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Posted on 10/06/2003 4:46:27 PM PDT by Persia
Last month some 450 Iranian intellectuals and dissidents sent a petition to the Nobel Committee in support of Hashem Aghajari, a jailed dissident Iranian intellectual as a nominee for the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize.
We support this nomination and urge the Committee to seriously consider the implications of such an award as a token of support for the heroic struggle of the Iranian students and intellectual against the oppressive regime of the Mullahs in Iran.
As an intellectual and a university professor, Aghajari was sentenced to death in November 2002 for blasphemy. His statements and utterances in regard to varying interpretations of religious theories and practices have been fully within the realm and practice of "Academic Freedom and Tenure Statement" recognized by the academic community world-wide.
Although his jail term has since been reduced to three years, he is still waiting for a review of his death penalty. He sparked the anger of Iran's religious establishment in a speech on June 19, 2002, when he questioned clerics' right to rule in Iran by calling for an "Islamic Reformation" and saying Muslims "should not blindly ... follow their religious leaders".
The prize is set to be announced in Oslo on October 10. The five members of the Nobel Committee have shown extraordinary courage in the past by choosing such controversial candidates as the Soviet era dissident Andrei Sakharov (1975), the Polish labor-union leader Lech Walesa (1983), Dalai Lama (1989), the Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi (1991), the Guatemalan human rights crusader Rigoberta Menchu Tum (1992), and South Korean peace activist Kim Dae Jung (2000).
Among all the candidates being talked about this year, Aghajari is the only one in jail with a pending death sentence hanging over his head.
According to today’s Sunday Times, "Iranian dissident Hachem Aghajari, currently imprisoned in his own country, is one possible laureate, Toennesson said.
"This would send a message of democracy to Iran to encourage it on its road of reform, as well as a message of peace to the United States to convince them that a change in Iran will not come by way of war," he said.
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