[Note by Tom Gross]

I attach various items from the Iranian media, or about Iran. (Earlier there was a dispatch on underreported news from Saudi Arabia and elsewhere in the Muslim world.)

 

AHMADINEJAD GIVEN BRAVERY AWARD FOR GOING TO COLUMBIA

Some items from the Iranian media this week (in Farsi):

* Ahmadinejad given bravery award for going to Columbia.

See also here.

* Iranian Supreme Leader’s newspaper, “Kayhan,” features a front-page photo calling for Israel to be bombed.

* Picture of Iranian children celebrating Palestinian missile attacks on Israel at the “Rally to eradicate the Zionist entity”.

 

CLIPS FROM MONDAY’S DEMONSTRATIONS IN TEHRAN AGAINST AHMADINEJAD

I posted the following at National Review Online on Monday:

Clips from this morning’s demonstrations in Tehran against Ahmadinejad
Monday, October 8, 2007
By Tom Gross

The following two videos have been posted of this morning’s demonstrations against President Ahmadinejad in Tehran.

Among the chants of the students: “Give us freedom like at Columbia University.”

In this link, calls are made for the release of jailed students, and one student leader is heard shouting “President Ahmadinejad, you talk so much about Palestine. Just as the people of Palestine are free to determine their future, the people of Iran must have this freedom too. We want you [Ahmadinejad] to place yourself before the vote of the Iranian public.”

In this clip, you can clearly hear students chanting “Death to the dictator”.

 

MORE ON THE ANTI-AHMADINEJAD PROTESTS AT TEHRAN UNIVERSITY

Pictures of the opposition students can also be seen on the front page of the reformist daily “Hambastegi”.

Iranian blogger Jadi says that many students were barred from entering the university, and that the date of Ahmadinejad’s appearance was changed at the last minute in order to prevent the anti-Ahmadinejad demonstrations from growing. He also posts pictures here.

 

NRO CARTOONS

* Following from the cartoons in my previous dispatches on this subject, here is one more Ahmadinejad cartoon, from Michael Ramirez in “Investor’s Business Daily”.

* The cover of this week’s “New Yorker” magazine pays reference to the recent “soliciting for homosexual sex” scandal involving an American senator, and Ahmadinejad’s ludicrous remarks about gays.

 

“MUHAMMAD AL-DURA IMAGE” DESIGNATED MOTTO OF IRAN’S EDUCATION MINISTRY

[This report refers to Muhammad al-Dura, who I wrote about in the Oct. 3 dispatch titled Israeli “invisible” jets foiled Russian radar in Syria (& UK Israel boycott ruled ‘illegal’),” and in other previous dispatches.]

FULL ARTICLE:

Minister: Defending Doura, the motto of Education Ministry
Tehran, Oct 5, IRNA (Official Islamic Republic News Agency)

Minister of Education Mahmoud Farshidi said here Friday that defense of martyred Palestinian student Mohammad al-Doura is now the motto of Iran’s Education Ministry.

Farshidi told IRNA on the sidelines of the International Qods Day rallies that the world Muslims, specially students, have voiced solidarity with the oppressed Palestinian nation and Islamic justice.

He said defense for the prosperous Palestinian nation has always been on Iranian Education Ministry’s agenda.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Farshidi said the oppressed Palestinian people should not pay dear cost of Nazis’ acts in World War II.

 

IRANIAN INTERIOR MINISTER: “ZIONISM IS ENEMY OF MANKIND”

FULL ARTICLE:

Interior Minister: “Zionism is enemy of mankind”
Qom, Oct 5, IRNA (Official Islamic Republic News Agency)

Interior Minister Hojjatoleslam Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi said here Friday that Zionism, especially the occupying regime of Qods, is enemy of mankind and humanity and people worldwide should stand its inhumane crimes.

Pour-Mohammadi said wise move of the late Imam Khomeini in linking Iran’s Islamic Revolution with Palestine aspirations had been a divine move and a new initiative, which should be used by all Muslims.

 

U.S.: IRANIAN AMBASSADOR TO IRAQ MEMBER OF ELITE REVOLUTIONARY GUARD UNIT

The United States says that the Iranian ambassador to Iraq is a member of an elite fighting unit tied to the Revolutionary Guard, which the U.S. Congress has designated a terrorist organization. Speaking to reporters at a military base on Sunday, Gen. David Petraeus said that Ambassador Hassan Kazemi-Qomi is a member of the Quds Force, a unit of the Guard that the U.S. believes supports Islamist extremists around the region.

 

BAHRAIN SETS UP MISSILE SHIELD AGAINST IRAN

“The Gulf Daily News” reports that Bahrain is bolstering its defense with a new radar system to protect the Arab kingdom against possible missile attacks resulting from the growing conflict over Iran’s nuclear program.

The US Navy’s 5th Fleet is stationed in Bahrain.

The new $43.6 million radar system was delivered by the U.S. arms firm Lockheed Martin. It can detect both single and multiple targets, and track other targets, such as aircraft. Anti-missile missiles Patriot or Aegis can be used in the system.

 

IRAN’S CRACKDOWN ON BAHA’IS

Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) is co-chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives’ Iran Working Group and a member of the Human Rights Caucus. In an op-ed this week in the Chicago Sun-Times, he writes:

The Baha’i faith – a faith of tolerance and diversity of thought – was founded in Iran in the mid-1800s and has become Iran’s largest religious minority with over 250,000 members. In March 2006, just a few months into Ahmadinejad’s presidency, the Command Headquarters of Iran’s Armed Forces ordered the police, Revolutionary Guard and Ministry of Information to identify all Baha’is and collect information on their activities. Two months later, the Iranian Association of Chambers of Commerce began compiling a list of Baha’is serving in every business sector.

In August, Iran’s feared Ministry of the Interior ordered provincial officials to “cautiously and carefully monitor and manage” all Baha’i social activities. The Central Security Office of Iran’s Ministry of Science, Research and Technology ordered 81 Iranian universities to expel any student discovered to be a Baha’i; this year, 104 Baha’is were expelled from Iranian universities. In April, the Iranian Public Intelligence and Security Force ordered 25 industries to deny business licenses to Baha’is. Banks are closing Baha’i accounts and refusing loans to Baha’i applicants.

According to the U.S. State Department’s 2007 Report on International Religious Freedom, “Broad restrictions on Baha’is severely undermined their ability to function as a community. The Government repeatedly offers Baha’is relief from mistreatment in exchange for recanting their faith... Baha’is may not teach or practice their faith or maintain links with co-religionists abroad. Baha’is are often officially charged with ‘espionage on behalf of Zionism.’“ We have seen this movie before. What happened to our solemn promise of “never again” made in 1945?

 

SHIMON PERES: COLUMBIA WRONG IN THE WAY IT INVITED AHMADINEJAD

The following are excerpts from the “Address by President Shimon Peres at the Opening of the [Israeli] Knesset winter session” yesterday:

“Columbia University was recently also confused and did not make a clear distinction between academic freedom and organized lying. The university must turn to its guest and demand, in the name of academic freedom, that he invite an Israeli spokesperson to present the full truth to Iranian ears.”

“Ahmadinejad, in his words, distorted the present truth and falsified the historical truth. He claimed, for example, that the Jews returned to Israel at the expense of the Arabs. He ignored the fact that there were Jews in Israel before the Arabs and that they were expelled from it by force.”

***

I attach two further articles below. The smart bombs referred to in the first article can be seen in the photo here.

-- Tom Gross