Remember those Iranian students who dared protest against the Thug-In-Chief in front of Ahmadinejad himself? Well, so does Ahmadinejad. What was that again about it being "possible to govern based on an approach that is distinctly different from one of coercion, force and injustice," Mahmoud?
From the Mail & Guardian, with thanks to DFS:
Iranian student activists who staged an angry protest against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last week have gone into hiding in fear for their lives after his supporters threatened them with revenge.One student fled after being photographed holding a banner reading, "Fascist president, the polytechnic is not for you", during Ahmadinejad's visit to Tehran's Amir Kabir university. At least three others have gone underground after being seen burning his picture. Vigilantes from the militant Ansar-e Hezbollah group have been searching for them.
In a startling contrast to the acclaim Ahmadinejad has received in numerous recent appearances around Iran, he faced chants of "Death to the dictator" as he addressed a gathering in the university's sports hall last week. Several hundred students forced their way in to voice anger over a clampdown on universities since he became president last year....
Last Monday's university demonstration triggered violent clashes between student activists and crowds of Basij militia, who were there to support the president. A shoe was thrown at Ahmadinejad while a student had his nose broken by an aide to a Cabinet minister.
Protesters later surrounded the president's car, prompting a security guard to fire a stun grenade to warn them off. Four cars in the presidential convoy collided in their haste to leave. Ahmadinejad's staff later insisted he had remained calm and ordered that the students should go unpunished. But some of those present say he accused them of being paid United States agents who would be confronted.
"He threatened us directly, saying that what we were doing was against the wishes of the nation," said Babak Zamanian, a spokesperson for Amir Kabir university's Islamic students' committee. "After that, the students protested even more sharply, calling him a lying religious dictator and shouting, 'Forget America and start thinking about us!'
"We were chanting, 'Get lost Ahmadinejad!' and 'Ahmadinejad -- element of discrimination and corruption.' You could see from his face that he was really shocked. He wasn't flashing his usual smile, and at one stage I thought he was going to cry. He told his supporters to respond with a religious chant hailing Ahmadinejad, but he was so shaken he was actually chanting it himself."
Another student said: "He was trying to keep control of himself, but you could see he was angry and upset."
Witnesses say Ahmadinejad also tried to ridicule the students by referring to the university disciplinary code, under which those with three penalty points are suspended from studies. "He joked that he was going to issue a presidential order for those with three stars to be enlisted as sergeants in the army. That made the students really angry," said Zamanian.
The university authorities' contentious use of the disciplinary code was said to be a trigger for last week's protest. About 70 students have been suspended and threatened with expulsion for various political activities, including writing articles critical of the government.
Last month, the authorities demolished two building belonging to the Islamic students' committee -- a moderate grouping representing diverse opinions. An elected student body was also disbanded. Women students have been told to wear conservative dress and remove any makeup.
In this atmosphere, activists at Amir Kabir university -- a traditional hotbed of political activism -- regarded Ahmadinejad's visit as a deliberate provocation and decided to protest. While many chanted, a hard core waved banners and burned his portrait, some ignoring instructions to cover their faces.
The 21-year-old student holding the "fascist president" banner was among those threatened with expulsion. He is said to be in grave danger after foreign news outlets, including the Guardian, published a picture of his gesture. Friends say he went into hiding after being confronted by two vigilantes.
"They said they would pull his father out of the grave [an ancient Persian threat]," said one student. "He is in real danger. Vigilantes have been standing at the dormitory doors asking for him."
Students now fear an even fiercer crackdown. "We believe [the authorities] will react much worse than before," said Armin Salmasi (26) a leading activist. "We are already under constant surveillance. The student movement in Iran is going to be driven underground -- just like it was before the revolution."
Until these students denounce the Koran, they'll get no sympathy here.
Where is Muslim Unity now?
It's time to defend your beloved president.
They need to denounce their religion first.
A movement like this would spark attention and support for the Iranians who want to change their country for better.
Hopefully, this will be the beginning of the Revolution! Ladies - off with your hijabs and burkas!!
Just before Ahmadinejad started his nuclear gambit we in Australia had a few documentaries about Iran.
The emphasis seemed to be on just how secular and modern and "Western" the young Iranians are.
The girls were wearing makeup and jeans and riding in go-cart races and downloading decadent Western music on the Internet.
Any day now we were told, there will be a revolution and a free and democratic Iran will be born.
Any day now.
Maybe it's all genuine.
Surely some of it is and my heart goes out to all those Iranians suffering under the current regime but it is possible Ahmadinejad and his advisors have fabricated much of it.
What would I do in his position, wanting to avoid an armed confrontation with the U.S., at least until my nukes were ready?
I'd set up bogus Iranian blogs showing the average Iranian as just inches from joining a democratic revolution overthrowing the Mullahs.
I'd invite foreign journalists in to make documentaries about the brave secular "Western" young Iranians.
And I'd release bogus stories about brave students defying the Ahmadinejad aand the Mullahs.
It has surprised me just how eagerly most of us in the West accept at face value this depiction of the Iranian 'students'.
Once again, in my opinion, our opponents display a masterly understanding of the average Westerner's good nature in wanting to think the best of people and avoid war.
Hope springs eternal.
Any day now.
Ahmadinejad is showing his true colors as a bully and thug , and like all bullies can't stand anyone standing up to him and he has enough of the thugs that have been terrorizing the people that he can have his opponents killed he is a dictator even though he was elected and since the mullahs support him he will stay in power
so the thug was shocked and at one stage looked like he was about to cry -- that just shows that he is a braggart tyrant who with the least bit confrontation reveals the real coward underneath. I hope the protesters can get away to Turkey, and then perhaps get asylum in Europe, because the alternative is torture.
I am still smarting over the visit from Khatami, Amhadinejad's predecessor, here to the UK. To receive an honorary doctorate from the most famous university in Scotland: just unbelievable. I couldnt get to Scotland for the protest because I live far away but what that guy needed was some people to get into the room and during his speech throw a couple of pies (pork pies preferably) at his face. The image of the bits of pork and fat smeared over his face, including his stupid turban, and his self-important priestly robes, would be great. And like the present thug-in-chief I bet he would just look shocked and cry like a little girl.
Oh, by the way, I saw on google news a couple hours ago, that in elections yesterdays for one of those clerical councils in Iran that are an important part of government structure, that the thug-in-chief's candidates and allies received a resounding defeat. This + the student protests = a change of direction by Iranian people?
Hopefully, this will be the beginning of the Revolution! Ladies - off with your hijabs and burkas!!
Posted by: TeachESL
American women burned their bras, I wonder what a burka burn protest would be like.
Decades ago, Western women were burning their bras in the
name of equal rights. In the Islamic world, it's the women
themselves who can get burned, literally.
Then people who stand up for the Treatment of Muslim Women, such as Theo Van Gogh who made a short fil.
Remember him? He was the guy who made a short film that
examined Islam's mistreatment of women and for his trouble,
he got pumped full of bullets and a dagger stuck in his chest on
a public street. Pinned to the dagger was a 5-page explanatory
letter from his Muslim killer about why van Gogh could not be
allowed to go on criticizing Islam.
Theo van Gogh died a brutal death for trying to publicize
the plight of Islamic women.
Muslim women are terrorized by the Muslims males. Just how to free these women without destroying Islam is indeed a tough dilema.
These are just kids born into an islamic state, you cant just demand they renounce there religion.
You cant just switch off islam, but a good start is getting rid of hitladinejad.
You cant ask much more of these kids.
Watch the second one on this page and you'll see Ahmadinejads true colors and ... he's not alone ...
http://civoc.com/society/?p=36
Islam thrives in fear--Just ask anyone who lives in a Muslim controlled country, Just read the news articles about Muslim atrocities in any Muslim controlled country.
Better yet, just ask any living victim of Islam.
Iranian students hide in fear for lives
something sure does smell like fish about this title!
muslims fear nothing but allah!
ask em they will tell you!
muslim aint affeared of no big bad ahmadinejad, or no old religious police or vigilantes, muslims only fear allah!
I'm surprised those students aren't dead already. But like many posters have indicated, A-Nut himself is just the worst symptom of a disease called Islamania. Get rid of the disease and the rest will follow.
I've met some cool Iranians back in college. Good peeps. They seemed to enjoy our way of life, maybe this is the start of something good.
the Iranian prisons such as Ardebil and Evin are being filled with Iranian students and dissidents, The treatment they received can be as follows:
From my Iranian prison
Mohammad Khoshzough intervewed by Michel Hurtmans
La libre belgique
September 15, 1999
(Translated by the Green Party of Iran)
An opponent of the Ayatollas regime, Mohammad Khoshzough spent 11 years in capivity as a political prisoner. From simulated executions to brainwashing, he suffered through it all. Today, he warns: do not believe that the current regime can democratize itself.
While working at the Bandar-Anzali shipyards on the Caspian Sea in the 1970s, Mohammad Khoshzough never missed an opportunity to observe the living conditions of the Iranian people. More an athiest and communist in spirit rather than someone who actively persued a philisophical or political ideology, he waited until the revolution in 1979 to become politically active. In 1980, he ran for election as a member of parliament in the country's first democratic elections. The subsequent power grab by the Ayatollas ended any hopes for freedom for the country and marked the beginning of the repression of non-islamic political activists. After spending two and a half years in hiding, Mohammad is denounced and then arrested. Thus began 11 years of incarceration simply for having convictions different than those of the regime.
"For 17 months, I was interrogated about my political friends and was tortured almost every day. In Iran, the reasons given for torturing prisonners are many. For example, refusing to pray or to accept gifts from the regime on the national holiday is sufficient. During my trial, I was given a death sentence orally by the judge. It was only 5 days later that I learned that the written verdict was actually 20 years imprisonment. In the meantime, the prison guards turned me into their favorite 'hobby' - every morning they would wake me, blindfold me, and then simulate my execution. There have always been people who laugh heartily at the screams of terror of the others.
One of the physical tortures was to whip the bottom of my feet with steel cables. Lying down and tied to a bed with a pillow under my head, one torturer would sit on my stomach while a second would whip my feet 150 times. If a strike didn't hit exactly right, it wasn't counted. Another form of torture involved tying my arms behind my back with the left arm bent over my shoulder and the right arm tied from underneath. Then, I would be hung on the wall from the left arm, thus pulling all my back muscles to their limit. Only by standing on the tips of my toes could I avoid tearing the muscles completely. I would be left waiting in this position for hours, during which time the guards would amuse themselves by pulling our legs, saying: "Come, lets take a trip".
In addition to physical torture, we were also phsychologically tortured. The smallest pretext would be used to deny us for months our visitation rights, which under normal circumstances were 10 minutes every 15 days. Other times, our weekly 5 liters of water for cleaning ourselves would be denied. They would also regularly keep us in the cells all day and deny us our 3 daily stretching periods.
Many methods of brainwashing were also used. A mullah would often be sent into the cells to speak to us about politics and to convince us to chose an Islamic life. At other times, they would play religious music or television shows continuously in the cells. If we complained, there was always someone who would denounce us.
I was transfered from one prison to another, but the deplorable living conditions didn't change. I was either placed in an individual cell measuring 90cm by 2m, or with 2 other prisoners in a 3 by 2 meter cell, with matresses placed side by side on the floor. Lighting consisted of a single 25 watt bulb, lit 24 hours a day. There was also a small skylight through which we could only see a narrow crack of light. As for our food supplies and hygenic conditions, they were even worse.
In 1988, certain members of the regime decided to eliminate all the political prisoners who had refused to repent and to confess on state television. As a result, 222 out of 258 of the prisoners in my jail were executed. Only international pressure put a stop to the massacres (Green Party note: estimates are that 30,000 prisoners were executed within 2 months).
After 1993, prisoners could ask for parole after completing a third of their sentence. On her third attempt, my sister obtained my release in 1994. I remained however, under constant judicial control, which led me to flee a year later to Turkey. In Ankara, the United Nations took my case and I was welcomed by Norway as a political refugee.
Today, I have a single goal in my life: to fight against the current regime. I don't support any single person in particular, but rather, I support my people so that they can benefit from democracy and from the good things we find in western countries, such as woman's equality and the right to form unions, and better levels of education. Today, international opinion is such that the Islamic regime has softened and that the recent student demonstrations are the first steps towards a democratization of the country. They see in Khatami a leader who will change Iran. I'm not so sure. He is like the other hard-liners of the regime. If he lets the winds of change blow, it's only to let the opposition movements come to the surface. Afterwards, he'll only have to cut off any heads sticking out.
This doesn't stop me from keeping my spirits up. In prison, I imagined that once free, I'd start a family. Today, I'm 54 years old, and I think it's too late, but I'm still keeping my hopes on the Iranian people and on Iran's future generations.
Compare this to the underwear on the head of prisoners in Abu Ghrab.
Separation of Religion and State is the only hope the Iranians and Muslims in Islamic states around the world have to move forward into the modern world.
They will never denounce their Religion
(for the reasons stated in other posts )and as long as church and state are one , any protestor who criticises Ahmadinejoke or any other Leader is essentially speaking out against Islam. ISlam is a perfect system for ruling all aspects of an individuals life, by eliminating the individual.
The Definition of submission.
exsgtbrown-
Imagine that, torture under the wonderful leadership of "holy" men. Satan Khomeini made a big deal about how the Shah's police brutalized people-that's why he launched his glorious revolution. It didn't take long for these crazies to surpass the old regime, did it?
They've got courage to do this. Shame the Harvard students couldn't have done similar.
The colleges in America continue to allow professors such as Ward Churchill to poison the minds of Americas youth.
If students are being graded politically and forced to parrot leftwing clichés to satisfy their professors, the left’s first defense is to deny the reality.
In the classes of such professors students are encouraged to write papers as if they were oppressed people. The stronger the language in the paper the higher the grade. If a student were were submit a paper with a more rightest slant, the paper is graded poorly.
So in order to pass the course the students must write papers that one could call Anti American, and as been shown many times, the professors adamently deny it is so. (The professors are lying of course).
Check out the faculty lists of virtually any major college, check first for professors with Arabic sounding names. (1st clue), then research the local newspapers for any articles written about professors (especially in the area of political science or government) in which the courses being taught have caused some uproar in the community or the student body.
It is scarey that our students have to submit to far left policies or teaching in order to pass the course and graduate.
But it is happening, future great Americans are being Islamitized right under our noses.
I pray this is the beginning of the end for Islam over there. It's got to be an internal change. As well as resistance fr the outside world. You can see the "man in the street" in Iran wants out...of the islamic religious mania.
Allat
I don't know why the mullahs and their supporters haven't gotten the memo that theirs is a religion of peace.
As for hopes for Iran, though they may be more moderate, the only real hope for them is to be converted to some other religion or to complete secularization. I have an Iranian friend very westernized, who has been living in the US for quite a long time, who told me that the problem with the world (perhaps Middle East) was the Jews. I about fell off my chair. I recently read online somewhere that Iranians are raised, and have been for centuries, with strident anti-Semetic teaching which explained quite a bit.
"Iranian student activists who staged an angry protest against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last week"
note: is it just me or those students didn't give a damn to say something about the holocaust, and instead they only thought to censor their prime minister?
To be read as: we think our leader is an embarassment but we still think jews are sons of apes and pigs.
Anyone agrees?
Posted by: StillFedUp at December 18, 2006 02:31 PM
Agreed. Even if Iran's monkey man dropped dead today of a heart attack (inshallah!) he'd merely be replaced by another of his type. Until they do something with that cult itself they will all continue to think that they are the master race.
Tell the kids to follow the example of their parents who got rid of the shah and who gave them the mullahs in the first place. They had their revolution and their new leader killed more people in his first year in power than the shah did in twenty-five.
Forgive me. I have trouble feeling any sympathy for these Iranian "students". I still remember the actions of another group of "students" almost three decades ago.
To see Muslims accuse their leaders of fascism is priceless. First it was death to America. Now it's death to the dicator? Are we sure they didn't mean George W. Bush?
Hey kids, actions speak louder than words. Start a new revolution and prove to us that you mean business. Americans shouldn't expend a drop of precious infidel blood. You got yourselves into this theocracy. Show us you can get out of it.
It reminds me of the biblical entry in Isaiah 5:13
They made their own prison. Same group was part & parcel in overthrowingthe Shah. Well, they got what they wanted...just not the way they thought.
The moral of the story,as always, is:
Be careful what you wish for...you just might get it.
;-)
Where are the protest coverage in the news media?? Zippo, nada, nil coverage. Pres Tom of Iran is a danger to his country and to himself.
I don't doubt that these students would like to be free of Ahmadinejad and the clerics that oppress them. I'm sure they'd like to have freedom of speech, freedom to dress as they like, freedom to date and party as they like.
But what about freedom of conscience and religion? If they are Muslims -- which they most certainly are -- I wonder how ready they would be to defend the rights of Christians and Jews to freely practice their faiths.
Don't be fooled by talk about freedom and democracy in Muslim countries. These words have a completely different meaning to Muslims. They apply only to Muslims, and to no one else.
When they attack Islam, along with Ahmadinejad and the clerics, as sources of oppresion, then I think we can take them seriously.