ping
Posted on 03/14/2006 12:52:42 PM PST by freedom44
CAMBRIDGE – On Saturday, March 18, Harvard University will host the Iran Freedom Concert, a rally organized by Harvard students to support their counterparts in Iran.
"As tensions rise over nuclear issues, our diverse student coalition wants to spotlight the human side of the Iran crisis," said co-organizer Adam Scheuer, a senior and editor at the Harvard Middle East Review.
"Iranian students are denied basic rights Americans take advantage of every day. But there is a brave student movement in Iran working for change, and we need to support them." Widespread student protests in Iran have broken out in recent years, despite a brutal crackdown by the regime's security forces.
The concert, which begins at 9 p.m. at Leverett House, features leading campus musicians and speakers from campus groups exposing repression in Iran. Nine organizations are co-sponsoring, including an unusual alliance of campus Democrats and Republicans.
"The coalition doesn't take a stand on policy debates like foreign intervention," explained freshman co-organizer Alex McLeese. "But we agree that the fundamental rights of Iranians cannot be held hostage to diplomatic maneuverings over Iran's nuclear program."
The Iran Freedom Concert takes place just before the traditional Persian new year of Norouz – reflecting the students' hope for a new day for freedom in Iran.
"Iranian students are arrested for what they write on their blogs and have to take their exams in handcuffs," noted freshman co-organizer Nick Manske. "In fact, the essential elements of this concert are illegal in Iran: live singing, mixed dancing, and discussing social messages. Not to mention the restrictions on women, minorities, and journalists."
That message is being echoed on campuses across the country, with simultaneous rallies planned at Georgetown, UPenn, Duke, and other schools. Prominent Iranian dissidents, as well as the American Islamic Congress, are sending statements of support.
"This is a critical moment for Iran," Scheuer said. "Iranian activists need to know that American students are ready to help them hold the Iranian regime accountable. We want to help our counterparts in Iran seize the moment and advance their civil rights movement."
ping
Bump!
Good to hear
Gosh - they should invite Jimmy Carter to speak!
What a weasely statement. How does Mr. McLeese propose to uphold the "fundamental rights of Iranians" without a foreign (read: American) intervention to remove the criminal regime that currently denies them their rights? We're either going to ramp up our support of the Iranian underground to the point where they'll be able to throw the mullahs out on their own, or we'll have to bomb the regime back to the Stone Age - either way, it's going to have to happen because the mullahs simply cannot be permitted to have access to nuclear weapons under any circumstances.
My guess is that the real motiviation of these folks is to open a new anti-Bush leftist front (in addition to the anti-Iraq nonsense) against our effort to defeat these maniacs where they live and prevent another 9/11 here at home.
p.s. No Jews allowed.
First, I want to know if the above-mentioned Harvard co-organizer of this rally is Michael Scheuer's son.
Second, I want to know if these two Scheuer's are Jewish...because I don't put it past Mr. Imperial Hubris to give Iran a way to defeat President Bush...by revealing at a critical moment that Jews are behind the student rallies against the Mullahs of Iran.
Call me paranoid, but once burned, twice shy...especially after the CIA hit piece of a book that claimed, just before the November 2004 election, that we were somehow "losing" the war on terror even with Hussein in jail, Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, and Liberia freed of rule by despots, and no new 9/11 attacks on the U.S.
If the Mullahs can say "Look, these Jewish Scheuer's are behind the student rallies," then the Iranian students and their freedom movement is/are toast.
Good observation. I would never have connected the dots.
I hope the Marine Corps Band shows up to play.....and kicks their asses.
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