Tehran's Campus Crackdown

speechlesstx · #1 Sep 17, 2007, 01:40 PM

Here we go again...

Quote:

By AMIR TAHERI

September 17, 2007 -- AS millions of Iranians prepare for the new school year, the scene is being set for what could be a long hot autumn on university campuses across the nation. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has promised to "cleanse" the Iranian educational system of what he calls "the corrupt influence of the infidel" and has mobilized a special militia to crush the expected student revolts.

The radical president refers to his "academic cleansing" plan as "The Second Great Islamic Cultural Revolution." The late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini closed the universities and launched the first "Great Islamic Cultural Revolution" in 1980. A committee created to "cleanse" academia purged more than 6,000 professors and lecturers, virtually destroying Iranian academia. Dozens of academics were executed as hundreds fled into exile. The committee also expelled thousands of students on charges of monarchist or leftist tendencies. It also censored or totally rewrote dozens of textbooks to conform to the Khomeinist ideology...

Ahmadinejad's purge started last July with the replacement of 20-plus college deans. In almost every case, a bona fide academic was pushed out in favor of a Revolutionary Guard member.

Scores of professors and lecturers have reportedly been told that their services are no longer required. The purged teachers include individuals who had served as members of the Islamic Majlis (Iran's ersatz parliament) or, in two cases, as ministers in pre-Ahmadinejad Cabinets. Dozens of academics have been arrested, including some returning from conferences abroad.

An unknown number of students have been arrested. In Tabriz, all seven members of the students union were picked up and taken to an unknown destination last month. The families of two of them claim that they may have died under torture. In Tehran, more than 150 student activists have been "disappeared" in recent weeks.

As part of the purge, 30 privately owned colleges have been shut and their assets seized. Thirteen others are under investigation. The moves could interrupt the studies of some 100,000.

Serving notice that any protest on the campus will be crushed, a special force (known as the Ashura Brigade) commanded by Guard veteran Gen. Qassem Kargar has been assigned the task of "ensuring a peaceful atmosphere" at centers of higher education.

Ostensibly mandated to enforce the Islamic Dress Code (enacted in May 2006), armed guards are posted at all centers of higher education to prevent anti-regime demonstrations.

"Cleansing" the universities through expulsions and arrests may be easy for a government prepared to use force against unarmed civilians. But when it comes to the education's content, things are not as easy as the Tehran radicals might wish. A report prepared for Ahmadinejad claims that at least 40 percent of the textbooks in use in Iranian universities do not conform to Khomeinist dogma.

The problem for the regime is that it has alienated the intellectual elite. No author, academic or scientist of note would be prepared to participate in the "Islamic Cultural Revolution." Efforts to find somebody to prepare a course on Khomeini's "philosophy" have provoked only derision among intellectuals approached to assume the task.

I'm curious as to the reactions of Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the UN, Democratic presidential candidates, those folks who sponsored this weekends anti-war protest - A.N.S.W.E.R. - or maybe even this guy's response:

His shirt says, Pastors for peace: Regime change in the US, not in Cuba.

How do you think he feels about Iran?

excon · Sep 17, 2007, 02:02 PM

Hello Steve:

And yet, their state run television not only allows shows about the holocaust, but they're producing one as well called "Zero Degree Turn". From what the AP reports, it IS sympathetic to the Jews.

What's one to think about that?

excon

cpalmist · Sep 17, 2007, 02:06 PM

Youo may alienate the intellectual elite but they will do what you tell them as fear of death is far stronger than fear of violating ideals...

Think the prez of Iran was a student when he was part of taking over the Achille Largo. One thing about students is that they are easily led/misled as they know everthang....;-)

ETWolverine · Sep 18, 2007, 05:40 AM

It's Achille LAURO, not LARGO. Largo is one of the Florida Keys, not a ship.

Ahmadinejad was involved in the Iran Hostage incident, the taking of hostages in the US Embassy in Iran which was Jimmy Carter's lasting legacy. He had nothing to do with the Achille Lauro/Leon Klinghoffer incident. Though I don't doubt that Ahmad-genocide supported the ideology of those terrorists.

So, we have a regime in Iran that is ating like a bunch of communist dictators, removing the basic rights of innocent citizens, and are trying to devlop nuclear weapons so that they can do the same to the rest of the world. We have a regime in Venezuela that is doing the same thing to its citizens. In Cuba, Castro maintains his Comminist control of the rights of his citizens. The Taliban are attempting to re-take Afghanistan. China is still committing human rights abuses against members of Falun Gong and are cracking down on any democratic reform movements. In Africa, I have lost count of the number of warlords there are fighting for the right and ability to create poverty, disease, genocide and ruin in their areas of influence.

But the Democrats are all in agreement that Bush (who freed 50 million people from two tyrannical regimes, eliminated several major sources of funding for terrorists, stopped two rogue regimes from moving forward with their nuclear ambitions---North Korea and Libya--- and is actively fighting terrorism to a degree never before seen in world history, and thus creating the longest period of time that the USA has been without a terrorist attack in 40 years) is the "greatest threat to world peace" in history.

Elliot

speechlesstx · Sep 18, 2007, 06:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by excon

Hello Steve:

And yet, their state run television not only allows shows about the holocaust, but they're producing one as well called "Zero Degree Turn". From what the AP reports, it IS sympathetic to the Jews.

What's one to think about that?

excon

Try this...

Quote:

Part of the drama's thrust is to distinguish between Jews, who are officially permitted to practice their faith in Iran, and their sovereign state of Israel, which official Iran reviles. Thus while humanizing Jews, the series subtly delegitimizes Israel and those who support it. In one scene described by the Journal, for instance, a rabbi opines that it is "a bad idea for Jews to resettle in Arab lands"; in another, the French Jewish heroine rejects an offer of marriage from a suitor-cousin who supports the establishment of Israel. Writer Fatthi, meanwhile, used the platform of an interview with the Journal to try to parallel genocidal Nazi behavior with Israeli treatment of the Palestinians. "The murder of innocent Jews during World War II is just as despicable, sad and shocking as the killing of innocent Palestinian women and children by racist Zionist soldiers," he said.

Nonetheless, the lavish series, which was researched with input from Iran's Jewish Association, stands strikingly at odds with the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's position on the Holocaust. While Zero Degree Turn features a local heartthrob moved to heroism by his love for a Jewish woman threatened by the Nazi mass-murderers, and makes role models out of Iranian diplomats saving Jews, Ahmadinejad would have his countryfolk, and the rest of the world, doubting that the Holocaust ever happened. Monday night after Monday night across Iran, Fatthi is broadcasting an unmistakable challenge to his own president's efforts at historical revisionism. State TV is essentially telling Ahmadinejad to shut up.

Or this...

Quote:

A lecturer at Tehran University said anonymously that: "Ahmadinejad more than anything is a big fool. The fact that our regime generously backed the love story between a young Iranian and a Jewess, and the mention of Iran's aid in helping Jews flee the gas chambers is aimed at showing that there is a different Iran."

The lecturer who followed the soap opera says the message is crystal clear: "Iran has no problems with the Jews or with the Jewish community living amongst it. Its problem is with the 'little devil' – the State of Israel and the Zionists."

Or even this...

Quote:

Iranian state television has begun airing a drama series that claims that the Jews reached Palestine because of persecution during World War II. The episodes aired thus far are in line with the Iranian government's official stance that the Israeli-Arab conflict is essentially a European problem and therefore Jews in Israel should return to their home countries in Europe.

speechlesstx · Sep 18, 2007, 06:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ETWolverine

We have a regime in Venezuela that is doing the same thing to its citizens.

Speaking of the Mahdi Hatter's buddy...

Quote:

President Hugo Chavez threatened on Monday to take over any private schools refusing to submit to the oversight of his socialist government, a move some Venezuelans fear will impose leftist ideology in the classroom.

All Venezuelan schools, both public and private, must submit to state inspectors enforcing the new educational system. Those that refuse will be closed and nationalized, Chavez said.

A new curriculum will be phased in during this school year, and new textbooks are being developed to help educate "the new citizen," added Chavez's brother and education minister Adan Chavez in their televised ceremony on the first day of classes.

Just what the curriculum will include and how it will be applied to all Venezuelan schools and universities remains unclear.

But one college-level syllabus obtained by The Associated Press shows some premedical students already have a recommended reading list including Karl Marx's "Das Kapital" and Fidel Castro's speeches, alongside traditional subjects like biology and chemistry.

The syllabus also includes quotations from Chavez and urges students to learn about slain revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara and Colombian rebel chief Manuel Marulanda, whose leftist guerrillas are considered a terrorist group by Colombia, the U.S. and European Union.

Venezuelan officials defend the program at the Latin American Medical School — one in a handful of state-run colleges and universities that emphasize socialist ideology — as the new direction of Venezuelan higher education.

"We must train socially minded people to help the community, and that's why the revolution's socialist program is being implemented," said Zulay Campos, a member of a Bolivarian State Academic Commission that evaluates compliance with academic guidelines.

"If they attack us because we're indoctrinating, well yes, we're doing it, because those capitalist ideas that our young people have — and that have done so much damage to our people — must be eliminated," Campos said.

Now some critics worry that primary and secondary schoolchildren will be indoctrinated as well.

Chavez's efforts to spread ideology throughout society is "typical of communist regimes at the beginning" in Russia, China and Cuba — and is aimed at "imposing a sole, singular vision," sociologist Antonio Cova said.

But Adan Chavez said the goal is to develop "critical thinking," not to impose a single philosophy.

Hugo speaks to students

Meanwhile, Romney had a few words about Ahmadinejad's visit to the UN:

Quote:

"The Iranian regime under President Ahmadinejad has spoken openly about wiping Israel off the map, has fueled Hezbollah's terror campaign in the region and around the world, and defied the world community in its pursuit of nuclear weapons," Romney wrote in the one-page letter.

"If President Ahmadinejad sets foot in the United States, he should be handed an indictment under the Genocide Convention," Romney said.

BABRAM · Sep 18, 2007, 09:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by speechlesstx

September 17, 2007 -- AS millions of Iranians prepare for the new school year, the scene is being set for what could be a long hot autumn on university campuses across the nation. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has promised to "cleanse" the Iranian educational system of what he calls "the corrupt influence of the infidel" and has mobilized a special militia to crush the expected student revolts.

Well it seems Mahmoud has added yet another cleansing program to his agenda.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's resume'

Domestic crticisim of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

In June 2007, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was criticized by some Iranian parliament members over his remark about Christianity and Judaism. According to Aftab News Agency, President Ahmadinejad stated: "In the world, there are deviations from the right path: Christianity and Judaism. Dollars have been devoted to the propagation of these deviations. There are also false claims that these [religions] will save mankind. But Islam is the only religion that save mankind." Some members of Iranian parliament criticized these remarks as being fuels to religious war.

Anti-Israel statements

Main article: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Israel
See also: Iran-Israel relations

On October 26, 2005 Ahmadinejad gave a speech at a conference in Tehran entitled "World Without Zionism". According to widely published translations, he agreed with a statement he attributed to Ayatollah Khomeini that the "occupying regime" had to be removed, and referred to it as a "disgraceful stain [on] the Islamic world" that must be "wiped off the map." [10]

Ahmadinejad's comments were condemned by major Western governments, the European Union, Russia, the United Nations Security Council and UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.[121] Egyptian, Turkish and Palestinian leaders also expressed displeasure over Ahmadinejad's remark.[122] Canada's then Prime Minister Paul Martin said, “this threat to Israel's existence, this call for genocide coupled with Iran's obvious nuclear ambitions is a matter that the world cannot ignore.”[123]

The translation of his statement has been disputed. Iran's foreign minister stated that Ahmadinejad had been "misunderstood": "He is talking about the regime. We do not recognise legally this regime."[124] Some experts state that the phrase in question is more accurately translated as "eliminated" or "wiped off" or "wiped away" from "the page of time" or "the pages of history", rather than "wiped off the map".[125] Reviewing the controversy over the translation, New York Times deputy foreign editor Ethan Bronner observed that "all official translations" of the comments, including the foreign ministry and president's office, "refer to wiping Israel away".[126]

Ahmadinejad has compared Israel's actions in the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict to Adolf Hitler's actions during World War II saying that "Just like Hitler, the Zionist regime is just looking for a pretext for launching military attacks" and "is now acting just like him."[127]

On August 8, 2006, he gave a television interview to Mike Wallace, a correspondent for 60 Minutes, in which he questioned American support of Israel's "murderous regime" and the moral grounds for Israel's invasion of Lebanon.[11]

On December 2, 2006, Ahmadinejad met with Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyah in Doha, Qatar. At that meeting, he said that Israel "was created to establish dominion of arrogant states over the region and to enable the enemy to penetrate the heart Muslim land." He called Israel a "threat" and said it was created to create tensions in and impose US and UK policies upon the region.[128]

On December 12, 2006, Ahmadinejad addressed the International Conference to Review the Global Vision of the Holocaust, and made comments about the future of Israel. He said, "Israel is about to crash. This is God's promise and the wish of all the world's nations." He continued, "Everyone must know that just as the U.S.S.R. disappeared, this will also be the fate of the Zionist regime, and humanity will be free."[129]

According to Gawdat Bahgat, Director of Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, "the fiery calls to destroy Israel are meant to mobilize domestic and regional constituencies" and that "Rhetoric aside, most analysts agree that the Islamic Republic and the Jewish state are not likely to engage in a military confrontation against each other." [130]

Holocaust denial and accusations of antisemitism

Main article: Controversies surrounding Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
See also: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Israel
In December 2005 Ahmadinejad made several controversial statements about the Holocaust, calling it "a myth", and criticizing European laws against Holocaust denial.[131] In a May 30, 2006 interview with Der Spiegel Ahmadinejad again questioned the Holocaust several times, insisting there were "two opinions" on it. When asked if the Holocaust was a myth, he responded "I will only accept something as truth if I am actually convinced of it".[132]

In response to these statements and actions, a variety of sources, including the U.S. Senate,[133] have accused Ahmadinejad of antisemitism. On December 11, 2006 the "International Conference to Review the Global Vision of the Holocaust" opened, to widespread condemnation.[134] The conference, called for by and held at the behest of Ahmadinejad,[135] was widely described as a "Holocaust denial conference" or a "meeting of Holocaust deniers",[136] though Iran maintained that it is not a Holocaust denial conference.[137]

Human rights

Main article: Human rights in Islamic Republic of Iran

Some human rights organizations and many Western governments say the current human rights situation in Iran under Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is poor; for example, the Canadian government listed Iran as one of the thirteen worst abusers of human rights in 2006.[138] According to Amnesty International, dissidents who oppose the government non-violently face harassment, torture and execution and the election of Ahmadinejad signaled the defeat of "pro-reform" supporters[139]. According to Human Rights Watch, "[r]espect for basic human rights in Iran, especially freedom of expression and assembly, deteriorated in 2006. The government routinely tortures and mistreats detained dissidents, including through prolonged solitary confinement."

Human Rights Watch described the source of human rights violations in contemporary Iran as coming from on the one hand the Judiciary, accountable to Ali Khamenei, and on the other to members directly appointed by Ahmadinejad. Again according to Human Rights Watch, "[s]ince President Ahmadinejad came to power, treatment of detainees has worsened in Evin prison as well as in detention centers operated clandestinely by the Judiciary, the Ministry of Information, and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps."[140]

Tolerance of public protest varies under Ahmadinejad. Human Rights Watch writes that "[t]he Ahmadinejad government, in a pronounced shift from the policy under former president Mohammed Khatami, has shown no tolerance for peaceful protests and gatherings."

In January 2006 security forces attacked striking bus drivers in Tehran and detained hundreds. The government refused to recognize the drivers’ independent union or engage in collective bargaining with them. In February government forces attacked a peaceful gathering of Sufi devotees in front of their religious building in Qum to prevent its destruction by the authorities, using tear gas and water cannons to disperse them. In March police and plainclothes agents charged a peaceful assembly of women’s rights activists in Tehran and beat hundreds of women and men who had gathered to commemorate International Women’s Day. In June as women’s rights defenders assembled again in Tehran, security forces beat them with batons, sprayed them with pepper gas, marked the demonstrators with sprayed dye, and took 70 people into custody. [26]
Responses to dissent vary. In December 2006, Ahmadinejad advised officials not to disturb students who engaged in a rowdy protest during a speech of his at the Amirkabir University of Technology in Tehran.[141], although speakers at other protests have included among their complaints that there had been a crackdown on dissent at universities since Ahmadinejad was elected.[142][143]

Source:Wikipedia

Quote:

Originally Posted by speechlesstx

His shirt says, Pastors for peace: Regime change in the US, not in Cuba.

How do you think he feels about Iran?

Very little. The guy in the picture appears to be an expert on how to grow hair. And don't even ask him how to get a job. I doubt he has experience in that category either.

_____________________________________________

Bobby

BABRAM · Sep 18, 2007, 01:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by speechlesstx

I wonder if ol' Ahmad will have anothe rhalo moment at the UN this time around? In Iran, Arming for Armageddon

It would be a fitting message for a halo of radiation accompanied by a plume of soldering smoke to appear just above his residence. He can feel that aura.

Bobby

tomder55 · Sep 19, 2007, 09:29 AM

Steve

The Mullahs are feeling the pressure. Even the French have removed their heads from the sand long enough to recognize the inherent threat the regime poses to the world. The Mahdi Hatter lost some political clout in the reemergence of Rafsanjani in the 'Assembly of Experts'. BBC NEWS | Middle East | Rafsanjani urges talks with West

The idea of having constitutional democracies in Iraq and Afghanistan is awakening the people there and the thug Ahmamadjihad is reacting the only way he knows how........by attacking Canada's human rights record .TheStar.com | News | Iran accuses Canada of torture and racism

speechlesstx · Sep 20, 2007, 05:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BABRAM

It would be a fitting message for a halo of radiation accompanied by a plume of soldering smoke to appear just above his residence. He can feel that aura.

Not for long



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