Muslims Against Sharia condemn the decision of Columbia to provide speaking venue for Ahmadinej

Muslims Against Sharia condemn, in the strongest possible terms, the decision of Columbia University to provide a speaking venue for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Apparently letting Akbar Rafsanjani speak at the National Cathedral was not the height of American Dhimmitude, because providing a venue for the world's foremost anti-Semite, whose proclaimed goal is the destruction of the USA and Israel, definitely takes the cake. What is surprising is that we don't hear any complaints from Columbia alumni who should be ashamed of their silence.More on the subject: http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/viewArticle.asp?articleID=38223

Public Hanging in Iran & Other Recent Human Rights Abuses

http://www.iranfocus.com/modules/news/index.php?storytopic=5


U.N. official: Iran should stop executing children
Mon. 17 Sep 2007
AP: Iran should immediately halt the execution of children, the U.N.'s top human rights official said Monday.
Iran hangs three in south-west
Fri. 14 Sep 2007
Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Sep. 14 – Iranian authorities hanged three individuals in the oil-rich province of Khuzestan, south-west Iran, state media reported earlier this week.
Crackdown near Iran capital – photos 2
Thu. 13 Sep 2007
Iran Focus: Tehran, Sep. 14 – Iranian authorities have stepped up arrests of young people in the city of Karaj, west of the capital Tehran, as part of a nationwide “plan to eradicate corruption”.
Crackdown near Iran capital – photos 1
Thu. 13 Sep 2007
Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Sep. 13 – Iranian authorities have stepped up arrests of young people in the city of Karaj, west of the capital Tehran, as part of a nationwide “plan to eradicate corruption”.
West puts Iran in dock at U.N. rights forum
Thu. 13 Sep 2007
Reuters: Western countries on Thursday voiced concern at the rising number of executions in Iran as well as the "treatment of women as second class citizens" there.
Iran chops off hands of four men
Wed. 12 Sep 2007
Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Sep. 12 – The hands of four men were chopped off as punishment for robbery in north-west Iran, state media reported on Wednesday.
Iran hangs seven in public
Wed. 12 Sep 2007
Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran Sep. 12 – Iranian authorities hanged seven individuals in public on Wednesday in the south-eastern town of Mahan, state media reported.
Two hanged in Iran cities
Tue. 11 Sep 2007
Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Sep. 11 – Two men were hanged in central and north-eastern Iran on Tuesday, state media reported.
Iran hangs two men in the south
Fri. 07 Sep 2007
Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Sep. 07 – Two Iranian men were hanged on Thursday in the southern province of Hormozgan, state media reported.
Amnesty “appalled” at group executions in Iran
Thu. 06 Sep 2007
Iran Focus: London, Sep. 06 – The human rights organisation Amnesty International said it was “appalled” at the “spiralling numbers of executions” in Iran.
Four more hanged in public, total of 21 executed in Iran today
Wed. 05 Sep 2007
Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Sep. 05 – Four more men were hanged in public in the southern province of Fars on Wednesday, bringing the total number of people executed in Iran today to at least 21.
Iran hangs 17 in one day
Wed. 05 Sep 2007
Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Sep. 05 – Iranian authorities hanged 17 men on Wednesday, the latest in a spate of group executions.
Iran hangs man in public
Sun. 02 Sep 2007
Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Sep. 02 – Iranian authorities hanged a man in public south of the capital Tehran on Sunday, state media reported.
Iran's hangmen work overtime to silence opposition
Fri. 24 Aug 2007
Daily Telegraph: Stonings, hangings, floggings, purges. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad might claim that United Nations sanctions can't hurt his country, but that is not how it feels for Iran's long-suffering population which now finds itself on the receiving end of one of the most brutal purges witnessed since the 1979 Islamic revolution.
Man hanged in public in southern Iran
Thu. 23 Aug 2007
Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Aug. 23 – Iranian authorities hanged a man in public in the southern province of Fars, state media reported on Wednesday.
Iran hangs two in volatile Iran city
Wed. 22 Aug 2007
Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Aug. 22 – Authorities hanged two men on Tuesday in the south-eastern province of Sistan-va-Baluchistan, state media reported.
Iran hangs three men in public
Sun. 19 Aug 2007
Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Aug. 19 – Iranian authorities hanged three men in public in the town of Saveh, near the Iranian capital Tehran, state media reported on Sunday.
Hanging crackdown in Iran
Sun. 19 Aug 2007
The Observer: Iran has hanged up to 30 people in the past month amid a clampdown prompted by alleged US-backed plots to topple the regime, The Observer can reveal.
Man hanged in public in northern Iran town
Thu. 16 Aug 2007
Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Aug. 16 – A man was hanged in public in the northern Iranian province of Gilan on Thursday, state media reported.
Media rights group urges UN chief to act on Iran executions
Wed. 15 Aug 2007
Iran Focus: London, Aug. 15 – A prominent international media rights group called on the United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to take action to save two Iranian journalists from execution.
Two hanged in north-eastern Iran town
Wed. 15 Aug 2007
Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Aug. 15 – Two men were hanged in the north-eastern province of Khorassan Razavi, state media reported.
Iran authorities lash man for having bible in car - report
Mon. 13 Aug 2007
Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Aug. 13 – Iranian authorities in Tehran lashed a man on his back earlier this year for having a bible in his car, an Iranian Christian group said in a report on its website on Friday.
Authorities say they will hang 12 in Iran province soon
Sun. 12 Aug 2007
Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Aug. 12 – Iranian authorities in the south-eastern province of Kerman announced that they will hang a dozen individuals soon, state media reported.
Iran arrests five trade unionists
Sun. 12 Aug 2007
AFP: Iranian security forces arrested five members of Tehran's bus drivers' union after they visited the home of their imprisoned chief, the men's lawyer said on Sunday.
Iran hangs man in public
Sun. 12 Aug 2007
Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Aug. 12 – Iranian authorities hanged a man in public in the northern province of Mazandaran, state media reported on Sunday.
Man hanged in public in northern Iran
Tue. 07 Aug 2007
Iran Focus: Tehran, Aug. 07 – Authorities hanged a man in public in the province of Golestan on Tuesday, northern Iran, state media reported.
Media watchdog: Iran must stop hounding journalists
Tue. 07 Aug 2007
Iran Focus: London, Aug. 07 - A prominent press freedoms organisation urged Iran to release a newly-arrested journalist.
Iran hangs three men
Mon. 06 Aug 2007
Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Aug. 06 – Iranian authorities hanged three men in the south-eastern province of Sistan-va-Baluchistan on Monday, state media reported.
Iranian morals police arrest 230 in raid on 'satanist' rave
Mon. 06 Aug 2007
The Guardian: Iran's drive to enforce Islamic morals netted revellers from Britain and Sweden after police swooped on a "satanic" concert organised over the internet.
EU calls on Iran to stay execution of journalists
Fri. 03 Aug 2007
Iran Focus: London, Aug. 03 – The European Union called on Iran on Friday to stay the execution of two Kurdish journalists accused of having ties to armed groups.
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Iranian Opression of Baha’is -- Religous Intolerance Crushing "Freedom of Speech"

One does wonder why grant freedom of speech to the thuggish head fo regime that has stolen freedom of speech from so many in his own country....here is yet another of dozens examples:

Iran: Scores Arrested in Anti-Baha’i Campaign

(New York, June 6, 2006) – In its latest campaign of religious intolerance directed against the Baha’i community, Iranian security officials last month arrested scores of Baha’i youths in Shiraz solely on the basis of their religious faith, Human Rights Watch said today.Baha’i representatives to the U.N. in Geneva told Human Rights Watch that Iranian authorities on May 19 arrested a group of mainly Baha’i youths who were teaching English, math and other non-religious subjects to underprivileged children in Shiraz. The authorities also arrested several other non-Baha’i volunteers at the same time but released them the same day without requiring bail. One Baha’i, under the age of 15, was released without having to post bail. None of the 54 Baha’is arrested has been charged with a crime. As of today, three remain in detention while the others were released only after their families posted exorbitant bail. “The arrests demonstrate how the Iranian government is subjecting Baha’is to religious persecution and discrimination,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “Arresting people solely on the basis of their religious faith is a flagrant violation of freedom of belief and the freedom to practice a religion of one’s choice.” Baha’i representatives told Human Rights Watch that on May 24, 14 of those arrested were released only after they surrendered as collateral property deeds. The next day the authorities released 36 more Baha’is after they posted financial guarantees or depositing work licenses as surety that they would respond to any court summons. According to the principal representative of the Baha’i community to the United Nations, more than 125 Baha’is have been arbitrarily arrested since the beginning of 2005. The U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Freedom of Religion or Belief, Asma Jahangir, said in March that she had received a copy of a letter dated October 29 in which the chairman of the Command Headquarters of the Armed Forces in Iran requested the Ministry of Information, the Revolutionary Guard, and the police collect information on Baha’i adherents. The letter stated that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei had instructed the Command Headquarters to identify members of the Baha’i community and to monitor their activities. The October 29 letter came amid an anti-Baha’i campaign in the state-run press that began in September. Since then, the influential government-owned daily Kayhan has published dozens of articles attacking the Baha’i community and defaming their beliefs. “The Iranian government is singling out a religious community that has a history of official persecution in Iran,” Whitson said. The Baha’i community is Iran’s largest religious minority, with an estimated 300,000 members. Most Muslim religious authorities, including those in Iran, regard Baha’is as apostates who have deserted Islam rather than as practitioners of a legitimate faith. In Iran Baha’is cannot practice their faith in a public manner and are barred from higher education. Human Rights Watch called on the Iranian government to release those Baha’is still in prison, restore the property of those forced to post exorbitant bail, and halt all discrimination and persecution directed against Baha’is.

It's naïve to ignore the uses to which Ahmadinejad will put his invitation.

September 23, 2007, 1:10 a.m.
Aid and Comfort by Any Other Name

It is naïve to ignore the uses to which Ahmadinejad will put his invitation.

By David J. Feith & Jordan C. Hirsch

Since news broke of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s upcoming speech at Columbia University, student groups on campus have been organizing protests to highlight the Iranian regime’s human-rights violations and belligerency. Correct as our peers are to do this, Columbia’s student leaders have wrongly answered the controversy’s central question: What standards should apply to a university’s decision to give an official invitation to a person such as Ahmadinejad?
In a joint response to the invitation, a number of prominent student leaders wrote that the Ahmadinejad event “presents an incredible opportunity for the student body to learn about world affairs and to challenge a major controversial figure.” They added that “in a University setting no view is too disreputable to be excluded.” These views echo Columbia President Lee Bollinger’s description of the invitation as an affirmation of academic freedom. Granting that “many, most, or even all of us” find Ahmadinejad “offensive and even odious,” Bollinger wrote this week that to “examine critically all ideas” is “our nation’s most potent weapon against repressive regimes everywhere in the world.” In Bollinger’s view, “this is America at its best.”But Bollinger is begging the question. Certainly the ideas of a powerful world leader should be studied on American campuses. The true question is whether the university should dignify the Iranian leader by making him an officially invited guest.It is naïve to ignore the uses to which Ahmadinejad will put his invitation. Over the past years, Ahmadinejad’s confrontational rhetoric and policies have resulted in diplomatic isolation and economic hardship for Iran. These developments are unpopular among Iranians. It is beneficial to Ahmadinejad and his regime, then, if he can claim to the Iranian people that his leadership is not hurting their country. If he can demonstrate that he is treated abroad as a respected leader, he will be better able to counter his critics at home. Columbia’s invitation thus gives political assistance to Ahmadinejad.Bollinger has written that “it should never be thought that merely to listen to ideas...implies our endorsement of those ideas.” That is true. But the argument against the official invitation of Ahmadinejad is not an argument against listening to his ideas. It is an argument against bestowing prestige on Ahmadinejad. There are many ways Columbia can engage with his ideas without giving him the politically valuable respectability of an official speaking invitation. Columbia can hold a forum on his views. It can play recordings of his speeches and ask experts to comment on them. It can create courses on the history and ideology of the Iranian Revolution. Indeed, if “listening to ideas” is truly Bollinger’s goal, then bringing to campus Ahmadinejad, a master of deception and propaganda, should be one of his last options.The issue here is not free speech. That is a red herring. We have heard no one argue against free speech. The issue is values: What standards should Columbia use in giving out valuable, prestigious official speaking invitations? Whatever standards apply, they should preclude an invitation to the head of a regime that behaves as Iran’s does and they should in particular preclude an invitation to an individual who promotes hatred and violence as Ahmadinejad does. Ahmadinejad’s regime punishes homosexuality by hanging and stoning gays. Religious minorities — Sunni Muslims, Bahais, Jews, and others — are routinely abused by the Islamic police. Women are publicly flogged for not dressing according to regime edict. Academics and students survive in the academy only so long as the regime decides not to purge them as “infidels.” And Ahmadinejad has made repeated calls for Israel’s destruction, fantasizing about mass murder while developing the weapons necessary for achieving his fantasy. Iran is the world’s leading exporter of terrorism. It founded and supports Hezbollah, a terrorist group which is undermining Lebanon, seeks to destroy Israel, and killed nearly 300 American Marines in 1983. In fact, the American death toll at the hands of Iranian terrorism increases daily, as U.S. troops in Iraq are killed and maimed by Iranian-provided improvised explosive devices. Amazingly, American soldiers may be killed by Iranian bombs at the very moment that Ahmadinejad is being hosted by Columbia — and in the name of American ideals, no less. Columbia properly considers free speech its ultimate value. Universities should not try to shield students from controversial views or be fearful of any ideas. But this is beside the point. By its invitation, Columbia has chosen to give Ahmadinejad a valuable political gift that he does not deserve, and that he will use to further repress his people and threaten his neighbors. It is shameful to receive him here as an official guest.

— David J. Feith and Jordan C. Hirsch are undergraduates at Columbia University. They are editors of The Current, a journal of politics, culture and Jewish affairs.

Iran executes more Arabs: Regime's Racism & Murder of indigenous Arab peoples call al-Ahwaz

The west is obsessed with Tehran's nuclear programme, but doesn't give a damn about human rights abuses.
Peter Tatchell

September 20, 2007 6:30 PM

The Islamic Republic of Iran has executed three more Arab political prisoners, just days after a visit from the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour. In further defiance of the UN and international law, four more Arabs face imminent execution.

There have been no protests from Britain, the EU or the UN. The UN's silence comes on top of the truly appalling vote by UN Human Rights Council to abandon its monitoring of human rights abuses in Iran.
The only thing the west seems to care about is Iran's nuclear programme. Human rights abuses do not concern Washington, London or Brussels. Nor do they concern President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe. Both men have warmly embraced the tyrant of Tehran, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The Arab League, the supposed defender of Arab peoples worldwide, is equally indifferent. It has refused to protest to Iran about the persecution of ethnic Arabs in the south-west of the country - the oil-rich region Tehran calls Khuzestan, but which the indigenous Arab peoples call al-Ahwaz.

While condemning Israel for abusing the Palestinian people, Arab states are silent about the abuse of fellow Arabs by the Iranian regime. The anti-imperialist left is also mute. Why the double standards? Palestinian Arabs get the support of progressives and radicals everywhere; Iranian Arabs get no support at all. They swing from nooses in public squares like cattle hanging in an abattoir. Does anyone care?

Ahwazi Arabs accuse Tehran of Persian chauvinism, racism and ethnic cleansing, as I previously revealed in Tribune. The response to that article from some Islamists, left-wingers and anti-war activists was to denounce me as racist and anti-Muslim. But how can it be Islamophobic or racist to defend Arab Muslims against Tehran's persecution?

Amnesty International has also expressed concern about the bloody repression and economic exploitation of Iran's Arab minority, as has Dr Karim Abdian of the Ahwaz Human Rights Organisation (AHRO). I recently interviewed Dr Abdian for my Talking With Tatchell TV programme, which you can watch here.

The execution of three Arabs last week is the latest in a series of barbaric hangings, designed to terrorise the Arab population into submission. Ten other Arabs are known to have been executed since December last year. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have condemned their trials as unjust and unfair.

In January this year, three UN special rapporteurs also voiced concerns about the way the trials were conducted. Their concerns confirm criticisms by one of Iran's leading human rights advocates, Emad Baghi. In a letter to the chief of the judiciary, Ayatollah Hashemi Shahroudi, he argued that the trials of Ahwazi Arabs were flawed, the charges baseless, and that the sentencing was based on a spurious interpretation of law.

The men hanged last week were Abdulreza Nawaseri, Mohammad Ali Sawari and Jafar Sawari. Charged with bombing the Zergan oilfields in 2005, they were executed secretly in prison using Tehran's sadistic slow strangulation method, deliberately designed to prolong the suffering of the victims.

The men denied all the charges during a summary one-day trial in which they were deprived of adequate legal representation and denied the opportunity to call witnesses in their defence. Their lawyers were not allowed to meet them and were not given time to read their files. When they subsequently complained about the conduct of the trial, five of the seven lawyers (all Arabs) were arrested and summoned to court on allegations that they had threatened national security.

Abdulreza Nawaseri, aged 32, was arrested in 2000 and sentenced to 35 years in prison. He was in jail at the time of the Zergan bombings and therefore could not have committed the attacks, which further suggests that these men were framed on false charges.

Brothers Mohammad Ali Sawari and Jafar Sawari had been in prison since 2005. They were initially accused of promoting Sunni Islam, which is a heinous crime in the sectarian Shia state of Iran. These charges were later supplemented with charges of bombing the Zergan oilfields. No evidence was produced to back up the charges.

Mohammad Ali, a 37-year-old teacher, was an English literature graduate. Some reports claim he was also accused of translating George Orwell's book, Animal Farm, into Arabic, with the aim of sparking an uprising. According to his family, there was no allegation of bombings in his file.

The men's execution prompted spontaneous anti-government demonstrations in Ahwaz. Security forces fired on the crowds. Reports suggest that one person was killed and 20 others wounded.

At least six more Arab political prisoners are facing imminent execution. Four of them are in Karoun prison. These prisoners include Hamzah Sawari, 20 years old, who is accused of giving unauthorised religious instruction in a local mosque, instigating worshippers against the state and displaying the Ahwazi flag in 2005. The other men scheduled to hang with him are Zamel Bawi, Abdulemam Zaeri and Nazem Boryhi. The charges against them have not been made public.

Two more Arabs, who were illegally handed over to Tehran by Syria, are also expected to be hanged. The UN High Commission for Refugees reports that the men were recognised refugees and therefore protected under international and Syrian law from removal to a country such as Iran where they could be at risk of torture and execution.

According to Daniel Brett, chair of the British Ahwazi Friendship Society:
The Iranian government is not only executing innocent men, it is killing or jailing entire families in its attempt to terrorise the Ahwazi Arab people. We know that the entire family of Ahwazi psychologist Dr Awdeh Afrawi have been executed, murdered or imprisoned; Dr Afrawi himself is currently dying in prison, being deliberately denied the medication he needs to survive.The Nasseri and Bawi tribes appear to be key targets, due to the fact that their lands are oil-rich and members of these tribes have been heavily involved in opposition to the government's land confiscation programme and its forced displacement of Arabs.
Contrary to Tehran's propaganda, most Arab movements in al-Ahwaz are not violent separatists. They primarily want non-discrimination, cultural rights, social justice and regional self-government - not independence.

If, however, Tehran continues to rebuff moderate, mainstream Arab opinion, there is a danger that many Arabs will turn to armed struggle and wage a full-scale national liberation war with the aim of outright independence. This would turn oil-rich al-Ahwaz into another zone of violent instability, with adverse global economic consequences as a result of diminished oil production and rising oil prices.

Quite rightly, most Arabs do not support a US attack on Iran. Military intervention would strengthen the position of the hardliners in Tehran; allowing President Ahmadinejad to play the nationalist card and, using the pretext of defending the country against imperialism, to further crack down on dissent. Many Ahwazis believe the route to liberation is an internal "people power" alliance of Iranian socialists, liberals, democrats, students, trade unionists and minority nationalities.

I have supported the Iranian people's struggle for democracy and human rights for four decades - first against the western-backed imperial fascist Shah and, since 1979, against the clerical fascism of the ayatollahs. Some anti-war leftists refuse to condemn the Tehran dictatorship and refuse to support the Iranian resistance; arguing that to do so would play into the hands of the US neocons and militarists. I disagree. Opposing imperialism and defending human rights are complementary, not contradictory.

Another thug in the UN Rogues Gallery....

Iran President Will Get Royal Treatment

NEW YORK (AP) — Nikita Khrushchev banged his shoe on his desk, Fidel Castro delivered torturously long rants, Yasser Arafat showed up wearing a holster and Hugo Chavez called President Bush the "devil."
Now, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is securing his place in this rogues' gallery of world leaders who have visited New York for the U.N. General Assembly, the annual gathering where petty tyrants and powerful heads of state alike get their say.

Ahmadinejad will be making his third appearance in the past three years. Tensions with Iran are escalating as the United States accuses the country of trying to develop nuclear weapons and arming insurgents in Iraq with powerful roadside bombs that kill U.S. troops.

A defiant and unpredictable Ahmadinejad is not expected to defuse the situation when he appears at a forum at Columbia University on Monday and addresses the General Assembly on Tuesday.

"You should treat this as an off-Broadway production," former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton said, describing the United Nations as a "Twilight Zone" that gives a platform to "tinhorn dictators." "The General Assembly is the theater in which Ahmadinejad and others perform."

The show has been going on practically since the United Nations was founded in 1945 after World War II.
Soviet Premier Khrushchev banged his shoe on his desk after a diplomat criticized the U.S.S.R. in 1960. On his first visit to the U.N., in 1960, Castro warned the world about American "aggression" in a speech that lasted more than four hours.

Arafat came to the General Assembly in 1974 and delivered a fiery oration while wearing an empty holster, trying to legitimize the Palestinian struggle.
"I have come bearing an olive branch and a freedom fighter's gun," Arafat said. "Do not let the olive branch fall from my hands."

A year later, the murderous Ugandan dictator Idi Amin exhorted the United States "to rid their society of the Zionists" and called for the "extinction of Israel as a state."

Last year, Venezuelan President Chavez called Bush "the devil," "an alcoholic" and "a sick man."
For his part, Ahmadinejad has called the Holocaust a "myth" and has said Israel should be "wiped off the map."
Though he has yet to arrive, he is already caused a stir with a failed bid to lay a wreath at the World Trade Center site. Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said he would not allow Ahmadinejad to go to ground zero.
The city's tabloids went ballistic, labeling him a "madman," "idiot" and a "Holocaust-denying, nuke-coveting, terrorist-aiding nut."

"He's more dangerous than Osama bin Laden," said Malcolm I. Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. "He has missiles. He has an army which has purchased huge amounts of weapons."

Despite being roundly denounced from the White House to the mayor's office, Ahmadinejad will be treated like royalty, chauffeured around the city by the Secret Service, which, in tandem with the NYPD, will protect him until he leaves early Wednesday. His appearances at the U.N. and Columbia — which rescinded an invitation to Ahmadinejad last year after an uproar — are expected to draw large crowds of protesters.
The cost to taxpayers? Kim Bruce, a Secret Service agent, said she did not know how much her agency will spend. Mayor Michael Bloomberg said he has no idea what it will cost New York. Whatever it is, he said, the federal government is supposed to pay for the protection of foreign political figures but seldom does.
While he is here, Ahmadinejad will be under the same travel restrictions as diplomats in the Iranian U.N. mission, said Kendal Smith, spokesman for the State Department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security. Iranian diplomats are free to travel up to 25 miles from midtown Manhattan. Any farther requires an exemption.
Will Ahmadinejad try to eat at one of New York's excellent Persian restaurants? A spokesman for Iran's U.N. mission said Ahmadinejad would fast during the day because of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and would have no time to go to restaurants.

Some have used Ahmadinejad's visit to draw attention to this country's tradition of protecting free speech.
"This is a country where people can come and speak their minds. It's something that we're proud of — giving people whose ideas and beliefs we find abhorrent if not dangerous," White House spokesman Tony Fratto said.
"It would be wonderful if some of the countries that take advantage of that here allowed it for their own citizens there."

Colombia Univ students protest Iran Prez visit

Sarah Jacob
Saturday, September 22, 2007 (New York)
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is traveling to New York to address the United Nations' General Assembly this week and his trip has already run into controversy.President Ahmadinejad's request to visit Ground Zero was denied by the New York Police Department and now his scheduled address to Columbia University students and faculty as part of the school's World Leaders Forum on Monday has created a furore on campus.A law student Aviva Robbin is one of nearly a 100 students who have united on Facebook and have planned to protest against Ahmadinejad speaking on their campus.''While we do value academic debate and freedom of speech we do not feel that it would be a violation of these values not to have the President of Iran on our campus. He is a known state sponsor of terrorism and he has many human rights violations on his record and by having him here it seems as if Columbia is legitimising what he has to say and endorsing his views in the public opinion,'' said Aviva Robin.Nuclear concernsColumbia President President Lee Bollinger has justified the invitation saying the university is a place of learning. In a statement Bollinger said, ''Columbia, as a community dedicated to learning and scholarship, is committed to confronting ideas''.According to the University, a Q&A session with Ahmadinejad will address concerns about Iran's nuclear weapons capabilities and challenge Ahmadinejad's denial of the Holocaust and his calls for the destruction of Israel.The President of Iran, which the US government calls a state sponsor of terror, was also scheduled to speak at Columbia last year but the university dropped the plan citing security and logistical problems.''Last year the President of Iran was invited by the School of International Public Affairs. This year he has a different invitation from the World Leaders Forum and there are leaders who come here from countries all over the world and that gives students a place to hear interesting global leaders here,'' said Prof Sree Sreenivasan, Columbia School of Journalism.''No speaker is without controversy. Our role as professors is to bring opportunities for our students to meet dynamic, compelling, off-putting people but if they are influential then we have an obligation to give our students a chance to listen to them,'' he added.Freedom of speech and expression is one of the cornerstones of the constitution of the United States of America.But the controversy over the invitation to the President of Iran to address the students at one of the most prestigious Institutes of higher education in the country has yet again underscored the challenges faced in transferring that thought into action.

New Poster: Iran Kills most Children

For Shame: No Freedom of Speech for Iranian Writers - But Columbia Honors Regime Leader with Platform

Iran: Writers Struggle to Uphold Freedom of Expression

Seven Iranian Writers Receive Hellman/Hammett GrantsHuman Rights Watch announced today that seven Iranians are among the 45 writers from 22 countries who are receiving the prestigious Hellman/Hammett prize, an award that recognizes writers globally who have been victims of political persecution.

Teachers Arrested for Peaceful Assembly and Association

Iran: Release Detained Teachers

The Iranian authorities should immediately lift the ban on the Hamedan Teachers Association and release teachers detained as a result of their work with the association.

Iran: National Security Laws Used to Jail Women’s Rights Activists

Iran: National Security Laws Used to Jail Women’s Rights Activists

Six Women’s Rights Advocates Receive Lengthy Prison SentencesThe head of Iran’s Judiciary, Ayatollah Mahmud Hashemi Shahrudi, should immediately overturn the convictions this week of six women’s rights advocates and end the Judiciary’s persecution of all such human rights defenders, Human Rights Watch said today.

Free Iran from Terrorist Leadership: Website Links

Free Iran Websites:

http://www.activistchat.com/

http://regimechangeiniran.com/

http://www.iran-press-service.com/index.shtml

http://www.petitiononline.com/persis/petition.html

http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/002539.php

Iran Leads the World in Executing Children

Iran Leads the World in Executing Children

New Executions Highlight Arbitrary Nature of Iranian JusticeIran should immediately suspend the use of the death penalty for crimes committed by children under age 18, Human Rights Watch said today. Iran is known to have executed at least 17 juvenile offenders since the beginning of 2004 – eight times more than any other country in the world.

A word to Columbia Students

Again, we understand that in the interests of free speech it is important to host & honor the head of a regime that stones innocent people to death, tortures gay teens, and abuses students. It is lovely that Ahmadinejad will be escorted by Columbia deans and chatting in the hallowed halls and laughing days after he conducted a military parade whose theme was "Death to America".

We espeically think that it's important to host & support those worldd leaders who abuse the human rights & torture students - as Columbia is primarily a university concerned with students.

Stoning in Iran -

Stoning in Iran

Coatsworth & Bollinger should be gravely concerned about the July 5, 2007 execution by public stoning of Jafar Kiani, which was carried out less than a month after your Excellency intervened to suspend his sentence. As a result we greatly fear that Mokarrameh Ebrahimi, who was sentenced to death along with Jafar Kiani in 1996, is also in imminent danger of execution by public stoning.

Iran: Jailed Students Abused to Obtain Forced Confessions

Authorities Should Release 19 Detained Students and Activists at Once

(Washington, DC, July 27, 2007) – The Iranian government should immediately release 19 students and activists arrested in May and June on apparently politically motivated charges, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch expressed concern that the authorities have been subjecting them to abuse to coerce confessions.

Reports that Iranian authorities have beaten and threatened these students to obtain confessions are all too consistent with accounts we have collected in the past. The government should release these 19 students and activists immediately.

Iran: Detained Students at Risk of Torture
More Iraninan Human Rights Abuses
On July 24, the families of detained students Majid Tavakoli, Ahmad Ghasaban, and Ehsan Mansouri sent an open letter to Ayatollah Shahrudi, head of the Judiciary, about the physical and psychological abuse of their sons in section 209 of Tehran’s Evin prison, a security section of the prison where Human Rights Watch has documented many cases of prisoner abuse, including torture to coerce confessions. Following two visits with their sons, the families alleged that authorities have subjected them to 24-hour interrogation sessions, sleep deprivation, and threats of harming the prisoners and their families. The families also said that the detainees had been confined in cells with dangerous convicted prisoners, beaten with cables and fists, and forced to remain standing for long periods of time. “Reports that Iranian authorities have beaten and threatened these students to obtain confessions are all too consistent with accounts we have collected in the past,” said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “The government should release these 19 students and activists immediately.” The three students were among eight whom agents of the Ministry of Intelligence arrested in May on charges of “insulting state leaders,” “inciting public opinion,” and “printing inflammatory and derogatory materials” in student publications. The students consistently maintained that the publications were forged and that they had no role in producing them. On July 18, five of the students were released on bail. Six additional students were arrested on July 9 during a peaceful demonstration to protest the detentions outside the main gate of Amir Kabir University. They were holding a sit-in at the university to commemorate the anniversary of extensive student protests in July 1999 that the government violently suppressed. According to reports from activists, police and plainclothes security agents beat and arrested the six students and transferred them to Evin section 209. Later that day, at 11:30 a.m, plainclothes officers arrived at the Office of the Alumni Association of Iran. They fired in the air before forcefully entering the premises and arresting 10 students and activists. The police then closed down the offices. The Office of the Alumni Association of Iran is legally registered in accordance with amendment 10 of the Law of Political Parties. According to Iranian law, written notices and court appearances are required for shutting down legally registered organizations. On July 10, Alireza Jamshidi, the official spokesperson for the Iranian Judiciary, confirmed these arrests. He denied that any of the detainees were students and said that the charges against them related to “security issues,” including “gathering illegally” and “colluding to act illegally.” Since the July 9 arrests, security officials stormed the homes of seven of the detainees and confiscated their personal belongings. On July 18, security agents ransacked the home of Abdollah Momeni, bringing him along from prison in handcuffs. According to activists who met with Momeni’s family following the search, Momeni’s face and body showed visible signs of beatings, and he appeared to have lost a considerable amount of weight during his nine days in custody. Security agents reportedly conducted the other home searches in a similar fashion. According to sources in Iran who have been in touch with Momeni’s family, security agents have been attempting to force him to confess to acts he has not committed, such as being connected to forces outside the country who are attempting to implement a “soft revolution.” International human rights law protects detainees from mistreatment, including forced “confessions.” The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Iran is a party, protects the right of every person “[n]ot to be compelled to testify against himself or to confess guilt.” Human Rights Watch is also concerned about the well-being of 19-year-old Amir Yaghoub Ali, a student supporter of the One Million Signatures Campaign, which aims to eliminate discriminatory laws against women. On the evening of July 11, Yaghoub Ali was collecting signatures at Tehran’s Andishe Park on Shariati Street. Park security officers, after detaining him in the park’s security headquarters, transferred him to the 104th police station in Niloufar Square, where he spent the night. The next morning, authorities transferred him to the Revolutionary Court on Moallem Street, where Judge Sobhani ordered that he continue to be held pending completion of investigations into his case. His mother and sister were not able to obtain information about their son either at the police station or the courthouse on July 11. Upon their return to the court on July 12, Judge Sobhani informed them that he had ordered Yaghoub Ali’s transfer to Evin section 209. Activists in Iran told Human Rights Watch that authorities are particularly vindictive toward male supporters of campaigns for women’s rights. A witness to the peaceful women’s protest of March 8, 2006 in Tehran’s Daneshjoo Park told Human Rights Watch that when security and police forces attacked the gathering with batons in order to disperse the crowds, they severely beat the men who were present.

"DEATH TO AMERICA": Ahmadinejad issues new threats on the eve of his NY Visit

Iran's Ahmadinejad issues new threats against Israel, U.S.
BY ADAM NICHOLS DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Sunday, September 23rd 2007, 4:00 AM



Ahmadinejad (3rd from left on dais) looks at anti-Israel and anti-U.S. slogans on jeeps yesterday.

Iranian leaders made a show of their military might, including this Fateh 110 missile.
On the eve of his trip to New York City, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad stood before a banner blaring "Death to America," showed off his military might and declared his extremist regime will not bow to Western pressure.
"Those who think, that by using such decayed tools as psychological warfare and economic sanctions, they can stop the Iranian nation's progress are making a mistake," Ahmadinejad said yesterday outside of Tehran.
As the hatemonger spoke, a parade of anti-aircraft guns, missiles and military hardware moved before him. Three jet fighters flew overhead.
In a menacing move, Ahmadinejad's military henchmen said the medium-range missiles could reach Israel and U.S. bases in the Gulf.
Ahmadinejad, who is coming to New York to address the United Nations General Assembly, is expected to land at Kennedy Airport today.
The White House and U.S. military leaders have accused Iran of supplying training and weapons to terrorists who are attacking and killing U.S. troops in Iraq.
Large protests will greet Ahmadinejad - an accused terrorist, Holocaust denier and member of the Axis of Evil - when he speaks at Columbia University on Monday and when he addresses the UN Tuesday.
Ahmadinejad sparked outrage last week by requesting an official tour of Ground Zero. The proposed visit, which was promptly rejected by the NYPD, sickened victims' relatives and U.S. leaders.
Ahmadinejad said he was "amazed" by the negative reaction. But he has said he will abandon his plans to lay a wreath on the hallowed ground where nearly 3,000 people were killed by terrorists - an attack he has suggested was an inside job carried out by U.S. intelligence agents.
Columbia has refused to cancel Ahmadinejad's appearance at its School of International and Public Affairs. University President Lee Bollinger has vowed to challenge Ahmadinejad on his denial of the Holocaust, his alleged sponsorship of terrorism, his pursuit of nuclear weapons and the imprisonment of journalists and scholars in Iran.
But several political leaders and religious groups have slammed Columbia for inviting the madman to mouth off.
"Anyone who supports terror, pledges to destroy a sovereign nation [Israel], punishes by death anyone who 'insults' religion ... denies the Holocaust and thumbs his nose at the international community has no legitimate role to play at a university," Catholic League President Bill Donohue said.
The State Department has issued Ahmadinejad an extremely restrictive C-2 visa. It lasts 29 days and the holder must remain within a 25-mile radius of Columbus Circle.
The NYPD and a Secret Service detail will accompany Ahmadinejad during his visit - and protect him despite his repeated threats against the U.S.
At the military parade in Iran yesterday, the head of Iran's Revolutionary Guard, Mohammad Ali Jafari, said Western powers would regret it if they attacked the Islamic republic over Tehran's nuclear activities.
"They will regret it, as they are regretting it in Iraq," Jafari said.
Asked how Iran would respond if a neighboring country let its territory be used to launch attacks, Jafari said, "You have seen the missiles - just pull the trigger and shoot."
anichols@nydailynews.com

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Sure we'd invite Hitler to speak, says Columbia dean

Hitler, Ahmadinejad - yes -- but who else?

Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) invited , Iran's Holocaust-denying president to "participate in a question and answer session with university faculty and students at Columbia University’s World Leaders Forum."

Coatsworth stated that “Opportunities to hear, challenge, and learn from controversial speakers of different views are central to the education and training of students for citizenship in a shrinking and still dangerous world. This is especially true for SIPA students, many of whose careers will require them to confront human rights and security issues throughout the globe."

Since Coatsworth told the news invite Hitler to speak to and give him a platform - it seems almost pointless to ask if he'd invite Sudanese President Omar al-Bashirto, dictators like Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe or Kim Jong-il of North korea or, for that matter, any of the rest of the world's top 10 worst dictators?
I don't think they would. But who knows....