Shiraz Explosions, Change of Story

Despite the earlier statements by the IR officials that the ordnance display at the Shiraz Mosque was the cause of the explosion that led to the death and injuries of hundreds of people, the Islamic Republic intelligence ministry now claims that the explosion was the work of a monarchist group and they have made several arrests of those involved.

The monarchist group they refer to is in fact nothing to do with Reza Pahlavi. The group calls itself, Kingdom Assembly of Iran, and was led by Manuchehr Fathollahi, aka Forood Fooladvand, yet another one of these TV satellite based Iranian Don Quixote presenters, only this time based in London and not in LA. Fooladvand was delluded with liberating Iran by himself and setting up a new imperial dynasty of his own. He had even bestowed himself with a title, Iranban, the Protecter of Iran. For him Reza Pahlavi was an incompetent Prince and undeserving for the throne of Iran, but since Fooladvand himself wanted to be the new monarch of Iran, the Western media have been confused with the monarchy connection.

Fooladvand stopped his TV programs a few months ago and said he was on his way to Iran to liberate the country by the next Iranian new year! - how many times have we heard that by now? Since then accounts vary as to Fooladvand's whereabouts, some say he was tricked by IRI agents who were pretending to be his followers and kidnapped on the Turkish border, some say he is already dead and some say he embezzled money and simply disappeared.

Shortly after the Shiraz explosion, some of Fooladvand's followers, typical of those who want to pretend they have a vast network of activists inside Iran claimed it was their network who had bombed the mosque, and so it seems a combination of a typical Islamic Republic Intelligence ministry plot aided by the stupidity of an exiled group, is paving the way for 'justification' of a massive crackdown on dissidents in Iran. Already some pro-democracy activists, Iranian Christians and Bahaii leaders have been arrested and the Intelligence Ministry is promising televised interviews of the perpetrators of the Shiraz explosion who will confess to working for world imperialism and Zionism on the State TV.

Although the regime has not named any of those arrested, Abdollah Shahbazi's blog has published the names and photographs of two of those who are due to appear in the televised confessions. Shahbazi, a former Iranian Communist, has close connections with rival sections of the IRI Intelligence Ministry after his collaboration efforts with the regime in the 80s. Now days he refers to himself as a historian.


Shahbazi claims two of those arrested and promised execution by the intelligence ministry are Faramarz Sheikholeslam and his cousin, Mohammad Shahqotbi. They are in fact computer experts and whiz kids. Shahbazi has even published a picture of one of them, Shahqotbi, while sitting next to Shiraz's Friday Prayer Leader's son and fixing his computer.

Those who have followed Iran news for the last 28 years and the majority of the Iranian population will never believe any such manipulated televised confessions under duress.

The truth is that despite the megalomaniac claims by some opposition groups in exile, the Iranian pro-democracy movement is not about bombs and explosions and acts of violence. The world community must remain alert to such plots by the Islamic Republic. When it comes to blowing up ordinary citizens, its the Islamic Republic who has the top expertise in this field.

Khorramshahr, 20 Years On

If the liberation of Khorramshahr, 20 years ago, brought tears of joy and pride for us, pictures of Khorramshahr, 20 years on, bring us tears of sadness and regret.
Worse still when the mayor of Tehran, talks about rebuilding Beirut and forgets that charity should begin from home, its like he puts salt on the wounds of the citizens of Khorramshahr and those whose courage and sacrifices liberated Khorramshahr from Saddam's aggressors.

Credible Opposition is the Islamic Regime's Achilles Heel

What is the regime's Achilles heel or may be I should use the Persian equivalent, what is the Esfandiyar's Eye of the Islamic Republic?

I believe the overwhelming majority of Iranians want change. If the Islamic regime was overthrown tomorrow, there would be the biggest mass street parties the world has ever seen in Iran. Yet the majority of Iranians both inside and outside Iran remain passive observers of the events. While in their hearts they want to see the back of the mullahs, they are still hesitant in actively playing their part. What is the reason? Rather than lecturing those who fall in this category and coming across as lofty and arrogant towards them, or simply keeping within our own circles, those of us who are active in some way or another should genuinely listen to what the silent majority have to say. As someone reminded me many years ago at school, God has given us two ears and only one tongue, we should therefore listen twice as much as we talk.

The two overriding replies I get when I ask this question are:

1- Who do we replace the mullahs with?
2- We can't do anything, its a waste of time. If the mullahs are to be overthrown, the "great powers" will decide and do it, not us.

Perhaps I should do this post in two parts, but in a way the two are interconnected. Let me start with what I have labelled as reply number two. There are good reasons for this, deep rooted in our recent history. Our nation has struggled against rival super powers of the time, the British and the Russians, who wanted to split the country along their own zones of influence. A weak incompetent Qajar dynasty, backed by Shiite clerics whose sole purpose was to keep the population backward and illiterate, ensured that the Iranians as a nation were too weak to decide their own destiny against the British and the Tsarist Russian superpowers of the time.

When against all odds, Iran produced a hero by the name of Reza Shah the Great, and once again Iran was ruled by an Iranian dynasty, we were just about to find our rightful place amongst other nations. In less than two decades, our wounded pride was restored, we made great advances towards modernising our country and perhaps most important of all, our Iranian identity, trampled on by centuries of foreign invaders and non-Iranian rulers, flourished again. But just when we were finding our feet on the ground again and the foundations of a modern secular Iran was being set, the Allied forces invaded Iran and the British, who hated Reza Shah for having cut off their influence in the country, forced his abdication and exile and even tried to restore the Qajar dynasty.

This deep set Iranian conspiracy theory that the super powers decide our future was best captured and told by the great Iranian novelist and satirist, Iraj Pezeshkzad, in his masterpiece of contemporary Persian literature, My Uncle Napoleon. So much so that the phrase 'Uncle Napoleon way of thinking' or 'Uncle Napoleon syndrome' has become a distinct reference in the modern day Persian language.

Yet despite this My Uncle Napoleon Syndrome(MUNS), Iran has produced three major revolutions and upheavals in the last 100 years. One must remember that the MUNS is only prevalent during the periods of defeat. Thus the same people who took part in some of the biggest street protests in 1979 and toppled 2500 years tradition of monarchy in Iran, once they realised what a mistake it was, started to deny their contribution in the revolution and instead claimed it was the British and the Americans who had engineered the Islamic revolution.

Going back to reply number one, 'Who do we replace the mullahs with?'. Nothing scares the regime more than a credible opposition and nothing puts off the silent majority more than a phony opposition. If the 1999 student uprising across 19 Iranian cities shook the foundations of the Islamic Republic, the unfortunate emergence of the LA TV stations and the kind of comical opposition that was beamed to the Iranian people as the alternative to the Islamic Republic stopped the momentum of the new pro-democracy movement from becoming a mass movement and the protests from reaching the critical mass needed for a regime change.

This is why I pointed out some of this phony opposition in my interview with the Front Page magazine. Paper organisations or to be more up to date, web based non-entities who call themselves "Parties" and have more members in their "central committees" than actual supporters through out the world, led by Don Quixote fruit cakes who never fool the Iranian people inside Iran but do manage to fool some well wishing and well meaning outsiders by their preposterous claims of extensive organisational networks inside Iran, what they like to call 'hasteh' :)

The credible opposition will not come about from hotel conferences of old political groups in London and Paris either. As I told one of the organisers of these conferences, if you put a lot of zeros in one room, the output will still be zero. I have been active for 28 years against the theocratic rule in Iran, I have followed Iran related news every day since the start of the 1979 revolution, I have made the effort to travel and meet face to face with people across the spectrum of the Iranian politics and gauge their appeal, effectiveness, IQ and authenticity and whether they have the potential to mobilize the silent majority. I am no academic, but I trust my instincts and my empirical observations. When I was asked about the outcome of these conferences, this is what I said:
'speeches will be made, they will sing their own praises that they have gathered under one roof, they will elect a co-ordinating committee of around 16 people and then it will all fizzle out, because they will never have the initiative to carry any actions. '

Those who asked me were surprised how accurate my predictions were but I was surprised that they expected anything else.

The credible opposition will come from within Iran but not from within the regime. For people will not trust those who are in bed with the clerics. The credible opposition will not be formed overnight in Iran either, it will not be a homogeneous single organisation and it will not immediately and publicly declare its goal as the overthrow of the Islamic regime. It has to win small concessions step by step, gain people's confidence and ensure that the momentum is maintained. Its success will depend on whether it will correctly judge the mood of the people and their readiness and make the right decisions on a case by case basis.

The continuous conflict between the aspirations of the Iranian people for freedom and the outdated repressive ways of the Islamic Republic makes me confident that this credible opposition will come about.

Meanwhile those of us outside Iran should not present ourselves as the alternative to the current regime but promote every genuine secular and pro-democracy voice inside Iran.
We should be credible, tell the truth as it is, not exaggerate and we should not create Dir-Yassin effects amongst the silent majority.

Making the silent majority active and political should not be made synonymous with becoming a revolutionary immediately and demanding the overthrow of the Islamic regime, it should really be something that deals firstly with the individuals relationship to his or her immediate surrounding.

We should actively solicit the international public opinion and use it as a lever to prevent Western politicians from doing deals with the mullahs and bolster the regime. Having the international support of the people around the world will strengthen us immensely.

The combination of credible effective opposition with international support will once again give confidence to the Iranian people that they are not alone, they can make a difference and they do not have to wait passively for the super powers to decide when this dark regressive period in our history is finally over.

Has the Tehran Mayor Forgotten These Children?

The mind boggles with disbelief, the blood boils with rage, whatever I type can not express my fury and it is impossible to fight back the tears.

Tehran Mayor pledges millions of Dollars to rebuild Lebanon (i.e. Hezbollah) and Islamic Republic officials choose to forget about our own children's plight. These are the faces of Iranian school children who suffered these horrific burns because their school did not have proper safe heaters suitable for a primary school classroom.

A terror machine which started three decades ago by burning more than 400 innocent people in a cinema in Abadan, led by an evil man belonging to the dark ages, but referred to as Iran's Gandhi by the Carter administration, continues to destroy Iran and Iranians.

The Iranian blogger http://floppy98.blogspot.com/2008/05/blog-post.html tells the full story.

Go and See Persepolis

I am told Marjan Satrape is a distant relative of mine, not blood related but something like my maternal great aunt's husband's daughter-in-law kind of relative, and our town of Astara is actually mentioned in her story. I have known about Satrape's illustrations but I am ashamed to say that I never got round to buying her books. Ever since her animation has been released, I have been planning to see it and tonight I finally watched the movie along with some friends.

It is simply brilliant. If you want to know about Iran and the story of my generation who left Iran at an early age, don't read any blogs or academic papers, just go and see this fantastic animation movie.

I have noticed this before that those of my generation who had to leave Iran at a young age, have so many common experiences. In the same way I could relate to so many scenes in the Persepolis animation. The last words of her father for example when she leaves Iran, 'Don't ever forget who you are and where you come from' or her insecurity in finding an accommodation she can regard as her home, her frustrations at foreigner's perception of Iran and Iranians, the nostalgia of waking up and seeing the Alborz mountains, the illusions of the older generation who thought the 1979 revolution will make things better, are just a few scenes in the movie which I could so easily relate to.

Unlike me however Marjan returns to Iran just after the massacre of the Iranian political prisoners in 1988. This is during the peak of the repression, and she also experiences studying in Islamic Republic schools and universities. There is a scene in which her RE teacher rambles on about how liberated Iran has become after the Shah and how Iran no longer has any political prisoners. Not able to tolerate such obscene nonsense, she stands up to the teacher and names her own executed relatives and says if there were 300 political prisoners during the Shah now there are 300,000 to the applause of her classmates and the fury of her teacher. We became so fired up by this scene that we too all started clapping and applauding in the cinema and there were more scenes like that.

There are also exceptional one liners. For example as an impressionable young child she hears her elders talk about having Qajar royal blood and being Communists, thinking this is something to be proud of, the young Marjan goes to bed smiling as she closes her eyes, saying "We are Qajar royalty and we are Communists". Iran's main Communist Party at the time, the Tudeh, was in fact founded by a Qajar Prince!

I really recommend every Iranian to gather a few of their non-Iranian friends and take them to see the movie. Perhaps then they will learn what its like to be constantly harassed in your personal life and to have to look over your shoulder all the time, or perhaps they will realise why we hate 'useful idiots' so much.

Has Khatami Forgotten?

I couldn't believe it when BBC reported ex-Islamic Republic president Khatami as having made this statement:
'On Friday Mr Khatami said the Islamic republic's founder, Ayatollah Khomeini, had not wanted to export the revolution by armed force. '

The news report continues:
"What did the Imam [Khomenei] mean by exporting the revolution?" he asked in a speech on Friday to university students.
"Did he mean that we take up arms, that we blow up places in other nations and we create groups to carry out sabotage in other countries? The Imam was vehemently against this and was confronting it," he said.

Actually as far as I can remember, yes he did, very much so and Khatami himself, who at the time was the Minister of Guidance, chaired one of these meetings!

See the full text and translation of the minutes of the meeting which was leaked to the Times newspaper at the time:

The meeting commenced with the speech of His Eminence, Ayatollah Khatami, the Minister of the Islamic Guidance, who said the following : "In the name of God, The Merciful, the Compassionate."Dear brothers, I wish to welcome you on behalf of the International Islamic Movements Organisation, and to explain in brief why this meeting has been called. On 24th of 'Oribehesht' - (14 May, 1984), I , accompanied by the Head of this movement were received by our beloved leader to whom we presented our progress report. Th Imam, expressed his satisfaction with the behaviour of the leaders of the sheikhdoms of the Persian Gulf and of the Saudi regime. Of Course, he was not pleased either with others who pretend to be leaders of the Islamic nations. After moments of silence which were evidence of his deepfelt anxiety and dissatisfaction, His Eminence in his usual style of firmness concerninig all living matters made certain comments which are as follows :'From the beginning of our revolution, we have had many enemies, but our expectations from Muslims was something else...'based on a plan that has been prepared in almost 200 pages and on which you will be subsequently informed, it has been decided that the strikeforce which at present is composed of a few groups of 10-20 people each, who are currently serving in the Lebanon, should be increased to the size of a brigade. This force, for security reasons, and for the purposes of making sure that legal impediments do not delay its formation, will be formed under the aegis of either the Revolutionary Guards or the Armed Forces. Of course, the decision in this respect will rest with His Eminence, the Leader. At this time, we are concerned with its creation. This force will act independently and will present all its reports directly to the Commander in Chief. Because the carrying out of this plan required the assistance of all revolutinary organs, the matter was presented to His Eminence in that initial meeting, and he accepted the proposal. What has been said has been a brief introduction, and now we will enter the main substance and I shall pass the platform to Brother "Mirhashem", who is responsible for this organisation. .... Brother Mirhashem :"From what was said at the beginning, there was some reference made to the creation of a brigade. For the information of all present, I must say that we have at present a number of dedicated groups who are ready for action and who have, to the outside world become known as suicide groups. These groups have already performed certain actions. But since regional reactionary forces out of fear from the Islamic Revolution and the hard blows of the fighters of Islam, with each passing day under different pretexts are preparing themselves more and more, and this in itself is a big threat for the continuation of the revolution, these groups that we have are by themselves inadequate. Also, the personnel in these groups are committed only because of their beliefs for which they are ready to do anything, but they lack warfare experience. Therefore, the personnel of this brigade must from the point of view of military combat experience be of a very high echelon. If we wished to commence this task from the beginning, that is from the training stages, by the time that we can prepare such people for utilisation at least one year will have elapsed, and this is something that will create an interlude in our activities and will award our enemies more time. Therefore, it has been decided to select dedicated religious and fully committed candidates from all combat 'nahad' organisations so as to prevent any interlude in the continuation of our operational activities. .....

Tabriz for the Persian Gulf

This is the genuine Azarabadegan, the land of Atropates, the protecter of fire, and these are the sons and daughters of Babak, this is the cradle of the Iranian constitutional revolution. For generation after generation, Iran's Azeris have and will protect the territorial integrity of a united Iran. Tens of thousands of Tabrizis join protests to show that despite the ruling clerics lack of enthusiasm in protecting the name of the Persian Gulf and their sell out of our legitimate rights in the Caspian Sea, Azeris will be at the forefront of the Iranian nationalism and represent the aspirations of our people for a union of Iranian plateau and the Iranian people.

The Injustice Against the Three Iranian Students

Their names are Ehsan Mansouri, Ahmad Ghassaban and Majid Tavakoli, they have also become known as the 'Polytechnic 3' amongst their student colleagues. They were accused of having insulted Islam and Islamic sacred figures in the student publications, a charge that they immediately and vehemently denied.

In an open letter they immediately stated that the publications were fake and carried out by the University Baseej militia to lay the ground for their arrests and imprisonment.

"...At a time when the slightest criticism of the state's policies can lead to our kidnap and imprisonment, how could we possibly have published such things?"

The parents of the three students also pleaded with the Islamic Republic's Head of Judiciary, Ayatollah Sharoodi, citing 15 methods of torture, their children had been subjected to in order to extract a false confession from them by Islamic intelligence interrogators.

At the end, it was too obvious that the publications were fake and the three students had nothing to do with them. After seven months of constant torture and intimidation, the Islamic courts had to concede that the three students had nothing to do with those publications, yet they still received 22 months (Ehsan Mansouri), 26 months (Ahmad Ghassaban) and 30 months (Majid Tavakoli)!! Why? As any sane person may ask. The Islamic court's reason was that the students had accused the university baseej militia of having published those articles. No further attempt was made to investigate who really was behind printing the insults. Suddenly that was not important.

It is amazing that when a writer, film maker, cartoonist or any private citizen in Europe is deemed to have insulted Islam, the Islamic Republic is at the forefront of the protests which demand to kill the offender, yet for its own political purposes the clerics and their lackeys in Iran are even prepared to make these insults against Islam themselves.

Two Generations in a Picture

A picture speaks a thousand words. This one may speak even more. It shows two generations of Iranians side by side in a Friday prayer. The older generation, which got us in this mess, is shown shouting empty meaningless slogans with the usual enthusiasm and zeal, screaming from the top of their heads, with fists clenched and raised.

The younger generation however is silent and bemused. They are either laughing amongst themselves or looking at the dinosaurs with amusement.

This should be a lesson to those who want to collaborate with the outdated archaic clerical regime. Just like this older generation, the Islamic Republic is on its way out. Whether by sheer change in demographics or by some violent change, its here for just a brief period. No one can stop time or nature.

Baharloo's Latest Clanger on VOA Persian

As if it wasn't bad enough for the VOA Persian's mediocre presenter, Ahamd-Reza Baharloo, to present some one like Hossein Derakhshan (Hossein joon) as an opposition figure and a dissident to millions of baffled viewers in Iran, Baharloo and his incompetent program researcher, Faraj Ardalan, once again didn't do their research properly and confused millions of viewers in Iran by mis-representing one of the most abominable Iranians I have ever come across as some economics expert. One caller from Iran, even referred to Babak Emamain as a Dr! :))

In fact, Babak Emamian does not even have any A-Levels nor any formal education, let alone a PHD in economics, and despite having been in UK since he was 16 years old, still struggles to speak English properly. He is not even an entrepreneur, he is a life insurance salesman working for Zurich Life Insurance! It is so embarrassing to see this loathsome overweight lump of lard in a broken English, telling some distinguished Iranian 'I can ENTEEGRATE you into the British society'

Worse still, is this detestable character's insatiable and unapologetic desires to creep up to whoever is at the top.

I have written before about how at a press conference, this sycophant, claiming to represent the British-Iranian business community! proudly stated "I voted for Ahmadi-Nejad, because his message to the poor touched my heart".

It is such a shame that the US state department continues to pour so much of US Tax payer's hard earned money into this establishment run by total amateurs, who continue to confuse the Iranian population inside Iran. A Television station which has no clues on how to make programs. Talk shows and copy & paste of irrelevant news is the full extent of their program making initiatives. When will the State Department understand the damage they are causing?

Shiraz Explosion, Total Disregard for Life

From the reports I have been reading about the explosion in the Shiraz mosque which led to so many deaths and injuries, it seems the most likely cause was the ordnance display at the mosque which was not made safe for public. It strikes me that when we talk about the total disregard for life by the Islamic Republic rulers, we shouldn't just think about their disregard for life of their enemies, rivals and dissidents etc. Even the lives of their own supporters for them is worth nothing, as it has been demonstrated so many times in the past.

The reaction of the "enlightened reformists" living in London was also interesting. Mrs. Jamileh Kadivar, the wife of Atollah Mohajerani, the former Minister of Guidance during Khatami's presidency, who now lives in the exclusive Chelsea district of London, speculated that the Baha'is were the perpetuaters of the Shiraz explosion!!

Meanwhile Jamileh Kadivar's husband, Ataollah Mohajerani, is actually advertising and selling his book in defence of Ayatollah Khomeini's death sentence against Salman Rushdie on his web site. Both have the full protection of Her Majesty's Government.

On the other hand, Safa Einollahi, the plaintiff against Khatami, a victim of torture during Khatami's presidency, is living in hiding after the UK Home Office ruled it is safe for him to return to Iran!

Temporary Marriage Online

When religion and government become one as they have in the Islamic Republic of Iran, so many forbidden matters just simply change name. Interest rates for example, regarded as usury and forbidden in Islam became 'bank charges' and how can anyone think below is anything other than legalised prostitution?

Edict authorises online short-term marriages - AKI

I know who?! Haleh Afshar and Elaheh Rostami will present this as emancipation of women by an anti-Imperialist regime threatened by the US, amongst their "progressive" circles which they circuate around :)

Free Tibet

I swear I had no intention of getting involved with the Free Tibet protesters, I was in fact on my way to the Ideal Home Exhibition in London's Earls Court with my family. My route to the exhibition however took me through Notting Hill Gate, just one location amongst several where the Olympics torch was carried through in London. I am no expert on Tibet, but my gut instincts is that China has no business being there and the Tibetans don't want the Chinese there either. I can not get involved in every cause there is in the world but in any case China is close to the Islamic Republic and protest against the Chinese one party Communist system can not be a bad thing.

As I saw the protesters with their Tibetan flags ahead along with the heavy police presence and slowed traffic, I knew what was going on and tried to quickly explain to the kids about Tibet and China and the Olympics torch. I pulled the window down and started sounding my horn shouting 'Free Tibet, Free Tibet". The kids had got all excited too and were shouting "Three Two Bet!" until I told them how to correctly say Free Tibet. My loud voice quickly attracted the protesters on the other side of the road and they handed us Tibetan flags, which we gladly accepted and started waving them from the car, while waiting for the Traffic to move. I could see a few suspicious grim looking plain clothes Chinese with earphones mingling around and talking into their microphones as if they were reporting the situation to somewhere. One of them was trying to cross the road in front of my car, when I made a particularly loud and sudden sound with my car horn, which made him jump. "Are you a Chinese secret agent?" I asked him! He looked nonplussed and didn't know how to react, while the kids laughed their heads off from the way he jumped and kept repeating the question to each other "Did you see the way he jumped?".

By now the kids had more practice and we were all shouting in unison 'Free Tibet! Free Tibet!' but the kids had made up their own versions to chant too which they were thoroughly enjoying "China Sucks! Tibet Rocks!".

The torch finally came, protected by about 10 Chinese stern looking body guards in blue and white track suits, ringed by English policemen. A further ring of uniformed police was added when the torch was being exchanged from one runner to the other. Its a shame all that snow in the morning had melted away, I think we would have all enjoyed throwing snowballs at the torch.

The traffic finally started moving and I missed the part when a protester grabbed the torch from the TV presenter, Connie Haq, and the ones who tried to put it out with a fire extinguisher.
Further up near the Russian embassy, we saw about a half dozen police surrounding a lone woman protester, who was pinned against the railings. Again we pulled the windows down and started shouting 'Let her go! Let her go!' as the police turned around, the woman managed to clench her hands together above her head and I signalled the horn as sign of solidarity to each other.

So there you go, I don't often get involved with non-Iran related causes, Iran already takes up so much of my free time, but there I was right in middle of cause for justice and it was such good family fun and educational too :))

Its April and its Snowing in London

When we celebrate Nowruz, we mark the end of winter and the beginning of the spring. This year in England it seems we are marking the end of the spring and the beginning of the Winter!

While the February was mild and sunny, one week into April, all is covered under the snow. Still it looks beautiful and serene and I wonder what all this global warming nonsense is about, other than an excuse for further taxes.

Iranian Student Activist Elected as NUS Honorary VP

The NUS (National Union of Students) conference in Blackpool, UK, has elected Anoosheh Azadbar to become the honorary Vice President of the UK's Student Union, in order to show solidarity with Iran's students.

Anoosheh was amongst the many Iranian students who were arrested or kidnapped on 7th December, for trying to organise student protests to mark the Student Day in Iran.

Anoosheh was nominated by students from 28 of UK's universities and colleges. Anoosheh is now the third Iranian pro-democracy activist who has been elected as the honorary Vice President of the NUS. Previous Iranians elected to this post have been Ahmad Batebi and Mansoor Osanlou.

Amongst the past non-Iranian honorary NUS VPs are the likes of Nelson Mandela, Tasleema Nasrin and Yanar Mohammad.

No One Would Buy Mullah Flags!

Undoubtedly amongst the Iranian ex-pats, the magnificent Nowruz parade in New York, is a big source of pride and joy. Sadly I have never been able to attend this event but I always follow the news and reports on the parade with much enthusiasm.

I came across a report on the NY Nowruz Parade yesterday which I thought was worth a post on my blog. An American street peddler, who follows carnivals and parades and sells flags and whistles and so on, was given a large number of Islamic Republic flags to distribute freely amongst the people by an unknown person. The poor American did not know what the significance of that flag was and what the difference with the Sun and Lion flag entailed for Iranians, and so he was surprised that no one would touch the Islamic Republic flags.

Finally someone came and warned him sternly, "If you don't put those flags away, I'll burn them here and now in front of you", which made the American peddler hide the Islamic Republic flags away and suffice in selling his own usual carnival paraphernalia :))

My salutations to the patriotic Iranian ex-pats in New York as ever.

Zimbabwe Elections v Islamic Republic Elections

I don't want to sound pro-Mugabe at all, I am definitely not pro anyone who has remained in power for 28 years. I view any leader who has stayed in power for more than 10 years with great suspicion. However, if like me, your only source of information about Zimbabwe has been the BBC News and the British media, then its very likely that your impression of Mugabe is that of an evil dictatorship which suppresses all forms of dissent with no support amongst the population.

Yet the same media along by some opportunistic or simply naive statesmen and politicians will tell you that there is a democracy in Iran, perhaps not a fully fledged one, but one which is "the best in the region!" I wonder if "the region" includes Turkey, Iraqi Kurdistan, Israel, Lebanon and so on.

Few examples to demonstrate my point:
"Iran is far from being a full democracy, but it is a great deal more democratic than almost any country in the Arab world or Central Asia." BBC's John Simpson.

and even worse:
"Islamic Republic is as an advanced form of shining democracy in the region". Lib-Dem MEP, Emma Nicholson, in the European Parliament.

While the BBC always grumbles about being banned from Zimbabwe, the BBC's knight in shining armour, John Simpson, always manages to get a report out about the country in some heroic way:
"The elections were conducted against a backdrop of violence and criticism"
"the whole process has been far from free and fair" John Simpson reporting from Zimbabwe elections.

Now lets put the BBC reporting aside for a minute and remind ourselves with some facts. In the Islamic Republic an unelected body vets the candidates. This vetting process has seen the disqualification of Islamic Republic founders, war veterans, clerics, and even people who have been in the government or the parliament before. In other words the slightest dissent means being banned from standing up as a candidate, no matter how loyal one's past record is.

Even the vetted candidates who win this very restricted process can still get disqualified afterwards!

Despite all this control, the regime still cheats in counting the votes, the Baseej are mobilised to vote several times and even use false ID cards.

On top of all this, even if through all this restricted process and tight control, God forbid the Majles votes for something as apolitical as raising the age of marriage for girls from 9 years old to 12 years old, the Guardian Council vetoes the Majlis approved bill.

Yet it seems that in Zimbabwe, there is no vetting of candidates. Opposition parties can run in the elections, there is a free press, there is freedom of speech and there is a much more independent judiciary than there is in the Islamic Republic of Iran.

So please, bright and intelligent politicians, and unbiased journalists, someone tell this lay man how is it that Mugabe is such an unforgivable dictator and the Islamic Republic is such a shining example of Democracy? Where is the consistency in your reporting?

The Islamist by Ed Husain

I finished reading the Islamist by Ed Husain over the Easter holidays. Ed Husain was born in Britain to a Muslim Bangladeshi family. At the age of sixteen, much to the horror of his parents, he became an Islamic fundamentalist. Five years later, having witnessed the horrors and hypocrisies of political Islam at first hand, he rejected fundamentalist Islam.

His book, the Islamist, is a captivating explanation of why young British Muslims become extremists and how the British politicians and college administrators are party to this disturbing trend.

If it was down to me, I would make his book as part of the school curriculum text books.

Happy Nowrooz

Happy Nowrooz to all those sons and daughters of Iran who have chosen not to stay silent against the present day Zahak's rule.

Foreign Policy Centre Meeting in the Parliament

I was debating with myself whether I should go to a Chaharshanbeh-Suri party, the Iranian fireworks night leading to the Iranian New Year, or to this meeting in the Parliament organised by the Foreign Policy Centre and Progressive. At the end I decided there will be plenty of Iranians at the party, but I should attend the meeting.

The title of the meeting was 'The Left and Iran: A progressive approach'. The panel consisted of Baroness Shirley Williams, Nazenin Ansari - Diplomatic Editor of Kayhan -, Professor Malcolm Chalmers, Professorial Fellow, RUSI and former Special Adviser to Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, Mark Fitzpatrick, Senior Fellow for Non-proliferation, International Institute for Strategic Studies and the Chair was former MP, Stephen Twigg.

I missed Nazenin Ansari's part and got there towards the end of Mark Fitzpatrick's speech. Somehow I was hoping that the Left are beginning to see the light and have become more realistic about the Islamic Republic of Iran, but Baroness Shirley Williams's talk soon dashed my hopes. She ranted on painting this image of the Islamic Republic of Iran having felt constantly threatened which justified her desire to obtain nuclear weapons. Although she also said this is not to say executing gays and other human rights abuses should be condoned.
She also made a strange comment that she has three Iranian friends and each give her a different picture making it difficult for her to make a judgement on Iran.

I thought Shirley Williams clearly displayed the kind of naivety we have seen in the British administration in the past years regarding Islamic extremism, the kind of naivety that granted Omar Bakri political asylum in Britain, to sow the seeds of terror in British universities, colleges and mosques that led to the 7/7 bombings of the London transport.

All I remember from Professor Malcolm Chalmers, former advisor to Jack Straw, was that in typical fashion in these meetings, he brought up the 1953 coup again as if the Ayatollahs were the victims of what happened in 1953. This 1953 event seems to be a must to mention amongst British academics, I think they then feel like they know about Iran.

Another speaker who said he had contacts with the British-Iranian businessmen, complained that by restricting business with Iran, Britain was reducing its source of information from Iran and all it meant was that the Chinese were moving in instead. He thought it was important to maintain contacts with the Islamic Republic, and gave example of how in meetings with the Iranian ambassador he had told him executing gays in Iran is not good. Although he doubted himself if that did any good.

There was so much to ask about what was said, but as the central theme was that the Islamic Republic feels under threat, I thought I concentrate on Shirley Williams. I refuted her suggestion that the Islamic Republic has been under threat for the last 28 years from America and Israel and co. I started with the Carter administration, and the grand overtures that the administration made to the Ayatollahs. I gave examples of figures in the Carter administration referring to ayatollah Khomeini as a saint and as Iran's Gandhi, the Irangate affair when Iran obtained weapons from the US and Israel, President Clinton calling the Islamic Republic a democracy, and Madeline Albright apologizing to the Ayatollahs for the 1953 coup against Mossadiq!! and so forth, and I carried on saying 'yet the chants of death to America has never stopped during the Friday Prayers, in the last 28 years, except once just after 9/11, when the Ayatollahs were really scared." I finished my question by asking "has anyone in the panel actually read the Islamic Republic constitution or Ayatollah Khomeini's books to see what the Islamic Republic is really about?"

Shirley Williams wasn't really answering my question and I reminded her again what my question was, amidst Stephen Twigg's objection, but I am sorry, I asked a question and I wanted my question answered not her going on about another topic. Shirley Williams then reiterated that the Islamic Republic has justifiably felt under threat, and gave the example of Iran-Iraq war. I interrupted her again saying 'but the Islamic Republic was in a position to end the war and demand substantial concessions very early on during the war but continued to choose war with zero gains at the end costing hundreds of thousands of more lives'. Again Stephen Twigg told me to let Shirley Williams answer. My question as to whether any of the panel had actually read Ayatollah Khomeini's books or the constitution of the Islamic Republic was left unanswered.

An English guy sitting next to me in a pinstripe suit also said in his question that the Islamic Republic felt under threat. He said 'If I was the Iranian president, I would get nuclear weapons too' and he listed just about every other country in the region who were aspiring to obtain nuclear weapons which justified the Ayatollahs also to obtain nuclear weapons.

I noticed he had scribbled Coca-Cola on his notepad in Arabic letters. I was curious to know who he was and how he knew to write in Arabic.

The Kayhan diplomatic editor had the final say, and I must say she did a fantastic job which earned her much applause from the audience. She said its not that negotiations with the Islamic Republic have not taken place in the last 28 years, they have. Time and time again Islamic Republic has been given assurances and incentives but has refused to accept them. When Hassan Rowhani, the Islamic Republic representative at the nuclear negotiations was close to a deal, he was removed from his job, and similarly when Larijani was close to reach a deal, he too was removed. May be not directly by Ahmadi-nejad but by those who really run the Islamic Republic.

She added 'and lets not forget the students and the women and the gays are not the only victims of the Islamic Republic', She mentioned the Sufi sect, the traditional Iranian clergy like Ayatollah Boroujerdi who is only asking for a separation of state and religion are also victims of this regime and finished amidst much approval from the audience and the panel, by saying
'Would it not be better for the Archbishop of Canterbury, instead of asking for Sharia to be implemented in the UK to express concern for Ayatollah Boroujerdi, who has been in solitary confinement since his arrest two years ago and make a humanitarian plea for Boroujerdi's release so that he can be amongst his family for the Iranian New Year?'

It was time I find out who the guy sitting next to me was. I asked him how was the Islamic Republic under threat in the first year of the revolution and yet they were already intending to export the revolution?

'The Shah was a puppet government propped up by the US' he replied.
I failed to see how that had anything to do with what I said, and realising the futility of arguing with him, I asked him what his profession was, but he asked me why I wanted to know?
"Because your arguments are so warped that I think you have a vested interest in the things you say" I told him.
He left while visibly shaking. I think I had made him quite angry.

Outside the committee room, I bumped into Shirley Williams. I shook hands with her but I had one more question to ask her. 'You know you said you had three Iranian friends who each said a different thing which made your judgement on Iran difficult, did you expect all Iranians to say the same thing? Should you not make your judgement based on for example reading the Islamic Republic constitution rather than on what your three Iranian friends say?"

She looked annoyed, "Well I didn't mean just three friends, I have lots of Iranian friends, excuse me I have to go to the wash room" and left without much enthusiasm for a good bye.

It was too late to go to the fireworks party, I missed the traditional jumping over the fire and all the singing and dancing and instead ended up upsetting a few "progressives".