Tehran, recently warned about the unpredictability of the Iranian electorate. He argued that the outcome of the forthcoming elections, contrary to conservative propaganda, was anything but a foregone conclusion. Namazi may be right, but he did not address the real point: Will a reformist election victory, if it occurs, break the deadlock in Iranian politics? The experience of the past is hardly reassuring in this regard.

Nevertheless the reformists remain upbeat. Arguably, the most important commentary on the elections came from Behzad Nabavi, a leading reformist strategist and chief troubleshooter in the Islamic Republic during the past 24 years. In a recent interview with Iran’s official news agency, Nabavi preconditioned a reformist defeat on low voter turnout. This was classic Nabavi, trying to ensure the smooth running of parliamentary elections through mass participation.

Yet this notion of promoting greater involvement was visible elsewhere. For example, one of the striking features of the election campaign has been the dismissal of the idea of abandoning the Islamic nature of the republic.

The plan had initially found resonance among some reformists. But Mostafa Tajzadeh, a leading proponent of reform, set the record straight at a Nov. 18 meeting of the student wing of the main reformist organization, the Islamic Iran Participation Front (IIPF). Tajzadeh told student activists: “Reforms outside the establishment will fail … In our society being outside the establishment means radicalism and passivity.”

Reformists are fooling themselves if they believe that victory in these elections can have a marked impact.

Instead, they should set their sights on the 2005 presidential election. The success of the reform project in the Islamic Republic rests, to a large extent, on the emergence of a strong leader. Khatami has failed to provide this leadership. Indeed in the words of Saeed Hajarian, the chief reformist strategist, Khatami’s greatest talent is for failing to exploit his opportunities. Hajarian, who heads the IIPF, has already mooted the idea of fielding a non-clerical candidate for the 2005 elections. It is this kind of maneuvering alone that can re-energize the reform movement.

Mahan Abedin, a London-based financial consultant and analyst of Iranian politics, wrote this commentary for THE DAILY STAR

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/opinion/06_12_03_c.asp

We keep seeing these encouraging announcements from an outfit called the "Iranian Students Movement" - which I suspect could hold its conventions in a broom closet and still have room for the fax machine. I doubt the people behind it are really students in Iran, but I am pretty sure that their repeated stories of how the US Army could come marching in to a big welcome is pure bs.

This is a News Story confirming what you said above about the latest clashes in south eastern City of Saravan-- Pilot
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Four Die in Riot after Police Kill Motorcyclist

The Scotsman
Fri 5 Dec 2003

Four people were killed in southeastern Iran when police put down a riot sparked by their shooting dead a motorcyclist who defied orders to stop, a local MP said today.

The motorcyclist ignored police instructions in the city of Saravan, Sistan-Baluchistan province, on Thursday, said MP Jafar Kambouzia.

Police shot the motorcyclist dead “provoking outrage among witnesses,” Kambouzia said in a phone call from his home.

A number of people marched to the provincial governor’s office and smashed the windows of a police car on the way.

“There were scuffles with police, as a result of which four people were killed,” said Kambouzia, who declined to be more specific about how they died.

Kambouzia, a reformist politician, said everything seemed normal in Saravan today, the Islamic holy day in Iran.

“Provincial government officials met to investigate the incident,” he said.

The deaths were not reported on Iranian state television, nor on radio, nor by the official Islamic Republic News Agency.

http://www.news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=2265460

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service
This is another credible story of what has happened there...
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'Five dead in Iran riot'

BBC World Service
Friday, 5 December, 2003, 18:05 GMT

Reports from south-east Iran say several people have been killed in clashes between demonstrators and police.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3295337.stm

I enjoy both Tony Snow and Brit Hume.

I've never heard of any student group calling for the US army to come in.
'moral, political' support are far different than military

The biggest ever immunisation campaign for measles, mumps and rubella has been launched in Iran.
Over the next three weeks the government is hoping to vaccinate 33 million people - around one-half of the Iranian population.

Iran has a good history of immunisation, but health experts are worried the number of measles cases could be on the rise.

President Mohammad Khatami hailed the drive at a launch ceremony on Saturday.

Challenge

Measles is the biggest killer of children under five in the world. The campaign is part of a global challenge to eliminate the disease by 2005.

From today until the end of December, Iran's ministry of health is hoping to vaccinate 11 million people a week.

They have been preparing the campaign for six years and have mobilised a whole network of volunteers in order to reach the most remote areas.

Most of the vaccinations will take place in schools, health centres and clinics.

They will also be operating in military barracks where attitudes towards immunisation are more relaxed.

Many Iranians, especially between the ages of 15 and 25, have never had more than one dose of the measles injection.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3296663.stm

Iran MP: Election boycott "unproductive & vain"

Saturday, December 06, 2003 - ©2003 IranMania.com

ARDEBIL, Dec 5, Iran Daily -- A senior lawmaker said boycotting Iran's upcoming parliamentary elections under any circumstances will prove to be quite "unproductive and vain" at the end of the day.

Tehran MP Mohammad Reza Khatami, who is also the secretary-general of the pro-reform political party Islamic Iran's Participation Front (IIPF), added that democracy will come in the wake of massive public participation in elections.

"Undoubtedly, democracy materializes through ballot boxes and not by unrest and even popular and sacred revolutions," he stressed. Speaking at the IIPF office in the northwestern city of Ardebil, Khatami also said that those who believe in democracy and reforms cannot remain indifferent towards general elections.

"Although we cannot reach all our demands by casting votes, we must bear in mind that the existing potentials must be best utilized in order to be able to remain active on the scene and move our objectives forward," he said.

Khatami, who is the younger brother of President Mohammad Khatami, went on to say that reformers must be able to stage a strong showing in the parliamentary elections, slated for February 2004, and voice their electoral demands loudly.

He further said that the "public opinion can press groups, which are not willing to have free elections held in the country, to retreat from their (radical) stances and respect the people's rights".

Khatami, however, declined to confirm that IIPF would certainly run for the parliamentary elections, saying this will be contingent upon the materialization of certain conditions a free election must necessarily have.

"If the party's main candidates are disqualified [by the fundamentalist dominated constitutional watchdog Guardians Council], IIPF will have no one to stand for the polls and advance its plans," he said.

http://www.iranmania.com/News/ArticleView/Default.asp?NewsCode=20328&NewsKind=Current%20Affairs

Note: All opposition groups, including student groups in Iran are calling for a boycott of this election as a symbol of rejection of the entire regime, whether they be reformist or hard-line factions.

Both Reformists and Hard-liners have called for 'large turnouts' as a symbol of the strength of the Islamic Regime.

Excellent post.

BUMP

I enjoy both Tony Snow and Brit Hume.

As I. It was way back when that I gained a great appreciation for Tony when reading his columns in "The Conservative Chronicles".

Kicking Ayatollah Khameini during protest rally.

I believe this might be the "outfit" you're talking about.

http://www.daneshjoo.org/

Here's are 2 excerpts from their "About us" page.

"It's to note that the members of our Movement consist of students inside and outside of Iran, as well as Iranian professionals who share the students’ vision of a free, independent, democratic, secular and industrialized Iran."

"Although we have differing views for a post theocracy Iran, we are united based on our shared beliefs in nonviolent resistance, secularism, peace, democracy and free markets."

And your conventions are held, where?