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Khatami sees no bright outlook for Iran-US relations

Tehran, Nov 2, IRNA -- Iranian President Mohammad Khatami said in Tehran on Tuesday there is no bright perspective for Iran-US relations and expressed the hope that great changes will be made in the US policies and principles.

Talking to domestic and foreign reporters after delivering his annual report on the performance of his government under the Third Five-Year Development Plan (March 2000-March 2005) at the Majlis, he also hoped that whoever is to be elected as the US president, would move towards detente policy, securing national interest of the American people, and adopting non-intervention policy regarding domestic affairs of other countries.

As to confrontation with press and arrest of journalists, Khatami said freedom is a precondition of democracy.

"Freedom means, freedom of press and freedom of expression but these do not mean that anyone can say whatever he or she wants to. Nowhere in the world is like that. Everyone should act within the framework of laws," he added.

"I do not want to say that no newspaper should be dealt with but I believe that any press that is to be closed or be put on trial must be dealt with within the framework of laws and regulations," Khatami said.

Iran to upgrade its deterrent defense capability

TEHRAN (IRNA) -- Minister of Defense Rear Admiral Ali Shamkhani said here Tuesday that Iran's Organization of Aerospace Industries was to upgrade its defense capability so as to increase the vulnerability of countries that threaten Iran.

In a message on the organization's 6th anniversary on November 3, the minister said it was playing the key role in shaping the country's strategic and defense capability.

It will also help Tehran use its defense power to maintain regional stability, he added.

The Organization of Aerospace Industries is instrumental in the designing and production of short-range and medium-range missiles as well as the designing and development of defense systems.

It goes without saying, Shamkhani said, that national security cannot be maintained without having the necessary strategic and military facilities. "Iran is located in a daunting geo-political environment" said the minister, arguing that with the increasing, international threats to its national security, Iran's acquisition of a modern defense system is an imperative."

EU foreign ministers tackle Iran, Iraq ahead of summit

BRUSSELS (AFP) Nov 02, 2004

The European Union thrashed out a support package for Iraq Tuesday, while warning Iran over its nuclear plans and revealing new ideas to keep the Middle East peace process on track.

EU foreign ministers, preparing for an EU summit this week, also warned Sudan's government of possible sanctions unless it reins in an Arab militia blamed for an orgy of violence against the black Africans of the Darfur region.

On the Middle East, they unveiled a four-pronged offensive to accelerate the internationally-backed "roadmap" for the region, despite Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's ill-health and the US presidential election.

With the outcome of the US polls and a simmering crisis at the European Commission at home to tackle, the EU leaders have plenty to discuss when they convene on Thursday and Friday.

The foreign ministers prepared for the summit by approving a package of measures to be presented by their heads of government in talks with Iraqi interim prime minister Iyad Allawi on Friday.

The lunch encounter between the EU leaders and Allawi may gain added spice depending on the results of the US vote, which may be known Wednesday provided legal challenges do not hold up what is expected to be a close-run affair.

Dutch Foreign Minister Bernard Bot, who chaired the EU meeting, said approval of the package of pre-election measures showed that the 25-nation bloc had got over its bitter divisions caused by the Iraq war.

The EU "should be clear that we are united again and we have a package to offer", Bot told a news conference.

The foreign ministers said they stood ready to disburse 30 million euros, already announced by the bloc, "immediately" to support the election process before Iraqi polls planned for January.

They agreed to "contribute substantially" to the financing of a protection force for United Nations personnel re-building their presence in Iraq.

The bloc's executive commission was asked to work on a trade and political agreement between the EU and Iraq, and the ministers said they supported the idea of EU training for Iraqi police and judges.

"All of Europe recognises that we want the people of Iraq... to be able to live in a normal country," British Europe Minister Denis MacShane told reporters. "I think everybody will work hard to achieve that goal."

The EU foreign ministers also prepared the ground for summit debate on other international headaches such as Iran's nuclear ambitions.

Officials from Iran and the EU's three most influential powers -- Britain, France and Germany -- are to resume talks in Paris Friday with time running out for Iran to accept the Europeans' offer to suspend uranium enrichment in order to avoid possible UN Security Council sanctions.

"The negotiations continue and we hope that at the end there will be a successful outcome," German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer said, with Iran facing a UN deadline of November 25 to allay concerns about its nuclear drive.

"If we find a way I would be very happy. If not, we are moving forward in a very serious situation," Fischer warned.

On the Middle East, EU foreign affairs chief Javier Solana said Washington was on the "same wavelength" as Europe in wanting to hasten implementation of the roadmap.

Solana's four-point plan agreed by the foreign ministers involves security cooperation with the Palestinian Authority (PA), to guarantee law and order when Israeli forces pull out of the Gaza Strip.

It also envisages further institutional reforms at the PA, more economic aid and support for local elections planned for next month.

On Darfur, the EU ministers warned sanctions were possible against the Sudanese government for failing to "rein in and neutralise" the Janjaweed militia.

No place for weapons of mass destruction in Iran's military doctrine: UN envoy

UNITED NATIONS (IRNA) -- Iran's Permanent Deputy Representative to the United Nations Mahdi Danesh Yazdi here on Monday stressed that nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction have no place in Iranian military doctrine because they run against its religious beliefs and commitments under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

Danesh Yazdi made the remarks after International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Chief Mohamed ElBaradei submitted his annual report to the UN Security Council.

As to measures Iran has taken to build the international community's confidence in the interest of clearing suspicions on its nuclear activities, he said that in December 2003 it signed the Additional Protocol and in November voluntarily suspended its uranium enrichment activities.

The Islamic Republic is currently negotiating with the European Big 3 (Britain, Germany, France) to prove the peaceful nature of its nuclear activities and to achieve a mutual understanding with Europe on the nuclear issue, the Iranian envoy added.

He further expressed his satisfaction with the recent IAEA report which acknowledges that major and decisive measures have been taken by both Iran and the agency to settle the issue.

As to Iran's cooperation with the IAEA, he said about 800 inspectors of the agency have conducted daily inspections during scheduled visits to Iran as of February 2003 which should be sufficient time for them to arrive at definite conclusions on the nature of Iran's nuclear activities.

According to a recent IAEA report, no evidence has been found proving Iran's nuclear activities are for a military purpose, Danesh Yazdi reiterated.

Iran, being a signatory to the NPT, will not renege on its commitments under the treaty but will also push for the right guaranteed under it to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, the Iranian envoy said.

Persian Journal

German FM warns mullahs of Iran

Nov 2, 2004, 11:05

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Iran's mullahs may face a "very serious" showdown with the United Nations should the Islamic country fail to dispel suspicions that it is building a nuclear-weapons program, said German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer.

Germany, France and Britain are leading European Union efforts to reach an agreement that would ensure Iran's nuclear- power program is peaceful. Iran has reneged on a 2003 pledge to suspend uranium enrichment, which the U.S. says is aimed at building a bomb.

"We should really, based on the interests of Iran and the international community, find an agreement," Fischer told reporters before a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels. "If not, we are moving forward in a very serious situation."

The International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN's nuclear watchdog in Vienna, is due to discuss the matter at a Nov. 25 board of governors' meeting that might lead to a call for UN Security Council sanctions against Iran. German, French and British officials are scheduled to meet Iranian representatives on Friday in Paris.

"The talks are tough," Fischer said. "We hope there will be a successful outcome."

Iran to fingerprint visitors from US

TEHRAN: US travellers visiting Iran will have to be fingerprinted on entering the country under a bill approved on Tuesday by a parliamentary committee, state news agency IRNA reported.

The bill, which will now go before the full parliament, was given the green light only two days short of the 25th anniversary of the seizure of the US embassy in Tehran by radical students.

Kazem Jalali, chairman of parliament’s national security and foreign affairs committee, said the move is in response to a similar requirement by imposed by the US authorities from October 1, which also stipulates that Iranians entering the United States be photographed.

The bill approved on Tuesday would instruct the government to ensure that measures be introduced to “verify the identity of American arrivals and to bar entry to those who could represent a threat to national security.”

It said the law would cease to apply “when the American administration stops fingerprinting Iranians who enter its territory.”

Tehran and Washington broke off diplomatic relations in 1980 after the seizure of the embassy, in which 52 diplomats were held hostage for 444 days.

Even so, American scientists, journalists, tourists and others visit the country.

In December 2002, Iran began fingerprinting American journalists in reaction to “harmful treatment” imposed on many foreign travellers entering the United States. afp

Iran, India Reach Accord to Work On Gas Deposits

[Excerpt]
November 03, 2004
The Wall Street Journal
John Larkin

BOMBAY, India -- Iran has reached a preliminary agreement with India to develop a part of one of the world's largest natural-gas deposits, the latest in a string of energy deals that compound difficulties faced by Washington as it attempts to isolate Iran over its nuclear program.

Under a memorandum of understanding signed Monday, state-owned Indian Oil Corp., the biggest oil refiner in India, will join with Iranian gas utility Petropars to bring to production one block of the offshore South Pars gas deposit, which accounts for 60% of Iran's gas reserves and 10% of the world's reserves. Iran has the world's second-largest gas reserves, after Russia.

Details of the pact weren't disclosed. The Indian company, known as IOC, said the estimated total investment in the project could reach $3 billion. Energy analysts said Petropars, a subsidiary of National Iranian Oil Co., would likely take a majority stake in the venture. The project also includes the construction of a liquefaction plant in southern Iran to liquefy the gas for sea transport.

IOC said it was too early to put a figure on its share of investment in the project. It noted that approvals are needed in both countries for the venture to proceed.

Analysts said that, judging from past energy dealings with Iran, it could take could take as many as four years to produce gas from the zone allotted to IOC. The Indian company would get a fixed rate of return on its investment and probably would use that money to buy gas from the Iranian government at a negotiated price, they said.

The deal shows how the search for alternatives to increasingly expensive crude oil is complicating Washington's security agenda. The U.S. has had sanctions against Iran for more than 20 years. More recently, it has spent much diplomatic effort urging allies to use any leverage they have to convince Tehran to abandon what the U.S. claims is an illicit nuclear-weapons program.

Those efforts are running into roadblocks thrown up by the surging price of crude oil and the need for alternatives. Last week, China struck a preliminary deal with Iran with a potential value of tens of billions of dollars to develop an oil field in exchange for purchases of Iranian liquefied natural gas. Earlier this year, the U.S. failed to dissuade Japan from signing a roughly $3 billion contract that gives Tokyo the rights to develop Iran's Azadegan oil deposit.

"The Europeans are also dealing with Iran," said Madhu Nainan, editor of Petrowatch, a New Delhi petroleum industry newsletter. "The Americans are the ones who are isolated, not the others." Although India's relations with the U.S. have been improving, New Delhi's acute energy insecurity is driving it to risk harming those ties by dealing with Iran. India, Asia's third-biggest consumer of energy, imports 70% of the crude oil it needs to run its economy, which expanded more than 8% in the year that ended March 31.

The amount of natural gas available for sale in India amounts to 80 million cubic meters a day, say analysts, which meets only 70% of the country's demand. Analysts say Indian demand for natural gas will rise to more than 300 million cubic meters a day within 15 years, and most of that will need to come from imports. ...

Write to John Larkin at john.larkin@wsj.com

Questions on the nuclear program in Iran

Last update : 02/11/04

Statement by the Foreign Ministry Spokesperson

(Paris, November 2, 2004)

Q - Given the recent Iranian statements on the Iranian nuclear program what's the message, the clarification you'll be sending the Iranian side at the meeting on Friday?

There's no clarification; there's a process under way, a process of dialogue and discussion which we intend to continue to the end, that is until the critical, the very important deadline when the board of governors meets on November 25. This dialogue is ongoing. There have already been several meetings and others are scheduled. Our objective, as you know, since the outset, continues to be confidence-building as to the nature of the Iranian nuclear program, and we're working in that spirit, the EU3 in liaison with all our partners and through contact and dialogue with Iran's representatives. So the work is ongoing, and we're giving it the maximum attention, the maximum effort to achieve a result which, I repeat, must dispel the doubts and establish confidence about the Iranian program.

(...)

Q - Can you review the issues on which there are still problems between the international community, the three European countries and Iran, other than uranium enrichment?

There were three sections, as you may remember, when the October 21 agreement was finalized by the EU3 and the Iranian authorities in Teheran.

First, the section on enrichment and reprocessing, then the one on cooperation between the Iranian authorities and IAEA, and thirdly the section pertaining to the additional protocol to the Non-Proliferation Treaty which the Iranian government pledged to sign, ratify and implement.

The whole point of the board of governors' meeting on November 27, which will be preceded as I've said, by a report from the IAEA director-general Mr. ElBaradei round about November 12, is to assess the progress on the various sections, and we're waiting with the utmost interest to hear what Dr. ElBaradei will have to say on these three sections.

(...)

Q - Are there contacts between Mr. Barnier and his Iranian counterpart on this matter?

The last contact, I believe, goes back to September, to the time of the opening of the UN General Assembly. I don't think there's been any contact since at ministers' level.

(...)

Q - Does the NPT bar signatory countries from enriching uranium?

I don't believe it bars enrichment for civilian uses as the right of any state to acquire a nuclear capacity for civilian peaceful use is acknowledged, but acknowledged on the basis of a fundamental concept--transparency vis-à-vis the IAEA. That is the body tasked with overseeing the implementation of the non-proliferation objectives. In addition there's the additional protocol to the Non-proliferation Treaty which is intended to create further transparency. These are ways for enhanced oversight.

Q - Does a country that has signed the NPT have the right to acquire the technology to enrich uranium for civilian uses?

So long as there's transparency and the oversight of IAEA experts.

Q - One last question. Have all the countries that signed the NPT also signed the additional protocol?

I would need to check. I don't think all have, but without question that's the trend.

Q - When did France sign the additional protocol?

Actually it was recently.

Q - So Iran is being asked to do something that's not yet been applied by all the major members of the nuclear club?

We're talking about instruments that one is free to subscribe to or not. I'm simply saying that there's a basic trend in the international community, a growing trend, to sign on to the additional protocol. I'm not saying anything else.

(...)

Q - The US is accusing Dr. ElBaradei of having espoused the moderate ideas of France and Germany on the Iranian question. Do you consider this accusation pressure on France on the part of the US?

I can say that we have worked from the outset on the Iranian question hand in hand with our German and British partners and in the utmost transparency vis-à-vis our European Union partners who basically understand perfectly well the spirit in which we are working, the line we are taking. I've nothing further to say.

(...)

Campaign against "Al-Quds Day"

Campaign against "Al-Quds Day" 2004

After the Islamic revolution in Iran in 1979, Ayatollah Khomeini declared the last Friday in Ramadhan, the Muslim month of fasting, as international "Al-Quds Day" (Arabic for Jerusalem) and called upon all Muslims worldwide to demonstrate for the "liberation" of Jerusalem at this date. Not only by its name the "Al-Quds Day" until today is an anti-Semitic attack on Jews in and outside of Israel. Moreover, the "Al-Quds Day", taking place worldwide and being coordinated by the Mullah-regime in Iran, is the main political day of struggle for Shiite Islamists.

In 2003, the "Al-Quds demonstration" in Berlin for the first time met broad public criticism. More than 290 individuals, among them public figures with Turkish, Iranian or Jewish background, representatives of churches, associatiations or politicians signed a protest call condemning anti-Semitism and demanding a political confrontation of Islamism, but at the same time arguing against a racist stigatization of Muslims in Germany.

The public interest raised by our activities in the last year is followed up by a broader campaign this year. It is our aim to initiate a deeper political debate about the problem of Islamism. Therefore, on 11/7 there will be held a conference which in detail deals with the background of the "Al-Quds Day" and the role of anti-Semitism in Islamism. Then, like in 2003, there will we a public protest call against the intended "Al-Quds demonstration". On the day of the demonstration itself, manifold counter-activities are scheduled.

Iran Celebrates Day It Humiliated 'Great Satan'

Wed Nov 3, 2004 08:45 AM ET

By Amir Paivar

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Several thousand Iranians burned U.S. flags and George W. Bush effigies Wednesday, marking the 25th anniversary of the storming of the U.S. embassy in Tehran just as the U.S. presidential race neared its climax.

Bush dubbed Iran an "axis of evil" member in 2002 alongside Iraq and North Korea. Enmity between the United States and Iran dates back to the 1979 seizure of the embassy by radical Islamic students who held 52 hostages there for 444 days.

Washington severed ties with Tehran in 1980.

Chanting "Death to America" and "Death to corrupt Western culture" the crowd of mostly young students given a day off school listened to speeches deriding the "Great Satan," as Iran's clerical leadership routinely calls the United States.

"The U.S. is now the most hated regime in the world," said cleric Mostafa Sadat-Beheshti, 46, who was among the crowd in front of the former diplomatic compound, now home to the Revolutionary Guards, in central Tehran.

Jafar, a 15-year-old student, said Iran had dealt the world's biggest superpower a humiliating blow with the 1979 embassy seizure.

"Humiliation is the most powerful weapon against America," he said. "Although the Americans are equipped from head to toe, it is the power of our faith which will eventually defeat them."

The embassy takeover was politically damaging for then President Jimmy Carter, who ordered a botched rescue attempt in which eight U.S. military personnel died when a helicopter collided with a support aircraft over the Iranian desert.

Iran freed the hostages to coincide with the inauguration of Carter's rival Ronald Reagan and political analysts say it has tended to favor Republican administrations due to the perception that they are more open to making deals than Democrats.

KHATAMI: U.S. MUST CHANGE POLICIES

Most present at Wednesday's rally took Iran's official policy line that it made no difference whether Bush or his rival Sen. John Kerry won the race to the White House.

  "With all these presidents, Democrat or Republican, who have come and gone in the last 25 years, have they ever stopped plotting against us?" said Mojtaba, a 28-year-old student.

Tuesday President Mohammad Khatami told reporters he had no preference in the Bush-Kerry race but wanted the winner to adopt a different attitude toward Iran.

"I hope that whoever wins adopts wise and logical policies and behavior for the sake of the interests of the American nation and that of the world, which hasn't been the case so far."

Iran faces concerted international pressure, led by Washington, to scrap parts of an atomic energy program which U.S. officials believe is a front for a bid for nuclear weapons.

Tehran denies the charge but risks being sent to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions if it does not suspend uranium enrichment activities by the end of this month.

Despite Bush's tough rhetoric against Iran, which is now sandwiched between U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, some Iranian officials felt another four years of Bush in the White House may be preferable to a victory for Kerry.

"Through the mistakes he made in the Middle East, he has more knowledge about the region than Kerry who needs time and money to reach Bush's conclusions," said Mohammad Ali Abtahi, an adviser to President Khatami. (Additional reporting by Parisa Hafezi)

2004 Wednesday 03 November

UN nuclear report on Iran may weaken US case

Reuters

VIENNA - A new report on UN nuclear inspections in Iran may be worded in a way that undermines the US case for reporting Tehran to the Security Council this month, diplomats said on Wednesday.

United Nations nuclear watchdog chief Mohamed ElBaradei is due to present a report next week summarising his agency’s two-year investigation of Iran’s nuclear programme, which Washington says is a front to develop atomic weapons.

Tehran insists its nuclear ambitions are limited to electricity generation.

“ElBaradei plans to say in his November report on Iran that the agency has so far found no evidence of diversion (to a nuclear weapons programme),” a diplomat who follows the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) probe told Reuters.

“But he will balance that by saying that Iran’s fuel cycle activities would appear to be out of proportion with the other parts of its nuclear programme,” the diplomat added, referring to Iran’s controversial uranium enrichment activities.

Diplomats said ElBaradei had told the Iranians he would be able to pen a positive report if there was a constructive atmosphere in their talks on Friday with European counterparts who want Tehran to freeze its enrichment programme.

The IAEA report will be crucial in the US push to have Iran reported to the UN Security Council for possible economic sanctions when the watchdog’s board meets on Nov. 25.

While the agency has uncovered many previously concealed parts of Iran’s nuclear programme, it has found no “smoking gun” clearly proving the US allegations.

Several diplomats said a statement that there was no hard proof of diversion would remove a key legal ground for reporting Iran to the Security Council but would not make it impossible.

An IAEA spokeswoman declined to comment, saying the report was still being drafted.

Tehran’s pursuit of enriched uranium fuel is the most controversial aspect its nuclear programme because it could potentially be used to produce material for atomic weapons.

ElBaradei is trying to encourage Iran to accept an EU offer of peaceful nuclear technology and other political and economic incentives in exchange for an end to its enrichment programme.

“ElBaradei told the Iranians that if the atmosphere in the EU three talks is positive, then his report on Iran will also be positive,” a diplomat said. “That is quite a carrot for Iran.”

Friday’s talks with French, German and British officials will be held in Paris.

If no deal is struck ahead of the Nov. 25 IAEA meeting, the EU is expected to support a referral to the Security Council.

Diplomats in Vienna say they expect Iran will agree to a temporary suspension of enrichment soon to avoid being referred to the Security Council. However, they said a deal was unlikely to be struck at Friday’s meeting.

Death of a “Blasphemer”

By Robert Spencer
FrontPageMagazine.com | November 3, 2004

Theo van Gogh was shot dead on an Amsterdam street on Tuesday morning. His assailant was a Dutch Moroccan who was wearing traditional Islamic clothing. After shooting van Gogh several times, he stabbed him repeatedly, slit his throat with a butcher knife, and left a note containing verses from the Qur’an on the body. Said Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende: “Nothing is known about the motive” of the killer.

Others were not quite so cautious. A Dutch student declared: “This has to end, once and for all. You cannot just kill people on the street in a brutal way when you disagree with them.” Job Cohen, the mayor of Amsterdam, declared: “We will show loud and clear that freedom of speech is important to us.”

Freedom of speech: Eight weeks ago, van Gogh’s film Submission aired on Dutch TV. The brainchild of an ex-Muslim member of the Dutch Parliament, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Submission decried the mistreatment of Muslim women — and even featured images of battered women wearing see-through robes that exposed their breasts, with verses from the Qur’an written on their bodies.

In poor taste? Insulting? Probably that was a bit of the intention. Van Gogh, the great grandson of Vincent van Gogh’s brother (“dear Theo”), was a well-known gadfly on the Dutch scene; in the past, he had attacked Jewish and Christians with enough vehemence to elicit formal complaints. But after Submission, the death threats started to come. Van Gogh, in the eyes of many Dutch Muslims, had blasphemed Islam — an offense that brought the death penalty. The filmmaker was unconcerned. The film itself, he said, was “the best protection I could have. It’s not something I worry about.”

His death shows that it’s something that everyone who values freedom should worry about. For the murder of van Gogh, if it indeed turns out to have been committed by a Muslim enraged at his “blasphemy,” has precedents. In 1947, the Iranian lawyer Ahmad Kasravi was murdered in court by Islamic radicals; Kasravi was there to defend himself against charges that he had attacked Islam. Four years later, members of the same radical Muslim group, Fadayan-e Islam, assassinated Iranian Prime Minister Haji-Ali Razmara after a group of Muslim clerics issued a fatwa calling for his death. In 1992, the Egyptian writer Faraj Foda was murdered by Muslims enraged at his “apostasy” from Islam — another offense for which traditional Islamic law prescribes the death penalty. Foda’s countryman, the Nobel Prizewinning novelist Naguib Mahfouz, was stabbed in 1994 after accusations of blasphemy. Under Pakistan’s blasphemy laws, many non-Muslims have been arrested, tortured, and sentenced to die on the slimmest of evidence. And of course, there is the Ayatollah Khomeini’s notorious death fatwa against Salman Rushdie.

But for such things to happen in Iran and Egypt, two countries where Islamic radicalism is widespread, is one thing; to have a “blasphemer” gunned down on the streets of Amsterdam in broad daylight is another. Europe has for thirty years encouraged massive immigration from Muslim nations; Muslims now comprise five percent of Holland’s population, and that number is growing rapidly. But it is still largely taboo in Europe — as in America — to raise any questions about how ready that population is to accept the parameters of secularism. When Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn tried to raise some of those questions in 2002, he was vilified as a racist — in line with the continuing tendency of the Western media to frame questions regarding Islam in racial terms, despite the fact that the totalitarian intransigence of the ideology of radical Islam is found among all races. And Fortuyn himself, of course, was himself ultimately murdered by a Dutch assailant who, according to The Guardian, “did it for Dutch Muslims.”

The deaths of Fortuyn and now van Gogh indicate that the costs of maintaining this taboo are growing ever higher. One of the prerequisites of the hard-won peaceful coexistence of ideologies in a secular society is freedom of speech — particularly the freedom to question, to dissent, even to ridicule. Multiculturalism and secularism are on a collision course: if one group is able to demand that its tenets remain above criticism, it no longer coexists with the others as an equal, but has embarked on the path to hegemony.

It is long past due for such considerations to become part of the public debate in Western countries. To what extent are Muslim immigrants in Western countries willing to set aside Islamic strictures on questioning, criticizing, and leaving Islam?

After van Gogh was killed, thousands of people took to the streets of Amsterdam to pay him homage. Among them, according to Agence France Presse, was a Muslim woman who stated: “I didn’t really agree with van Gogh but he was a person who used his freedom of expression.” She held up a sign saying, “Muslims Against Violence,” explaining: “I decided that as a Muslim and a Moroccan I should take up my responsibility to show that we do not support this act.”

But the traditional Muslim view is, unfortunately, alive and well; it was firmly restated several years ago by Pakistan’s Federal Sharia Court: “The penalty for contempt of the Holy Prophet …is death and nothing else.” No one knows how many Muslims in Europe and America hold the views of the Moroccan woman at the rally, and how many would side with Pakistan’s Sharia Court — and the killer of Theo van Gogh.

If Western countries continue, out of ignorance, fear, or narrow self-interest, to refuse to find out, they will find themselves playing host to many more incidents like the bloody scene in Amsterdam Tuesday morning. The longer this question is ignored, or attributed only to “racist” sensibilities, the more likely it becomes that the killing of Theo van Gogh will not be a tragic anomaly, but a harbinger of things to come.

Robert Spencer is the director of Jihad Watch and the author of Onward Muslim Soldiers: How Jihad Still Threatens America and the West (Regnery Publishing), and Islam Unveiled: Disturbing Questions About the World’s Fastest Growing Faith (Encounter Books).

DoctorZin Note: The Mullahs of Iran were unable to muster the huge anti-American crowds that were once common in Iran.

11/ 03/ 2004	Clip No. 315

Demonstrations Throughout Iran Marking the Anniversary of the American Embassy Takeover in 1979

Demonstrations throughout Iran marking the anniversary of the American embassy takeover in 1979 Death to America We always say: Death to America. Death to Israel Death to America Death to America Death to America Death to America Say it out loud: Death to America Say it out loud: Death to America Say it, Sir: Death to America Say it, sister: Death to America Say it, sister: Death to America Death to America Death to America Death to America Death to America Death to America


To view video clip click here.

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Payvand News

Iran to upgrade its deterrent defense capability

EU foreign ministers tackle Iran, Iraq ahead of summit

No place for weapons of mass destruction in Iran's military doctrine: UN envoy

Russia, Iran to sign nuclear deal in December

Persian Journal

German FM warns mullahs of Iran

Iran to fingerprint visitors from US

Iran, India Reach Accord to Work On Gas Deposits

Questions on the nuclear program in Iran

Campaign against "Al-Quds Day"

Campaign against "Al-Quds Day" 2004

Iran Celebrates Day It Humiliated 'Great Satan'

UN nuclear report on Iran may weaken US case

Death of a “Blasphemer”

France demands halt to Iran's nuclear drive

DoctorZin Note: The Mullahs of Iran were unable to muster the huge anti-American crowds that were once common in Iran.

Demonstrations Throughout Iran Marking the Anniversary of the American Embassy Takeover in 1979