Iranian Alert -- October 5, 2003 -- IRAN LIVE THREAD PING LIST

The regime is working hard to keep the news about the protest movment in Iran from being reported.

From jamming satellite broadcasts, to prohibiting news reporters from covering any demonstrations to shutting down all cell phones and even hiring foreign security to control the population, the regime is doing everything in its power to keep the popular movement from expressing its demand for an end of the regime.

These efforts by the regime, while successful in the short term, do not resolve the fundamental reasons why this regime is crumbling from within.

Iran is a country ready for a regime change. If you follow this thread you will witness, I believe, the transformation of a nation. This daily thread provides a central place where those interested in the events in Iran can find the best news and commentary.

Please continue to join us here, post your news stories and comments to this thread.

CHARGES AGAINST ARGENTINEAN JUDGE INNOCENTS IRAN

TEHRAN 5 Oct. (IPS)

The Islamic Republic on Sunday said it would not accept any mediation in its crisis with Argentine, following allegations that the Argentinean Judge that has accused Iran of having masterminded the 1994 explosion of the Buenos Aires Jewish Centre has coerced witnesses to accuse Tehran.

The explosion killed 85 people and wounded more than 300 hundreds.

Following an international warrant from Judge Juan Jose Galeano, Scotland Yard arrested last August Mr. Hadi Soleymanpour, Iran´s ambassador to Argentine at the time of explosion, in the northern city of Durham, where he is studying international politics at the city’s prestigious university.

Mr. Soleymanpour was released two weeks later on a record 750.000 British Pounds bail, with the London Court awaiting “more convincing documents” on the participation of the diplomat and other senior Iranian officials, including the former Intelligence minister, Hojjatoleslam Ali Fallahian in the explosion.

According to new press reports, Judge Galeano has paid 400.000 US Dollars to a key witness, the driver who took the explosives provided by the terrorists to AMIA, or the Centre for Jewish Solidarity, stopping however short of explaining where he got the relatively huge sum.

Other former Argentinean intelligence officers have also accused Mr. Galeano for having coerced them in accusing the Islamic Republic, the reports added.

“The accusations against Galeano shows that the whole issue is baseless and a political manipulation, as we have stated from the outset”, the official Iranian news agency IRNA quoted Sunday the Foreign Affairs Ministry’s senior spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi as having stated.

Angry at the arrest of its diplomat, Tehran recalled briefly its ambassador form London and cut the remaining trade and cultural ties with Buenos Aires.

“Now, everyone can see by itself that not only we had nothing to do with the explosion, but also how the Argentinean Judiciary played in the hands of the Zionist entity (Israel) in making fabricated accusations agains the Islamic Republic”, Mr. Asefi told IRNA, adding that Iran would accept no mediation aimed at normalising Iran´s relations with Buenos Aires unless Argentine presents full and official apology.

The charges against Judge Galeano are in line with those made against Mr. Carlos Menem, the former president, accused by the press of having accepted a 10 million US Dollars bribes from the Iranians for shelving the case that was re-opened recently by the present Argentine President. ENDS DIPLOMAT ARRESTED 51003

http://www.iran-press-service.com/articles_2003/Oct-2003/diplomat_arrest_51003.htm

Iran: U.S. Attitude Toward Tehran Hurting its Mideast Interests

October 05, 2003
The Associated Press
Ha'aretz

TEHRAN, Iran -- Iran said Sunday that America is damaging its Middle East interests by not dealing positively with Iran, a country Washington accuses of developing nuclear weapons but wields considerable influence in the Gulf region.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told reporters that the United States, "through its wrong approach, has denied itself the might and influence of the Islamic Republic of Iran in the region."

"The United States should adopt a pragmatic and positive approach toward Iran and the region," Asefi said. "Under such circumstances, they will be able to solve their problems" in the region.

Asefi's comments come as the international community, led by the United States, pressures Iran to open up its nuclear facilities for unfettered inspections. Washington also accuses Iran of supporting anti-Israeli militant groups, including Lebanon's Hezbollah.

America says Iran's nuclear program aims to produce atomic weapons. Tehran denies these claims, saying its intentions are to produce electricity, not nuclear bombs.

Asefi's remarks indicate an apparent softening of Iran's tone toward America, by suggesting the United States could benefit from Iran's regional importance if it dealt with the Persian state differently.

They may also be interpreted as an offering of Iranian support to America in its attempt to restore order in and reconstruct post-Saddam Hussein Iraq.

The United States is worried about an Iranian-style Shiite Muslim clerical government developing in neighboring Iraq, and skeptical of Iran's influence on Iraq - where a majority of people are Shiites - and its political landscape.

Asefi said Iran is considering an invite to a donors meeting in Spain later this month to discuss Iraq reconstruction policies.

Iran has also welcomed the formation of a new Iraqi leadership and praised America's decision to close the offices of an armed rebel Iranian group based in Iraq. The U.S. State Department also closed the offices of the Mujahedeen Khalq's political wing, the National Council of Resistance of Iran, in Washington.

The Mujahedeen Khalq, which wages an insurrection against the Iranian government, based its fighters in Iraq and received support from the government of Saddam Hussein. In a standoff after the overthrow of Saddam, the U.S. military briefly bombed the Mujahedeen camps until the group capitulated and agreed to disarm.

Iran and America have had no diplomatic ties since 1979 when Iranian militant students stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and took its occupants hostage. Moves toward better relations received a setback last year when President George W. Bush described Iran as part of an "axis of evil," provoking condemnation from Tehran.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=347123&contrassID=1&subContrassID=8&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y

Russian Defense Chief Claims No Danger From Iran Cooperation

October 06, 2003
The Associated Press
Ha'aretz

MOSCOW - Russia's defense chief reiterated Sunday that his country will not supply nuclear fuel for a power plant it is building in Iran unless Tehran agrees to return all spent fuel to Russia, the Interfax news agency reported.

Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov also issued Russia's latest assurances that it is demanding Iran comply with UN rules governing nuclear programs and that its cooperation will not enable Iran to develop nuclear weapons, Interfax said.

The United States fears Russia's US$800 million deal to help build Iran's first nuclear power reactor, for a plant in the city of Bushehr, will make it easier for Iran to develop nuclear weapons.

Russia has repeatedly denied the link but recently has taken steps to assuage the American concerns, including saying it will not ship nuclear fuel for the reactor until Iran signs an agreement on the return of spent fuel - which could be used for weapons development - to Russia.

"There will be no shipments of nuclear fuel to Bushehr until Iran signs a protocol on the return of spent fuel from the atomic power station to the Russian Federation," Interfax quoted Ivanov as saying in the Canadian capital, Ottawa.

He said it is "impossible to create nuclear weapons on the basis of the Russian technology provided to Iran" and - echoing officials including President Vladimir Putin - accused those who call on Russia to halt nuclear cooperation with Tehran of acting out of competitive interests.

He said it is in Russia's national interest to prevent technology that could help in a nuclear weapons program from reaching Iran. Russia and Iran are close to each other, with just a few hundred kilometers (miles) separating their border.

Ivanov reiterated Russian criticism of "double standards" over Iran, claiming that "several European states" have provided Iran with equipment in violation of nuclear proliferation regulations, including gas centrifuges for enriching uranium.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=347143&contrassID=1&subContrassID=8&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y

Partial strikes of Teachers and their supporter students paralyse Iranian schools

SMCCDI (Information Service)
Oct 5, 2003

Partial strikes paralysed, today, many school classes in main Iranian provincial cities and in the Capital in prelude to a more massive strike that will be held tomorrow in most academies.

Many classes in cities, such as, Tehran, Khorram-Abad, Esfahan, Kermanshah, Hamadan and Abadan were closed as teachers and their students, supporting them, refused to attend the courses. These actions took place and will take place despite the official injunctions of the authorities and the Education Ministry's Intelligence Offices.

Sporadic gatherings were planned to take place, later in the day and on Monday, in front of many of the local offices of the Ministry of Education in main cities.

The teachers intended to size the "International Teacher's Day" in order to protest against the empty promises of the regime and the persistent repression in Iran.

Several teachers remain in jails or have been purged following the last 2 years actions and the murderers of 2 of their colleagues are still at large.

The 2 teachers were killed during a peaceful demonstration on January 25, 2000, and as Kofi Annan, visiting Tehran, was praising the Islamic regime for its Democratic progresses.

http://www.daneshjoo.org/generalnews/article/publish/article_2733.shtml

Security forces attack the protest gatherings of Iranian teachers

SMCCDI (Information Service)
Oct 5, 2003

The Islamic regime's security forces intervened, today, in several Iranian cities, such as, Tehran, Esfahan, Khorram-Abad, Hamadan and Kermanshah in order to break the partial protest gatherings of Iranian teachers and their supporters mainly composed by students.

Several teachers and their supporters have been reported as injured or arrested in cities of Tehran, Esfahan and Khorram-Abad by brutal militiamen and plainclothes men carrying clubs and chains.

Slogans, such as, "Mass-oolin e bi kefayat, Khejalat, Khejalat" (Incompetent authorities, shame, shame), "Mass-oolin Ghargh e Nemat, Konnand Ma ra nassihat" (Authorities full of benefits, Are giving us Advise), "Mass-olin e bi liaghat, Estefa, Estefa" (Autorities with no attribution, resignation, resignation) and "mellat Gedai mikonad, Akbar Khoda-i mikonad" (People are mendicating, Akbar -Rafsanjani- plays God) were shouted while regime's men were attacking the protesters.

Most accesses to the "Ministry of Education" in the Taleghani (former Takh-e-Jamshid) avenue of Tehran as well as its local offices in turmoiled provincial cities were closed by the security forces in order to avoid the increasing number of supporters to reach the protesters.

Chase and run were reported from Tehran, Esfahan, Khorram-Abad and Hamedan as the regime's men were intending to arrest individuals calling on supporters to break the security belts and to help the demonstrators.

The today's demonstrations took place along with partial strikes in most schools as more wider actions are planned for tomorrow in front of the offices of the Ministry of Education, in Tehran, and its representations in main provincial cities.

http://www.daneshjoo.org/generalnews/article/publish/article_2734.shtml

A SMOKING SCHISM?

AMIR TAHERI
NY Post
October 5, 2003 --

EVER since the liberation of Baghdad, many people had expected it: a theological duel between the two "seminary cities" of Najaf, in Iraq, and Qom, in Iran, over the leadership of the world's estimated 200 million Shi'ite Muslims.
The first moves in the duel have come from Grand Ayatollah Ali-Muhammad Sistani in Najaf and Ayatollah Nasser Makarem Shirazi in Qom.

The issue that triggered it is neither theological nor political, but one of lifestyle: Does Islam permit the smoking of tobacco?

The question was put to the two clerics by the Iranian Students Association, a Tehran-based pro-reform movement. The answers show the two clerics to be poles apart in their understanding of theology and the role it should play in a Muslim society.

Sistani is the primus inter pares of Iraqi Shi'ite theologians. Under house arrest through much of Saddam Hussein's tyranny, and thus prevented from communicating with Shi'ites outside Iraq, Sistani was unable to use his position as the senior mullah of Najaf to project his vision of Shi'ism. With Saddam gone, he is now free to pursue his goal of rebuilding Najaf's position as a center of Ijtihad (theological rulings.)

Sistani was a pupil of the late Grand Ayatollah Abol-Qassem Khoi, regarded by many as the greatest of Shi'ite theologians of the last century. Khoi preached a quietist version of Islam and emphasized personal piety as opposed to political militancy. He insisted that clerics should not seek political power, but act as arbiters between state and society.

Shirazi is one of six mullahs appointed by Iran's "Supreme Guide" Ali Khamenei as a collective "source of emulation" (Marja'a al-Taqlid).

He first made his name in the 1970s by claiming that Shi'ite theologians did not pay enough attention to the Koran, the Muslim fundamental text, and the hadiths, or sayings attributed to Prophet Muhammad. He also criticized the Shi'ites' passion for visiting "holy shrines," many of them in Iraq. Shirazi's position prompted a charge of "Wahhabism" from his critics.

The rival fatwas on smoking reveal not only two schools of Ijtihad, but two visions of the role of religion in society.

Shirazi states categorically that smoking tobacco in any form and under any circumstances and by anyone is a sin. He uses the Koranic term haram (forbidden).

For Shirazi, anyone who smokes a cigarette could be regarded as "engaged in rebellion against Allah." It would be incumbent on every believer and the authorities of the state to restrain smokers and, if they persist, punish them.

The nature of the punishment is not spelled out. But, since imprisonment does not exist in classical Islamic jurisprudence, the punishment envisaged could either be flogging in public or death.

Shirazi bases his position on verse 195 of the surah, "The Cow," in the Koran, which tells Muslims not to lead themselves to destruction. (The verse has hitherto been interpreted as urging believers not to take suicidal action in war.)

Shirazi's style of Ijtihad belongs to a school that emphasizes al-naql (dogma) as opposed to al-aql (reason). Shirazi's fatwa is long, peppered with obscure theological terms and Arabic quotations, and thus not easily accessible to a majority of Shi'ites, especially Iranians who do not understand Arabic.

Sistani's fatwa is short and to the point: It states that smoking is not forbidden as such, but anyone who knows that it is harmful to his or her health should refrain.

Sistani does not bring the Koran, the Prophet and the imams into the debate. He regards the issue of smoking as one to be settled by human reason, medical knowledge and individual choice - not theological anathema and interdict. For Sistani, in most issues concerning human existence, "reason" must prevail over dogma.

The two schools of Ijtihad could lead to two different forms of social and political organization.

Shirazi uses words such as "must" and "obligatory": This means that the clergy should exercise authority over society through edicts that leave no room for individual choice and judgment.

That position is based on the claim that a majority of the faithful are incapable of knowing right from wrong: They are the mustazafeen (the enfeebled ones), who need the intercession of the clergy to avoid the fires of hell.

Shirazi's ideal society is ultimately Platonist: the government of the learned over an ignorant populace. Its Khomeinist version is known as walayt al-faqih, which means rule by the theologian.

Sistani, by contrast, uses such words as "recommended" or "preferable." He casts the clergy into the role of "ethical counselors" of society. The ultimate decision is made by the individual on the basis of his own reason, the most precious gift from God to man.

Sistani's vision is ultimately Aristotelian. His ideal society is one in which rulers are ordinary, but pious citizens.

Because the concept of an intercessor is alien to Islam, Sistani rejects the idea that an individual could escape the consequences of his deeds simply by following the clergy.

There are other differences between the two schools. Shirazi bases his fatwa on an interpretation of the past. Sistani, however, urges attention to the present and future state of medical knowledge.

For Shirazi, every issue under the sun is theological. Sistani, however, recognizes public and private spaces in which theology intervenes by invitation only, and then as one voice among many. In his view, science, politics, literature, art and culture in general are autonomous categories, not mere branches of theology.

More importantly, Sistani rejects the concept of "infallibility" (ismah) that, though alien to Islam, is a cornerstone of the Khomeinist claim to power.

The liberation of Iraq and the re-emergence of Najaf as a center of Ijtihad is the best news that Shi'ism has had for more than half a century.

Competition between Najaf and Qom could enrich Islamic theology and benefit both centers. This is one duel that should be welcome, because it is one of ideas.

E-mail: amirtaheri@benadorassociates.com

http://www.benadorassociates.com/article/604

http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/opedcolumnists/7269.htm

Iran Women Lawmakers Fight to Save Woman

Monday October 6, 2003 4:16 AM
By ALI AKBAR DAREINI
Associated Press Writer

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Three female Iranian lawmakers stepped up a campaign to save a woman facing imminent execution for killing an intelligence officer she claimed tried to rape her, they told The Associated Press on Sunday.

Afsaneh Nowrouzi was sentenced to death two years ago for the ``unjustified murder'' of the officer in 1997. The sentence was upheld by Iran's Supreme Court in August following an appeal.

Death sentences are normally carried out days after the verdict is delivered to the prisoner. Nowrouzi was notified last week.

One of the female legislators, Azam Naseripour, said the group petitioned Iran's judiciary chief, Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, on Saturday to request a new judicial investigation.

Naseripour told The Associated Press the case should be reopened to ``save Nowrouzi from imminent death for legitimate self-defense and protecting her dignity.''

Nowrouzi, who is married, has been in a prison in Bandar Abbas, a port city on the Persian Gulf, since killing the officer.

The three petitioning lawmakers, Jamileh Kadivar, Tahereh Ramezanzadeh and Naseripour, said Nowrouzi stabbed the officer to protect her dignity.

Naseripour said the execution would humiliate Iranian women who seek to defend their dignity in this male-dominated society.

``If Nowrouzi is executed, women will be afraid to defend themselves against rape and physical assaults,'' she said.'' The execution will have a tremendous negative impact on Iran's women population.''

London-based human rights watchdog Amnesty International and other groups have condemned the verdict and appealed to Iranian authorities to revoke the sentence. Iran's Supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is the only authority able to grant clemency.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-3231770,00.html

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