IRAN: SPECIAL POLICE CORPS CHARGED WITH CONTROLLING CELL PHONES

Tehran, 4 Jan. (AKI) - A special police corps has been officially tasked with checking the cell phones of Iranians and in the past few days plain-clothes officials have started stopping passers-by in Iran's main cities to inspect their mobiles. All text messages and audio or video files considered 'illegal' are erased by the officials from this new corps. In the past few years, cell phones have reportedly become the main means to convey news which would never make it into the government-controlled Iranian media.

News on scandals, jokes on Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and other political leaders, information on meetings, political assemblies and rallies mainly circulate via cell phones.

The crackdown on mobile phones follows measures in the past year to ban satellite television from Iranian homes, obscure over 100,000 internet websites and close the last daily considered relatively independent from the government, Shargh.

This latest attempt to control the free circulation of news has reportedly upset the president of the parliamentary commission on national security, Alaeddin Brujerdi, who has slammed the new police corps as "an illegal body" carrying out "completely illegal" inspections on mobile phones.

Bolshevism in a Headdress
FrontPageMagazine ^ | 3/21/05 | Mustafa Akyol

http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1373886/posts

In October of 2002 I spoke to a crowded Muslim audience in the British city of Birmingham on the topic, "The Evidence for God." My lecture focused on the modern scientific discoveries that support the idea of a designed, "fine-tuned" universe. The audience consisted mostly of Muslim students, and they were very interested in the presentation.

Yet there was a small dissatisfied group in the hall. During the question-and-answer session, one who seemed to be a spokesman for the group rose and, in a passionate voice, objected to the whole idea of the conference. "Why are we wasting time with all this useless philosophical and scientific sophistry?" he demanded. "Shouldn't we concentrate on establishing the worldwide Islamic state that will save us from all evils?"

I explained that the Koran asks every Muslim to examine the natural world and witness God's signs in it, but there is no verse ordering an "Islamic state." The essence of Islam, I said, does not concern such political objectives, but rather faith in God and morality. If he wanted to exalt Islam he should focus on science, philosophy, or art, I suggested, because these are the underpinnings of a civilization.

The young man was furious. In my speech I had mentioned the fall of Marxism as a materialistic theory that claimed to be a true explanation of human societies. He questioned me for speaking only against Marxism, not against capitalism. I responded, "Well, if we were in a communist country, we could not have a seminar titled 'The Evidence for God.' We can have it freely in this capitalist country. Isn't this a reason enough to opt for the latter?"

Later, I learned that this angry young man was a member of the radical group Hizb-ut Tahrir, firmly dedicated to establishing a global Islamic state. I am sure he and his comrades saw themselves as pious Muslims. Yet there was something terribly wrong with their faith, a defect that left them much more interested in the case against "capitalism" than in the case for God.

(snip)

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