Saturday 6 March 2010

Who does not honor human rights, attracts special attention


The conference “Human rights in Iran - how can we support the freedom movement from Europe?” attracted many guests to Brussels and achieved serious results. There were six speakers on the panel of the Brussels conference and more than 60 guests who liked to discuss and engage for Human Rights in Iran. Both facts were a welcome sign that the conference was needed and staged a necessity of time. Not only exiled Iranians were present but several people from Belgium, The Netherlands, France and Germany helped to achieve some conclusions.

The frame of the conference consisted of three main steps:

1. Trying to define the ruling system in Iran, in order to be able to understand, why the Human Rights situation is utmost alarming.
2. Description of the Human Rights violations in Iran through authentic reports.
3. Putting up proposals how European citizens can support the civil society in Iran.

The speakers in the panel Emile Franck from Amnesty International, Belgium condemned the state of human rights in Iran since the last elections and pointed out that his Organisation constantly bemoaned the violations of human rights in Iran before as well.
Dirk Tieleman, who is an experienced journalist in service of Belgian TV and travelled in the same plane that brought 1979 Ayatollah Khomeini from Paris to Teheran, reported about what he considered as changes in the Iranian society since the revolution. He stressed that many people had learned to read and write and infrastructure had improved. While filming in Iran he had different encounters with some friendly and some fierce watchdogs from the Iranian Ministry for Culture. Tieleman is convinced that the state system would collapse the day there would be no more money left to pay the poor people. The Iranian state has a widespread subsidiary practice for its followers. Some participants confronted him later with statistics of massive drug addicts and unemployed to show that little real improvement has been achieved, but agreed with him there should be no military intervention from the Western powers in Iran.
Ebrahim Nabavi is an Iranian journalist and satirist, who lives in Belgium and assigns himself to the green movement. He publishes for Roozonline and Gooya, which are Iranian Online-Media. Nabavi discribed the green movement as a strong popular movement for civil rights, freedom and democracy in Iran. He indicated, that the subject of the human rights never had a high rank on the political agenda, but became more important through the work of the green movement. He claimed to be proud about the fact that this green movement had managed to bring hundreds of Thousands to the streets who demonstrated peaceful. His main statement: "We want you to help us to secure freedom, human rights and democracy which are not only necessities for the people of Iran but are also a great concern for the whole world....We want to ask you not to sacrifice the issue of human rights for any political or economic game and until now, the governments of the EU and the US have approached the issue of human rights in a rational way. But this is not enough, as the regime in Iran spreads its lies in the world; we need you to listen to the voice of the regime's opposition and to become aware of the situation of human rights in Iran and its continuous violation." Therefore the audience applauded.
Nasser Fakhteh originates from Iran, he lives in The Netherlands where he is an author. He told about his Odyssee when he fled from Iran, just how nowadays many Iranians, especially young journalists, experience. Fakhteh described his personal experiences about growing up in a surrounding that would have liked to control every detail of his life. He was put into prison for investigating too curiously in the field of Philosophy and background informations. His sentence was lifelong, but as he was not 18 years old yet, he was released after a few years for formal reasons of the regime wanting to keep a clean face in front of the world. It did help a lot when BBC investigated and reported about prisons in Iran in his time in jail. The awareness of the foreign countries towards the state of the prisoners in Iran gave him a lot of relieve and hope and courage. Furtheron Fakhteh pointed out that the usage of modern media like twitter and e-mail is subject to many mistakes and misunderstandings, if the content is not being thoroughly checked and passed over to others. The regime in Iran is specialized in distributing lies and starting distracting campaigns. Fakhteh appealed for a clear mind dealing with news from Iran.
He called the freedom movement of Iran a social movement with deep roots. He proposed to start a committee in support of refugees from Iran.
The fifth speaker was Prof. Dr. Firouzeh Nahavandi who structured her speech in three parts and stressed that she would speak from a scholars point of view. She described in the first step Iran as the hardest regime in the world. More and more death sentences would receive a religious cause. She talked about the client-politics inside the country and mentioned that there are still incredibly poor people who sell their children because they cannot provide them with food. She reminded of the numerous Iranian women who struggle for more rights of women. In a second step she characterized the green movement as a sponatanously formed movement which MirHosain Mousawi and Mehdi Karoubi had joined without really being their leaders. In her view the green movement has achieved that people in the world talk about what is going on in Iran and people in the whole world saw the true face of the persons in power. She felt it important to really clear how everybody talking about democracy would define this term and if democracy would be possible in a religious system. She did not provide an own interpretation during the conference, though. She finished with her third step in which she demanded a separation of religion and politics and delivered an appeal to the European states to stick to its own values and not to place economic interests before their own values. Professor Nahavandi suggested to european media and politicians to give Iranian dissidents more room to express their thoughts and experiences.
The row of speakers was completed by Dr. Mostafa Azmayesh, who is an Islamologue and religious scientist. On the one hand he pointed out that Iranians could participate in a referendum in 1979 but could only choose between continuing with the shah and a new constitution, whereas Ayatollah Khomeini added the principle of Velayat-e-faghi after the referendum to the new constitution. In so far the calls of the Iranians for a new referendum in Dr. Azmayesh’s opinion are legitimate and one has to trust to the maturity of Iranians that they would bring the system of Velayat-e-faghi to an end. On the other hand he elobarted that there was a cold coup d’état in Iran by a sect that has a messianic ideology and that was named by Azmayesh as the Armaggedonist sect that has come to power in Iran. Officially they would support the system of Velayat-e-faghi behind Khameneii but secretely they install a military dictatorship with clearly fascist features. The essence of the ideology of the Armaggedonist sect according to Dr. Azmayesh is messianic, only true and epansionist. The so called Hojiatieh society stands behind this movement. Other terms for this radical sect are Mahdiists, Mesbahists or the term found by Azmayesh, Armaggedonists. One the powerbrokers and most influential figure in the background is Mesbah Yazdi, who names himself an Ayatollah but represents such radical views on Islam that all pious Muslims regard him as unworthy. Mesbah Yazdi is director of various religious institutes in Qom and receives vast amounts of money from the government. He supports president Ahmadinedjad fully. The chief ideologue of a group that controls the revoltutionary guards called Hadjane Seasineh Sepah, is a man called Dr. Hassan Abassi. He educates the cadre that shall provide the return of the awaited Messiah Al-Mahdi. Normally the Shiite wait for the appearance of the Hidden Imam. Abassi has fulfilled a change of paradigm and has turned the nature of waiting from passive to becoming very active. Abassi holds that the Hidden Imam waits for his believers to create the circumstances under which he can reappear. This switch of paradigm is the incitement for a world revolution, a legitimation for the export of unrest, chaos, disarray, conceivement and bloodshed to Europe and the rest of the world. Therefore Dr. Azmayesh reasoned in the conference is engagement of European citizens and politicians for people and their rights in Iran in the same time an engagement for the rights and the freedom of our children in Europe.

In this spirit all participants felt united and agreed that the conference might only be a start and the newly found coalitions must continue with further actions. One of the participants claimed for a greater involvement of student groups and offered to be an intermediary.

Conclusions In the end there were several ideas about the support of the freedom movement in Iran on the table:

1. Europe! Stick to the values you have proclaimed yourself. Don’t put economical interests before human rights in Iran.

2. Citizens of Europe! Inform youselves about the nature of the political forces that have taken over Iran. It makes you aware of what people in Iran are fighting against.

3. Citizens of Europe! Inform yourselves about the events in Iran, demand from the press more insight in the human rights situation and the violations of simple citizens rights.

4. European countries! Support the representatives of opposition groups building up their own media instead of creating more and more administrative barriers. You don’t even need to invest money in that.

5. Citizens of Europe! Please help to shelter the refugees from Iran from the persecutions of their regime. Support Nasser Fakhteh to build a Committee in support of these refugees.

6. Military! Keep your fingers out of the game. When the human rights situation will find more attention and the freedom movement in Iran will be fully backed from the West, it will deal by itself with the regime inside the country.

7. Community of the entire world! Insist on the creation of an independent international commission that surveys the human rights inside of Iran, similar to the commission that surveys the nuclear case.

The conference was finalized with a recitation by Nasser Fakhteh of a poem composed by him about Neda Agha-Soltan, the young woman who was shot dead in the streets and who grew to a symbol of the resistance of the Iranians confronting their regime.

Helmut N. Gabel, mehriran.de

Open Letter to the department of justice in Iran

Mr. Mohammad Sadegh Larijani

With greetings

More than one year have passed since the destruction of the Shiite Muslims prayer house belonging to the followers of Nematollahi Gonabadi and the surrounding cemetery in Isfahan. This heinous act to is not only disrespect to the prayer house of the Shiites, but also disrespect to the Muslim cemetery in the famous city of Isfahan (half the world). Insulting news and photos related to this event in have spread through international media and have been translated in Greek, English, Turkish, French, Arabic, Persian and ... This event have not been looked into by the officials in the Islamic Republic and have brought further shame to the ninth regime.

Since justice had lost its meaning in the system during Mr. Mahmoud Hashemi Shahrudi as the head of the justice department, the voice of the Sufi Dervisches was not heard by the government and all attemts to take action according to the laws of the Islamic Republic faild and this led to the Sufis beeing more oppressed than ever! Inevitably members, supporters, and those interested in the "The International Committee in Defence of Daravish and Students of Iran" to arouse and spread the public opinion around the world (especially for Muslims living in western countries) and have worked for this and held demonstrations and marches and sit-ins in various cities throughout Europe and America and Canada, and have expand awareness around the globe and made contact to relevant authorities in the section of human rights and the international communities.

To have praying houses and to be buried in the cemetery in the city one lives, and preserve the sanctity of these places are basic rights of citizenship all around the world countries and international conventions and agreements related to these cases have been signed by "The Islamic Republic" and inevitably "the regime" is obliged to comply and act according with these cases and otherwise, the international community will ask questions demanding answers from Iran and we witnessed an exampel of this in the Geneva meeting with your brother Mr. Mohammad Javad Larijani.

And for these reasons we request of you as a new steersman in the department of justic to make the right choices and to restore these forgotten rights of the Nematollahi Gonabadi Sufis and to hand out neccesary and urgent orders, especially the reconstruction of the praying house of the Nematollahi Gonabadi Sufi Dervisches in the cemetary of “Takhte Foulad” in Esfahan and the tomb beside it belonging to the late “Mr. Izad Goshap – Darvisch Naser Aly”.

We like to inform you that the members, supporters and those interested in " The International Committee in Defence of Daravish and Students of Iran " will - if all that is requested in not put to action in the end of this year - to make new movments in the new year in a chain of coordinated actions spreading the truth, including sit-ins and hunger strikes in front of the Agency's offices, embassies, businesses and banks buildings affiliated to the regime of Iran around the world, and also hold protests and hand out flyers in front of popular buildings in various, as well as spreading the awareness with meetings, inviting news sections and the famouse international names in various fields. Necessary measures will be taken in order to attract the public opinion to protect the rights of dervishes, to denounce and condemn the perpetrators and the cause for these un-human behaviors.

The Light that shines on the way for the supporters of the " The International Committee in Defence of Daravish and Students of Iran", is the word of the The great third Imam of Shiite Muslims, “Hossein son of Aly” that "even if you do not have any religion, at least be humans"

God is behind those fighting for peace and justice

The International Committee in Defence of Daravish and Students of Iran

Brussels - Washington - Toronto

15 Esfand 1388
Tuesday, second of Mars, 2010

Friday 5 March 2010

The ruling systems view point on "Sufism and mysticism"


During recent years and in particularly during the presidency of Mahmud Ahamedinejad the followers of Gonanabadi Sufi order have been under severe restrictions. Under the reign of this executive branch which places emphasis on hard line Shiite doctrine the Sufis of Gonabadi order have been under consistent attack and threats both physically and through rumours and innuendoes which have support from Ministry of Information. These forces publish and dream up false rumours and innuendoes in order to influence public opinion against Sufis. These attacks provide ammunition to the central and local government authorities and help to mobilize certain hooligan elements within the system, such as Basiji forces, in order to destroy Sufi house of worships in different Iranian cities such as in Qom , Isfahan , Borujerd and Kish . These attacks are cantered against all Sufi places of gathering around the country. These government backed hooligans are funded from large sums of Money that are supposed to go towards helping Islamic brotherhood but instead are used to fund mercenary groups disguised as ordinary citizens with mission to destroy the Sufi movement which stands for peace and tolerance.

Today, those who control power structure within Iran are in effect member of an anonymous cult with non Islamic agenda whose worship is not oriented towards Mecca or Islamic values but instead is oriented towards what they call "Hnysa" and represent value system that is totally in opposition to tolerant Islamic values.

Their extremists views will not stop at destroying places of worship of Muslim brothers and will not end with destruction of cultural, geographical Patriotic centres and value systems. These people who are able to simply wipe a historical place such as (Beydokht - Gonabad) from the map of the country and Geography books, will not be able to safe guard the geographical boundaries of the country.

International Committee for Student and Sufi rights in Iran , while condemning such actions on the one hand, with all seriousness also demands an end to the destructive actions of this extremist cult. It asks those who are in the Iranian power structure to compensate the Sufis for material, moral and emotional damages they have suffered as results of threats and physical abuses they have suffered. They demand permanent halt to all forms Human Rights violations. It also asks those in power to respect all the international community standards and rights for all and Iranian citizens and put a permanent stop to all forms of oppression.

Some of the demands of Sufis in Iran that has reached the committee for support of student and Sufi rights in recent years are as follows:

1 – To compensated the Sufis for the physical, emotional and financial hardship they have suffered from assaults that they and their families have endured as result of plainclothes thugs who are supported by Basijis and funded by the Iranian government ;

2 – To allow Issuance of building permits for rebuilding of Hosseiniehs (Sufi House of Worship) in the cities of Qom, Borujerd ,Kish and Isfahan which belonged to Gonabadi Sufi order and were subsequently destroyed by plane clothed thugs and hooligans backed by the regime.
3 – Compensate the Sufis for the cost of rebuilding the above houses of worships.

4 - Eliminate the ban on Sufis from being buried in the cemetery Gonabad;

5 – Reinstate the name of town of Beydokht and Gonabad in geographical maps and textbooks;

6 – Stop the social discrimination of Sufis and recognise their rights as citizens and allow them to hold positions in public schools and universities especially in the fields of social and religious education
7 – Allow permits for development of Mazar-e Soltani and extension of pilgrim area around the site.
8 – Allow Defence lawyers to represent the rights of Nematollahi Gonabadi Sufis and allow lawyers who are Sufis to practice the law.
9 – Prevent spreading and issuance of false rumours and innuendoes against the Gonabadi Sufis and stop funding anti-Sufi movements within the local and central governments departments.

10 - Eliminate all travel restrictions on Sufis within the country especially on Sufi masters and the Grand Master: Nour Ali Tabandeh. Also remove the restrictions in place on Nour Ali Tabandeh visiting and living in his hometown of Beydokht in Gonabad;


The Committee to protect the rights of students and Dervishes

Brussels, Washington and Toronto

Tuesday Saturday, 11 Esfand 1388

2 March 2010