Facts: Iran, Assad And Hezbollat Have Murdered
Palestinians Within Two Years At Refugee Camps
Including (Mukhayyam) Yarmouk Far More Than Israel Has
Done In The Occupied Land In Two Decades
How Iran's Military
Chiefs Operate in Iraq
By Ned Parker, Babak Dehghanpisheh and Isabel Coles |
Baghdad, Reuters
The face stares out from multiple billboards in
central Baghdad, a grey-haired general casting a
watchful eye across the Iraqi capital. This military
commander is not Iraqi, though. He's Iranian.
The posters are a recent arrival, reflecting the
influence Iran now wields in Baghdad.
Iraq is a mainly Arab country. Its citizens, Shi'ite
and Sunni Muslims alike, have long mistrusted Iran,
the Persian nation to the east. But as Baghdad
struggles to fight the Sunni extremist group Islamic
State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), many Shi'ite Iraqis
now look to Iran, a Shi'ite theocracy, as their main
ally.
In particular, Iraqi Shi'ites have grown to trust the
powerful Iranian-backed militias that have taken
charge since the Iraqi army deserted en masse last
summer. Dozens of paramilitary groups have united
under a secretive branch of the Iraqi government
called the Popular Mobilization Committee, or Hashid
Shaabi.
Created by Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi's
predecessor Nuri al-Maliki, the official body now
takes the lead role in many of Iraq's security
operations. From its position at the nexus between
Tehran, the Iraqi government, and the militias, it is
increasingly influential in determining the country's
future.
Until now, little has been known about the body. But
in a series of interviews with Reuters, key Iraqi
figures inside Hashid Shaabi have detailed the ways
the paramilitary groups, Baghdad and Iran collaborate,
and the role Iranian advisers play both inside the
group and on the frontlines.
Those who spoke to Reuters include two senior figures
in the Badr Organisation, perhaps the single most
powerful Shi'ite paramilitary group, and the commander
of a relatively new militia called Saraya al-Khorasani.
In all, Hashid Shaabi oversees and coordinates several
dozen factions. The insiders say most of the groups
followed a call to arms by Iraq's leading Shi'ite
cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. But they also
cite the religious guidance of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei,
the supreme leader of Iran, as a key factor in their
decision to fight and - as they see it - defend Iraq.
Hadi al-Amiri, the leader of the Badr Organization,
told Reuters: "The majority of us believe that ...
Khamenei has all the qualifications as an Islamic
leader. He is the leader not only for Iranians but the
Islamic nation. I believe so and I take pride in it."
He insisted there was no conflict between his role as
an Iraqi political and military leader and his fealty
to Khamenei.
"Khamenei would place the interests of the Iraqi
people above all else," Amiri said.
From
battlefield to hospital
Hashid Shaabi is headed by Jamal Jaafar Mohammed,
better known by his nom de guerre Abu Mahdi al-Mohandis,
a former Badr commander who once plotted against
Saddam Hussein and whom American officials have
accused of bombing the U.S. embassy in Kuwait in 1983.
Iraqi officials say Mohandis is the right-hand man of
Qassem Soleimani, head of the Quds Force, part of
Iran's Revolutionary Guard. Mohandis is praised by
some militia fighters as "the commander of all troops"
whose "word is like a sword above all groups."
The body he heads helps coordinate everything from
logistics to military operations against Islamic
State. Its members say Mohandis' close friendships
with both Soleimani and Amiri helps anchor the
collaboration.
The men have known each other for more than 20 years,
according to Muen al-Kadhimi, a Badr Organisation
leader in western Baghdad. "If we look at this
history," Kadhimi said, "it helped significantly in
organising the Hashid Shaabi and creating a force that
achieved a victory that 250,000 (Iraqi) soldiers and
600,000 interior ministry police failed to do."
Kadhimi said the main leadership team usually
consulted for three to four weeks before major
military campaigns. "We look at the battle from all
directions, from first determining the field ... how
to distribute assignments within the Hashid Shaabi
battalions, consult battalion commanders and the
logistics," he said.
Soleimani, he said, "participates in the operation
command centre from the start of the battle to the
end, and the last thing (he) does is visit the
battle's wounded in the hospital."
Iraqi and Kurdish officials put the number of Iranian
advisers in Iraq between 100 and several hundred -
fewer than the nearly 3,000 American officers training
Iraqi forces. In many ways, though, the Iranians are a
far more influential force.
Iraqi officials say Tehran's involvement is driven by
its belief that Islamic State is an immediate danger
to Shi'ite religious shrines not just in Iraq but also
in Iran. Shrines in both nations, but especially in
Iraq, rank among the sect's most sacred.
The Iranians, the Iraqi officials say, helped organise
the Shi'ite volunteers and militia forces after Grand
Ayatollah Sistani called on Iraqis to defend their
country days after Islamic State seized control of the
northern city of Mosul last June.
Prime Minister Abadi has said Iran has provided Iraqi
forces and militia volunteers with weapons and
ammunition from the first days of the war with Islamic
State.
They have also provided troops. Several Kurdish
officials said that when Islamic State fighters pushed
close to the Iraq-Iran border in late summer, Iran
dispatched artillery units to Iraq to fight them.
Farid Asarsad, a senior official from the
semi-autonomous Iraqi region of Kurdistan, said
Iranian troops often work with Iraqi forces. In
northern Iraq, Kurdish peshmerga soldiers "dealt with
the technical issues like identifying targets in
battle, but the launching of rockets and artillery -
the Iranians were the ones who did that."
Kadhimi, the senior Badr official, said Iranian
advisers in Iraq have helped with everything from
tactics to providing paramilitary groups with drone
and signals capabilities, including electronic
surveillance and radio communications.
"The U.S. stayed all these years with the Iraqi army
and never taught them to use drones or how to operate
a very sophisticated communication network, or how to
intercept the enemy's communication," he said. "The
Hashid Shaabi, with the help of (Iranian) advisers,
now knows how to operate and manufacture drones."
A magical
fighter
One of the Shi'ite militia groups that best shows
Iran's influence in Iraq is Saraya al-Khorasani. It
was formed in 2013 in response to Khamenei's call to
fight Sunni jihadists, initially in Syria and later
Iraq.
The group is responsible for the Baghdad billboards
that feature Iranian General Hamid Taghavi, a member
of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. Known to militia
members as Abu Mariam, Taghavi was killed in northern
Iraq in December. He has become a hero for many of
Iraq's Shi'ite fighters.
Taghavi "was an expert at guerrilla war," said Ali al-Yasiri,
the commander of Saraya al-Khorasani. "People looked
at him as magical."
In a video posted online by the Khorasani group soon
after Taghavi's death, the Iranian general squats on
the battlefield, giving orders as bullets snap
overhead. Around him, young Iraqi fighters with AK-47s
press themselves tightly against the ground. The
general wears rumpled fatigues and has a calm,
grandfatherly demeanour. Later in the video, he
rallies his fighters, encouraging them to run forward
to attack positions.
Within two days of Mosul's fall on June 10 last year,
Taghavi, a member of Iran's minority Arab population,
travelled to Iraq with members of Iran's regular
military and the Revolutionary Guard. Soon, he was
helping map out a way to outflank Islamic State
outside Balad, 50 miles (80 km) north of Baghdad.
Taghavi's time with Saraya al-Khorasani proved a boon
for the group. Its numbers swelled from 1,500 to
3,000. It now boasts artillery, heavy machine guns,
and 23 military Humvees, many of them captured from
Islamic State.
"Of course, they are good," Yasiri said with a grin.
"They are American made."
In November, Taghavi was back in Iraq for a Shi'ite
militia offensive near the Iranian border. Yasiri said
Taghavi formulated a plan to "encircle and besiege"
Islamic State in the towns of Jalawala and Saadiya.
After success with that, he began to plot the next
battle. Yasiri urged him to be more cautious, but
Taghavi was killed by a sniper in December.
At Taghavi's funeral, the head of Iran's Supreme
National Security Council, Ali Shamkhani, eulogised
the slain commander. He was, said Shamkhani, one of
those Iranians in Iraq "defending Samarra and giving
their blood so we don't have to give our blood in
Tehran." Both Soleimani and the Badr Organisation's
Amiri were among the mourners.
A new Iraqi
soul
Saraya al-Khorasani's headquarters sit in eastern
Baghdad, inside an exclusive government complex that
houses ministers and members of parliament. Giant
pictures of Taghavi and other slain al-Khorasani
fighters hang from the exterior walls of the group's
villa.
Commander Yasiri walks with a cane after he was
wounded in his left leg during a battle in eastern
Diyala in November. On his desk sits a small framed
drawing of Iran's Khamenei.
He describes Saraya al-Khorasani, along with Badr and
several other groups, as "the soul" of Iraq's Hashid
Shaabi committee.
Not everyone agrees. A senior Shi'ite official in the
Iraqi government took a more critical view, saying
Saraya al-Khorasani and the other militias were tools
of Tehran. "They are an Iranian-made group that was
established by Taghavi. Because of their close ties
with Iranians for weapons and ammunition, they are so
effective," the official said.
Asarsad, the senior Kurdish official, predicts Iraq's
Shi'ite militias will evolve into a permanent force
that resembles the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. That
sectarian force, he believes, will one day operate in
tandem with Iraq's regular military.
"There will be two armies in Iraq," he said.
That could have big implications for the country's
future. Human rights groups have accused the Shi'ite
militias of displacing and killing Sunnis in areas
they liberate — a charge the paramilitary commanders
vigorously deny. The militias blame any excesses on
locals and accuse Sunni politicians of spreading
rumours to sully the name of Hashid Shaabi.
The senior Shi'ite official critical of Saraya al-Khorasani
said the militia groups, which have the freedom to
operate without directly consulting the army or the
prime minister, could yet undermine Iraq's stability.
The official described Badr as by far the most
powerful force in the country, even stronger than
Prime Minister Abadi.
Amiri, the Badr leader, rejected such claims. He said
he presents his military plans directly to Abadi for
approval.
His deputy Kadhimi was in no doubt, though, that the
Hashid Shaabi was more powerful than the Iraqi
military.
"A Hashid Shaabi (soldier) sees his commander ... or
Haji Hadi Amiri or Haji Mohandis or even Haji Qassem
Soleimani in the battle, eating with them, sitting
with them on the ground, joking with them. This is why
they are ready to fight," said Kadhimi. "This is why
it is an invincible force."
The Celebration Of
Omar Al-Faruq's Death During The "Unity Week" In Iran!
We were literally the first English platform on the
Internet to write in-depth about one of the most
perverted and bizarre practices that you won't find in
any other ideaolgoy, let alone religion.
Omar Koshan - The celebration of Omar's (RA) death - A
Shia Majoosi fetish
Verily, they ARE Majoos & enemies of Islam: Eid Ghadir,
Nowrooz and Omar's death, the Rafidhite holidays!
"Omar Koshan", an ancient practice rooting in
post-Islamic Majoosi (Zoroastrian) grudge (although
given an "Islamic" to cover it up). A nonsensical and
pathetic Safavid (one of many) Bid'ah against the
carriers of Islam, the companions of the Prophet
Muhammad (صل الله عليه و سلم), in particular Omar Ibn
Al-Khattab (رضي الله عنه), the one who broke the ribs
of the forefathers of the Rafidah (Twelver Shias).
Common in these practices is to wear black, express
joy and to use the most vulgare language possible. It
is also common to represent Omar as an homosexual or
effeminate man man like in the following clip here
that has leaked years ago where in a Shia Rafidi
gathering (one of their self-flagellation temples also
known as "Husseiniyyah") a bunch of "men' clapped and
chanted "Barikallah Abo Lo' Lo' (which translates as:
Well done, Abo Lo'lo) encouraged a pathetic Rafidi
version of an transexual with beard and boobs
(representing Omar). The Rafidi Shia "scholar" is
enjoying the dance and show too and even gives the
dancer a slap on his bum:
(In our search we found out that many non-Muslim,
extremist secular, and Islam hating Iranians are
amongst the top to spread this video on the net,
followed by Shias who join the Majoosi carneval by
cursing and sending blessings on the Majoosi murderer
of Omar Al-Farooq)
As for profanity then for the sake of exposing these
perverted polytheists, we are sharing this video. A
bunch of Shia scholars gathered to celebrate Omar's
death, the main line goes like:
"O caliph with the wide A** … I myself will come and
f*** you … your a** is my slave … whoever does not
curse Omar, then may Omar enter his a** … I myself
will come and f***you [O Omar] … I haven't put it [my
private part] all through [your ass] yet you [Omar]
are out of breath … "
We have backed our articles with evidencse from Shia
Twelver books, including Fatwas top scholars of their
school, not just deceased ones, but rather
contemporary ones. That alone should be enough for the
open minded and truthful and unbiased researcher to
understand how little it means when the Iranian regime
(or its adherents) point out that in public (note how
they always point out the public part …) such rituals
and celebrations have been prohibited by the Iranian
authorities. It is also often pointed out (with no
evidence whatsoever) that it was Khomeini himself
whobanned this practice in public. Well, for the sake
of argument, let's say these (apologetic)
justifications that are trying to hide an ancient Shia
practice are all true. What else should the Iranian
regime and Khomeini have done in the Muslim world
where their religious school represents not more than
10-15% (at best, since Twelver Shias always includw
all sorts of sub-Shia sects into their statistics who
are extreme heretics at best to them), yet Khomeini
tried to establish himself as the spritual leader of
the whole Islamic world and Iran as the role-model of
an state? Remember, the hypocrite Khomeini is the same
heretic who (supposedly) openly uttered sweet
statements like the following one (as can be found on
Rafidi websites of deception and the other farce they
call "Khomeini" conferences, which are being hold each
year all around the world by his deluded followers) :
The public prohibition was just a political step (like
Khomeini's statement above to lure in Sunnis), a much
needed necessary move to fool the masses, literally
billions of Sunnis who (even the most tolerant one
towards the Shias and Iran) would have rejected Iran
and Shiism in its totality, putting all theefforts (of
infiltrating and eventually converting Sunni
communities) of the Mullahs of Qom and the rulers in
Tehran in vain from the very beginning of the
revolution. But praised be to Allah, despite all their
taqiyya (dissimulation) their real faced has been
eventually exposed by their own hands as "Ayatullah"
Rafsanjani himself admitted that practices such as
cursing the Prophet's wives and also celebrating
Omar's demise ("Omar Koshan") eventually all leaked to
the Muslim world.
Yet his books were filled with heresies, including
verdicts where he deemed a number of the Prophet's
companions (all revered by Sunni), including the
Prophet's wive as filthier than a pig and dog. Soon it
wasn't a secret to many (at least those who
investigated and did their research instead of falling
for Iran's propaganda and worthless slogans) what the
real beliefs of the Rafidah Twelver Shia, their clergy
and the Shia Safavid regime are. The Iranian Rafidi
Savavid regime - being very well aware of the fact
that the masses don't research (let alone in the 80's
or beginning of the 90's were the Internet was either
absent or just born for the masses, with little access
to Shiite literature, let alone speeches and videos) -
knew very well that empty slogans (like the
aforementioned one by Khomeini) will do the job for
them. The masses eventually fell for their lies and
some were as deluded as to believe that Iran is a
well-wisher of the Muslim world, an advocater of
Sunni-Shia brotherhood and other hoaxes that couldn't
be further from the truth (thanks to Allah, over
thirty years after the revolution in Iran, the Iranian
regime and its heretical sect is more hated in the
Islamic world than ever before. Not even the Shah
could have bad named Shiism with his alliance with
Israel than the Mullahs of Tehran and Qom did. That's
not what we saying, that's what their own people
basically admitted).
Nevertheless, it was and is still the strategy of the
Rafidi Safavid regime to simply deny uncomfortable
truths of their state religion (Shiism) including
statements of their top scholars (including the father
of the state i.e. Khomeini the spirit of Satan) and
simply claim one thing in public, like Sunni-Shia
"unity", all in order to appease the Muslim masses
(which is the Sunni world) for the regime's agenda
which is mainly based on infiltrating and converting
the Sunni world. Of course you can't do that by
celebrating revered Sunni figures in public, this is
what even the Iranian regime knew in its early stage,
hence they only prohibited it (Omar Koshan) to be
celebrated in public, but they never outlawed this
perverted and sick practice from their belief system,
and hence it was and is still practiced as an ancient
Shiite ritual in private gathering, "Mosques" and
lately even in public, during the so-called "unity
week between Sunnis and Shias"!
Yes, in public. And this is what this article is all
about. By the grace of Allah nobody can expose the
Iranian regime and the Shia clergy better than them
lot themselves. They are literally illustrating what
we (and many Arab and Persian Sunni activists before
us ) have tried to convey to the Muslim masses in
English language to the best of our abilities, namely
the true ugly face of Twelver Shiism and the Neo-Safavid
regime of Iran. Literally on the Friday during the
"Unity week between Shias and Sunnis" in Iran and the
so called "Islamic unity conference", a group of Shia
Iranians (some more open elements within them who
apparently having a hard time to suppress their own
Anti-Sunni beliefs under the excuse of Taqiyyah),
dressed in symbolic red and holding placards 'cursing'
Sunni Muslims, held a rally insulting Sunni beliefs in
the city of Qom in Iran last week.
The group, who also chanted slogans insultingthe
Prophet's companions, marched towards the 'Fatimah
Masumeh Shrine' in Qom on 2 January 2015, on the very
Friday where the Sunni of Tehran were banned from
holding their Friday prayers!
The rally was held to mark the Shia Rafidi festival of
"Eid Al-Zahra" (or also known as "Farhat Al-Zahra and
"Omar Koshan" in Farsi), during which Rafidi Shias
celebrate the assassination of the second Caliph of
Islam, Omar Ibn Al-Khattab. Shoutings could be heard
in Farsi such as:
مرگ بر عمر! ولعنت ….
مرگ بر سنی !و …..
"Death to Omar! Curses be upon Omar …"
"Death to Sunnis! Curses be upon Sunnis …"
The festival, which in Iran is usually referred to as
"Omar Koshan" [killing of Omar], is held yearly on the
9th day of the Islamic month Rabi al Awwal. It is
noteworthy that without the permission and knowledge
of the Iranian authorities, it is literally impossible
to gather hundreds on the streets participating in an
illegal ritual without being cracked down like in the
past. It seems the Iranian regime and the Shia clergy
are opening up more and more, trying to show some
muscles, appeasing the those elements amongst them who
are tired to hide their beliefs for the failed myth of
"Sunni-Shia unity", realising that hiding their real
beliefs doesn't make much sense in the age of social
media.
It seems that they are simply stupid and bloodthirsty,
risking a civil war were the Sunnis of the country
number millions who populate sensitive border regions
of the country, woe if they dare to bring these
clownish festivals to the Sunni regions of Iran, if
they do so then there is no doubt that they want to
provoke and finish the job of their Safavid
forefathers i.e. to make Iran completely Shiite. A
taks that they have never finished and never will
finish, by the will of Allah, no matter how much the
likes of Khamenei, the Kisra of Iran try to lie to
achieve their goals.
Sons Of Sunnah in Iran
Sudan Expels Iranian
Safawi Shia Diplomates And Closes Their Centres
"Kalameh TV" (Sunni Persian channel operating outside
Iran of course since Sunnis are not even allowed to
run a magazine in Iran, let alone a radio station or a
TV channel, despite representing the LARGEST religious
minority in Iran) reports that Sudan is closing EVERY
SINGLE Iranian culture centre (secret service branches
of Iran that cause nothing but havoc in Muslim
countries, aiming to convert as much as innocent and
ignorant Sunnis, just like Evangelists) - their
clerics (yes, Khartoum was filled with Iranian and
Lebanese clerics operating freely spreading their
shirk and kufr!) and all other officials must leave
the country within 72 hours, Alhamdulillah.
Sons Of Sunnah message to all justice loving people
(Muslim/Sunni/Shia non Muslim, everyone):
As Sunni Iranian we have no rights whatsoever in
almost every majority Shia city to have a Mosque (only
in our provinces), not even a bookshop (let alone a
centre). We remind you that Tehran, the capital and
fortress of neo-Safavid Republic of Iran and it's
hypocrite mass murdering leader Ali Khamenei (who are
allied with bathist Sunni killers in Syria, yet still
insist on fooling the gullible Sunni masses with empty
slogans such as "Shia-Sunni unity") is the only
capital in the world where Sunnis are not allowed to
worship in their own Mosques according to their own
rites, we have covered this issue in detail (including
the lie that there are seven Sunni mosques in Tehran):
Now the audacity of the secterian Shia Rafidi regime
of Iran is unbelievable. Whereas Sunni Iranians
themselves have no right whatsoever to propagate Sunni
Islam in Shia areas (what is the regime scared of …?),
let alone foreigners, yet the Iranian regime insists
on propagating Twelverism (Rafidi Shiism) in
environments that are purely Sunni (i.e. like almost
every Islamic corner in the world, Shiism has no
modern day presence, except where his stooges
operate). Why shall any Islamic community and country
except that? Forget about the so called evil "Wahhabis",
but what about Al-Azhar and other Sunni institutes,
are they allowed to represent Sunnis to Iranian Shias
in majority Shia cities (many of them have no clue
about Sunnism except what the hateful Shia clergy has
taught them)? No they are not of course, neither Al-Azhar
nor any Sunni institute is allowed to operate in Shia
areas of Iran, under no circumstances (the only thing
the regime does is to invite Sunnis from all over the
world - gullible ones - to various occasions in order
to portray themselves as unity loving Sunni friends
i.e. they misuse Sunnis who are ignorant about the
crimes of the neo-Safavid regime and it's heretical
reality for their own agenda) whatsover, so why shall
Islamic countries allow a biased and hateful Rafidi
regime to operate in their countries? Under what
basis? Is this the justice the Shias always brag about
(the irony …)?
As Sunni Iranians we say: Well done Sudan (and well
done Malaysia) and every other Islamic country who is
waking up and being aware of the danger of the Rafidi
regime (and no, the danger is not the "truth" that is
with Shia Iran, no normal person is scared of their
false and polytheistic religion, what is dangerous is
that they use their Safawi-petro-Rials convert poor
people and heretics in the midst of the Sunnis, and of
course the havoc the Iranian Shia regime causes from
San'aa to Dimashq, all the way to Malaysia where they
had the audacity to build a HAWZA i.e. massive Shia
learning centre in one of the biggest Sunni capitals
of the world, yet Sunni Iranians who are the LARGEST
religious minority in Iran (numbering millions),
native Iranians, are not allowed to have a single
bookshop in Tehran let alone a religious centre!
UPDATE:
Since the beginning of the eightees the Rafidi Safawi
regime was allowed to freely operate in Sudan, yet
Sunnis in Tehran, Isfahan (neither native Iranian
Sunnis nor institutes from abroad) are allowed to run
a SINGLE Sunni centre in major Shia cities! This is
the justice (and fear) of the Rafidah! Here a nice
piece for everyone who understands Arabic (wallah I
love the Sudani accent), a Sudani brother exposing the
Rafidah Majoos in the Khartoum university (listen to
it the part I linked is in English!)
Yet Sudani news sources (not BBC or CNN) claim
otherwise:
Iranian Shia website confirms the news (can the
Rafidah at least unite on one narrative?):
More Sudani sources (although not state ones) confirm
the narrative that all Rafidi centres of Shirk are
going to be closed:
http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article52273
Quote
Sudan's foreign minister, Ali Karti, told the
London-based Asharq al-Awsat newspaper on Wednesday
that the Sudanese presidencyhad rejected a request
from Iran to reverse its decision to close the centre.
"We have been closely monitoring the activities of the
center in Khartoum to verify that it is committed to
cultural activities rather than seeking to make
Shiite, sectarian gains that are alien to Sudanese
society", he said.
Karti said that the Sudanese authorities urged Tehran
to stop what he described as "Shiite proselytizing"
but that the cultural center had refused to comply.
"Unfortunately, the Iranians behind these exploitative
activities were trying to spread Shi'ism by offering
financial gains as well as other unacceptable means,"
he said.
He noted that the foreign ministry had summoned the
center's leadership on several occasions in the past
to complain about its activities, adding that the
cultural center's continued non-compliance prompted
the presidency to issue the "necessary decision, which
came as a surprise to the officials in Tehran".
The Sudanese top diplomat further said that activities
organized by the center in poor neighborhoods and
university campuses across Sudan "confirmed to us
beyond any doubt the center has deviated from its
agreed-upon cultural role."
The Bani Mut3a are at it again! Similar (but worse)
than the Evangelist they lure people into their pagan
sect with money and sex (Mut'a).
More Sudani sources (note: alrokaba is a SUDANI
newspaper based INSIDE Sudan):
The Islamic Fiqh Academy of Sudan supports the closure
of Iranian (Rafidi) centres in Sudan and called it a
BLESSED step.
Sons Of Sunnah in
Iran
Behind The Scenes Of
The 'Islamic Unity Conference' (Farce) Of The
Rafidi-Safavid Regime
The 28th Islamic Unity Conference was held in Iran's
Capital City of Tehran. The so called Shia-Sunni
'unity-week' began this year on Monday 5 January. The
audacity and hypocrisy the Iranian Zion-Safavid regime
and the Rafidi clergy has reached new hights. Those
familiar with the struggle of the Sunnis of Iran know
some shocking facts about the 'Islamic Republic',
including the following things that you will never
find (or hear) in the capital of the 'Islamic
Republic' that is (no jokes) as per constitution the
property of 'Imam Al-Zaman' (Shia Mahdi):
- Five Adhans a day (Shia combine the 5 prayers, on a
daily basis which can be argued as valid practiced
under certain conditions, as Sunnis also combine
prayers. However, the Sunnah of the Prophet that was
followed by his family and companions always was that
it is better to pray all prayers at five different
times a day, yet in Tehran even the Mosques and
religious people combine their prayers, hence it is
the only 'Muslim' capital in the world where you will
hear only three Adhans a day. Yet this regime and the
Shia clergy claim to follow the "true" Sunnah!
- Sunni run Mosques. You will never find a single
Sunni Mosque in Tehran (although there are Shia
Mosques+Husseiniyyats+grave yard and actually a whole
neighbourhood (run by the Saudi Shia Rafidi Nakhawilah
tribe, type: نخاولة المدينة to see their public
mass-self-flagellation gatherings, even in public!) of
Shias in Madinah city, a 99% Sunni city!), despite the
fact that there are over 40 Churches (with massive
crosses and other signs of kufr), Synagogues
(including Jewish schools and even a Jewish run
hospital!) and even a Sikh Temple in Tehran. Yet
Sunnis are prevented to run a single Mosque according
to their traditions and schools of thought. What does
this tell you when even the capitol of the English,
the French, the American, even Jewish cities like
Haifa allow Sunnis (and Shias) to run their own
Mosques, yet Tehran is scared of Sunnis having a
single Sunni Mosque in the capital of Iran where
Sunnis (like in all of Iran) make up the largest
minority?!
What we mean with irony is that the despotic Iranian
regime (and even its popular minions such as the
'Hezbollah' of Lebanon) that has lost all credibility
and popularity in the Islamic world (due to the
endangered survival of the evil mass-murdering Arab
Bathist and secularist Assad regime in Syria) has yet
again prevented the Sunnis of Tehran from holding
friday prayers. Those who know about the struggle of
Sunnis in Iran may ask that what's new about this
news? After all it's a tradition of the hypocritical
Iranian regime to claim Sunni-Shia 'unity' at the one
hand and on the other hand practice Sunni oppression,
there are countless cases in Tehran alone, here to
refresh our minds about the reality of this evil
Rafidi Safavid regime:
The harassment against the Sunni community of Tehran -
NO SUNNI MOSQUES AND ON GOING RAIDS
Well, the difference this time is that the Iranian
regime prevented Sunnis from holding their Friday
prayers in one of their rented houses (yes, these are
the places that insincere Iranian media outlets and
their stooges in the west sell as 'Sunni Mosques of
Tehran'!) during the The 28th Islamic Unity Conference
that was held in Iran's Capital City of Tehran. Of
course everyone knows this conference is a farce, even
the likes of 'Ayatullah' Rafsanjani said that these
conferences didn't bring any positive results and that
it is actually the Iranian regime, based on the
minority secterian Shia beliefs that is the root cause
of all secterianism.
Despite all of these admission and realities, the
farce goes on and on. Some might remember these
pictures from previous 'unity' conferences where the
'participants' were famously caught in a sleeping
mode, rather than unity mood, right during the
conference:
Since almost three decades Iran has managed to fool
(and often buy) or to force (the Sunni scholars of
Iran themselves who will likely face problems if they
do not attend the conference) and exploit these
conferences for their very own agenda which is to show
publically that they are the wellwishers of all
Muslims, Sunnis and Shias alike and that Sunni
Iranians are living in a heaven of peace and harmony
with a leader such as the Pharao and Kisra at the same
time named Khamenei who (as a controversial scholars
of a minority sect within Islam) portrays himself
somehow as the Imam of the Muslim Ummah. Here take a
look at the 'Sunni' scholars who are eager to run to
Tehran (for whatever reason, their tickets are
definately for free …) and kiss Khamenei the tyrant
(you can find all these photos on the net on official
websites of the Iranian regime like the ABNA website).
It should be no secret to every honest observer and
researcher that this whole 'unity week' and 'unity
conference' farce is nothing but a tool that the
Iranian regime exploits to discract from its very
crimes against Sunnis around the world. This is how
propaganda after all works. They will show you these
pictures and remind you how nice Iran treats Sunni
Muslims and how 'Sunni' scholars flock to Iran. This
kind of propaganda works very will with the weak
minded and majority of people who do not bother to
research. Our very article hear will probably reach a
few thousand readers, whereas the propaganda of the
Iranian regime reaches millions. But the oppressors
and deceivers should be remembered of this verse:
"Nay, We hurl the Truth at falsehood so that it (the
Truth) crushes it (falsehood), and lo! it (falsehood)
vanishes. Woe to you for what you utter!" (21: 18)
It is obvious that Iran needs these kind of
conferences for their very own propaganda, and a big
part of this propaganda is to 'invite' as many Sunni
Iranian leaders as possible, after all shooting
pictures with them, smiling etc. will tell the
gullible how much of a harmony between the Shia and
the Sunnah and how comfortable Sunnis of Iran live and
that anything contrary to this (Rafidi Safavid fable)
must be 'Wahhabi-Saudi-Israeli-American-English-boogeyman-
propaganda. Here some pictures from this years
conference, all of these Sunnis are Iranians, mostly
Baluchis and Persian Khorassanis (yes, Iranian
Khorassan, even Mashad has a Persian Sunni minority):
Just a quick reminder, Shaykh Abdul-Hamid is the very
Iranian Sunni Shaykh who openly risks his life (like
being involved in an fatal 'accident'. This is how
many outspoken Iranians Sunnis pass away and this is
how tyrannical regimes assassin their opponents) by
publically complaining about the oppression Sunni
Iranians face, not just in Shia majority cities, but
even in their own Sunni majority provinces and cities!
So what happened at the conference despite of the
boring speeches full of hypocrisy by the like of
Khamenei who in public call to Shia-Sunni 'unity' but
in rather more private gathering enjoy non-Shias being
slandered as people who will not benefit of any of
their daily prayers:
Well, after the pictures where taken and Iran and its
stooges in the west (such as PRESS TV) made them viral
for their propaganda, the Sunnis of Tehran invited
Shaykh Abdul-Hamid to lead the Friday prayer in one of
the rented houses (remember, no Sunni Mosques in the
captial of the 'Islamic Republic'!) in Tehran in the
Pounak neighborhood.
Iranian security forces barred Sunni worshipers from
entering a Sunni prayer site in Tehran on Friday 9
January 2015, preventing them from holding
congregational Friday prayers.
The irony here is that this carefully-planned
operation appears to have been deliberately scheduled
to take place on the final day of the so called Shia-Sunni
'unity-week', which began this year on Monday 5
January.
The Iranian regime claims the 'unity-week' is evidence
that they are not hostile to Sunni Muslims and claims
that it proves they regard Sunni Muslims as equal to
the Shia.
The actions of the authorities today, however, sent a
clear message to the Sunnis of Tehran that the
'unity-week' is nothing more than an empty slogan,
actions speak louder than words but the majority will
be fooled by words and propaganda of the Iranian
regime, this is the sad reality of the Muslim Ummah
today.
Despite Sunnis being the largest religious minority in
the Shia majority Iran, with records indicating that
there are more than a million Sunnis living in Tehran
alone (as confirmed by Iranian officials themselves),
the Iranian government has prevented a Sunni mosque
from being built in Tehran.
The Sunni citizens of Tehran are instead forced to use
rented rooms and spaces as 'namaz khaneh' (prayer
rooms) to hold obligatory Sunni congregational
prayers, with restrictions forcing some to organize
Sunni prayers in their own homes and private spaces.
These prayer sites regularly come under attack from
the authorities preventing Sunni Muslims from using
them, causing Human Rights Watch (HRW) to issue a
statement urging Iran to 'lift restrictions on Sunni
worship'.
The only question here is will the Muslims, the Ahl
Al-Sunnah who are not a sect but the Ummah will
finally wake up, even the last one amongst us who
feels an atom of sympathy to this heretical Anti-Sunni
regime that has caused nothing but havoc and chaos and
oppression to the Muslim world, rather even to its
very own people?
Sons Of Sunnah in Iran
Verily, They ARE
Majoos & Enemies Of Islam: Eid Ghadir, Nowrooz and
Omar's Death, The Rafidhite Holidays!
[…] یوم غدیر خم افضل اعیاد امتی.
امالی صدوق: 125، ح 8.
The day/'Eid of Ghadir is the MOST SUPERIOR of all
Eids of the Ummah […]
(Amali Sadooq, Vol 8 , p)
2. عن الصادق علیهالسلام قال: هو عید الله الاکبر،و ما
بعث الله نبیا الا و تعید فی هذا الیوم و عرف حرمته و
اسمه فی السماء یوم العهد المعهود و فی الارض یوم
المیثاق الماخوذ و الجمع المشهود. وسائل الشیعه، 5: 224،
ح
On the authority of Al-Sadiq (peace be upon him) who
said …
['Eid Al-Ghadir] is the GREATEST 'EID OF ALLAH ('Eidallah
Al-Akbar!). Allah did not sent any of the Prophets
except that they CELEBRATED on that day and
acknowledged the greatness of this day and the name of
it has been mentioned in the heavens and earth. (Wasa'el
Al-Shi'a, Vol 1 p 224
more pagan narrations ATTRIBUTED to the Ahl Al-Bayt:
Imam Ja'far as-Sadiq (a) was asked if there was Eid
for Muslims besides Friday, Adha and Fitr. Imam
replied, "Yes, there is one more Eid which is most
great in holiness (a'dhamuha hurmatan)." The person
asked him which Eid that was. Imam said: "It is the
day (i.e. Ghadir) when the Messenger of Allah declared
the Chief of the Believers (Ali) his vicegerent,
saying: "Of whosoever I am the Mawlaa, 'Ali is also
his Mawlaa. And it is the 18th of Dhil-hijjah."
As for one of the biggest Rafidite Shi'ite lies in
history namely that the Messenger of Allah Muhammad
(peace be upon him) declared Ali Ibn Abi Talib his
vicegerency at Ghadir Khum on his return from his last
pilgrimage, then this is nothing but a lie. NONE of
the companions of the Messenger and even NON of the
Bani Hashim understood Ghadir Khum as the declaration
of Ali's Khilafah, not even Ali himself who NEVER (not
in a SINGLE authentic narration) used to argue for the
sake of his "divine Imamate" with Ghadir. To
understand the Rafidite deception and the SIMPLE TRUTH
about Ghadir, read the following article >>>.
The Rafidite regime and the Rafidite religion prefers
the day of Ghadir over the greatest 'Eid of the
Muslims which is 'Eid Al-Fitr. Right, they (as usual)
have gone into extremes with Ali and his progeny and
NOT with the Messenger (both is wrong, but their
extremes are not even with the personality of the
Prophet!) and thus the y regard the (so called) day of
the declaration of Ali's Imamate SUPERIOR than 'Eid
Al-Fitr.
Here some news from one of the biggest Shia news
websites on the net, namely Shia-News.com (Iranian
based). It reports how several grand "Ayatollahs" were
enraged when they heard of the news that the Iranian
gov. wants to extent the holiday of 'Eid Al-Fitr
(which is just 2 days off in the so called 'Islamic
Republic of Iran'). They demanded that Eid Al-Ghadir
must be superior even when it comes to the celebration
even when it come to the days off for the holidays.
Shia -News.com reports: "Ayatollah" Makaarem Shirazi
on his TV show advised the gov. to reduce the days off
in the country. He mentioned this after the Iranian
gov. increased the days off for 'Eid of Fitr from one
to two days.
COMMENT:
Before it was ONE day of in Iran only, yet NOWROOZ the
ZOROASTRIAN 'EID is worth TWO weeks off for the
Rafidite regime. What about if Mr. Shirazi would have
asked for a reduction of all those days and weeks of
for the death of countless Imams (including Khomeini!)
or a reduction of TWO weeks (actually more it's
THIRTEEN days) of the Zoroastrian based holiday!
Instead he goes and attacks the TWO days for 'Eid Al-Fitr!
But it even gets worse, even the Zoroastrian 'Eid of
Nowrooz has more significance to them than 'Eid Al-Fitr,
we have discussed it here >>>.
Certainly these pagans of Qom have changed the
religion of Islam to some Sassanian Madhab of Yazgerd
just like Ghulam Ahmad has changed HIS version of
Islam to some Asian version. There is only one Islam,
neither Arabic, Persian nor Asian it is the pure and
orthodox Islam of the Ahl Al-Sunnah.
BTW: They have innovated so many 'Eids to Islam, they
even got the "SECOND 'EID Al-GHADIR" which is the day
the Zoroastrian Abu Lo'lo'a had killed the Caliph of
the Muslims Omar Ibn Al-Khattab.
They have even ascribed Nowrooz to the Mahdi!!!
TRANSLATION:
'Al-Mu'alla narrates from Imam Al-Sadiq : "Nowrooz is
no other day but the one we [the Ahl Al-Bayt] are
awaiting the reappearance [of Al-Mahdi], for it is one
of our days that was protected by the Persians and
carelessly lost by you." ('Al-Du'a' li Al-Imam Al-Zaman',
p. 94)
So the Sahaba, their students and their students (i.e.
Salaf Al-Saleh) have missed to 'protect' the holy (!)
day of Nowrooz, but the Persians managed to protect
this so called holy day. Look at their audacity! How
dare they ascribe a Zoroastrian holiday to Islam and
the Ahl Al-Bayt! Not even the most wicked Islamic has
ever dared to ascribe any pre-Islamic pagan Arabic
holiday (there were some) to Islam!
This is how portray the Ahl Al-Bayt i.e. Imam Al-Sadiq
in the Hadith above! He literally blames the Arabs for
having forgotten the Majoosi holiday of Nowrooz! A
holiday that was never sanctified in Islam! Look how
much Sassanian-Pre-Islamic-Persian customs have
infiltrated Shiism, then they wonder why they are
being called Majoos!
TRANSLATION:
[Narration attributed to Imam Al-Sadiq who is free of
Majoosite Rafidhism]: 'The day of Nowrooz is the day
when our Qa'im of Ahl Al-Bayt (Mahdi) and the
commanders [of his army] will rise. On that day Allah
will make the Dajjaal appear and he will be crucified
on the church of Kufa (Iraq)'. (Bihar Al-Anwar by
Mulla Baqir Al-Majlisi, vol. 52, p. 308)
Kufa? Crucifiction? NOWROOZ?! We all know that JESUS
(peace be upon him) will kill the Dajjaal, not on the
holy day of Shiism though, which is NOWROOZ!
All this Majoosiyyah (Zoroastrianism) is so deeply
rooted in their sect that they even celebrate Nowrooz
in the shrine (waste of gold and other wealth of
gullible Shias) of Al-Hussein in Karbala!
In this video you can see Iranian pilgrims in Iraq (whichis
basically occupied by Iran with the help of the
Americans and Iraqi Shia puppets) celebrating NOWROOZ
in next to the shrine of Al-Hussein Ibn Ali in Karbala'.
That's what these heretics call 'the Islam of the Ahl
Al-Bayt, the true followers of the Sunnah'!
Now if you think that these are maybe some traditional
Iranian Shiites who have mixed up their religion (to
them Islam) with their cultural traditions the let us
dissapoint you. Although it is true that many Arab
Shias don't celebrate Nowrooz, yet the reality of the
Shia sect is that this Persian Majoosi holiday is a
PRAISED and ESSENTIAL part of their religion, to such
a degree that a number of Hadith in PRAISE of Nowrooz
have been ascribed to the Ahl Al-Bayt and even
preferred deeds that one should do on that day!
As for the death of the Chief of the Believers Omar
Ibn Al-Khattab, then this to is an Eid according to
Shiism!
Sons Of Sunnah in Iran
The Military
Interefence Of Iran In Syria - A Chronicle Of Rafidi
Deceptions And Lies
Syrian oppositional groups have repeated for a long
time that Iran is actively suppressing the Syrians and
their revolution by siding with the Pharao and Yazid
of our time, Bashar Al-Assad, the Alawite, secular and
Bathist tyrant. Not just ideological and logistical
aid but rather military aid, Iranian troops actively
fighting the Syrian resistance. All these reports by
the Syrian oppositional groups were dismissed by Iran,
its stooges and cheerleaders after a number of
embarrassing blunders on the Iranian side and
victories on the side of the resistance fighters who
managed to capture video material of known Iranian
Revolutionary Guards who activerly operate in Syria.
This exporsure led finally to the addmission of Hassan
Nasralla(t)'s that the Hezbolla(t) are actively
operating in Syria to defend Shia places of polytheism
(shrines), particularly the shrine of lady Zaynab in
Damascus. In this article we'd like to show in
chronological order of how deceptive the Rafidi regime
of Iran is, the very same regime that tried hard (to
save its face as long as possible) dismiss ANY (let
alone military) involvement in Syria. You will be
shocked of how blatantly Iranian officials lie,
whether Revolutionary Guards or the unholy 'Aytollahs'.
The Syrian revolution is an on-going one, so are the
Rafidi regimes blatant and shameless lies in regards
to its military interventions and activities in Syria.
Let us start by going a bit back in the past, the year
2012, where whining and wailing Revolutionary Guards
were caught in Syria. This is where Iran's highest
ranking officials, including revolutionary guards and
clerics started to deny the interference of Iranian
troops in Syria. The sheer hypocrisy is that these
very same Rafidite Safavid Takfiris, the enemies of
the Prophet's companions and wives, have the audacity
to others as 'Takfiri groups' and the likes of Saudi
Arabia, Qatar etc. as supporters of the alleged 'Takfiris'
who make up lies against Iran (i.e. that Iran is
military wise involved in Syria).
Iran's lie #1
Iran Denies Syria Captives Are Revolutionary Guards,
THE PILGRIM'S TALE
On 06/08/2012, pro-Iranian, Russian sources reported
that the Iranian foreign ministry denied on Monday
that the 48 Iranians kidnapped in Syria on Saturday
were members of the elite Iranian Revolutionary
Guards.
"We strongly deny the information disseminated by
certain media that our kidnapped pilgrims are members
of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. All of them
are pilgrims who came to Damascus to visit its
shrines," Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir
Abdollahian said.
So these man that were captured by the FSA were only
average Iranian 'pilgrims' (to shrines, as it's common
in the polytheistic religion of the Twelver Rafidah
Shia) the Iranian regime claimed. A likely story!
Since the stupidity of this narrative was just too
obvious (literally all of these captured men had
Revolutionary Guard Identity Cards!), the Iranian
hypocrite regime started to change the narrative. The
mess was done though, they even made themselves look
more ridicolous as they already were. Only two days
after the report about the captured Revolutionary
Guards, precisely 08/08/2012 the very same Russian and
pro-Iranian news agency (and of course all Iranian
news agencies too) reported that the captures
'tourists and pilgrims' where in fact RETIRED
Revolutionary Guards. How sweet indeed!
Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi denied they had any
military role at present and reiterated that
pilgrimage to Damascus shrines was the only purpose of
their journey.
"Some of those pilgrims used to be Revolutionary
Guards members, some of them are retired servicemen,"
the minister said.
Aren't they smart the Safavids?! Masters in inventing
lies and ridicolous narratives, first they say they
were pilgrims, then they had to change the narrative
to 'retired Revolutionary Guards' pilgrims. Yeah, it
must be absolutely common to visit a shrine in a
country were a civil war is going on (a bunch of men
only, not a single women or child), as a bunch of
'retired Revolutionary Guards. The plain truth is,
Digarban, a website that monitors the country's
conservatives and their online activities, reported
that at least seven guards commanders were among the
released prisoners. "Abedin Khoram, the [current]
commander of the Revolutionary Guards' division in
Orumieh … is among those released who have returned to
Iran," it reported. Not to mention that these 48
'pilgrims' were traded for 2100 Syrian prisoners!
Iran's lie #2
Contradictions over Contradiction, admission, then
denial
As a matter of fact some Iranian sources (even before
the even of the captured 'retired Revolutionary
Guards' confirmed Iran's MILITARY involvement in
Syria, but these were quickly removed and denied by
other Iranian sources. Contradictions after all, very
common when lying has become a habit.
THE GUARDIAN reported on Monday the 28 May of 2012 an
apparent slip-up and blunder of a senior commander in
Iran's Revolutionary Guards has admitted that Iranian
forces are operating in Syria in support of Bashar al-Assad's
regime. Ismail Gha'ani, the deputy head of Iran's Quds
forces (the external arm of the Revolutionary Guards),
tasked with overseas operations, said in an interview
with the semi-official Isna (The Iranian Student News
Agency) news agency: "If the Islamic republic was not
present in Syria, the massacre of people would have
happened on a much larger scale."Isna published the
interview at the weekend but subsequently removed it
from its website.
Admitting, then removing the report! In fact, it gets
worse, for high ranking Iranian officials later on
claimed that Iran has no military presence in Syria!
Iran's lie #3
The head of the Revolutionary Guards in Iran suddenly
claims Iran has no MILITARY presence in Syria!
Yes, you heard right, after 'retired Revolutionary
Guard pilgrims' tale, after the admission of the
deputy head of Iran's Quds force, suddenly the HEAD of
the Revolutionary Guards in September 2012 claimed
that Iran has no military presence in Syria! Some
members of Iran's elite Quds force were in Syria but
this does not constitute 'a military presence'
according to the notorious liars of the Rafidite
Safavid regime.
Army commander gives clear sign of Tehran's continuing
support for Assad's regime but denies troops signify
military presence.
In a clear public signal of Tehran's continuing
support for Assad, the commander of the Islamic
republic's elite military formation said that a number
of members of the IRGC's Qods force were in Syria,
though General Mohammad Ali Jafari gave no further
details and claimed this did not constitute "a
military presence".
It's worth mentioning that General Mohammad Ali Jafari
who by the way is THE IRGC Commander (commander of the
Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution of
Iran), is the same bluffer who became a laughing stock
after Iran expressed the hope that Syria will strike
back at Israel after the apparent Israeli raid on one
or two targets in Syria, presumed to be a
chemical/biological weapons plant and a shipment of
advanced anti-aircraft missiles. Middle East Online,
however, remembers that only weeks before Iran
declared that any Israeli strike on Syria will be
considered an attack against Iran and Iran would
retaliate. That statement, the latest of a long line
of similar declarations, was made by Ali Akbar
Velayati, assistant to the Supreme Leader Khamenei.
Iran went so for to claim that a Syrian response is
imminent, and 'will put Israel in a coma.' Tehran also
announced that thousands of Israelis are preparing to
leave the country in anticipation of the massive
Syrian response. Now did ANY of that happen? Did Iran
ACTIVELY fight Israel and retaliate?! Did a SINGLE
Israeli suffer since the Syrian revolution, either
from Iran or its proxies (the party of Satan in
Lebanon, Bashar etc.?) Of course not! Iran is busy
killing Muslims, Sunnis, particularly the Syrian ones
who oppose the Iranian slave Bashar.
Taghoot Khamenei with Mohammad Ali Jafari (left) and
Yahya Rahim Safavi (center), former commander of the
IRGC
Iran's lie #4
May 2013 and Iran still lies to the world
PRESS TV (Iranian mouthpiece in English language)
reported on May 25, 2013 that Iran denied any military
presence in Syria!
The Iranian ambassador to the United Nations has
dismissed claims about Iran's military presence in
Syria and the shipment of arms by the Islamic Republic
to the Arab country."Despite the unfounded
allegations, no Iranian military forces or advisors
are present in Syria, but, unfortunately, certain
regional countries are interfering in Syria's internal
affairs and fanning the flame of the conflict in the
country by sending arms to extremist and terrorist
groups," Mohammad Khazaei said.
Iran's lie #5
June 2013 and Iran still keeps lying …
On the 16/06/2013 a Russian pro-Iran news agency
reported how Iran was about to send a contingent of
Iranian Revolutionary Guards, precicely 4,000 troops
to Syria to aid the Kafir Bashar Assad's Alawite
forces to suppress the Syrian people and their
revolution. Two days later, on the 18/06/2013, the
very same Russian and pro-Iranian regime news agency
reported a denial, as usual the Iranian regime was
quick to deny the obvious and stated that 'Iran has no
plans to send troops to aid Syrian President Bashar
Assad's forces in the ongoing civil war there'.
Iran has no plans to send troops to aid Syrian
President Bashar Assad's forces in the ongoing civil
war there, an Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman said
on Tuesday, rejecting media reports claiming Tehran
was set to intervene directly in the fighting.
"We categorically deny this information," Seyed Abbas
Araqchi said, adding Tehran has never and would never
send its troops to Damascus. Syria's government forces
have all the necessary means to fight against
"terrorists acting in Syria," and "Iran has no need to
provide military aid to Syria's authorities," he said.
The Tehran Time also reported the same news:
TEHRAN - Iran has denied Saudi Arabia's recent claims
that the Islamic Republic has been involved in the
Syrian crisis, calling Riyadh an accomplice of Takfiri
terrorists in their crimes against the defenseless
people of Syria. Speaking at a news conference with
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in Jeddah on
Tuesday, Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Prince Saud
al-Faisal said that the kingdom "cannot be silent"
about Iranian intervention and called for a resolution
to ban arms flows to the Syrian government, Reuters
reported.
Claims? Iran standing for the dfenseless people of
Syria?! So Saudi Arabia is an 'accomplice of Takfiri
terrorists' for supporting the resistance of the
Syrian people against the Kafir, Alawite and
mass-murderer Bathist Bashar Al-Assad and Iran by
supporting Bashar is defending the Syrians?!
Iran's lie #6
It's Rouhani's turn to lie and to deny in June 2013
Next we'd like to remind you of what the new Rafidi
Mullah president of the Safavid state shamelessly
claimed, as been reported on the mouthpiece channel of
the Iranian regime in the west, PRESS TV on June 24,
2013.
[Rohani] "The Islamic Republic of Iran's policy is to
help the regional nations and governments, and I do
not believe that problems in the region, particularly
in Syria, can be solved militarily, but we seek [to
help establish] a ceasefire in Syria to prevent
[further] killings," Rohani said in a telephone
conversation with Lebanese President Michel Sleiman on
Sunday.Rohani dismissed any foreign meddling in Syria,
stressing that the Syrian nation should determine its
own destiny."
Alright, how relieved we are, the Iranian Rafidite
Safavid regime just wants to 'help' its (Sunni)
neighbours. Now the world, the Islamic Ummah has
witnessed how their help looks, how the Iranian regime
is ready to back a Bathist and secularist
mass-murderer like Bashar with the help of other major
Kafir forces (and TRUE allies of Iran), such as Russia
and China.
Iran's lie #7
September 2013 and Iran and its allies still lie and
deny the obvious
And if you fancy official Iranian sources, than don't
worry, their stupidity, lies and hypocrisy has been
recorded on the whole net:
Spokeswoman Denies Iran's Military Presence in Syria
September 17, 2013 - 11:16 - IRANIAN TASNIM NEWS
AGENCY TEHRAN (Tasnim) -
Iran does not have official military presence in
Syria, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman
underlined, and added that Tehran advocates political
solution to the crisis in Syria.
Iran has no military presence in the crisis-hit Syria,
said Marziyeh Afkham in her weekly press conference,
when asked about Iran-Syria cooperation in defense
fields.
The slaves of the Rafidah in Tehran
and Qom, the Syrian regime who literally sold their
souls and the lives of their people for Rafidi were of
course quick to repeat the same lie.
The following swine is not the Jew Sharon, but the
Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem (the one who
stated that Bashar's Syria is will prevent the emerge
of an Islamic state!), the shameless liar also denied
claims about Iran's military presence in Damascus,
saying Tehran always seeks a political solution to the
crisis in Syria. What a joke! Of course it was
reported by the joke of a news agency and channel,
PRESS TV, the mouthpiece of the Iranian regime, on Jun
24, 2013.
Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem has
categorically denied claims about Iran's military
presence in Damascus, saying Tehran always seeks a
political solution to the crisis in Syria.
Speaking to reporters in Damascus on Monday, Moallem
said claims by certain countries supporting terrorism
that Iran has military forces in Syria are just a
rumor.
Iran has repeatedly expressed its
opposition to any foreign intervention in Syria's
internal affairs, stressing that inclusive dialog and
national reconciliation as well as free elections are
the keys to resolving the unrest in the Arab country
What the Rafidite Safavid enemies of
the Ummah didn't calculate is that Allah is the best
of the planners and will expose them sooner than they
might have thought.
"They were plotting and Allah too was planning, and
Allah is the Best of the planners" [Qr'an 8: 30]
Allah is the best planner, and steadily the two camps
- one which is the camp of Kufr (Rafidi Iran, Russia,
China and Israel that despite its opposition to Iran
PREFERS a secular-Alawite lead Syria over any strong
Sunni state) and one which is the camp of Iman (the
Syrian people and resistance) are being more and more
distinguished so that there might be no excuse for
anyone to side with the truth. In fact, Rafidite Iran
and their allies are exposed at their OWN hands, for
recently some Mijahideen in Syria, the Daoud brigade,
a group based near Idlib, in northwest Syria, overran
a government position and captured videos of
interviews given by Iranian commanders fighting in
Syria. The ORIGINAL captured videos, surfaced online
on September 9, are in Farsi and show the extent to
which the Iranians are involved in the genocide
against our Ahl Al-Sunnah brothers and sisters in
Syria.
Now we don't like Al-Jazeera as well, but as you might
predict (after reading all the blatant lies of the
Iranian officials), this video is not a fake, it's
just the manifestation of how Iran is getting exposed
and the Revolutionary Guards in the clip are real and
Al-Hamdulillah dead. They were publically celebrated
as REVOLUTIONARY GUARDS and martyrs by the Iranian
regime:
An official Iranian website published photos of Ismaïl
Haydary's (Revolutionary Guard commander in the clip)
funeral, which took place in Iran, describing him as a
"martyred general" and - like Mohsen - as a "defender
of the Sayyida Zaynab shrine". Portraits of him
displayed at his funeral clearly show that he is the
same man featured in the videos.
The Syrian officers in the short documentary above and
in other high quality videos (such as this one Youtube)
do not seem troubled by the presence of a camera. All
the videos are filmed in rather high quality, and the
frame is stable. This lends credence to the claim that
the footage was filmed with a camera and not a mobile
phone. Perhaps not coincidentally, in late August,
when the two Iranians seen in the videos were killed,
a Persian news site mentioned that an Iranian
filmmaker by the name of Hadi Baghbani had died in
Syria. According to this site, Baghbani was killed by
"Salafists" while filming "the Syrian army's progress
in its battle against jihadists".
The numerous details cited above
point to the authenticity of these videos. They show
that Iranian military officers are helping supervise
soldiers in Syria's regular army . This is a claim
that the Syrian opposition groups have repeated for a
long time, from the beginning of the Revolution to
this very day, but until now all of these evidence
were dismissed by Iran, like when the Syrian
resistance captured a some of these (whining)
Revolutionary Guards:
Of course you won't find PRESS TV and other Iranian
mouthpieces reporting these contradictions, lies and
deceptions since lying and deceiving is part of their
Rafidite creed, so don't expect much from them, they
lie through their teeth in the age social media,
turning Syria into Bahrain and Revolutionary Guards
into 'pilgrims'. The Islamic Ummah will never forgive
the crimes of the Kisra, Pharao and Yazid Khamenei,
the Revolutionary Guards, the Rafidite regime and the
'Ayatollahs' against the Syrian people, their mask has
fallen and they have exposed themselves at their own
hands and their the Rise and Fall of Iran in Arab and
Muslim Public Opinion has become a reality that will
open the eyes of many Muslims around the world,
especially those who were fooled by the empty
chantings of 'death to America/Israel' of the Iranian
regime.
Abuses perpetrated by militias linked to Iraqi
security forces have escalated in recent months,
forcing at least 3,000 people in Sunni areas to flee
their homes, Human Rights Watch said on Sunday.
Residents in the Muqdadiyya area of Iraq's Diyala
Province have been barred from returning to their
homes, the right group said. Additionally, the
international rights group reports that civilians have
been kidnapped and in some instances "summarily
executed."
Allied militias and Iraqi forces began harassing
residents in June, shortly after the Islamic State of
Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militant group took over Iraq's
largest city Mosul, and the abuse escalated around
October, residents told HRW.
"Iraqi civilians are being hammered by ISIS and then
by pro-government militias in areas they seize from
ISIS," Joe Stork, the group's deputy Middle East and
North Africa director, said.
"With the government responding to those they deem
terrorists with arbitrary arrests and executions,
residents have nowhere to turn for protection," he was
quoted as saying.
Based on witness accounts from six residents,
residents of villages near the Muqdadiyya region left
their homes in June and July when the Asaaib al-Haqq
militiamen and Iraqi SWAT forces attacked.
Asaaib al-Haqq is a group said to be operating under
direct patronage of Iranian General Qassim Suleimani
and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. The group has
reportedly been involved in around 6000 attacks on
American, coalition and Iraqi forces.
According to HRW, the attacks on civilians seem to be
a part of a campaign to clear the mixed-sect area of
Sunnis and other groups.
"The day of judgment is coming … we will attack the
area until nothing is left. Is my message clear?" Hadi
al-Ameri, the Badr Brigades commander and transport
minister under the previous administration of Nuri al-Maliki,
reportedly told residents in December.
Researchers with the rights group said they witnessed
militias occupying and setting fire to residents'
homes in the Salah al-Din province after ISIS
militants retreated.
Then again, in December, after driving out ISIS
fighters, militias were responsible for evictions,
forced disappearances and killings in the Baghdad
Belt, HRW said, citing a report by the Wall Street
Journal.
The rights group cites abuses as recent as January of
2015 where militias, volunteer fighters and state
forces reportedly summarily executed 72 civilians, an
allegation HRW said is currently investigating.
In an Op-Ed published in the Wall Street Journal
following his election, Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi
pledged to "bring … all armed groups under state
control. No armed groups or militias will work outside
or parallel to the Iraqi Security Forces."
In related news, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah
revealed for the first time Monday that his group is
fighting ISIS in Iraq.
Al Arabiya News
What Makes the
Supreme Leader Tick?
By Alireza Jafarzadeh
As another deadline for a nuclear deal with Iran fast
approaches, the regime in Tehran has yet again
hardened its stance in order to score more
concessions. The regime's embattled Supreme Leader,
Ali Khamenei, has set fresh conditions and red lines
as negotiators seemingly come down the home stretch.
Tehran has clearly been reeling under the weight of
sanctions and has been loudly grumbling about
international demands. Khamenei recently griped, "We
have done what we needed to regarding the issue of 20%
enrichment, Fordow [underground uranium enrichment
site], Arak [heavy water facility] and the
centrifuges. Thus, the Iranian side has acted
according to the logic of the negotiations... The
other side, however, is asking too much, is audacious,
and is blackmailing. ... The Iranian nation will not
kneel to bullying."
Ironically, Khamenei complains about 'bullying' while
his cronies bully the Iranian people and dissidents on
a daily basis to the extent that hundreds of thousands
of Iranians have been forced into exile, women are
deprived of their most basic social and political
rights and the whole population has been robbed of its
fundamental human rights like the freedom of
expression.
His regime continues to dig itself a bigger hole
because it has come to an impasse with no palatable
options. If it proceeds with the nuclear program, it
will have to confront an outraged international
community. And, if it abandons the nuclear path, it
will have to confront an already enraged population -
with no nuclear arsenal and a damaged regional
influence.
Faced with a vastly disenfranchised population, the
regime is weak, desperate and anxious. Khamenei has
demanded the immediate lifting of international
sanctions. That is a tell-tale sign of weakness, which
his regime feels in the face of a population on the
verge of rising up in protest. Khamenei is frightened
about the prospect of another uprising similar to the
ones that swept the streets of Iran in 2009.
Faced with a frightened regime, U.S. policy must add
to its diplomatic arsenal. As Tehran plays the waiting
game to see if Washington blinks first, U.S. policy
should stay on course and increase the pressure.
Talking with dictators for the sake of talking is not
diplomacy; it is a prelude to disaster.
In a February 8 interview, Secretary Kerry dismissed
the possibility of a third extension to the talks in
the event that a general agreement is not reached by
the March deadline. Earlier this month, President
Obama also showed no appetite for an extension and
said, "We now know enough that the issues are no
longer technical, the issues are, does Iran have the
political will and the desire to get a deal done?"
Khamenei's own statements clearly argue against such
political will.
Although U.S. officials have ruled out an extension to
the talks in their rhetoric, their actions have not
kept up with fast changing realities. Tehran did not
come to the negotiating table for the carrots. It was
forced to sit down as a result of sanctions. To date,
however, it has received nearly 12 billion dollars in
unfrozen assets. Such enticement has emboldened
Khamenei to get more concessions. Washington's
reconciliatory policy needs an overhaul, and fast.
By the same token, the administration should
re-evaluate its ill-conceived stance against
congressional oversight on a potential deal with Iran.
It was congressional action that convinced the
President to grudgingly sign onto a sanctions bill
that pushed Iran into the negotiating room. And, it is
only added pressure that will push Tehran to pick up
the pen. For the sake of global peace, Tehran should
not be given the opportunity to exploit perceived
divisions between the White House and Capitol Hill.
International sanctions have had a devastating impact
on the regime's revenues. Despite plummeting oil
prices, the seemingly 'moderate' president, Hassan
Rouhani , has tripled defence spending in the new
year's budget while cutting subsidies, which clearly
points to Tehran's dangerous long-term intensions.
As Maryam Rajavi , the President-elect of the National
Council of Resistance of Iran ( NCRI ), has said,
Khamenei has not yet decided to abandon the path
toward a nuclear weapon because his regime's survival
depends on it - along with domestic suppression and
export of terror.
There should be firm policies in
place to change his mind, not mindful policies that
make his position firmer.
Alireza Jafarzadeh is a member of Foreign Affairs
Committee of the National Council of Resistance of
Iran.
Iran's Shiite
Militias Are Running Amok in Iraq
Countless memories haunt me after a decade of service
in Iraq, gripping the hands of an assassin-felled
member of the provisional government as the life
slipped out of her body in 2003; watching al Qaeda's
beheadings of American hostages in 2004 and seeing
photos of young Sunni prisoners raped and tortured by
Iran-backed Shiite militias serving within the Iraqi
police in 2005.It took the fall of Iraq's
second-largest city, Mosul, for Western elites to
finally begin to understand what many of us saw
firsthand in the years since 2003: The Iraqi
government is hopelessl
sectarian, corrupt, and generally unfit to govern what
could be one of the world's most prosperous nations.
Washington's response to the Islamic State's (IS)
advance, however, has been disgraceful: The United
States is now acting as the air force, the armory, and
the diplomatic cover for Iraqi militias that are
committing some of the worst human rights abuses on
the planet. These are "allies" that are actually
beholden to our strategic foe, the Islamic Republic of
Iran, and which often resort to the same vile tactics
as the Islamic State itself.
Post-2003 Iraq was supposed to be different.
Throughout the past decade, however, countless NGOs
and international news organizations have borne
witness to the accelerating pace of abuses. The
Republic of Fear is being reborn.
Perhaps the most vivid and disturbing evidence that
the Iraqi government simply does not share America's
core values emerged on Feb. 6. In a grainy video
posted on YouTube, a three-minute horror show plays
out on the front lines somewhere in Iraq. Iraqi
military officers and presumably Shiite militiamen —
dressed in black, skull-adorned "Sons of Anarchy"
shirts — crowd an ambulance emblazoned with the Iraqi
state seal. Inside, a blindfolded and hog-tied man in
military fatigues pleads for mercy as the Iraqi
vigilantes beat him over the head, taunting him with
expletives.
One of the vigilantes picks up a metal toolbox and
slams it down on the crying man, as others enter the
ambulance to beat and kick the helpless prisoner. A
minute into the video, the man is dragged out of the
ambulance and onto the ground, still blindfolded, arms
bound behind his back. A dozen fighters surround him
and begin kicking him until he lays motionless, blood
dripping from his head. With some yelling "enough," a
man in camouflaged trousers walks up to the prisoner
and beats him over the head repeatedly with a sandal,
a gesture of monumental insult. Another man, also in
camouflaged trousers, leaps up twice and lands with
his full weight on the detainee's skull. A third man,
in full military uniform, kicks and punches the
hemorrhaging man, whose blood spills across the sand
below.
In the final horrific minute, the vigilantes carry the
man a few feet away and drop him to the ground.
Several men armed with U.S.-supplied M4 rifles then
empty several magazines — perhaps more than 100 rounds
— into the man.
The video concludes with one man chillingly yelling,
"Enough! What's wrong with you?"
Any viewer capable of understanding the dialogue
overlaying the savage imagery is left in utter shock.
But that emotion should soon be replaced by rage, as
the realization sets in that countless American lives,
families, and taxpayer dollars were sacrificed — and
are being risked today — to facilitate such brazen
cruelty.
Twitter is abuzz with speculation about the victim's
identity. A Kurdish Peshmerga fighter? An Islamic
State spy? Regardless, one thing is clear: These were
196 vivid seconds of a lynching, a field execution, an
Iraqi government and Shiite militia-orchestrated war
crime broadcast around the world. And the sad reality
is that this killing was facilitated by the White
House.
Since assuming office in 2009, President Barack Obama
and his national security team have turned a blind eye
toward the growing crisis in Iraq. They seem to have
simply hoped that Bush's "dumb war," as Obama once
described it, would not distract them from a
domestic-driven agenda. Even as the cancer at the
heart of the Iraqi government metastasized, senior
American officials ignored the countless classified
and open sources implicating the Iraqi government in
theft, torture, rape, and ethnic cleansing — insisting
that the country remained on the right track.
In 2010, Vice President Joe Biden confidently insisted
that Iraq "is going to be one of the great
achievements of this administration," lauding Iraqis
for "us[ing] the political process, rather than guns,
to settle their differences."
"At every significant step along the way [of Obama's
Iraq policy], many predicted that the violence would
return and Iraq would slide back toward sectarian
war," then White House aide and now Deputy Secretary
of State Antony Blinken said in 2012. "Those
predictions proved wrong."
In its eagerness to withdraw from Iraq, the Obama
administration also undermined the country's central
democratic institutions. After preaching the virtues
of democracy around the world, Obama chose to bypass
the secular, Western-leaning winner of Iraq's 2010
parliamentary elections, Ayad Allawi, in favor of the
runner-up, Nouri al-Maliki. Ignoring Maliki's
sectarian and autocratic tendencies, the White House
then repeatedly lobbied Congress to expedite sales of
advanced American military equipment, including F-16
fighter jets, AH-64 Apache attack helicopters, and
Hellfire missiles — even as the Iranian-allied
strongman unleashed a reign of terror and purged his
political enemies with less sophisticated American
weapons systems.
The administration's cumulative mistakes have played a
decisive role in advancing Iraq's implosion, the IS's
rise, and Iran's regional hegemony. From the time that
Obama took office until today, violence in Iraq has
spiked nearly fourfold from the post-surge lows in
2009 — reaching levels not seen since the height of
the civil war in 2006 and 2007. The Islamic State has
conquered more than a third of the country while the
Iraqi military imploded, despite a $25 billion
investment in it by American taxpayers.
The White House responded by dispatching thousands of
American military, diplomatic, and intelligence
personnel to Iraq in a final bid to put Humpty Dumpty
back together again. But this desperate, ill-conceived
effort will inevitably fail because the administration
is employing the chainsaws of Iraq's Iranian-backed
Shiite militias rather than the scalpels of American
special operations forces in its ground war against
IS.
When it became clear that the Islamic State posed an
existential threat to Iraq's Shiite-dominated
government, the country's top Shiite cleric, Grand
Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, resorted to a measure not
taken in a century: He issued a religious edict
calling for all able-bodied men to take up arms to
defend the state. Within months, hundreds of thousands
of young Shiites responded to the call — and today,
virtually all of them have been absorbed into
Iranian-dominated militias, whose fundamental identity
is built around a sectarian narrative rather than
loyalty to the state. Recently, one militia commander
estimated their total strength at 800,000 men,
dwarfing the official Iraqi Security Forces.
Meanwhile, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps' Quds
Force, Iran's Special Forces unit devoted to
operations outside the Islamic Republic's borders has
filled the void left by Obama's military and
diplomatic disengagement from Iraq. Quds Force
commander Gen. Qassem Suleimani has personally led
operations from the front lines, buttressing
decades-old alliances while at the same time
cultivating new proxies.
The staunchly pro-Iranian Badr Organization commander
Hadi al-Ameri — who was welcomed in the Oval Office by
Obama in 2011, and is known for favoring power drills
to murder his victims — has been tasked with leading
all Iraqi efforts to secure and pacify the
strategically important province of Diyala. Meanwhile,
Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the alleged mastermind behind
the bombing of the U.S. and French embassies in Kuwait
in the 1980s, was given command of the Kataib
Hezbollah (KH) militia, an Iranian-sponsored group
responsible for some of the most lethal attacks
against U.S. and coalition forces throughout the war.
Muhandis and KH pose such a grave risk to Iraqi
stability and American interests that they were
designated as terrorists by the U.S. Treasury soon
after Obama took office in 2009. Qais al-Khazali, the
commander of the Iranian-sponsored Asaib Ahl al-Haq (AAH)
militia, which kidnapped and killed five American
soldiers at Iran's behest in the holy city of Karbala
in 2007, proudly shared his recent photo with
Suleimani via social media.
This constellation of Iranian-backed militias is
eclipsing official Iraqi institutions, and sowing the
seeds of conflict for decades to come. During a
January 2015 press conference celebrating the
"liberation" of Iraq's Diyala province, Ameri stood in
front of Iraqi military officers and militia fighters,
thanking the Badr Organization and AAH for their
efforts — without once mentioning Prime Minister Abadi
or the international coalition. One of Ameri's Badr
commanders then told the New York Times that Sunni
tribes had backed IS, and pledged that "their
punishment will be more severe than [IS's],"
guaranteeing the continuation of vigilante justice and
sectarian bloodletting.
These militia leaders are not only operating outside
the Iraqi government's control; many key figures are
deeply embedded within Baghdad's power structure.
Hakim al-Zamili, an Iranian-backed militia commander
notorious for ethnically cleansing Baghdad of its
Sunni inhabitants while serving as Maliki's deputy
health minister, is now chairman of the Iraqi
Parliament's security and defense committee. Ahmad
Chalabi, the convicted embezzler allegedly responsible
for conspiring to feed false intelligence to Western
governments ahead of the Iraq invasion, is now
chairman of the Iraqi Parliament's finance committee.
Mohammed Ghabban, a top deputy to Ameri in the Badr
Organization, is now interior minister, ostensibly
Iraq's top law enforcement officer. And Mohammed al-Bayati,
another Badr leader, serves as Iraq's human rights
minister, with the sacred responsibly of investigating
and curtailing the abuses of Iraqi security personnel.
It would be laughable, if it were not so serious.
These are the men benefitting today from billions of
dollars of American assistance to Iraq.
These Shiite militias' conquests are being aided by
millions of dollars in advanced American military
hardware. Countless pictures and videos have emerged
featuring Iranian-backed Iraqi militias parading with
M1A1 tanks, M1113 armored personnel carriers, M16 and
M4 rifles, Humvees, and MRAPs. At times, the
militiamen launch into sectarian chants, and religious
flags adorn other pictures — some have even taken to
plastering their vehicles with photos of former
Iranian Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini. These
actions directly fuel the regional perception that the
conflicts in Syria and Iraq have metastasized into a
holy war, pitting Islam's billion-plus Sunnis against
the minority Shiites — a worldview directly
responsible for swelling both the Islamic State and
the militias' ranks.
After years of gross neglect, Obama, and the broader
international community now face the seemingly
impossible task of pacifying and reuniting Iraq. The
nation is not only a failed state; it is a shattered
one: years of misrule, corruption, and genocide at the
hands of Nouri al-Maliki's Dawa Party have totally
destroyed the national identity, leaving only tribal,
ethnic, and religious affiliations that preceded the
founding of the modern Iraqi state in 1932.
It is high time that U.S. officials recognize the
Iranian-backed Shiite militias for what they are: a
supercharged, multi-headed hydra that represents a
clear and present danger to Syria, Iraq, the broader
Middle East, and thus to fundamental American national
security interests. Although these events occurred
less than a decade ago, many in Washington seem to
have forgotten that even with 150,000 U.S. troops
still in Iraq, these militias operated across Baghdad
and southern Iraq much like IS does today: through a
deliberate campaign of kidnapping, torture, extortion,
and murder that would make Tony Soprano blush.
While pockets of success exist — namely in Iraqi
Kurdistan and the holy city of Najaf — by almost any
measure, Iraq as a whole today has regressed to a
state far worse than it was a decade ago.
The impunity with which the Shiite militias operate is
only growing. According to a senior U.S. official with
an intimate understanding of the matter, the American
Consulate General in Basra recently attempted to ship
approximately a dozen used, armored SUVs back to the
U.S. Embassy in Baghdad for export and disposal, per
State Department regulations. En route, the vehicles —
still usable, and collectively worth millions of
dollars when new — were mysteriously stolen. When
senior U.S. diplomats reported the theft to the Basra
governor and top security commanders, the locals
promised an investigation, but reported little
success.
Sometime later, during a routine trip across town, a
U.S. security officer spotted one of the vehicles in
front of a local garage. Bewildered and shaking his
head, the U.S. official told me the Iraqi authorities
insisted they could take no action, since that was a
garage belonging to Asaib Ahl al-Haq — the very group
that had masqueraded as an American diplomatic convoy
to kidnap and kill five American soldiers in Karbala
in 2007.
It is no wonder, then, that the former director of the
Defense Intelligence Agency, Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn,
recently insisted to Bloomberg's Eli Lake that the
militias "represent enemies of a stable, secure, and
inclusive Iraq," and that once the IS threat is
defeated, "they will very likely turn on us."
There is no reason to believe that the militias will
disarm and disband after IS's defeat. Indeed, with
trillions of dollars of Iraqi oil wealth up for grabs,
and the U.S. military no longer deployed in large
numbers to constrain them, the militias have more
incentive than ever to stay in business. And let's not
forget that it is in Iran's strategic interest to use
these militias to consolidate its gains over Iraq and
the Levant, and to advance its ambitions for regional
hegemony, which Iranian commanders are now publicly
flaunting.
Iraq is the new, much larger, much wealthier Lebanon,
and its battle-hardened militias are the new, much
larger, much wealthier Hezbollah. They will haunt the
world for decades to come on a scale exponentially
more lethal and damaging than Lebanese Hezbollah —
whose operations already span six continents, and
whose operatives grace the FBI and CIA's most wanted
lists.
The day after the Islamic State is expelled from Iraq
is the day Iraq's next existential struggle for
survival will begin. Given the militias' demonstrated
sadistic penchant for ethnic cleansing and summary
executions, including their joy at beheading enemies —
the same savage tactics used by IS — Iraq is destined
for endless conflict for the foreseeable future.
It is time to admit that the modern Iraqi state as we
have known it is living on borrowed time. Obama's
desperate and delusional strategy to defeat IS — which
commits to investing only a fraction of the time and
resources former President George W. Bush squandered
trying to build viable Iraqi security forces — simply
will not work, because we do not have a critical mass
of Iraqi political leaders willing to put the
country's interests before their sect, tribe, party,
or creed. The thousands of coalition airstrikes will
also not succeed, absent a broader political framework
under which all Iraqis can peacefully share power and
be treated equitably by their government.
In short, as with Ngo Dinh Diem's government in South
Vietnam, no amount of American covert action, carpet
bombing, or diplomacy can ever hope to compensate for
a fundamentally inept, corrupt, and illegitimate local
partner. Despite Washington's delusions and countless
Americans' sacrifices, Saigon was eventually overrun
by Chinese-backed communists — just as Baghdad has
already been overrun by Iranian-backed Shiite militias
advancing Islamic rule.
The White House's myopia, along with Obama's
empowerment of one strategic enemy, the
Iranian-commanded militias, to defeat another
strategic threat, IS, is precisely why the dream of a
stable, peaceful, prosperous, and pluralistic Iraq
increasingly seems doomed. In short, Obama's Iraq
strategy is not only morally bankrupt, but
operationally bankrupt as well.
Congressional leaders and the White House must stop
treating Iraq and other national security matters as
arenas for ideological skirmishes. Instead, they must
craft a comprehensive Middle East strategy to defend
our regional allies and aggressively confront both
radical Sunni and Shiite militants, and Iran's malign
regional ambitions. By finally admitting that Baghdad
is now firmly entrenched in Iran's orbit — and is
ideologically and operationally an extension of Tehran
— Washington can finally begin to develop plans for
how to roll back the new Republic of Fear.
Extract from a Foreign Policy
article published by Ali Khedery
Iran's Disingenuous
Condemnation Of Terror
By Samsami Taheria
Interestingly, the 'Islamic' regime in Iran grudgingly
spoke out against the attacks in Paris. In its efforts
to present an endearing front to the international
community since Hassan Rouhani 's presidency in 2013,
the regime's deceptive move may not be all that
surprising.
Yet,
its pathetic duplicity cannot hide the fact that the
regime is more than ever before committed to its
anti-Western rhetoric and rogue behavior. In an
affront to the French people, Tehran's Foreign
Ministry actually blamed the victims of the attacks
and described publications like Charlie Hebdo as being
engaged in "intellectual radicalism" and "misuse of
free speech."
The state-affiliated Tasnim News Agency used the
incident to attack French policy in the Middle East.
It said the "Paris attack is the result of France
playing with fire in Syria."
France, like the United States, has taken the position
that the Assad regime in Syria should come to an end
after four years of civil war. Both governments have
backed the moderate opposition in that country,
against Assad and the Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist
group.
"The attack that resulted in death of 12 individuals
and the wounding of 40 is the result of innumerable
and uncalculated meddling of France in Syrian
affairs," the Tasnim article declared, without
referring to the far more direct and extensive
meddling that Iran itself has carried out in the
Syrian conflict.
Tehran has effectively replaced the collapsed Syrian
army with a network of Shiite militias and
Revolutionary Guards known as the National Defense
Force. It has done virtually the same thing in Iraq,
where Qassem Suleimani, the commander of the Quds
Force, has been in control of murderous Shiite
militias.
The Iranian regime has fanned the flames of sectarian
conflict from Syria to Iraq to Yemen and Bahrain. Its
actions have fueled the rapid growth of ISIS.
The regime's reluctant and temporary condemnation of
attacks in France proves superficial and dishonest
because it has clearly used Islamic fundamentalism as
the rallying cry for its activities in Syria, Iraq,
Yemen, and beyond. Domestically, a medieval "Islamist"
legal system has led to an escalation of the already
extraordinary rate of executions, totally to over
1,200 so far under the presidency of supposedly
'moderate' Hassan Rouhani.
Iranian people continue to be arrested and handed down
long prison sentences for "insulting the prophet" and
"enmity against God." This was the extremist ideology
that motivated the attacks on Charlie Hebdo and it
emanates from Tehran.
Iran's clerical regime implements the death penalty
for offenses related to free speech. In fact, the
regime's founder, Ruhollah Khomeini, popularized the
notion of murdering authors and journalists by issuing
a fatwa against British author Salman Rushdie in 1989.
Khomeini's assault on free speech outside Iran's
borders was accompanied by a global terrorist agenda
that included the funding and arming of tens of
thousands of extremists and terrorists.
So, who is the regime trying to fool by issuing a
statement condemning the attacks in France?
The Iranian theocracy does not represent the
sentiments of the majority of the Iranian people, just
like ISIS does not speak for billions of ordinary
Muslims who yearn for peace and respect human dignity.
The Iranian people have their own
opposition forces struggling against the ruling regime
for a free Iran. Maryam Rajavi , who heads the
opposition National Council of Resistance of Iran and
advocates a democratic and anti-fundamentalist
interpretation of Islam, issued an unqualified and
genuine condemnation of the Paris attacks long before
the Iranian Foreign Ministry's disingenuous statement
that blamed the French people.
Rajavi stressed that such barbarity contradicts the
principles of a moderate, rational and democraticIslam.
Her Ten-Point Plan for the future of Iran clearly
rejects fundamentalism and promotes the establishment
of a democratic, pluralist society based on the
separation of religion and state.
She has also called for a non-nuclear Iran. The
mullahs, armed with nuclear weapons, will be a
nightmare not just for the people of Iran and the
region, but also for global peace and security. The
international community has a moral and strategic
obligation to stop the Iranian regime's dash to the
bomb.
The Iranian opposition's experience has shown that
only a decisive policy can stop the nuclear threat of
Iran. Congress has imposed sanctions on Tehran, which
helped bring the regime to the negotiating table.
President Obama can use the leverage during
negotiations to warn Tehran there will be consequences
if it continues to cheat and deceive. Tehran's words
are disingenuous and it cannot be trusted - especially
when it comes to nuclear negotiations.
Samsami is the representative in the United States
for the National Council of Resistance of Iran, a
coalition of Iranian opposition groups and
personalities committed to the establishment of a
democratic, secular and non-nuclear republic in Iran.
Two Israeli Soldiers
Killed in Hezbollah Missile Attack: The Muslim World
And International Communities Care Less When Evil
Hezbollat Kills Devil Zionists And Vis-à-vis?
Two Israeli soldiers have been killed by a Hezbollah
missile fired at at an Israeli military vehicle in the
Shebaa farms are on the border with Syria and Lebanon.
The Israeli military confirmed that seven soldiers
were also injured in Wednesday's strike.
In response to the attack, Israeli forces fired shells
across the border into southern Lebanon. The United
Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) confirmed
that Israeli shelling had killed one of its
peacekeepers from Spain.
Elias Hanna, retired Lebanese Army General: Expect
Israeli retaliation, but no escalation
There were also reports of Israeli war planes flying
over the border with Lebanon.
The attack by Hezbollah was likely in retaliation for
an Israeli air strike in Quneitra on January 18th that
killed six Hezbollah fighters and an Iranian general.
Both Hezbollah and the Iranian army had vowed revenge,
and earlier on Wednesday Iran said that Israel should
"await retaliation" for the strike. \
Shebaa Farms is a small strip of disputed land at the
intersection of the Lebanese-Syrian border and the
Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
Schools closed in and around Shebaa, and residents
stayed indoors as the shelling continued throughout
Wednesday morning.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu warned: "The IDF is ready to act with force
on any front".
In a letter to the UN Security
Council, Ron Prosor, Israeli ambassador to the UN,
condemned the attack, saying Hezbollah has been
"stockpiling" weapons in southern Lebanon in violation
of a UN resolution.
"Israel will not accept any attacks
on its territory and it will exercise its right to
self-defense and take all necessary measures to
protect its population."
Lebanese politician Samir Geagea, a member of the
March 14 opposed to Hezbollah, said that Hezbollah
"doesn't have the right to involve the Lebanese army
and government in a battle with Israel."
Walid Jumblatt, another politician considered to be
centrist, said the attack will lead to "turbulent"
times for Lebanon.
Israel Kills Khomeinist Terrorists - The
Muslims Don't Care How Many Khomeinist Generals Slain In Syria
- "Israeli-Hezbollat Friendly Fire" Or Simply Israeli
Showing Off Superiority To Khomeinists?
Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards have confirmed that
a general was killed in a suspected Israeli air strike
in the Syrian Golan Heights on Sunday.
Mohammad Ali Allah-Dadi was in Syria to advise forces
supporting President Bashar al-Assad, a statement
said.
The Lebanese Shia Islamist movement Hezbollah said six
of its fighters also died when a helicopter fired
missiles at a convoy in Quneitra province.
Sources in Israel said it was aimed at stopping an
attack on Israeli soil.
Earlier, a source close to Hezbollah told the AFP news
agency that a total of six Iranian soldiers had been
killed, along with its own fighters.
The dead included Jihad Mughniyeh, the son of a
Hezbollah military chief assassinated in 2008, and
Mohammed Issa, a field commander, it added.
On the one hand, Hezbollah may not want to open up a
second front against Israel while it is so heavily
involved in Syria, our correspondent says. On the
other hand, many in Lebanon believe Hezbollah will not
be able to remain quiet after such senior people were
killed.
According to reports in Hezbollah-affiliated media,
two Israel Air Force helicopters fired missiles at a
target in the Syrian Golan, killing a number of
Hezbollah operatives, including Mughniyeh.
Western intelligence sources said Jihad Mughniyeh
headed a large-scale terrorist cell that enjoyed
direct Iranian sponsorship and a direct link to
Hezbollah. The cell had already targeted Israel in the
past, launching attacks on the Golan Heights.
Iran is Hezbollah's primary financial and military
supporter. Both countries are aiding Syrian President
Bashar Assad in his struggle to keep power against a
coalition of Sunni opposition militias and Islamist
radicals.
Deadly Israeli Strike Deals Painful Blow
To Khomienist Hezbollat, Iran: Humiliation Of Hezbollat Terrorist Leader
Nasrallat, In His Hiding Hole, Has Just Started
Tehran added to the combustible mix by announcing that
the strike — neither confirmed nor denied by Israel — also killed a senior
Iranian general, underscoring the extent of Iran and Hezbollah's deep
involvement in the volatile area on Israel's doorstep.
Sunday's deadly attack placed Hezbollah in a tough spot, as it weighs
carefully how to respond. A significant retaliation risks drawing even
tougher Israeli reprisals, plunging Lebanon into yet another crippling war
with the Jewish state for which there is very little appetite among Lebanese
public opinion.
Stretched thin and neck-deep in Syria's civil war where
the group's Shiite fighters are battling alongside President Bashar Assad's
forces, Hezbollah must also decide whether it can afford to open up another
front with Israel.
Jihad Mughniyeh, who was buried Monday in south Beirut,
did not hold a particularly senior rank in the party. But he was the son of
Imad Mughniyeh, a top Hezbollah operative widely considered to have built
Hezbollah's military operations infrastructure and the second most revered
figure inside Hezbollah.
He was assassinated in 2008 in Damascus in a bombing that
Hezbollah says was carried out by Israel's Mossad spy agency.
The 25-year-old Mughniyeh took on a more prominent role after the death of
his father. He has been photographed with Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, the
group's leader, and with the powerful Iranian Gen. Ghasem Soleimani,
highlighting his prominence within the group.
"For Hezbollah leaders, rank and file, and core
supporters, the attack against Jihad Mughniyeh is akin to an attack against
a member of their own family," said Randa Slim, a director at the
Washington-based Middle East Institute.
"The fact that Hezbollah has not avenged Imad Mughniyeh's
death to-date raises the bar for Nasrallah and Hezbollah military leadership
to react in a big way this time... irrespective of the risks of an
escalation," she said.
Mughniyeh, who had recently been entrusted with overseeing
operations in the Golan Heights, is the group's most prominent figure to die
so far in Syria since Hezbollah joined the conflict next door in 2012,
fighting on Assad's side against the Sunni-led rebellion.
The airstrike exposed Hezbollah's involvement in the Golan
area — which is now host to an explosive mix of al-Qaida-linked Syrian
rebels, Syrian government forces, Hezbollah operatives and Israeli soldiers,
all operating in close proximity.
Hezbollah's Manar television channel broadcast footage
from the site of the airstrikes, showing a mangled wreck of metal amid snow;
nearby the footage showed radar installations and a military base that the
channel said was in Israeli-controlled territory.
Israeli officials had long expressed concern about
Hezbollah activities along the border and blamed the group for a number of
roadside bombings last year in the area.
In an hours-long TV interview last week, Nasrallah denied
Hezbollah was involved in any "resistance work" in the Golan, claiming that
the group was only offering support, assistance or training to Syrian groups
there.
Eyal Ben-Reuven, a reserve Israeli general and former
deputy head of its northern command, said the presence of such a
high-ranking official on Israel's doorstep indicated that Hezbollah and Iran
were planning something big against Israel.
The deaths of the six Hezbollah fighters elevated tensions between Israel
and the powerful Lebanese Shiite movement, which recently boasted of rockets
that can hit any part of the Jewish state. But it was also a significant
setback, coming on the heels of a confirmation last week by Nasrallah that
the organization had uncovered and arrested a senior operative who was
spying for Israel.
In a statement published on the Iranian Revolutionary
Guard's website, Tehran confirmed that an Iranian general also was killed in
the Israeli airstrike.
It said Gen. Mohammad Ali Allahdadi was on assignment in
Syria, giving "crucial advice" to Syrians fighting terrorists, a reference
to Sunni rebels and Islamic extremists fighting against Assad's troops.
Allahdadi is not the first Iranian general to die in Syria. Iran accuses
Israel of involvement in the killing of Gen. Hassan Shateri in February 2013
as he traveled from Syria to Lebanon. Shateri was also a commander in the
powerful Revolutionary Guard.
Allahdadi's presence in the Golan, however, drew further
attention to Iran's deep involvement in propping up Assad and is bound to
unsettle Israel.
Although he did not mention Lebanon or Syria specifically,
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that "Israel is
adamant that it will have the right to defend itself against all those who
wish to propagate terror and other attacks against its citizens, against its
territory."
Since Syria's conflict began in March 2011, Israel has
carried out several airstrikes in Syria that have targeted sophisticated
weapons systems, including Russian-made anti-aircraft missiles and
Iranian-made missiles, believed to be destined for Hezbollah.
The last such airstrike was in early December, when Israeli warplanes struck
near Damascus' international airport, as well as outside a town close to the
Syria-Lebanon border.
Nasrallah, in an interview last week, said Hezbollah reserves the right to
retaliate for those attacks. He also reiterated that Hezbollah may retaliate
at any time for the assassination of Mughniyeh senior.
Also among those killed in Sunday's attack was Mohammad Issa, the only one
of the six identified by the Hezbollah statement as a commander. He joined
Hezbollah at the age of 15 and was among the senior cadres who headed the
group's operations in Syria.
Another is Abbas Hijazi, whose father Kamal was one of Hezbollah's founders.
Hijazi took part in most of Hezbollah's battles against Israel as well as
inside Syria over the past decade.
Iran, Hezbollah And Israel Are Partners: Enemies Of Al-Quds!
Destroy Iran's Shi'ah-Majusi Empire First, Only
Then We Can Liberate Al-Quds
The Top Threat Is
Still Iran
By Linda Chavez
The agreement last week between the governments of
Iraq and Iran to enter a formal relationship to fight
the Islamic State group should be deeply troubling to
the United States.The Islamic State, also known as
ISIS, is a grave threat to the region and is
responsible for the horrifying beheading of American
journalists and an aid worker, as well as the brutal
slaughter of countless innocent Muslims and Christians
in Syria and Iraq.
But as
grave a threat as the Islamic State is, Iran is a much
greater threat — especially if it acquires nuclear
weapons.
In November, Washington decided to
extend nuclear talks with the Iranians, despite
stalling on the mullahs' part. The practical effect of
the decision is to give the Iranians more time to make
a bomb.
Lest anyone believe the Iranians' assurances that
their desire to enrich uranium is purely for peaceful
purposes, a September story on the UN Web site raises
suspicion.
It says International Atomic Energy
Agency Director General Yukiya Amano "noted [that] the
agency is not in a position to provide credible
assurance about the absence of undeclared nuclear
material and activities in Iran, and therefore to
conclude that all nuclear material in Iran is in
peaceful activities."
Translation from diplomatic-speak:
We're not buying the Iranians' story.
A comprehensive study of Iran's
nuclear programs was released in Brussels in November
by the nongovernmental organization International
Committee In Search of Justice, a group of current and
former European parliamentarians and other experts.
The study shows that Iran has a dual
nuclear program — a civilian side, which appears to
pursue peaceful nuclear energy, and a military
program, which skirts sanctions by obtaining dual-use
nuclear materials or simply smuggling bomb-making
materials into the country. Leadership for the
civilian and military programs frequently overlaps,
with scientists and others switching places between
the two programs as needed.
Meanwhile, the Obama administration
largely looks away, instead pursuing negotiations that
will never persuade the Iranian regime to give up its
nuclear weapons agenda.
The Obama administration largely
looks away.
Part of the problem is that the
administration doesn't want to take on the Islamic
State directly in Iraq, preferring to provide US
military advisers who will play a severely limited
role while the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps
actually provides thousands of troops on the ground.
But expediency in the fight against
the Islamic State is a bad strategy for America and
for the world. If — more likely, when — Iran develops
nuclear weapons, those weapons not only will be used
by Iran to intimidate its neighbors but also could
well be put into the hands of terrorists whose reach
extends far beyond the immediate region.
What should be done? I asked Maryam
Rajavi , the leader of the National Council of
Resistance of Iran, to give her sense of what might
actually persuade the Iranians to give up nuclear
weapons. "They will only forgo the bomb if they sense
that their survival is in danger and if they feel that
the risk of insisting on the nuclear project outweighs
the risk of abandoning it," she told me.
Rajavi talked about the mistakes
Washington has made during the negotiations, giving
the regime time to improve its ballistic missile
programs, as well as enrich uranium. The regime, she
said, "will dodge the signing of a comprehensive
agreement as long as it possibly can, unless
international pressure forces it to retreat."
Rajavi believes that the movement she leads is a
direct threat to the mullahs.
"In their confrontation against a
decaying tyranny," she noted, "the Iranian people have
a democratic alternative with a clear platform that
seeks a secular and pluralistic republic, gender
equality, a society based on respect for human rights
and the abolition of the death penalty, abdication of
the mullahs' Shariah laws, providing equal economic
opportunities to all, a nonnuclear Iran and peace and
coexistence with the rest of the world."
Too bad the United States has been
unwilling to recognize Rajavi's group, only taking it
off the official terrorist list after the group
challenged the designation in US courts.
Rajavi is no threat to America, but
she may just be the biggest challenge to the real
threat we face in Iran.
Aiding
Kuffars
or
Shiite
Safavids Against
ISIL
Is As
Impermissible
As Aiding
ISIL!
Iran Is Forcing Poor
Afghans to Fight and Die in Syria: Rebels capture
reluctant Afghans in Aleppo - War Is Boring
"Come out, you donkey!" the Syrian rebel shouts in
Arabic in the amateur video that appeared on the
Internet in mid-October. Two other rebels are pulling
something out of a pile of rubble. The outline of a
human body appears from beneath dust and bricks.
The scene resembles something out of a movie—the
aftermath of an entire building collapsing on the
people inside. Only this is real. Twelve pro-regime
fighters reportedly died in the destruction of this
structure north of Aleppo in war-ravaged northern
Syria.
Islamic Front fighters are no angels, but their
interrogation of the prisoners, which the rebels also
recorded and posted online, is a surprisingly civil
affair.
One of the captured fighters sits on a sofa, a bandage
on his head. The rebel sitting beside him asks where
he's from. He answers in Dari. "Afghanistan," he says.
This is not the first time Afghans have been caught
fighting in Syria, for or against the regime of Syrian
president Bashar Al Assad. Some Afghan fighters joined
Al Assad's forces after rebels came close to capturing
the shrine of Sayydah Zeynab in southern Damascus.
A number of Afghan Shias have been living around the
shrine since the early 1990s, when the Taliban started
massacring Shia Afghans, forcing many to flee the
country.
In early 2012, a suicide bomber blew himself up at a
bus stop near the shrine. Syrian security forces
claimed the truck was heading to the holy shrine
itself. The apparent near-miss enraged Afghans in
Syria and back home.
In late 2012, the first Afghan members of the
pro-regime Al Abbas Brigade appeared in pictures
circulating in jihadist social media. Afghans were
going to war in Syria. In early 2013, Afghan
volunteers along with Pakistani, Azeri and other Asian
fighters reorganized as the Fatemiyoun Brigade.
And soon, the motivations seemed to change for at
least some of the Afghans.
Videotaped interrogations of two of the Afghans the
rebels captured in Aleppo reveal that, for them at
least, the war isn't about ideology anymore.
The Afghan with bandaged head says he's from Varamin,
an impoverished town near Tehran. He's an illegal
immigrant. Iranian authorities had apprehended him and
offered him a monthly payment of $600 to fight in
Syria. If he had refused, they would have sent him
back to Afghanistan—which for a Shia could mean death.
There are an estimated one million illegal immigrants
from Afghanistan living in Iran. They and their
children can't enroll in universities or work regular
jobs with standard benefits and pay. Afghan immigrants
tend to work in construction or as farmers.
They live in the poorest neighborhoods, suburbs and
villages. Afghan communities in Iran are prone to
crime, mainly drug trafficking.
It was the fall of 2013 when Afghan fighters in Syria
first made headlines in Iran and Afghanistan. A large
group of Afghan fighters tried to penetrate rebels
lines outside Aleppo in order to help loyalist
fighters trapped in the city. The rebels ambushed the
infiltrators and killed 17 of them.
Pictures of the victims seemed to depict some very
young men, possibly minors, although it was impossible
to verify anyone's actual age.
Considering the low living standards of Afghans in
Iran, from the beginning the main assumption was that
Iranian authorities had more or less forced these
Afghans to fight in Syria, offering them modest pay
and threatening extradition if they refused.
Afghan officials launched a formal investigation of
Iran's alleged recruitment efforts. Members of
Afghanistan's parliament including Shokriye Peykan
have openly accused Iran of taking advantage of poor
Afghan immigrants.
Hamed Eghtedar, an Afghan who has lived in Syria for
more than six years, said he believes that while some
of Afghans fight for money, there are still others who
fight for ideological reasons.
Indeed, some Afghans—members of the Pashtun
nationalist Mellat Party, in particular—have gone
straight to Syria from Afghanistan to aid the regime,
skipping Iran entirely.
Eghtedar, a correspondent for the Bokhdi news agency
in Afghanistan, said he has seen Arab and Chechen
fighters carrying Afghan passports while fighting for
the rebels in Aleppo. They allegedly travel under
Afghan aliases to avoid prosecution in their home
countries.
Given the large number of Sunni Afghans fighting for
the rebels, the Al Assad regime considers Afghans a
possible threat. Regime troops even abducted Eghtedar
and his wife near Aleppo. Al Assad's forces tortured
Eghtedar for 45 days before releasing the couple. The
torturers' usual technique was to bash his head
against a wall.
Eghtedar and his wife fled Syria and and returned to
Afghanistan by way of the human-smuggling route.
Traffickers charge up to $1,000 to sneak a person out
of Syria.
In the other video of October's Aleppo captives, the
captured Afghan introduces himself as Ali Moradli. He
says he'd been sentenced to six years in prison for
dealing drugs in Iran. Again, authorities offered $600
per month to fight … or extradition.
After two days in Damascus, his unit flew to Aleppo.
They traveled one hour by road then hiked for eight
hours to reach their front-line base. Combatants from
a nearby Shia town guided Ali's unit across the
mountains and deserts north of Aleppo.
According to Moradli, the Afghan fighters numbered
450. They were organized as three 150-man battalions,
each consisting of 10 squads of 15 fighters. Iranian
officers lead the battalions.
Ali says his Iranian commander would have killed him
if he had tried to run. But then the rebels attacked,
killing the Iranian commander. The only Iranian known
to have died in Syria in same time period is Brig.
Gen. Jabbar Darisavi.
Moradli says his squad commander was named Khalili,
but Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps members usually
use aliases in the field. Tehran announced that
Darisavi died in the Handirat region north of
Aleppo — the exact location of the ambush.
Darisavi, a battalion commander during the Iran-Iraq
war, more recently served in the Karbala Intelligence
Joint Headquarters in southern Iran.
Moradli's inadequate training plus the fact that
Iranian generals are leading indentured Afghan drug
dealers is indicative of Tehran's—and the Syrian
regime's—desperation.
When Islamic State invaded Iraq this summer, Iran
diverted its Iraqi militias to defend Baghdad.
Likewise, Hezbollah has had to pull out of Syria and
return to Lebanon in order to defend against Syrian
rebels pouring out of the Qalamun Mountains.
The pro-regime forces that remain in Syria are
ill-prepared and thinly spread. If the Afghans'
capture in Syria tells us anything, it's that the
regime and its allies are running out of people.
U.S. Iran Policy Not
Blocking Tehran's Path to The Bomb, Senate Panel Says
A number of leading Senators and national security
experts criticized U.S. policy on Iran as dangerously
accommodating and having failed to stop Tehran's
nuclear weapons program and its support for terrorism
in the region.
The briefing,
held at the historic Senate Kennedy Caucus Room,
featured, Senator Roy Blunt (R-MO), former Senator
Joseph Lieberman, Ambassador John Bolton, General Jack
Keane, former Vice Chief of Staff of the Army, and
former White House Homeland Security adviser Frances
Townsend.
Referring to last month's extension
of the nuclear negotiations with Iran, Senator Blunt
said it is 'incredibly bad judgment to continue to
extend the talks going on with Iran as they continue
to do exactly the things we would not want them to be
doing.'
Senator Lieberman said the Iranian
regime 'has concluded that we [the U.S.] want a deal
more than they do,' warning, 'If the U.S. agrees to a
bad deal with Iran, it will not only change history in
the Middle East in a bad way, but it will shake up our
allies, in the Middle East, and far beyond….'
Ambassador Bolton touched on the
regime's long record of systematic attempts to acquire
nuclear weapons through cheating and deception,
saying, 'The ayatollahs are on a clear path to their
30 year objective of getting deliverable nuclear
weapons. The talks that have been going on have
achieved nothing to slow that down.'
Bolton warned, 'Verification does not make a bad deal
a good deal. Verification is simply insurance, when
you think you've reached an acceptable agreement to
protect against the risk of violation.'
Underscoring the nuclear revelations
by the main Iranian opposition, the Mujahedin-e Khalq
(MEK), Amb. Bolton said, 'I'm not aware of any
material respect where information that the MEK has
put out over the past more than 10 years has ever been
incorrect.'
General Keane referred to
Washington's policy on a nuclear deal with Tehran,
saying, 'I have been convinced, given my association
for almost five years with this administration ...
their unstated policy as it pertains to Iran is to
contain Iran's nuclear weapons. In other words, they
will tolerate Iran having a nuclear weapon. '
With respect to reports hinting at
Washington's willingness to solicit Tehran's
cooperation against ISIS, the general said, 'I find
that morally reprehensible that we could ever, ever
sit down across the table with them and begin to
coordinate an effort towards a common objective, which
is the defeat of ISIS.'
In Iraq, we pulled out and provided
no help where we absolutely needed help, Gen. Keane
said, adding, 'We did that right on the heels of the
broken promise dealing with the residents of Camp
Liberty…. We would not have had ISIS if we didn't
break the promises we made in Iraq.'
Senator Blunt pointed to 'the
critically important issue of what happens with people
at Camp Liberty' and called on the U.S. government to
keep its commitments to the residents.
Speaking to the Iranian opposition
and the 10-point plan for the future of Iran as
articulated by Mrs. Maryam Rajavi , Senator Lieberman
said, 'You are frontline troops in the fight against
radical Islam. You represent the alternative. You're
part of the hope for the future.'
Shiite Militants Linked To Iran In Iraq -
Special Report: The Fighters Of Iraq Who Answer To
Iran
Among the thousands of militia fighters who flocked to
northern Iraq to battle militant group Islamic State
over the summer was Qais al-Khazali.
Khazali is the head of a militia called Asaib Ahl al-Haq
that is backed by Iran. He is one of Iran's most
important representatives in the country.
His militia is one of three small
Iraqi Shi'ite armies, all backed by Iran, which
together have become the most powerful military force
in Iraq since the collapse of the national army in
June.
Alongside Asaib Ahl al-Haq, there
are the Badr Brigades, formed in the 1980s during the
Iran-Iraq War, and the younger and more secretive
Kataib Hezbollah.
The militias, and the men who run
them, are key to Iran's power and influence inside
neighboring Iraq.
Tehran has built up its influence in
the past decade by giving political backing to the
Iraqi government, and weapons and advisers to the
militias and the remnants of the Iraqi military, say
current and former Iraqi officials.
That was clear this summer, when
fighters from all three militias took on IS.
The fighters set up an operations
room to coordinate with the Iraqi army, the other
militia groups, and advisers from the Quds Force, the
branch of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps
that handles operations outside Iran and oversees
Tehran's Iraqi militias.
Tehran's high profile contrasts sharply with
Washington's. Both Iran and the United States are
preparing for a long battle against IS. But Iraqi
officials say the two take very different views of
Iraq.
'The American approach is to leave
Iraq to the Iraqis, ' said Sami al-Askari, a former
member of Iraq's parliament and one-time senior
adviser to former prime minister Nuri al-Maliki. 'The
Iranians don't say leave Iraq to the Iraqis. They say
leave Iraq to us.'
The danger, Iraqi officials say, is
that Iran's deep influence will perpetuate sectarian
conflict in Iraq. Many Iraqi Sunnis complain that
Maliki, who was Iraq's leader until he was forced out
in August, was beholden to Tehran and prevented Sunnis
from getting greater political power.
Former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, a
secular Shi'ite who left office in 2005, told Reuters
that 'Iran is interfering in Iraq. Foreign forces are
not welcome here. And militias controlled by foreign
powers are not welcome also.'
Iraq's Shi'ite militias have
certainly fueled sectarian violence. In the past few
months they have taken revenge on Sunnis, burned homes
and threatened to stop Sunnis returning to their
towns. Shi'ite fighters have kidnapped or killed
civilians, say Sunni family members.
'The militias are a problem,' said
Askari, the former Maliki adviser. 'What do you say
after Islamic State ends? Thank you very much and go
home'?
ECHOES OF LEBANON
The main body funding, arming, and
training the Shi'ite militias is Iran's Quds Force.
The model it uses is Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Created by Tehran in the early
1980s, and operating as both a military outfit and
political party, Hezbollah has grown to become the
most powerful force in Lebanon.
Coordinating the three is Quds Force
commander Qassem Soleimani. 'His chain of command is
only the Supreme Leader. He needs money, gets money.
Needs munitions, gets munitions. Needs materiel gets
materiel.'
Soleimani, who Reuters was unable to
reach, knows the heads of the three big Iraqi militias
personally, Iraqi officials say.
THE BADR BRIGADES
Iran's oldest proxy in Iraq is the
Badr Brigades, which is headed by Hadi al-Amri.
Amri fought alongside Iran's
Revolutionary Guard against Saddam's army during the
Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s.
Amri, who could not be reached for
comment, is feared and loathed by many Sunnis for his
alleged role in running death squads in recent years.
In July, Human Rights Watch accused Badr forces of
killing Sunni prisoners.
'Look at Amri's uniform and then
compare it to any Iraqi uniform ... It's completely
different,' said a senior former security official.
'Look for the uniform of the IRGC' -
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps - 'it's
exactly one of them.'
KATAIB HEZBOLLAH
The head of Iran's second proxy,
Kataib Hezbollah, goes by the nom de guerre Abu Mahdi
al-Mohandes.
He began working with Iran's
Revolutionary Guard in Kuwait in 1983, organizing
attacks against embassies of countries that supported
Saddam in the war against Iran.
Following the first Gulf War,
Mohandes lived in exile in Iran. After the United
States invaded Iraq, he returned home and was elected
to parliament. Even then, it was clear where his
allegiances lay. On a 2006 trip to Tehran, when
protocol dictated that the Iranian and Iraqi
delegations sit apart, 'he sat with the Iranians,'
said Askari, the former Maliki adviser. 'This was not
normal.'
Kataib Hezbollah is the most
secretive of Iraq's militias, and the only one the
U.S. Treasury labels a terrorist organization. In 2009
the Treasury sanctioned Mohandes for his alleged role
in committing and facilitating attacks against U.S.
and Iraqi forces. Mohandes group's website features
several video clips showing improvised explosive
devices blowing up American Humvees.
He has a house in Baghdad's Green
Zone close to Maliki, Iraqi officials say. In recent
years, he occasionally delivered messages between
Maliki and Iranian officials. He frequently visits
Iran, where his family lives, according to a former
senior Iraqi official.
ASAIB AHL AL-HAQ
The third big Iraqi militia, Asaib
Ahl al-Haq.
Under leader Khazali, Asaib gained
notoriety for kidnapping and killing Sunni civilians
and carrying out attacks against U.S. forces.
In 2007 he was arrested by U.S. military forces for
his alleged role in an attack on an Iraqi government
compound in Karbala, which left five American soldiers
dead.
Sunnis say Maliki allowed Shi'ite
militias, particularly Asaib, to kidnap and kill
ordinary Sunnis to solidify his grip on power. Some
Sunnis began to see Asaib as Maliki's personal
militia.
THE SYRIA CONNECTION
In late 2011, as the Syrian conflict
grew, Iran stepped in to defend Syrian President
Bashar al-Assad.
Iran helped train Kataib fighters in
the use of AK-47 assault rifles, heavy machine guns,
mortars, rockets and IEDs, according to Abu Abdullah,
the Kataib commander.
A Reuters' reporter met two men who
spoke Farsi, the language of Iran, accompanying Asaib
fighters during the battle. A third man said he had
come from Iran to train police.
Fact:
Iran Has Several
Hundres F-4 Phantom Fighter-Jets (Regarded As One Of
The Most Versatile Fighters Ever Built. Guess Who
Supplied The So-Called Islamic Republic Of Iran
ALL
The Deadly Bombers. O Yes, Iran's Own Great Satan -
The United States Of America
Fact:
Zionist Arms Dealers
Regularly Supplying F-4 Phantom Fighter-Jets Parts To
Iran On Several Occassions, According To Greece
Government Kathimerini Newspaper And Several Other
Media Reports 2014
Fact:
Betwee 22 September
1980 And 20 August 1988 Alone Iran Used Hundreds Of
Its US Supplied F-4 Phantom Fighter-Jets To Slaughter
Over 800,000 Arabs (And Kurds Of Cause) Including
Civilian Men And Women Children And The Elderlies. See
Tampa Bay Times Reports Of Associated Press (AP) June
2007.
Mask Off America-Iran Secrete
Collaboration
In Fightings In Syria And Iraq: Iran Warplanes Target Mujahidun In Clearest Sign
Yet Of US Partnership
When you see a warplane overhead in Iraq, and its backing Assad's Ba'thi
army, Baghdad's Shiite millitia and Kurdish Peshmerga forces in a battle against
the Mujahidun, especially the Syria resistance power-base of Jabhat An-Nusrah
and the Islamic State Of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), you automatically think of
the United States. They are, after all, the one with hundreds of planes in the
area doing that.
But according to news reporters,
including the antiwar's Jason Ditz video released today shows that their
"anti-Mujahidun coalition" isn't the only ones, as an Iranian F-4 Phantom is
seen backing Kurdish fighters in trying to retake a pair of lost towns.
The plane caught on video backing Iranian staunch ally tyrant
Assad and Kurdish Ba'thist party forces clearly confrims that Iran is involved
in the ISIS war is hardly news, but the use of a warplane in a traditional US
role is a major story, as it is all-but-impossible that Iran would be doing so
without direct coordination with the US.
The US is desperate to the point of paranoia to say they
"control the airspace" in Iraq, and having other nations' warplanes just flying
around willy nilly would make no sense, and would almost certainly make those
planes a target. Iran would not be sending warplanes into Iraqi airspace in
mid-US war, and in the vicinity of several US warplanes, without the US having
confirmed that it was okay with them.
The US continues to deny any coordination with Iran and Syria
on the ISIS war, but this denial seems to be primarily a diplomatic ploy at this
point, and has no bearing on the policy.
US House Speaker: Iranian Regime Is The Number
One Threat In The Middle East
U.S. House Speaker John Boehner said in a statement Friday that
the Iranian regime is 'the number one threat to the entire region' and 'a state
sponsor of terror' with 'no interest in a stable Iraq.'
Congressman Boehner said the Obama administration should not soften demands on
Iran to help stalled talks for a nuclear arms deal.
"Iran is a state-sponsor of terror. It has no interest in a stable, strong Iraq.
The country has a deplorable human rights record, and it still has American
hostages.
Furthermore, there is no evidence that Iran intends to comply with honest
transparency and accountability measures over its nuclear ambitions. At a time
when we are asking other governments in the Middle East to help the United
States take on and destroy ISIL, we are giving a pass to Iran, which is the
number one threat to the entire region."
Western diplomats and officials of the Iranian regime said on Friday that the
talks in the recent round of negotiations between the world powers and Iran held
in New York made little progress in overcoming significant disagreements.
A Western diplomat told reporters on condition of anonymity: 'On the core issues
we remain pretty far apart'. 'On enrichment, we are not there yet. On sanctions,
we are not there yet,' he added.
The talks would likely continue in the coming weeks, though no date and venue
have been set, the diplomat said, according to the Reuters.
A senior Iranian official of the Iranian regime had a similarly sober assessment
of the talks, the report said.
'Despite hours of talks and meetings, there has not been progress to overcome
major differences, not even one inch,' the official said.
Meanwhile, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told journalists on Friday on
the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York: "At this time as I speak,
there is no significant progress" in talks which opened last Friday.
"We will be quickly meeting again. We regret that there has been no progress,"
said Fabius.
Iran-Sponsored Terrorists Houthi's Shi'ite storm
capital of Yemen
Armed Shi'ite militants of Iran-proxy terror clan, the so-called
Houthis, pushed into Yemen's capital Sanaa after clashing with the puppet army
on the northwestern outskirts on Thursday, security sources and residents said,
causing further instability after weeks of fighting and protests, reports
Reuters.
Residents of northwest al-Shamlan district said the Shi'ite Houthi gunmen
sponsored by Tehran were advancing along Thalatheen Street, a major route into
the western edge of Sanaa.
State news agency Saba also reported later Thursday that airlines had suspended
flights to Sana'a airport for 24 hours pending the security situation.
One report on Al Jazeera television had said earlier that militants attacked a
military checkpoint near the airport. One puppet official at the Yemeni
television building also said the militants had targeted the facility with
missiles on Thursday evening.
A puppet military source said Iran-sponsored terrorists Houthi gunmen had also
attacked an army camp on the southern entrance of the capital, but soldiers
repelled the assault.
The Shiite terror network of Houthis, who belong to the Zaydi sect of Shi'ism,
have been fighting for more control and territory in the north.
In recent weeks, Houthis have been blocking the main road to Sanaa's airport and
holding sit-ins at ministries calling for the ousting of the government and the
restoration of subsidies cut by the state in July as part of economic reforms.
At least 42 people have also been killed in clashes involving Shiite terrorist
Houthi militants in different parts of the country since Tuesday.
Experts say the Iranian mercenaries of Houthis are trying to grab power and
carve out a semi-independent state for themselves in the north.
The United Nations' special envoy to Yemen meet Houthi terrorist ringleader
Abdulmalek al-Houthi in Saada province on Wednesday to try and find a way out of
the conflict. The three-hour meeting was "constructive and positive" Jamal
Benomar was reported as saying.
The sectarian Houthi warlords said on Monday they would no longer take part in
negotiations with the Yemeni government about their grievances because of what
they termed "foreign intervention" in the discussions.
According to the latest information, fightings in Sana'a are taking place close
to the University of al-Iman. Artillery, mortars, and heavy machine guns are
using in the fightings.
Hezbollat Has Opened Gates Of Hell, It Should
Perish In Its Terrorist Meddling In Syria
Last week, former Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad al-Seniora said
the Shiite movement Hezbollat's "riffle" or arms have diverted in the wrong
direction when it became involved in the Syrian conflict, opening "gates of
hell" to Lebanon.
Following the Syria war spreading into Lebanon, the March 14th current condemned
Hezbollah's meddling in Syria and described this Iran-linked entity as
responsible for what is taking place in the town of Arsal in Lebanon.
"Hezbollah's military intervention in Syria has linked Lebanon to the current
wars, placing the government and people and army of this country in a dangerous
situation," said former Lebanese prime minister Foad Siniore.
Samir Jamjam, head of the Lebanese Forces party described Hezbollah taking part
in the Syria war as the main reason behind the problems of Arsal and demanded
Hezbollah evacuate Syria immediately.
"Until Hezbollah continues such activities the Lebanese people and army will be
in grave danger and the only solution is for Hezbollah to pull back its troops,"
he said.
Lebanese Hezbollah receives heavy blows from Syria rebels
Various sources say Lebanese Hezbollah has received major blows from Syria
rebels in the Qalamoun region and cannot withstand any longer, according to the
Middle East reports, which added that the Lebanese terrorist group's senior
members are rethinking their presence in the Syrian affairs.
The Qalamoun news center cited Syrian rebels and said Hezbollat mercenaries have
suffered heavy casualties in recent clashes and are withdrawing the area and
returning to Lebanon. Accord to this report at least 400 Hezbollat forces have
departed Syrian soil. This number of Hezbollat forces were transferred back
inside Lebanon with 7 busses and various other vehicles through the Jaroud
region during the course of two days.
United Nations issues shocking report on Assad
war crimes
The United Nations issued a report condemning the Assad regime and its terrorist
mercenaries Hezbollah in Syria for bombing and killings at medical centers. This
body referred a dossier to the Security Council containing 12 cases of hospitals
being bombed in this country in the month of July alone.
A United Nations report describes missile attacks and bombings of hospitals and
treatment centers by Assad regime forces and the Lebanese Shiite terrorist group
as flagrant violations of human rights.
This report refers to 12 recorded incidents of bombings in the cities of Aleppo,
Hama, Homs, Idlib and also Damascus, and these are just the attacks that have
taken place in July of this year.
From the beginning of the Syrian people's revolution to this day
at least 526 physicians and specialists have lost their lives. They were either
killed by Assad's security forces or lost their lives under bombardment while
treating patients.
The UN report refers to the Assad regime's obstructions on permitting the
delivery of humanitarian aid into Syrian soil. Last month the Security Council
adopted a resolution saying this aid must be sent into besieged areas of Syria
under any means possible and without Assad regime approval.
To this day these convoys have entered Syria from Turkey and
relevant organizations in the United Nations are advancing this plan in order to
stop the genocide by Bashar Assad. Such aid is arranged to be sent into Syria
soon from other border areas in Jordan and Iraq, too.
Hashish Production
Thrives In Hezbollah-Controlled Land
Hezbollah is controlling the majority of Marijuana
plantations across Lebanon's Bekaa Valley and the
government is unable to do much about it, the Daily
Beast reported Wednesday.
While it is not uncommon to find marijuana plantations
in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley, production has reportedly
surged during the conflict in Syria, where Hezbollah
is fighting alongside President Bashar al-Assad's
forces.
"Local politicians know about it, police know about
it, the Lebanese army is aware of it and so are
authorities in Beirut. But nobody wants to, or can,
fix the problem. The majority of these plantations are
controlled by Hezbollah," the Daily Beast report said.
Prior to the war in Syria, the Lebanese army had
reportedly raided land used for growing the plant. But
over the past two three years, the army became more
focused on border security.
"The police and the army can't stop me even if they
wanted to," a marijuana farmer from Baalbek, a
Hezbollah stronghold, said.
"It is no secret to say that these networks [of
hashish producers] are very well armed in order to
protect their marijuana fields," Ohannes Geukjan,
professor of political science at the American
University of Beirut, told the Daily Beast.
"There are some areas in the Bekaa Valley and Hermel
where the government and the army have been unable to
penetrate."
Drug traffickers are reportedly using ports controlled
by Hezbollah and the lawlessness in Syria to smuggle
Lebanon's cannabis, which according to the report has
reached Jordan.
Al-Arabiyah
Iran: The Existential Threat
By Ken Blackwell
Nothing could be more damaging to America's long-term security interests than
aligning with the murderous regime of Tehran in any way for any purpose. The
phrase that best describes the theocratic regime in Tehran is hostis humani
generis—enemies of all mankind. This Latin term is applied in international law
to terrorists, pirates, and slave traders. It fits this regime's rule well.
Iran is the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism. It is a major persecutor
of religion. In today's Iran, Christians, Jews, Baha'i, Zoroastrians, and
minority Muslim sects are actively suppressed and terrorized. Pastor Saeed
Abedini was sentenced to eight years in a filthy prison, beaten and abused for
"threatening the national security of Iran." His crime: He started an orphanage!
Our own State Department reports on the full range of human rights abuses in
Iran. These include:
"disappearances; cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment, including
judicially sanctioned amputation and flogging; politically motivated violence
and repression, such as beatings and rape; harsh and life-threatening conditions
in detention and prison facilities, with instances of deaths in custody;
arbitrary arrest and lengthy pretrial detention, sometimes incommunicado;
continued impunity of security forces; denial of fair public trials, sometimes
resulting in executions without due process…"
Nor should it be forgotten that Iran publicly hangs homosexuals. Add to this
catalogue of abuses even more from the State Department:
"…Violence against women, children, ethnic and religious minorities, and
lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) persons based on perceived sexual
orientation and gender identity;"
What other evidence is needed to label them justly "enemies of all mankind?"
The regime's savagery is real and growing. No other nation so regularly calls
for the physical elimination of the United States or its neighbor, Israel. No
other nation is so actively seeking nuclear weapons.
Do we dare to dismiss their genocidal threats as bluster?
In Paris this week, groups of Iranian exiles, U.S. and European
parliamentarians, military experts, and diplomats will meet to discuss ways to
neutralize or change the regime in Iran.
Event organizers have announced that American participants include Gen. George
Casey, Michael Mukasey, Marc Ginsberg, Amb. John Bolton, Gov. Ed Rendell, and
Frances Townsend. Topics will include: deteriorating human rights situation in
Iran, Tehran's nuclear weapons program, and the fate of Iranian refugees at Camp
Liberty in Iraq.
If this conclave can reach consensus, and , if they can persuade the Western
democracies to take concerted action, we may yet avert the most terrible
conflict since the Second World War.
Every day the Mullahs' regime spinning centrifuges bring them a step closer to
having a nuclear weapon. Iran's former president, Mahmoud Ahamdinejad publicly
declared he could foresee "a world without the United States." And he dismissed
Israel as "a two-bomb country."
The Washington Post earlier this month informed us of the stalling of nuclear
talks with Iran:
Iran says such experiments--detailed in documents obtained by Western spy
agencies--never occurred, but it has refused to allow IAEA officials near the
site since 2005. Satellite photos in recent weeks have shown major renovation
underway at the site, with several buildings razed and soil removed near the
place where the alleged test chamber once stood. Iran has consistently said that
its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes, not making weapons.
The report, which was carried by the "nuclear watchdog" group, was seemingly
muffled by this dismissive treatment. Who will hear a watchdog whose bark is so
dangerously disregarded?
Iran's regime must change or be changed. There is no peace, no safety possible
with such a cohort of "enemies of all mankind." This is why we must look to the
Paris talks this week as a key indicator of Western resolve.
We will observe in July one hundred years since Europe's leaders marched "like
sleepwalkers" over the cliff and into the cataclysm of the Great War.
That devastating world war left empires shattered, civilizations in ruins, and
unleashed the forces of Arab nationalism and religious and ideological fury.
It cost the world twenty million dead.
But that is a lower estimate of what Iran might do if it obtains nuclear
weapons. There is no crisis—not Ukraine, not Nigeria, not Sudan, not the
Israeli-Arab conflict—that is more threatening than the Iranian Mullahs with
nuclear weapons.
The cause is mankind. Nothing less.
This and other articles by Ken Blackwell can be read at
Townhall.com
World's Most Wanted
Hezbollat Terrorist Ring Leader Fawzi Ayoub Slain In
Syria
A senior Lebanese-Canadian commander in the Shiite
terrorist group Hezbollat (so-called Hezbollah) has
been killed in Syria where he was fighting alongside
Bashar Al-Assad's criminal troops against Syrian
freedom fighters, security sources and activists said
Tuesday.
The World's most wanted terrorist leader Fawzi Ayoub, who is on
the FBI's "most wanted" list for attempting to bomb
Israel, was killed on Monday by the predominantly
Sunni Muslim rebel forces who have been waging war on
dictator Bashar al-Assad for more than three years.
Terror group Hezbollat has joined the Assad's brutal
regime in an increasingly sectarian conflict that is
pulling in fighters from across the region and
destabilizing Syria's neighbors.
Sunni Muslim Islamist groups, some of them linked to
Al-Qaeda, have joined mostly Sunni Syrian rebels
against the Assad, who belongs to the Alawite sect, an
offshoot of Shiite Islam.
Terrorist leader Ayoub was arrested in the West Bank
in 2000 and spent four years in an Israeli jail before
being released as part of a prisoner swap, the sources
said. He is a prominent member of Hezbollah and comes
from the southern village of Ain Qaana.
He also holds Canadian citizenship and has lived in
the United States. The anti-Assad Syrian Observatory
for Human Rights confirmed that Ayoub had been killed
in Syria.
The sources said Ayoub was killed in Nawa, a town in
the southern Syrian province of Daraa, the cradle of
the Syrian uprising-turned-war in which 160,000 people
have been killed.
Iran Executes 2
Iranian-Arab Political Prisoners
Reports indicate that Iran Khomeini
regime henchmen have secretly hanged 2 political
prisoners who are Arab natives from the southern
province of Khuzestan.
Iranian intelligence agents informed the families of
Khaled Mousavi and Ali Jebishat on Thursday that they
were executed.
Ali Jebishat's brother and son were informed by the
Iranian regime's henchmen to go and visit his
gravesite in Ramhormoz. The families of both political
prisoners were warned by the Mullahs' authorities not
to have a large ceremony and that only his immediate
family is allowed to visit his gravesite.
Khaled Mousavi and Ali Jebishat were arrested in Nov.
2012 along with number of other youth in Ahwaz. The
court found them guilty of 'Moharebeh' (enmity with
God), punishable with death.
Earlier this year, Amnesty International issued a
statement expressing concern about the fate of these
two prisoners and warned of their imminent execution
by the Iranian regime.
Four of the UN Human Rights Rapporteurs had also
called on the regime to halt their executions. But the
criminal Mullahs' regime ignored all pleas and finally
executed those two.
Human rights
organizations: Iran must stop execution of 33 Sunnis
Amnesty International, Human Rights
Watch and other organizations signed a statement
calling on Iran to stop the execution of 33 Sunnis.
The charges raised against most of these individuals
are propaganda against the state, 'corruption on
Earth' and 'moharebe' (enmity against God).
In this statement issued on Thursday, June 22nd, it is
stated that most of these individuals were arrested in
2009 and 2010 in Iranian Kurdistan, and prior to being
prosecuted in court they had been detained in solitary
confinement and without access to lawyers, and most
probably tortured or held in atrocious conditions.
The intelligence gathered by these organizations
indicates these individuals completely deny
participation in any armed actions and they are saying
the reason for their arrests is their religious
beliefs..
How Iran Uses Hezbollah
To Hook Arabs On Hard Drugs
The other
religion: Why so many young Iranians are hooked on hard drugs
Terror, rockets and bombs are not the only commodities
imported from Iran by Hezbollah, the Iran's proxy terror networking
organization. The Lebanese ally of Ayatollahs primarily earns its profits
through drug sales in Latin America, but its activities have been traced across
multiple continents. The group combines its drug profits with proceeds from
legitimate used-car sales in West Africa. Until it was uncovered by officials,
this global money-laundering scheme effectively masked Hezbollah's earnings.
The so-called Islamic Republic has always had its
addicts. Its long border with Afghanistan, the world's biggest opium producer
which thanks to the country tradition of good religious practice have one of the
world low addict. some hold the opinions that - unlike the sound methodologies
of religious leaders, especially the Taliban - the Shiite tradition stigma in
applying the law against drinking alcohol mean that opium and its derivatives
are cheap, strong and readily available. An official youth unemployment rate of
28% and inflation running at 42% a year, both aggravated by American and
European economic sanctions, have helped to turn ever more Iranians to hard
drugs. According to Iran's own figures, 2m Iranians in a population of 75m are
addicted, the world's highest incidence. Most experts put the real figure even
higher.
In 2001, international intelligence sources identified
Lebanese residents operating for Hezbollah in South America's tri-border area
(Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil). The area has become a major source of funding
for Hezbollah's terror activities. In October 2008, investigators took down a
cocaine smuggling operation in Colombia, noting that "profits from the sales of
drugs went to finance Hezbollah."
Crack (as Iranians call it), a cheap, highly addictive
derivative of heroin unique to Iran, is rife in the poorer quarters of Iran's
big cities. Home-produced crystal meth, known as shishe, meaning glass, has also
entered the market. It is favoured by many poor and disheartened young men and
by many middle-class women trying to stay thin. Last year a member of parliament
called for action against beauty and hairdressing salons where meth is peddled
to women, who are often unaware what they are buying. A report claimed that
courses for teaching people to produce crystal meth at home could be bought for
as little as 2-3m rials (then $70-100).
Davarze Ghar, a district south of Tehran's sprawling
main bazaar, is one of the capital's most blighted. At its heart is a reservoir,
encircled by a shabby park, where groups of men and women huddle together,
smoking meth out of glass pipes or openly injecting crack-heroin. Health
officials and social workers in the area complain that funds for outreach and
rehabilitation programmes have—thanks to sanctions—been frozen.
Yet Iran has some of the world's most go-ahead
policies for addressing the problem, with methadone clinics, charities for
tackling drug addiction and programmes for needle exchanges. At the same time,
dealers are dealt with harshly. Hundreds of smugglers have been hanged and
thousands of police officers killed in costly counter-narcotics operations in
the past three decades.
It also no longer a religion cover up to highlights a
pressing international concern about Nasrallah's men in Lebanon selling drugs
throughout the world. The shiite terror group finances its criminal activities
using a sophisticated drug-trafficking operation. Despite the world's
objections, Hezbollah continues to profit from its drug sales. Stopping its drug
trafficking could be a major step toward preventing its global acts of terror.
Hezbollah's drug trafficking remains a major threat to
the international community. In recent months, the group has stepped up its
activities while political turmoil in Syria, a close ally and funder, has
intensified.
In Germany,
officials recently arrested two suspects in
Frankfurt's airport after linking four Lebanese
individuals to nearly 10 million euros in drug
profits. Officials accused the suspects of trading
drugs and sending the proceeds to relatives directly
connected to top Hezbollah officials.
If Iran's new president, Hassan Rohani, can fulfil his
promise to reduce youth unemployment and cure Iran of
its economic malaise, he may prevent a generation of
Iranians from becoming the most addled in the world.
However, the new president has already proven a
failure in delivering targets both home and abroad.
Brutalities
Of Persian Khomeini Empire Unlimited - Executing More
Arabs!
Verily, they ARE Majoos & enemies of Islam:
Eid Ghadir, Nowrooz and Omar's death, the Rafidhite holidays!
['Eid Al-Ghadir]
is the GREATEST 'EID OF ALLAH ('Eidallah Al-Akbar!). Allah did not sent any of
the Prophets except that they CELEBRATED on that day and acknowledged the
greatness of this day and the name of it has been mentioned in the heavens and
earth. (Wasa'el Al-Shi'a, Vol 1 p 224
[...] یوم غدیر خم افضل اعیاد امتی.
امالی صدوق: 125، ح 8.
The day/'Eid of Ghadir is the MOST SUPERIOR of all Eids of the Ummah [...]
(Amali Sadooq, Vol 8 , p)
2. عن الصادق علیهالسلام قال: هو عید الله الاکبر،و ما بعث الله نبیا الا و تعید
فی هذا الیوم و عرف حرمته و اسمه فی السماء یوم العهد المعهود و فی الارض یوم
المیثاق الماخوذ و الجمع المشهود. وسائل الشیعه، 5: 224، ح
On the authority of Al-Sadiq (peace be upon him) who said …
more pagan narrations ATTRIBUTED to the Ahl Al-Bayt:
Imam Ja'far as-Sadiq (a) was asked if there was Eid for Muslims besides Friday,
Adha and Fitr. Imam replied, "Yes, there is one more Eid which is most great in
holiness (a'dhamuha hurmatan)." The person asked him which Eid that was. Imam
said: "It is the day (i.e. Ghadir) when the Messenger of Allah declared the
Chief of the Believers (Ali) his vicegerent, saying: "Of whosoever I am the
Mawlaa, 'Ali is also his Mawlaa. And it is the 18th of Dhil-hijjah."
As for one of the biggest Rafidite Shi'ite lies in history namely that the
Messenger of Allah Muhammad (peace be upon him) declared Ali Ibn Abi Talib his
vicegerency at Ghadir Khum on his return from his last pilgrimage, then this is
nothing but a lie. NONE of the companions of the Messenger and even NON of the
Bani Hashim understood Ghadir Khum as the declaration of Ali's Khilafah, not
even Ali himself who NEVER (not in a SINGLE authentic narration) used to argue
for the sake of his "divine Imamate" with Ghadir. To understand the Rafidite
deception and the SIMPLE TRUTH about Ghadir, read the following article .
The Rafidite regime and the Rafidite religion prefers the day of Ghadir over the
greatest 'Eid of the Muslims which is 'Eid Al-Fitr. Right, they (as usual) have
gone into extremes with Ali and his progeny and NOT with the Messenger (both is
wrong, but their extremes are not even with the personality of the Prophet!) and
thus the y regard the (so called) day of the declaration of Ali's Imamate
SUPERIOR than 'Eid Al-Fitr.
Here some news from one of the biggest Shia news websites on the net, namely
Shia-News.com (Iranian based). It reports how several grand "Ayatollahs" were
enraged when they heard of the news that the Iranian gov. wants to extent the
holiday of 'Eid Al-Fitr (which is just 2 days off in the so called 'Islamic
Republic of Iran'). They demanded that Eid Al-Ghadir must be superior even when
it comes to the celebration even when it come to the days off for the holidays.
Shia -News.com reports: "Ayatollah" Makaarem Shirazi on his TV show advised the
gov. to reduce the days off in the country. He mentioned this after the Iranian
gov. increased the days off for 'Eid of Fitr from one to two days.
COMMENT:
Before it was ONE day of in Iran only, yet NOWROOZ the ZOROASTRIAN 'EID is worth
TWO weeks off for the Rafidite regime. What about if Mr. Shirazi would have
asked for a reduction of all those days and weeks of for the death of countless
Imams (including Khomeini!) or a reduction of TWO weeks (actually more it's
THIRTEEN days) of the Zoroastrian based holiday! Instead he goes and attacks the
TWO days for 'Eid Al-Fitr!
But it even gets worse, even the Zoroastrian 'Eid of Nowrooz has more
significance to them than 'Eid Al-Fitr, we have discussed it here.
Certainly these pagans of Qom have changed the religion of Islam to some
Sassanian Madhab of Yazgerd just like Ghulam Ahmad has changed HIS version of
Islam to some Asian version. There is only one Islam, neither Arabic, Persian
nor Asian it is the pure and orthodox Islam of the Ahl Al-Sunnah.
BTW: They have innovated so many 'Eids to Islam, they even got the "SECOND 'EID
Al-GHADIR" which is the day the Zoroastrian Abu Lo'lo'a had killed the Caliph of
the Muslims Omar Ibn Al-Khattab.
TRANSLATION:
'Al-Mu'alla narrates from Imam Al-Sadiq : "Nowrooz is no other day but the
one we [the Ahl Al-Bayt] are awaiting the reappearance [of Al-Mahdi], for it is
one of our days that was protected by the Persians and carelessly lost by you."
('Al-Du'a' li Al-Imam Al-Zaman', p. 94)
So the Sahaba, their students and their students (i.e. Salaf Al-Saleh) have
missed to 'protect' the holy (!) day of Nowrooz, but the Persians managed to
protect this so called holy day. Look at their audacity! How dare they ascribe a
Zoroastrian holiday to Islam and the Ahl Al-Bayt! Not even the most wicked
Islamic has ever dared to ascribe any pre-Islamic pagan Arabic holiday (there
were some) to Islam!
This is how portray the Ahl Al-Bayt i.e. Imam Al-Sadiq in the Hadith above! He
literally blames the Arabs for having forgotten the Majoosi holiday of Nowrooz!
A holiday that was never sanctified in Islam! Look how much Sassanian-Pre-Islamic-Persian
customs have infiltrated Shiism, then they wonder why they are being called
Majoos!
TRANSLATION:
[Narration attributed to Imam Al-Sadiq who is free of Majoosite Rafidhism]:
'The day of Nowrooz is the day when our Qa'im of Ahl Al-Bayt (Mahdi) and the
commanders [of his army] will rise. On that day Allah will make the Dajjaal
appear and he will be crucified on the church of Kufa (Iraq)'. (Bihar Al-Anwar
by Mulla Baqir Al-Majlisi, vol. 52, p. 308)
Kufa? Crucifiction? NOWROOZ?! We all know that JESUS (peace be upon him) will
kill the Dajjaal, not on the holy day of Shiism though, which is NOWROOZ!
All this Majoosiyyah (Zoroastrianism) is so deeply rooted in their sect that
they even celebrate Nowrooz in the shrine (waste of gold and other wealth of
gullible Shias) of Al-Hussein in Karbala!
In this video you can see Iranian pilgrims in Iraq (whichis basically occupied
by Iran with the help of the Americans and Iraqi Shia puppets) celebrating
NOWROOZ in next to the shrine of Al-Hussein Ibn Ali in Karbala'. That's what
these heretics call 'the Islam of the Ahl Al-Bayt, the true followers of the
Sunnah'!
Now if you think that these are maybe some traditional Iranian Shiites who have
mixed up their religion (to them Islam) with their cultural traditions then let
us disappoint you. Although it is true that many Arab Shias don't celebrate
Nowrooz, yet the reality of the Shia sect is that this Persian Majoosi holiday
is a PRAISED and ESSENTIAL part of their religion, to such a degree that a
number of 'Shiite Hadith' in PRAISE of Nowrooz have been ascribed to the
Ahl Al-Bayt and even preferred deeds that one should do on that day!
Sons Of Sunnah in Iran For EsinIslam - The
Awqaf London
Four Sunni converts sentenced to imprisonment and
mandatory participation in Shia rituals, Iran
Four Sunni converts from Iran's Ahwazi Arab minority
were sentenced to imprisonment and compulsory participation in Shia rituals by
Branch 2 of the Revolutionary Court in Ahwaz, after being accused of "engaging
in propaganda against the state's official religion [Shi'ism]."
The men, who had left Shi'ism and converted to Sunni Islam, were detained and
transferred to Karoon Prison in Ahwaz after their sentences were confirmed by
the Court of Appeals on 15 May 2014.
The men were also sentenced to mandatory participation in Shia rituals, and "are
required to attend Shia mosques and religious places, and to participate and
actively engage in their [Shia] religious ceremonies, with the approval of [Shia]
community Imams and local authorities, and to report their actions for two
years."
In a worrying move, the court's indictment appeared to criminalize the men's
legitimate religious activities and suggested that the 'real purpose' of their
activities was to commit 'propaganda'.
According to the indictment, published by the Al Arabiya Farsi news website, the
men were accused of "changing their religion and orienting towards Sunni Islam
as well as the Wahhabi sect."
The Iranian authorities routinely use terms such as 'the Wahhabi sect' and
'Salafism' in a derogatory manner in reference to practicing Sunni Muslims, in
an attempt to influence public opinion against them.
The indictment also claimed that the men had "engaged in propaganda against the
state's official religion" by allegedly forming groups "under the pretext of
holding home meetings to read the Qur'an and holding congregational prayers."
The indictment further alleged that the men had "engaged in propaganda" by
"performing Friday prayers and Eid prayers according to the Sunni method; and
[celebrating Eid] at the same time that it was announced in Saudi Arabia."
The court also cited the discovery of books and leaflets about Sunni Islam,
which it claimed "contained educational materials about the Wahabi sect", in an
attempt to justify their imprisonment.
The four men, Haider Sayahi, Hamed Sayahi, Jafar Sayahi and Tofiq Magtai Zadeh,
were arrested last year along with 16 other Sunni converts.
Text from the indictment, as published by the Al Arabiya Farsi news website, has
been translated into English below:
"This collection, through changing their religion; orienting towards Sunni Islam
as well as the Wahhabi sect; (as mentioned in the sentence); by forming groups
and communities in different regions in the city of Ahwaz, especially in the
area of Zargan under the pretext of [holding] home meetings to read the Qur'an
and holding congregational prayers; performing Friday prayers and Eid prayers
[according to] the Sunni method; and [celebrating Eid] at the same time as it
was announced in Saudi Arabia; in certain areas, [these individuals] have
engaged in propaganda against the official religion of the country, and have
created doubts in the people's religious beliefs."
"According to the Abolfazl al-Abbas security headquarters in Ahwaz, these
individuals also communicated with Sunni figures (Salafi as mentioned in the
sentence) in the Western provinces of the country such as Kurdistan; others
encouraged and persuaded similar acts in other regions; and by supplying books
and leaflets containing educational materials about the Wahhabi sect and
transferring it to Ahwaz; [these individuals have] engaged in propaganda against
the state's official religion."
"Upon this, the court turns its attention to the numerous intelligence reports
and the extensive investigation. Considering the educational sessions and
religious ceremonies that were held according to the Sunni method, which implies
that it's [real] purpose was propaganda, and also the discovery of relevant
books and leaflets, the defendants have been found guilty."
"And document for the record while sentencing [that in accordance with] Article
500 of [Iranian] Penal Code Act 1996, books and leaflets were discovered as
tools to commit a crime, therefore each defendant is to be sentenced to
imprisonment for one year."
"In addition, in accordance with the type of crime committed, the condition and
characteristics of the defendants, Article 23 of the [Iranian] Penal Code Act
2009 is cited at sentencing, to prohibit their participation in communication
with Salafi and Wahabi elements, and participating in their meetings.
[Furthermore,] they are required to attend Shia mosques and religious places,
and to participate and actively engage in their [Shia] religious ceremonies,
with the approval of [Shia] community Imams and local authorities, and to report
their actions for two years."
Sons Of Sunnah in Iran For EsinIslam - The Awqaf
London
More conversions to
Sunnism (in Ahwaz) - The impotent Ayatullats see their last chance by forcing
people into Shia rituals!
Article taken from sunniprisonersiran.com. We have
only bolded and underlinded some parts in this post. Please note that this is
not some isolated case. Conversion to Sunni Islam is increasingly common among
Ahwazi Arabs and lately even among ethnic Persians from major citiies such as
Tehran, Shiraz, Isfahan etc.
In this shocking court indictment you can read first-hand how the Iranian
authorities attempt to criminalize Sunni religious activities such as holding
Qur'an study meetings and performing congregational prayers.
Bizarrely, even celebrating Eid "at the same time that it was announced in Saudi
Arabia" was mentioned by the court as 'evidence' that the defendants had engaged
in "propaganda" against the state.
The court's blatant discrimination against the defendants' Sunni beliefs was
further illustrated by its decision to sentence the men to obligatory
participation in Shia religious rituals.
Also note the court's use of phrases such as 'Wahhabi' and 'Salafi', terms that
are commonly used in a derogatory manner by the Iranian authorities in reference
to practicing Sunni Muslims.
Iranian Sunnis complain of discrimination
The religious
minority says they are treated as second-class citizens, but are hopeful for
changes under Rouhani.
Farshad Mohammadi
In a recent speech made in Iran's southern city of Bandar Abbas, President
Hassan Rouhani asserted that his government has promised equal rights to Shia
and Sunni Iranians.
But human rights groups claim that Sunni Muslims' rights are being
systematically violated in the Islamic republic. New York-based Human Rights
Watch has said Iran's authorities discriminate against Muslim minorities,
including Sunnis, limiting their political participation and employment and
banning them from building mosques in major cities.
In October 2012, Sunni activists wrote a public letter to Ali Khamenei, Iran's
supreme leader, calling for an end to discriminatory policies and their lack of
civil rights. But the letter went unanswered.
Since his election, Rouhani has claimed to make efforts to improve the situation
of Iran's Sunni Muslims, making a statement dedicated to minorities' rights and
charging a special assistant to investigate the issue.
Sunni scholar Molavi Abdolhamid Ismaeelzahi told Al Jazeera: "Sunni Muslims in
Iran hope for an end to discrimination. Everybody is hopeful Rouhani can fulfil
his promises and also implement the constitution and stop illegalities and stop
the discrimination."
Rouhani likely had heavy Sunni support in last year's presidential elections.
About 85 percent of people living in Sunni areas of Iran participated [Pr] in
the polls, and Rouhani received especially high shares of the vote in Sistan and
Baluchistan (73.3 percent) and Kurdistan (70.8 percent) - provinces where a
large number of Iran's Sunnis live.
Ismaeelzahi said Rouhani's speeches made Sunni Muslims believe they would no
longer be treated as second-class citizens. "The most important discrimination
against Sunni Muslims in Iran is discrimination in assigning responsibilities to
them and employment. Sunni Muslims in Iran have faced this problem since the
Islamic revolution."
Approximately 10 percent of Iranians are Sunni, many living in the provinces of
Sistan and Baluchistan, Kurdistan, Kermanshah, Khorasan and Khuzestan. It is
also estimated that about one million Sunni Muslims live in Tehran.
But few have government jobs. Mohammad Hussein Gorgi, the Sunni imam of
Azadshahr in northern Iran, told Al Jazeera: "Until now, in the ministries and
embassies of the Islamic Republic's government, no Sunnis are employed, and they
haven't taken any important positions like governor or administrator... it
doesn't mean that there's no competent, principled or resourceful people among
Sunnis. Rather, it shows the lack of trust towards them."
He added: "But since this government is the government of prudence and hope, we
are hopeful that Sunnis will be assigned to important positions."
Iran's Sunnis are also underrepresented on Islamic TV programmes. Iranian
Sunnis' public letter to Khamenei stated: "After Iran's Islamic revolution,
Sunnis are not allowed to broadcast and express their opinion... even in one TV
programme or one provincial media centre. Instead, national media have been free
to desecrate... and offend Sunni Muslims."
The presence of radical Sunni groups has increased the government's pressure on
Iranian Sunnis. In recent years, armed Sunni groups have launched attacks within
Iran's borders. In response to an attack by radical groups last summer, the
Iranian government executed 16 Sunni rebels and declared that the action was in
response to terrorist attacks. In February, a hardline Sunni group called
Jaish-e-Adl took five Iranian soldiers hostage in the border area in Sistan and
Baluchistan province.
Sadegh Zibakalam, a political analyst and professor at Tehran University,
believes an additional problem is that many Sunnis do not conflate their
identity with Iranian national identity. "When the Islamic revolution occurred,
if a few surveys had been done, the result would show that Sunnis did not have a
serious, obvious identity... they were Sunni, but in the society they were mixed
with the Shia majority. Unfortunately, for a lot of reasons, Sunni identity
became much more pronounced during these years [following the revolution]."
Zibakalam said the Islamic republic's social and cultural policies spurred
Sunnis to develop a stronger sense of self-identity. "The social demands of
Sunnis were not met after the revolution. The government's approach meant that
Sunnis weren't attracted to the social framework of the Islamic Republic of
Iran."
"Everyone should be able to act within the framework of his religion," said
Ismaeelzahi. "That's it. It's reasonable and not excessive. We want this to be
defined within the framework of the constitution. We believe that if this is
achieved, then Iran will achieve national security, national unity and power."
Articles From Al-Jazeera
Iran's war against
Sunni Muslims - a letter from Sunni prisoners
Iran's Sunni
Muslim minority lives under discrimination in the Shia-dominated country, facing
persecution ranging from restrictions on worship to the supression and execution
of Sunni preachers. A letter, written on behalf of Sunni prisoners in Rajai
Shahr prison, Ghezel Hesar prison and Evin prison, highlights the oppression
faced by Sunni activists and preachers living in Iran.
All praise is to God, who does not oppress, and who has forbidden his servants
from oppression, and peace and blessings of Allah upon the Prophet, a mercy and
compassion, who has brought happiness to mankind.
Since the beginning of the 'Islamic Revolution' in Iran the government's policy
has always been to eliminate and suppress their opponents, critics, and even
those who own different beliefs. And they have done this against all those who
peacefully oppose them. The government would never think of accepting them. They
are not [treated like] citizens. And each year, they think of more restrictions,
so that it has been proven to all that the minorities are always living under
struggles.
Therefore, it is natural that there are a number of people who want to tell the
world about the oppression they are under, and want recognition that their
[religious, cultural, etc] activities are legitimate.
On the other hand, the government plots to portray them [Sunnis] as illegal and
eliminate their movement, at times calling them spies, self-seeking, evil
people. To 'prove' their claims, they have puppets of the government who go
forward to say that there is no oppression towards minorities. Sometimes they
call them terrorists, or say they are a danger to national security. They create
scenarios and incidents to make it appear as if they are extremely prevalent in
the country, and attribute it to [Sunni] activists. Or in situations where there
are incidents where the perpetrator is unknown, through force and torture they
blame it on a Sunni activist [eg through forced 'confessions'].
Now if we look at the prisons of Iran, especially Rajai Shahr prison, we will
clearly see the effect of these plots. [The government] invented an evil rumor
about the young men of Sanandaj, and said that two or three of them had done
unbelievable actions. The cost of being associated with [Sanandaj] is that 35
people were sentenced to death.
Or [in the case of] a murder, where the killer was unknown, they accused seven
people from Mahabad for it, and they have remained for more than four years
without trial.
Or [the case of] an assassination, where the killer was unknown, they accused
Shaykh Naghshbandi and those around him of it, and [for it] they sentenced some
to death, and sentenced some to long prison sentences and exile.
And this is the way the rulers of Iran eliminate the Sunni youth. One can
clearly see that God the most High has exposed to everyone the lies of the
government in the case of the prisoners, and even through the documentaries made
by the government to justify their oppression, people realized [the truth of the
matter].
Now, everyone knows that the government labels anyone in prison as 'bandits' and
as being a danger to national security, and they make their documentaries, where
they attribute [these things] to them.
In recent events where Iranian border guards have been taken hostage, the
Iranian government made a campaign to secure their release and put forward the
cases of their families.
Now, the question is, why doesn't the government make a comparison between them
and the Sunni prisoners? Is it not necessary to have a similar campaign for the
poor and the oppressed? Do they [Sunni prisoners] not have a family, wives, and
children? Have they not been removed from their homeland? What did they [Sunni
prisoners] say except that they want peace, and a quiet life? [What did they say
except that] they want no worries about their people, and to freely promote
their own beliefs in their own land? [What did they say except] not to
assassinate our leaders, and do not insult our beliefs, and do not attack our
youth and our honor, and to remove discrimination and oppression?
Whether these demands are large or not - they are the rights that the Sunnis
should have.
Now, at a time when we live under these fanatical and oppressive regimes, they
have condemned themselves to destruction or amendment, as the elders and
scholars have said that a disbelieving government may remain, but an oppressive
one will not.
The whole world has realized the cruelty and deception of this regime, and that
not once during these 35 years has there been a serious decision to reform, and
that every so often, the claim [of reform] is repeated only to deceive.
Not a single year has passed without adding a black mark to their own record.
They arrest and kill Sunni leaders, they destroy and ban people from [Sunni]
mosques, expelling Imams, creating fear and intimidation. Now, let you, the free
people who stand for freedom, judge the situation.
With thanks,
On behalf of Sunni prisoners in Rajai Shahr prison, Ghezel Hesar prison and Evin
prison.
Lebanese president
urges Hezbollah to leave Syria
Seyyed Mostafa Husseini Tabatabi is a former Twelver
Shiite cleric, based in Tehran, Shemiran district. He is the grandson of the
famous 'Ayatollah' Seyyed Mohammad Tabatabai. and his grandfather from his
mothers side is the famous 'Ayatollah' Mirza Ahmad Ashtiyani. The young Mostafa
managed to have a huge influence on his mother (a daughter of an 'Ayatollah'
after all!) and even convince d her to abonden alot of superstitions and deviant
Shiite Imamite beliefs that she was brought up with (just he like he himself)
all her life.
He entered the Shia religious centre (Hawzah) of Qom and by the age of twenty he
received Ijazat (permission) of Ijtihad. Nevertheless he refused to wear the
Shia clerical clothing and never wore it to this very day (Al-Hamdulillah).
Raised in a religious family he studied Arabic (he mastered Arabic), Fiqh, Usool
Al-Fiqh, Hadith, Tafsir, history and Philosophy under his grandfather
('Ayatollah' Mohammad Tabatabai).
Paternal grandfather of Mostafa Tabatabai, 'Ayatollah' Mohammad Tabatabai was
one of the leaders of the Iranian Constitutional Revolution
Maternal grandfather of Mostafa Tabatabai was the late 'Ayatollah' Mirza Ahmad
Ashtiyani
During his early youth (after the Hawza) he started questioning many Shia
beliefs, realising that the Shia (Twelver) sect is infested with numerous
heresies and superstitions (all in the name of 'following the Ahl Al-Bayt'), so
he decided to combat these Khorafat (superstitions). He particularly stressed
the important of Tawheed, friday prayers and other Sunan (plural of Sunnah) that
have been almost completely neglected in among twelver Shiites. This is where
his real struggle begun, suppression, prosecuation (and even an assasination
attempt!) and various accusation ('Wahhabism' etc.) were leveled against him and
his friends and brothers in belief, who just like him, started questioning
Twelver Shiism and its heretical and superstitious nature and actively and
fearlessly combated the heresies that Shia 'Ayatollahs' were propapating among
the masses in the name of 'Islam of the Ahl Al-Bayt'.
Ayatollah Abal-Fadhl Al-Borqei was also known as the Idol-Breaker and Ibn Hazm
of Persia
Among these friends were were Haidar Ali Qalamdaran (another former Twelver
Shiite cleric from Qom who wrote an epic book in refutation of the Shiite
Imamite belief, it's available in Arabic and Persian) and the famous Ayatollah
Abal-Fadhl Al-Borqei (whom some Shia due to their ignorance question his
existence or others, especially Farsi speakers who know they can't just wipe
away this reality, claim that Al-Borqei was an ignorant, although he had Ijazat
from over a few DOZEN 'Ayatollahs' and Maraji' of his time!) started to question
(as an 'Ayatollah'!) his own belief after he encountered the smart and
intelligent Mostafa.
Al-Borqei was impressed by Mostafa Tabatabai and according to Borqei's own
words, Mostafa once entered Al-Borqei's Mosque in Tehran while Al-Borqei was
giving typical Batini-heretical Shia Tafseers. Mostafa Tabatabai had a
discussion with Al-Borqei and prove the Shiite Tafseer of Al-Borqei wrong
(arguing based on the Arabic languages and other factors. Al-Borqei was so
impressed that he acknowledged his fault, and this in return impressed Tabatabai
who said that until then he never encountered a Shia scholar who (in public!)
let himself be corrected by an 'commoner' (obvsiously Tabatabai was not wearing
the clerical clothing).
Mosfata Tabatabai is now in his seventies, since his early twenties he is
defending the religion of Islam against Shiite, Christian, Zoroastrian and
Atheist heresies (he is an expert in all these fields). Al-Borqei died (a
natural death, albeit caused by the injuries he faced when he was shot more than
once, in several assassination attempts!) in the late ninetees, nevertheless
they never stopped preaching, be it under the Shiite 'Ayatollah' regime or even
in the Shah regime, where both used to preach Tawheed in a Mosque (and were thus
accused of 'Wahhabism'!). The blind-followers of the heretical 'Ayatollahs' (who
feared the truth as the Rabbis of Madinah feared the truth of Islam and Tawheed)
were incited more than once (even in the Shah's time!) to disturb and even
attack the Tawheed and Tafseer classes of Al-Borqei and Tabatabai. In one
incident they (desperate Twelver Shiites) even destroyed a sign that was put up
in front of the Masjid (where Al-Borqei and Tabatabai preached) with the
Qur'anic verse:
"And the places of worship (Masjids/Mosques) are for Allah (alone): So do not
invoke anyone beside Allah." (Qur'an 72:18)
That was simply to much to bear for them. Ever since he started to oppose
Twelver Shiite beliefs, he (just like Borqei and every other Muslim scholar) was
known for his speeches about Tawheed (monotheism) and that Allah, the creator
must be worshipped alone. He stressed most of his lectures based on the concept
of Tawheed (and Tafseer of the Qur'an) and abondened literally every single
Shiite Twelver belief that is considered clear-cut heresy according to orthodox
Islam. Amongst these beliefs are:
His rejection of the
Shia belief in divine appointment of Imams of the Imams of Ahl Al-Bayt
('Wilayah/Imamah')
His rejection of the
Shia belief in the infallibility ('Isma) of the Imams.
His rejection of the
Shiabelief in Wilayah Al-Takwiniyyah/Tasarruf Al-A'immah (also called Tafwidh,
it's the belie that Allah created the Imams and then delegated the ruling of
creation and giving sustenance to the universe to them)
His rejection of the
Shia belief of belief in Raj'ah. This is the alien Twelver belief that the Imams
of the Ahl Al-Bayt and a number of their enemies will return to this life to
rule and be tortured (Abu Bakr, Omar, Aishah etc.!)
His rejection of the
Shia (and extreme Sufi) belief of the concept of Hadhir wa Hadhir (Omnipresence
of the Imams i.e. they are All-seeing and All-hearing, based on that Shias call
upon their Imams for all sorts of needs).
His rejection of the
Shia belief in the superiority of the Imams over the Prophets
His rejection of the
Shia belief that the Imams (and even Fatimah!) received REVELATION (not just
ilham, but revelation in form of books etc.) after the demise of the Final
Messenger of Allah (عليه الصلاة و السلام)
His rejection of the
Takfir, Tafsiq and Tabdi (declaring someone a Kafir, wretched and an innovator)
of the absolute majority of the Prophet's companions by the Twelver Shia sect
and its scholars.
His rejection of the
negative Shia stance towards the absolute majority of the Prophet's companions,
especially Abu Bakr, Omar and Othman. He always refers to ALL four Caliphs as
Khulafa' Al-Rashideen (the rightly guided Caliphs). Tabatabai defends Abu Bakr,
Omar, Othman and Ali and argues that Ali (despite any difference he had with his
brothers the Sahaba), he sincerely gave the pledge of allegiance to all Caliphs
before him and never believed to be a 'God-chosen' Imam. Tabatabai even wrote a
book in defense of the Sahaba called: بین النهرین در روزگار خلفای راشدین
("Between the rivers in the days of the Rightly Guided Caliphs". This book is
all about Abu Bakr, Omar, Othman, Ali and Hassan Ibn Ali).
His rejection of
innovated and heretical forms of Tawassul , Istishfa', Istighatha (different
forms of (intercession and supplication) etc. such as supplicating directly to
saints (Imams, Prophets) as it is common amongst the Twelver Shiites (and other
polytheists such as the Catholics, some Sufis etc.). He argues that the Prophet
and his Household prayed only to God, directly with no intermediates AND taught
others to do so as well (according to Sahih narrations in Shia books). He
opposes Shiite and (some extreme) Sufi beliefs alike in regards to this matter.
His rejection of taking
oaths, swearing and slaughtering for others besides Allah (a common Shia Twelver
trait)
His rejection of the
reheprensible Shia innovation called Turbah (a piece of clay Shia put their
foreheads on during prayer). He wrote an excellent treatise named "Is
prostration on other than soil/earth persmissible?" (آیا سجده بر غیرزمین جایز
است؟) proving the Sunni position right, namely that prayer is allowed on
everything that is clean and pure (even if it isn't made of earth) and that the
Shiite belief which states that praying on anything which is not made from earth
invalids (!) the prayer was never thebelief of the Ahl Al-Bayt, let alone the
even stranger and more hideous Shia claim that praying on clay from the soil of
Karbala' is actually the preferred Sunnah. He considers the later position
clear-cut misguidance.
His rejection of the
'Ja'fari' Fiqh (of course he - just like all of Ahl Al-Sunnah) doesn't believe
that the Rafidi Twelcer sect has got anything to do with Ja'far Al-Sadiq), i.e.
the Twelver Imamite Fiqh. Normally he never mentions the Twelver Fiqh position
when analysing Fiqh issues, he normally only quotes Sunni schools of taught (not
even the Zaydis). This is a clear indication that he doesn't even see any
benefit in the Shia Twelver Fiqh (let alone their Aqidah). So Fiqh wise he is
closer to the Ahl Al-Sunnah than even the Zaydi Shiites.
His rejection of the
pagan and barbaric Shia self-flagellation rituals and other innovated mourning
ceremonies in his treatise "A statement of truth in regards to impermissible
mourning rituals" (بیان حقیقت دربارة عزاداریهای نامشروع).
His rejection of the
Mut'a (temporay) marriage
His preference for the
Sunni method of Wudhu (ablution)
His rejection of the
heretical Shia belief (in clear-cut opposition to the Qur'an) that friday
prayers are not obligatory (some Shia scholars even deem it impermissible until
the '12th' Imam appears from his everlasting occultation). He always stressed
the importance of the friday prayer and how it is neglected amongst Twelver
Shiites (even in Tehran, there is only ONE Friday prayer, which is more like a
political theatre than a true spiritual friday prayer according to the Sunnah).
He sometimes prayed the friday prayer with two people only (in his house, since
the regime prohibited him from preaching in Mosques, let alone having an own
Mosque.
His pro-Shia beliefs (Shia
in the mildest form possible, similar to many Zaydis):
He beliefs in the
superiority of Ali Ibn Abi Talib over all companions (nevertheless, as stated
before he doesn't believe in divine appointment of ANY Imam. He says that the
maximum that can be proven is that Ali and other Imams claimed Imamate on the
basis of their superior knowledge and not divine appointment.
He holds some
Mu'tazilite (sometimes Asharite) like beliefs in regards to the names and
attributes of Allah, a belief mostly found amongst Zaydis, Twelver Shiites and
other groups who deviated in this matter. Nevertheless he is not a full blooded
Jahmi, one has to understand that this man was raised a Shia most of his life
and has been heavily influenced in these theological field.
He can be basically
described as a Tafdhili Shiite (similar to Ahmad Al-Katib), a Sunni in general
sense, without a shred of doubt.
All these information can easily be extracted from his lectures (all in Persian)
and articles in books. Tabatabai also used to be a friend of the current
Revolutionary Leader Ali Khamenei (before the Revolution, Khamenei was much more
open minded, he even translated books of Sayyid Qutb!). Khamenei was even about
to publish one of Tabatabai's books. This is because Tabatabai - who is
extremely intelligent - is one of the academically strongest persons when it
comes to refuting and debunking the polemics of Iranian Anti-Islam polemicists.
In fact, Tabatabai is the first and only Iranian who refuted the manifesto of
Ali Dashti. Ali Dashti was ironically a Shia student at various Hawza's in Iran
and Iraq who then apostated and wrote a book named "23 Years, A Study of
Prophetic Career of Muhammad". To this very day, this book is used by Iranian
extreme nationalist and Islam ciritiques to question Islam. Mostafa Tabatabi who
wrote a few volume refutation of Ali Dashti book. His refutation is so strong
and well written that his own enemy who put him in the big prison called Iran
(the Iranian regime) published his book (you can download it here).
Currently, he is the only Iranian Muslim intellectual who is confronting
notorious Iranian Atheist, Neo-Zoroastrians, Christian-Evangelical crusading
(ALL without a single exception are former Shiites!) pastors and other enemies
of Islam (such as Bahram Moshiri) with several written rebuttals and video
lectures on various topics (so called distortion of the Qur'an, Islam and
slavery, women rights in Islam, the reality of pagan Zoroastrianism etc). He had
even a number of debates with several Iranian Islam critiques (all available on
his website and YouTube) and encountered all their attacks on Islam, something
you will never see from the 'Ayatollahs' of Qom. As stated before, he is
basically under house arrest, he is not even allowed to leave Tehran, let alone
Iran, he is in his seventies know and is suffering from ilnesses, yet he is
active as usual and regularly puts new videos and articles on his website:
www.tabatabaie.net
If you speak Farsi we highly recommend you to listen (and recommend) to his
lectures (especially those in refutation to Atheist and Christians) and if you'd
like to spread the word of this man and his likes, then contact us (leave a
comment) and help us translating his articles and lectures, In sha Allah. Here
the only translated English article of him:
The Burning of Holy Koran With a Disastrous Result
We ask Allah to preserve Sayyid Mostafa Husseini Tabatabai who are a means for
the awakening of many Iranian Shias who are fed up of the heresies of the
Twelver sect and their empy claim of 'following and loving the Prophet's
household'.
Iranian Shia intellectual questions the core
of Shiism and the 'Ayatollahs' go nuts!
The situation for reasonable Shiite insides Iran who
are tired of the with heresies and superstitions infested sect of Twelver Shiism
(which has been condemned throughout centuries by Muslim scholars) is not easy.
Criticising the 'Ayatollahs' and certain Shia beliefs and practices alone will
get one in huge trouble, let alone declaring openly ones conversion to true
Islam (Sunnism) or denouncing the core of Shiism.
A Shia intellectual and scholar, Dr. Seyyed Ali Asghar Gharavi caused a stir
when he indicated that the Sunni belief in regards to Ali Ibn Abi Talib (the
fourth righteouss Caliph to the Sunnis and first 'infallible' direct successor
of the Prophet by the Shiites) is the correct one i.e. that leaders are NOT
chosen by God, neither the Shia 'infallibles' nor any other ruler (except the
Prophets). Dr. Seyyed Ali Gharavi studied in Iran and Lebanon and holds
doctorate in Islamic philosophy. He is from a major religious Shiite family, his
father is the late Ayatollah Seyyed Jawad Gharavi who was also known for his
reformists thoughts and opposition to many Shiite beliefs, which he (just like
his son) considered heretical and superstitious.
Ali Gharavi's father was in fact a friend of Ayatollah Al-Borqei who mentioned
him (Ayatollah Borqei) in his autobiography. Ayatollah Jawad Gharavi back in his
times was already accused of 'Wahhabism' (merely for speaking against some Shia
practices and beilefs he believed to be heresies!), and today it seems to the
turn of his son, who has been imprisoned for writing a small academical article
on the topic of Imamate.
Bahar published the article that sealed its fate on Oct. 28. In "Imam Ali, a
Political Leader or a Religious Model?" the writer, Ali Asghar Gharavi, claimed
that the religious role of the first Shiite imam was more important than his
political role. He wrote, "He [Ali] is not just the political ruler for a few
days of passing power in this world. Ali, more than being the commander of the
faithful, is the imam and the role model for humanity." The article appeared one
day before the innovated 'Eid Al-Ghadeer' in Iran.
Iran on Monday arrested Ali Asghar Gharavi, the author of a controversial
article seen by critics as questioning the beliefs of Shiite Islam, a prosecutor
general said. "In regards with the banned newspaper (Bahar), the author of that
article was arrested yesterday," prosecutor Mohseni Ejeie was quoted as saying
by Fars news agency. In late October, the pro-reformist Bahar daily published an
opinion piece penned by Gharavi, which drew heavy criticism from the
authorities.
Judiciary chief Ayatollah (of course an Ayatollah …) Sadegh Larijani has warned
his department will "act with determination against those who falsify the
history and try to undermine the fundamentals of the regime." A single article
has shaken the thrones of the Shia clergy and their whole belief system and they
know very well that their whole existence is based on the heretical Shiite
belief called 'Imamate', because with no Imamite, there is no justification for
the innovated velayat-e faqih system.
The establishment in Iran is stressing the point that the velayat-e faqih
[guardianship of the jurist] is in fact the continuation of the rulership [velayat]
of Imam Ali. Knowing this fact, Gharavi still emphasized the point that Imam Ali
was more of a spiritual leader than a political one. In other words, he has
questioned the position of Ayatollah [Ali] Khamenei as the political leader." In
one part of the article Gharavi wrote, "Imam Ali repeatedly mentions in Nahj al-BalaghaI
[a book of quotations and sermons attributed to him] that political rule can
only be achieved by people voting and paying allegiance."
But what was the crim of Dr. Gharavi? In his article, Dr. Gharavi mentioned that
leaders are appointed through Shura (Quranic Sunni belief) of the people not
divinely. He discuses the verses that Shia use to prove the appointment of Ali
Ibn Abi Talib and refuted them. His article angered many 'Ayatollahs' who asked
the government to punish him and shutdown the newspaper (that's their
intellectual strenght when dealing with critics).
426988_478He was arrested on Sunday in Isfahan and transferred to a prison in
Tehran. Not only that but even the newspaper, Roznameh Bahar, that published his
article has been forced to shutdown. Note that Gharavi did not use any harsh
words, let alone profanity, he simply criticised a Shiite belief that is already
being criticised for ages by orthodox Muslims (i.e. the Imamite belief), yet
instead of discussing with him, his opponents resorted to prosecution and even
even shut down a newspaper (because of a single article!)
After his arrests, a few Shia scholars popped out and wrote 'refutations',
knowing well that the arrested Gharavi can't defend himself when being put in
prison by the very same Mullahs. It is to no suprise that nearly all the other
newspapers, TV and radio (which are in the hands of the Mullahs) started a war
on Gharavi and repeated the lie that Gharavi 'insulted and disrespected' Shiism,
in fact they went so far to speak for the whole nation and accused Gharavi of
having insulted the whole Iranian nation (as if all Iranians are Shiites!).
'Ayatollah' Makarem Shirazi and 'Ayatollah' Hamadani are two major Shia Marja's
of Iran who literally called for the prosecution of Gharavi and everyone who
dares to question Shia beliefs. Makarem Shirazi said (as reported by the state
owned FARS news agency):
"نویسنده گستاخ در این روزنامه حرفهای بسیار زشتی نوشته بود، روزنامه توقیف شده
است ولی نباید به این هم قناعت شود."
'The 'Gustakh' (Persian religious term, referring to people who do not give due
respect to religious sanctities) author of this (Bahar) newspaper uttered very
terrible words in and (thus) the newspaper has been shut down, but we shouldn't
be satisfied with that (this is not enough).' He further said "Some people
shouldn't think that since there is a new government they can say anything they
want".
Another frightened 'Ayatollah':
'Ayatollah' Hossein Nouri Hamedani, who has a substantial following as a marja -
source of emulation - joined in the condemnation of the article, asking (as
reported by Qomnew.ir),
"Why should a newspaper permit itself the temerity and audacity to insult and
malign sacred religious beliefs, the Ghadeer, the imamat, and the guardianship
[of the supreme leader]?"
Arresting someone for criticising Shiism (in an academic article) and shutting
down the entire newspaper is not enough to this 'Ayatollah', he wants more
prosecution, probably to intimidate futures 'Gustakhs'. Shia are so proud that
Iran is majority Shia, of course it's gonna be majority Shia if doubting the
Imamite belief itself in a respectable way will get you into so much trouble.
The shutting of the paper is an unlawful and unethical measure especially when
the newspaper even released an apology and three refutations of Mr. Gharavi's
article. This did not stop the Iranian regime and the Shia clergy to prosecute
everyone who was involved in the release of a single article, most probably to
give out a message for future thinkers, of how the Shia clergy will deal with
those who dare to question the Shia creed.
Mr. Gharavi's article did not contain religious insults or slander, or even
negate the necessities of religion, to deserve being labeled criminal and be
banned. It is noteworthy that the article was written by a Shiite. Even if we
suppose that it may have been written by a Sunni person then how does one
reconcile the fact that just a few months ago, prior to the June presidential
elections, the sitting president had gone to the Sunni provinces of Iran to get
the votes of this 10-15+ percent minority and support in the June elections and
through this act recognized their civil rights while the right of the Sunnis to
express their thoughts and opinions through an article results in the closure of
the newspaper where it was published?
Some government officials who tried to rationalize the malicious closure of
Bahar and stamp it as a peaceful act have said such articles incited the
religious and sectarian differences. But a close look at what has been happening
to the Sunnis reveals the source of the differences and conflicts: They do not
have the right to have their own mosque in the capital of their own province and
they face layers of political and security restrictions! It is these
discriminatory and insulting acts that fuel religious and sectarian differences
and not the publication of an article that happens to be different from the
official Shiite narrative.
There are so many resemblances between Shiism and Catholicism - especially the
clerical caste, saint worship etc. - that one shouldn't be really suprised that
the Shia clergy act similar to the medieval Catholic priests and church who
suppressed their opponents within the Catholic church in the name of Inquisition
i.e. combating heresy, a scenario quite similar to what Shia thinkers and
reformists face in Iran today.
For a Muslim, there is no doubt that the Catholic church is based on the essence
of heresies and those Christian reformers in the medieval times who tried to
purify it (from at least some heresies) were no doubt closer to the truth and
original Christianity than the Catholic church who (according to Islam)
distorted the true message of Jesus (peace be upon) much more than the
protestants for example.
The situation of Shia reformists in Iran is quite similar (and there are many in
Iran, not just Gharavi who happen to be a known Shia intellectual in Iran,
Isfahan), for they too are the real victims and real reformers who have realised
and acknowledged that the current Shia twelver sect is nothing but a sect
infiltrated with the most hideous heresies and innovations. They too are being
suppressed and silenced by the (Shia) clergy who are in fact the true
propagators of heresies (just as the Catholic church) even if they claim to
combat heresies (just as the Catholic church). They too are being thrown into
the dungeons of the Shia church for merely writing academical articles in
refutation of Shia Twelver beliefs whom they believe (just as the Sunnis) of not
being the true beliefs of the Shias (supporters) of Ali Ibn Abi Talib, in this
case, the belief in the 'Imamate/Wilayah' of Ali Ibn Abi Talib (upon which many
other misguided Shia bliefs, including the Takfir of the Prophet's companions
are based upon).
Throwing Mr. Gharavi into the dungeons of the regime and THEN releasing some
'rebuttals' by a number of Shia scholars is an easy task (how shall someone
reply from his cell anyway, where he is most like being terrorised and tormented
for questioning Shiism?!) and apparently in accordance to the Shia religion, as
for Islam, it even encourages the discussion with non-Muslims (let alone
Muslims):
Say: "O People of the Book! come to common terms as between us and you: That we
worship none but Allah; that we associate no partners with him; that we erect
not, from among ourselves, Lords and patrons other than Allah." If then they
turn back, say ye: "Bear witness that we (at least) are Muslims (bowing to
Allah's Will).
Invite to the way of your Lord with wisdom and good instruction, and argue with
them in a way that is best. Indeed, your Lord is most knowing of who has strayed
from His way, and He is most knowing of who is [rightly] guided. (Qur'an,
16:125)
Refuting, discussing and arguing (in the best manner) is what Islam teaches and
encourages (for the educated, not laymen) even with the Christians and Jews, let
alone with fellow Muslims. The Safavids of today are only exposing themselves
and proving their desperation if they deal so harsh with a single academical
article. They are only proving that they are no different to their
mass-murdering forefathers, who (by force and mass-executions) turned a majority
Sunni Persia into Rafidi Persia with similar methods.
During the Safavid era, after a genocide of the Sunni population of Khorasan/Persia,
Shah Ismail (the Safavid) arrested the Sunni Mufti of these lands, the Allamah
Taftazani, and urged him (Taftazani) to leave Sunnism and embrace Shiism.
Taftazani gave a condition. He said that Shah Ismail should bring his Shia
scholars, and if they can refute him (Taftazani) then he is ready to become a
Shiite, but if he (Taftazani) refutes them, then they (including Shah Ismail)
have to become Sunnis. Shah Ismail consulted with the Shia scholars but they
refused and said: "There is no discussion with these people". Thereupon Shah
Ismail ordered the worst form of execution for Taftazani (and other Sunni
scholars).
('Tarikh Rashidi', page 367-368, by Mirza Mohammad Haidar)
This is why Mohammad Aref Espanagheshi (Iranian historian) writes: "Every Sunni
scholar in those times (Safavid era) who challenged the Shia scholars for
debates and discussion was facing execution. This is why some Sunni scholar kept
silent (did not speak out) and other left the country."
('Inqilab Al-Islam bain Al-Khawaas wa Al-Awaam', page 48 by Mohammad Aref
Espanagheshi)
And today, the descendants of the Safavids, the 'Ayatollahs' also claim to be
upon the truth and the religion of Islam and Ahl Al-Bayt, yet the way they deal
with their opponents WITHIN themselves is not much different to the classical
Safavids, except that ordering mass-executions of Sunni scholars and Shias who
question Shiism are not as easy today as back then. Nevertheless, as we can see
in the case of Mr. Gharavi, the 'Ayatollahs' try everything to suppress the
voice of any opposition, they are in fact afraid of an awakening amongst the
Shias of Iran. Yes, an awakening, and it is not an exaggeration to claim so, for
what is going behind the scenes is much bigger than most of us (particularly non
Persian speaking ones) could have ever imagines. Ali Asghar Gharavi is NOT an
isolated case (as been mentioned before), Iran is full of his likes, who try to
reform Shiism from within (some leaving it completely, others opposing literally
every heresy and superstition that Shia scholars today propagate as the 'school
of thought of Ahl Al-Bayt'. Amongst them are the likes of Ahmad Kasravi, Musa
Al-Musawi (Iranian), Ahmad Al-Katib (Iraqi of Iranian origin),Ustad Qalamdaran,
Ayatollah Al-Borqei (Iranian), Mostafa Husseini Tabatabai (Iranian), Shaykh Al-Muayyad
(Iraqi) and many others.
Here his article that has shaken the thrones of the Rafidi Shia Mullahs
(That's a translation of just some of his points, i.e. not the complete
translation of the original article):
This day I have perfected for you your religion and completed My favor upon you
and have approved for you Islam as religion. [Maida:3]
- The verses before and after shows that Allah (swt) gives the Prophet (saw) the
responsibility to convey the message, nothing should stop him from doing his job
and He shouldn't worry about the opposition from the disbelievers. From the way
and style of the verse it becomes clear that the "completion of favor" is the
divine revelation (Quran) and Islam. Meaning, now that revelation has been
conveyed to the people without any defects, the favor has been completed.
- If the verse "Convey that which we have revealed upon you" [Madia: 67] was
about introducing Ali (as) for caliphate, Allah would have mentioned it clearly
right here in the verse. Allah is wise.
- Ali (as) himself in Nahj al-Balagha emphasize that a political government
comes through Bayah and vote. For example Amir al-Muminin says to Muawiah in
letter 6 of Nahj al-Balagha:
Verily, the people who payed allegiance to Abu Bakr, Omar and Othman, have payed
allegiance to me based on the same principles as the allegiance to them. So
anyone who was present has no right to go against his pledge of allegiance, and
anyone who was absent has no right to oppose it. And verily Shura (consultation)
is only the right of the Muhajirs and the Ansar. So if they decide upon a man
and declare him their Imam, then it is with the pleasure of Allah.
The words of Ali clearly shows that caliphate is not something divine, rather
the political successors of the Prophet (saw) must be appointed through people.
- Ali (as) never talks about his divine appointment and his appointment by the
Prophet (saw). Even when he wants to defend his right for caliphate, he
emphasizes on his merits and his suitabilities and informs the people about
these points so that they don't make mistake in appointing their leader. In
entire sermons of Nahjul Balagha "awareness and selection (of leader)" is so
clear that it leaves no doubt what opinion of Ali (as) was about a government.
- The behavior of Ali (as) towards the three caliphs especially Abu bakr and
Omar, as mentioned in many history books, clearly shows that he didn't consider
them to be people who would disobey the command of the Prophet (saw) and usurp
the government. The cooperation of Ali (as) with Khulafa, which he himself have
mentioned many times is so compassionate that leaves no room for doubt.
For example in the book al-Gharat al-Thaqafi Shi'i Amir al-muminin Ali (as)
says: "When the Prophet (saw) completed his mission, Allah took him from this
world, peace and blessing of Allah be upon him, then the Muslims appointed two
worthy men (Abu Bakr and Omar) as his successors and those two leaders acted
upon the book and the Sunnah and did not deviate from the Sunnah and ways of the
Prophet (saw). Then Allah took their souls. May Allah have mercy on them."
- If Amir al-Muminin was divinely appointed after the Prophet (saw), would his
courage stop him to unleash his sword to implement the order and justice of
Allah? Was it not expected from the gate of knowledge to explain the truth in
time when needed?
…and the article continues.
Lebanese president
urges Hezbollah to leave Syria
A commander from Iran's Revolutionary Guards has been
killed in Syria, media said Saturday, a disclosure
that runs counter to Tehran's insistence it is not
fighting alongside President Bashar al-Assad's forces.
Reports that Abdollah Eskandari died while fighting
the Muslims at a Shiite shrine emerged earlier this
week but neither the elite military unit nor Iran's
foreign ministry have passed comment.
Abdollah Eskandari had travelled to Syria, allegedly
to fight around the Sayyida Zeinab shrine in Damascus,
a Shiite center of pilgrimage, Iranian news website
Payvand reported.
Hardline Iranian news website Rajanews reported that
Eskandari had been "martyred" on May 26, while other
sources state that he was killed on May 22. His body
has not been returned to Iran, reports said.
Syrian news websites circulated a photo of a young man
holding what was purportedly Eskandari's decapitated
head in his hand.
However, the Fars news agency reported that a funeral
service would be held for the commander Sunday in the
city of Shiraz.
Since the conflict's outbreak in March 2011, Iran has
provided Damascus with intelligence, material and
military advisers.
But Iran insists it has never sent combat troops to
Syria, rejecting such claims made by mostly Sunni
rebels fighting to overthrow Assad.
Despite the denials, Iranian media occasionally
reports the deaths of Iranian volunteer fighters
killed in Syria.
Among them was Guards commander Mohammad Jamali Paqale
who was killed in November while "defending" the
Shiite holy site of Zeinab shrine in Damascus.
Ongoing deaths
Eskandari is one of more than a dozen individuals from
Iran who have been killed participating in the
three-year-long conflict, according to Iranian media,
some with the sole purpose of defending the shrine,
which sits outside the war-wracked nation's capital.
Radio Zamaneh, a Netherlands based radio station,
reported that over 60 Revolutionary Guards officers
have been killed in Syria since 2011.
Iranian officials continually reject accusations that
their government is sending military forces to Syria
to prop up embattled President Bashar al-Assad's
regime.
As a key ally of Syria, Iran says it provides Damascus
with military and financial support.
However, Iranian media from time to time report the
deaths of Iranian volunteer fighters there.
Earlier this month, U.S. newspaper the Wall Street
Journal reported that Iran's Revolutionary Guards was
offering Iranian residency and $500 monthly stipends
to thousands of Afghans to fight Syrian rebels -
claims dismissed "completely unfounded" by Iran's
foreign ministry, according to Agence France-Presse.
"The claim of the U.S. paper is completely unfounded
and is aimed at damaging Iran's reputation in
Afghanistan," foreign ministry spokeswoman Marzieh
Afkham said in a statement carried by Iranian media.
Syria Islamist fighters
the Islamic Front bomb tunnel, kill 20
Islamist rebels, who planted explosives in a tunnel
under the Syrian's army position in Aleppo, have
killed at least 20 regime soldiers and pro-regime
militia on Saturday, Agence France-Presse reported a
monitor as saying.
"Islamist rebels detonated a tunnel near the Zahrawi
market in the Old City of Aleppo, killing at least 20
army soldiers and pro-regime militiamen," according to
Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, quoted by AFP.
The attack was claimed by the Islamic Front, Syria's
largest rebel alliance, which counts as its members
thousands of fighters across the war-torn country.
The Front posted a link to a video on its Twitter
account, showing a huge blast throwing a massive cloud
of debris up into the air.
The Old City is a flashpoint area that sees daily
fighting, and the army has set up multiple positions
there.
The historic Old City area has also seen horrific
violence ever since a major rebel offensive on Aleppo
in July 2012.
Fighting after
the bombing
After the explosion, fighting broke out, leaving at
least one rebel killed, said the UK-based Observatory.
In recent weeks, the Islamic Front has frequently used
tunnels to plant massive amounts of explosives beneath
army positions.
The tactic has been used mainly in Aleppo and
neighboring Idlib provinces.
The latest blast came a day after the Observatory said
some 2,000 people have been killed since January in
regime bombing of rebel-held areas of Aleppo city and
nearby towns and villages.
Syria's war has killed more than 162,000 people, and
forced nearly half the population to flee their homes.
Lebanese president
urges Hezbollah to leave Syria
Lebanon's President Michel Suleiman on Saturday urged
Hezbollah to withdraw its forces from Syria to avoid
future repercussions on the tiny Arab state that
suffered through 15 years of its own civil war.
Suleiman made his comments in the mountain village of
Brih during a ceremony on reconciliation between the
Druze and Christian community in the area that
witnessed deadly sectarian violence during Lebanon's
1975-90 civil war.
"I appeal for the return to Lebanon and to withdraw
from neighboring arenas to avoid future repercussions
on Lebanon," said Suleiman, a critic of Hezbollah
backing Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces.
Hezbollah, which openly joined the battles in Syria
last year, is not likely to abide by Suleiman's call.
Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah has vowed to
keep his fighters in Syria as long as needed to shore
up Assad's struggle against Syria's rebels.
The Hezbollah fighters have been instrumental to
Assad's success on the battlefield, and support from
the Iranian-backed group appears to have tipped the
balance into the government's favor - especially in
areas on the border with Lebanon and near the Syrian
capital of Damascus.
Suleiman's comments came a week before his six-year
term ends.
Meanwhile in Syria, members of al-Qaida breakaway
group called the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
beheaded a local rebel commander of a rival group,
activists said.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights
reported that the Ahrar al-Sham commander known as Abu
al-Miqdam went missing four days ago. It said the man
was found beheaded Friday in the central province of
Hama.
Many rebels referred to Abu al-Miqdam as the "tank
sniper" for his role in firing rockets at Syrian army
tanks, according to opposition websites.
The Islamic State and rival Islamic groups including
Ahrar al-Sham have been fighting each other in
northern and eastern Syria since January. Activists
say the internal fighting killed more than 6,000
people.
Meanwhile, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
condemned a cut in water supplies in the northern
Syrian city of Aleppo that he said has deprived at
least 2.5 million people of access to potable water.
In a statement released by his office late Friday, Ban
noted that denying civilians essential supplies is a
breach of international and humanitarian law.
Rebels from the al-Qaeda-linked Nusra Front shut down
the main water pumping station in Aleppo, Syria's
largest city, nearly two weeks ago to punish civilians
living on the government-controlled side of the
divided metropolis, the Observatory's Rami Abdurrahman
said.
Abdurrahman, whose group collects information from
activists inside Syria, said that the Nusra Front has
tried to restart the water station, but that supplies
are erratic and remain largely cut.
"They don't have specialists to deal with the pumps,
and they've damaged the station," Abdurrahman said.
"They've tried to resume pumping. Sometimes it works,
sometimes it doesn't. The water comes and goes, but
until now it's not flowing as usual."
Some residents have resorted to drinking polluted well
water distributed in buckets and plastic jerry cans.
Can Iran's ideal
vision become a reality? The phase of absurd tension
which lasted for three decades and which neither the
Arabs nor the Iranians benefited from
By Abdulrahman al-Rashed
The important op-ed written by Iranian Foreign Affairs
Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and published in Asharq
al-Awsat on Thursday is worthy of reading and as a
topic of discussion.
In the article, Zarif said that Iran's presidential
elections provided a unique opportunity to resolve the
nuclear issue but that the neighbors - i.e. the Gulf
countries - have, unlike the rest of the world, voiced
their concern that reconciliation may be reached at
their expense. The minister insisted on stating that
despite negotiations with the West, his country's
priority, in terms of foreign relations, is the Gulf
States.
There is one sentence that can be interpreted
differently, however: "Unrest in the region proved
that no country can live isolated and that luxury
cannot be attained at the expense of others' poverty
and security cannot be achieved at the expense of
others' insecurity .We either win together or lose
together."
We must recall when Western warships arrived in the
region in these massive numbers. This started at the
beginning of Tehran's confrontation with the U.S. and
after Iran targeted Kuwaiti oil tankers
He suggested a plan, saying: "The core of any regional
comprehensive arrangements must be limited to the
eight coastal countries. Adding any other country will
increase [the number] of complicated issues. This will
overshadow the region's current problems and will
further complicate [issues]."
He warned that "the presence of foreign forces have
throughout history led to domestic instability in the
host countries. It also increased tension between the
[latter] countries and other regional countries."
Must we read between the lines or does the headline
say it all?
A perfect vision
As a writer, there isn't much that I disagree with him
on. It's a perfect and realistic vision. The problem
will appear when this vision is interpreted by
different parties. No one wants Iran to produce one
million barrels of oil per day while others are
producing 10 millions. But Tehran is to be blamed for
this because its weakness is a result of its former
decisions to oppose the West which owns the
technology, the money and the market. Its weakness has
nothing to do with the Gulf. Iran's poverty is also a
result of its policies which reflect the nature of its
revolutionary rhetoric as it is more concerned with
military structuring and foreign political activity.
Unlike Iran, the luxury of the Arab Gulf is a result
of governmental policies which are less interested in
foreign adventures. This is what Iraq's Saddam Hussein
failed to understand. He thought that attacking Iran
in the 1980s and invading Kuwait in the 1990s would
provide him with the power and revenues he needed.
Zarif's suggestion of an arrangement limited to eight
countries - that is the six Arab Gulf countries in
addition to Iraq and Iran - should be the logical
result reached when Iran proves that it has really
stopped inciting unrest against countries like Bahrain
and Saudi Arabia. Unless the latter is proven, what
Zarif is practically suggesting is a mere council
which Iran, along with its ally, Iraq, has control
over. Arrangements will only yield a trusteeship
council and that will be impossible to accept.
We agree with him on his rejection of the presence of
foreign powers and his warning that this is a source
of unrest. But we must recall when Western warships
arrived in the region in these massive numbers. This
started at the beginning of Tehran's confrontation
with the U.S. and after Iran targeted Kuwaiti oil
tankers to drown them and thus forced Kuwait to resort
to the American navy for help. It began after Iran's
attempt to violate Saudi airspace in the 1980s and
following the explosions in Khobar, then Riyadh and
then Manama and after Iran's occupation of UAE's
islands in the 1990s.
It's a long story, your Excellency. Despite that, you
and your new president may be the ones to launch a new
history with your neighbors and thus end the phase of
absurd tension which lasted for three decades and
which neither the Arabs nor the Iranians benefitted
from.
This article was first published in Asharq al-Awsat on
Nov. 24, 2013.
Free, Defend And Support The Sunnis in Iran
40-year-old Sunni
prisoner beaten in front of other prisoners and
transferred to new ward, Bandar Abbas, Iran
A Sunni prisoner of conscience, 40-year-old Ahmad
Mohammadi, was beaten by prison guards in front of
fellow prisoners at Bandar Abbas Central prison,
southern Iran.
According to reports, prison guards raided the ward
without explanation and began beating Ahmad Mohammadi,
as prisoners looked on in shock.
According to the human rights group 'HRDAI', the
guards inflicted a number of injuries on Ahmad. He was
handcuffed and shackled, before being transferred to
section 2 of Bandar Abbas prison.
Ahmad Mohammadi is from Qeshm Island, an island with a
Sunni-majority population, located off the southern
coast of Iran.
He was arrested in a raid in 2011, by officials from
the Ministry of Intelligence. After several months in
solitary confinement, under physical and psychological
torture, he was forced to make false confessions.
He was detained for more than a year in Gohardasht
prison in Karaj (also known as Rajai Shahr prison),
before being transferred to Bandar Abbas Central
prison, where he is currently being held in ward 2.
Numerous Sunni Muslims, especially those active in
propagating Sunni Islam, have been imprisoned and even
executed under false charges in politically motivated
trials.
In 2011, the US Commission on International Religious
Freedom (USCIRF) stated that "Sunni Muslim leaders
regularly are intimidated and harassed by intelligence
and security services and report widespread official
discrimination."
Free, Defend And Support The Sunnis in Iran
A letter on behalf
of our respected brother, Timor Naderi Zadeh, awaiting
execution, Iran
Timor Naderi Zadeh, awaiting execution, Iran
This is a letter written on behalf of our respected
Sunni brother, Timor Naderi Zadeh, awaiting execution
in Rajai Shahr prison, Karaj, Iran. The letter is from
a trusted source, who can not be named due to security
reasons.
(Original letter in Farsi at the end of this article)
In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful,
Timor Naderi Zadeh worked as a farmer. At the age of
45, on June 8, 2010, he was arrested whilst he was at
work on his farm.
He was kept in solitary confinement in the
Intelligence agencies in Sanandaj and Zanjan.
Throughout this time, despite being under physical and
mental torture, he did not give in to the
interrogators demands to make a false 'confession'.
It is important to note, that Timor had two sons. The
first, [Irfan Naderi Zadeh] who was born in 1991, was
arrested when he was 19 years old. He is currently
[with his father] in Rajai Shahr prison.
Whenever he sees his father, the son's heart is
pained, but what can he do, he is also held captive by
the Iranian regime.
And likewise, when the father [Timor] sees his son, he
is grieved, as by now his son would have been in
college, and the father would have loved to see him
progress.
But, alas, the Iranian regime wants to destroy the
youth of the Sunnis, and will never give permission
for them to progress.
Additionally, Timor's son-in-law [Ibrahim Moradi] was
killed by the Iranian regime, and after his death his
child [called Abdul-Rahman] was born.
The boy never saw his father.
The only way the boy knows his grandfather is as a
voice on the phone, when Timor calls and speaks to his
grandson, Abdul-Rahman.
Abdul-Rahman, who is now four years old, [talks] with
a sweet [innocent] tongue.
Abdul-Rahman, with his childish language and his
childlike heart, has the thought that one day his
grandfather will return.
When he speaks to his grandfather, he says, "When you
return can you buy me a bike, and can you buy me a
car, and can you buy me such and such.."
And with a desolate heart the grandfather replies,
"okay, Abdul-Rahman my beloved, okay."
Abdul-Rahman is unaware of those who killed his
father, and he has been deprived from paternal love.
This time, the case of his grandfather has been
decided, and the name of his grandfather has been
drawn [like a lottery].
Abdul-Rahman has never met his father and did not have
paternal love. This time, they [even] want to take the
voice away that he only hears on the phone, as it is
customary for them to disconnect the [Sunni] Muslim
people.
Pray for Abdul-Rahman; Abdul-Rahman who has never seen
his grandfather, Abdul-Rahman, who, for him, 'father'
is a strange word, and if [he hears] someone calling
their father he wonders who is his father.
Pray that Abdul-Rahman is at least not deprived from
his grandfather's love, and to fill the vacancy left
by his father.
This family is one of hundreds of traditional families
that are being torn apart by the Iranian regime.
Timor Naderi Zadeh was sentenced to death in Iran,
with two other Sunni men, after being accused of
supporting Salafi groups - a 'crime' which the Iranian
regime claims is 'Moharabeh' (enmity against God).
However, a source told HRA News Agency, "it is
believed that [their] arrest and death sentence is
because they were promoting [Sunni] Islam."
Actively spreading Sunni Islam can be dangerous in
Iran, a Shia-ruled country, where ethnic and religious
minorities face discrimination and persecution.
Many Sunni scholars and students of knowledge have
been imprisoned and even executed after unfair trials
using 'confessions' obtained through torture.
"He spent two months in solitary confinement in
Sanandaj Intelligence Agency, and [also] spent 12
months in solitary confinement in the Information
Administration in Zanjan," a source told HRA News
Agency, "[he was] then transferred to Rajai Shahr
prison."
The men are now awaiting execution in Rajai Shahr
prison, Karaj.
Free, Defend And Support The Sunnis in Iran
Six Sunni prisoners
awaiting execution in Iran have been transferred from
solitary confinement to a new ward
Six Sunni political prisoners have been transferred
to ward 350 of Evin prison, Tehran, after being held
for more than a month in solitary confinement in ward
240 of the prison. They had been on hunger strike for
more than two weeks.
They had been held under intense pressure whilst in
solitary confinement.
Prison guards psychologically tortured one of the
prisoners, Shahram Ahmadi, by simulating his execution
on a number of occasions.
He was also only given one meal in the morning, and
forced to remain hungry until the following day.
Sheikh Kaveh Vaisi and Mokhtar Rahimi were also held
under psychological pressure, and had been kept in
their solitary cells for 24-hours a day. They had not
been allowed to use the shower or get fresh air.
There is still no news on the conditions the remaining
men were kept in, but it is likely that they were
forced to endure the same treatment.
The six men are now being held in ward 350, which
houses political prisoners.
The families of the men are growing increasing worried
that their death sentence will be implemented soon.
A source told the HRA News Agency, "each of the six
people are facing execution. Their families are
worried that after the [Islamic calendar] month of
Muharram ends, their death sentence will be
implemented."
The Islamic calendar month of Muharram ends in early
December, 2013. Last year, six Sunni prisoners were
hanged at the end of Muharram in Ghezel Hesar prison,
Karaj.
Free, Defend And Support The Sunnis in Iran
UPDATE: Concerns
growing for six Sunni prisoners awaiting execution in
solitary confinement, sixteen days of hunger strike,
Iran
Concerns are growing for six Sunni prisoners
awaiting execution in Evin prison, Tehran. They have
been in solitary confinement for over a month, and are
under extreme pressure and psychological torture.
The six men, Sheikh Kaveh Vaisi, Mokhtar Rahimi, Kaveh
Sharifi, Shahram Ahmadi, Talib Malaki and Behrouz Shah
Nazari have been on hunger strike for the past sixteen
days.
The families of the men are growing increasing worried
that their death sentence will be implemented soon.
A source told the HRA News Agency, "each of the six
people are facing execution. Their families are
worried that after the [Islamic calendar] month of
Muharram ends, their death sentence will be
implemented."
The Islamic calendar month of Muharram ends in early
December, 2013. Last year, six Sunni prisoners were
hanged at the end of Muharram in Ghezel Hesar prison,
Karaj.
"Since their transfer, so far they have only been
allowed to make one telephone call," he said.
"When they tried to talk about the bad conditions in
the prison, the telephone line was disconnected," he
said.
The men have been detained for more than a month in
solitary confinement in ward 240 of Evin prison, which
is run by the Ministry of Intelligence.
These wards are used as interrogation and detention
wards for 'security' suspects. By operating outside
the control of the prison authorities, the Ministry of
Intelligence is able to operate without any concern
for the law. The wards are notorious due to
allegations of torture and unauthorized detention.
Prison guards psychologically tortured one of the
prisoners, Shahram Ahmadi, by simulating his execution
on a number of occasions.
He was told that he would be executed, and was taken
to the execution ground and made to believe that he
was about to be hanged. The prison guards did this a
number of times.
He was also only given one meal in the morning, and
forced to remain hungry until the following day.
Sheikh Kaveh Vaisi and Mokhtar Rahimi were also held
under psychological pressure, and had been kept in
their solitary cells for 24-hours a day. They had not
been allowed to use the shower or get fresh air.
There is no information on the conditions faced by the
remaining three prisoners, but it is highly likely
that they are suffering similar treatment.
These brothers are respected Sunni scholars and
students of knowledge, many of them have memorized the
entire Qur'an and are highly knowledgeable about
Islam.
Those who actively propagate Sunni teachings in the
Shia-dominated Iran face persecution and imprisonment.
Many prominent Sunni activists and scholars have been
imprisoned and, especially those who criticize the
regime, many have been executed.
Free, Defend And Support The Sunnis in Iran
Sunni political
prisoner awaiting execution is denied medical
treatment after suffering multiple asthma attacks,
Iran
Arash Sharifi, Sunni political prisoner awaiting
execution, Iran
Arash Sharifi, a Sunni political prisoner awaiting
execution in Iran, has been denied medical treatment
after suffering multiple asthma attacks.
Arash, who is 24-years old, is currently held at
Kashan Central prison, Kashan. According to reports,
the prison authorities have refused to give him
medical treatment.
One of his relatives told the HRA News Agency, "[Arash]
has become ill, and he suffers from chronic asthma
with severe asthma attacks,"
"These days in Kashan prison, he had multiple asthma
attacks, and was suffocating, but the authorities did
nothing to treat him and they have not transferred him
to the medical center," he said.
"The environment in Kashan Central prison is extremely
polluted," he said, "and the allergens are causing the
[asthma] attacks."
The symptoms of asthma can usually be easily managed
through the use of medication. However, if left
untreated, an asthma attack can be life-threatening.
The refusal of the authorities to provide medical
treatment to Arash highlights the ongoing mistreatment
and neglect faced by Sunni political prisoners in
Iran.
Arash was arrested in October 20011, and was held for
12 months in solitary confinement in the Ministry of
Intelligence in Sanandaj. He was severely tortured
using various methods, including floggings and
electrocution.
He was sentenced to death in September 2013, by judge
Mohammad Moghisseh, in branch 28 of the Tehran
Revolutionary court.
Arash was accused of association with Salafi groups,
and was sentenced to death under the charge of 'Moharabeh'
(enmity).
A Sunni Muslim, he was active in practicing Sunni
Islam and in preaching his views. His older brother,
Kaveh Sharifi, is also facing execution after
spreading the teachings of Sunni Islam.
This is our Sunni brother Barzan Nasrollah Zadeh,
awaiting execution, Iran.
He was shot and arrested by Iranian Intelligence
agents whilst on his way home from school in 2010.
He suffered a serious bullet-wound to his abdomen.
Despite the severity of his injuries, he was only
admitted to the local hospital for one hour, before
being transferred to the Ministry of Intelligence in
Sanandaj.
Due to the deliberate medical negligence by the
Iranian authorities, Barzan suffered permanent,
life-long damage. The extent of his injuries were so
severe that he lost his entire spleen.
Barzan was only 17 years old at the time of his
arrest. Although he was suffering from serious
injuries, he was tortured mercilessly whilst in
detention. He was held in solitary confinement for 18
months.
Due to his young age, the interrogators also
psychologically tormented him by forcing him to watch
the torture of other detainees in the Intelligence
Agency.
Under intense physical and psychological pressure, he
was forced to make a forced video 'confession', where
he 'admitted' that he had been in contact with Salafi
groups.
It was for this 'crime' that he and two other men,
Farshid Nasseri and Timor Naderi Zadeh, were sentenced
to death for 'Moharabeh' (enmity against the state).
Barzan was still in education when he was arrested,
and although he was young, he was active in teaching
people about Sunni Islam.
Those who actively propagate Sunni teachings in the
Shia-dominated Iran face persecution and imprisonment.
Many prominent Sunni activists and scholars have been
imprisoned and, especially those who criticize the
regime, many have been executed.
Free, Defend And Support The Sunnis in Iran
Timor Naderi Zadeh -
sentenced to death, Iran
Timor Naderi Zadeh was sentenced to death in Iran,
with two other Sunni men, after being accused of
supporting Salafi groups - a 'crime' which the Iranian
regime claims is 'Moharabeh' (enmity against God).
However, a source told HRA News Agency, "it is
believed that [their] arrest and death sentence is
because they were promoting [Sunni] Islam."
Actively spreading Sunni Islam can be dangerous in
Iran, a Shia-ruled country, where ethnic and religious
minorities face discrimination and persecution.
Many Sunni scholars and students of knowledge have
been imprisoned and even executed after unfair trials
using 'confessions' obtained through torture.
"He spent two months in solitary confinement in
Sanandaj Intelligence Agency, and [also] spent 12
months in solitary confinement in the Information
Administration Branch," a source told HRA News Agency,
"[he was] then transferred to Rajai Shahr prison."
The men are now awaiting execution in Rajai Shahr
prison, Karaj.
Free, Defend And Support The Sunnis in Iran
URGENT - Sunni
political prisoner collapsed in prison, officials
refused to send him to the prison infirmary, Iran
Hamed Ahmadi, a Sunni prisoner of conscience
awaiting execution in Iran, collapsed and fell
unconscious on Monday in Ghezel Hesar prison, Karaj.
According to reports, prison officials refused to take
him to the prison infirmary.
Hamed, who has been on hunger strike since November
4th, 2013, was said to be in a serious condition. His
health had been deteriorating due to internal bleeding
from the stomach and injuries caused by being beaten
by prison guards, coupled with the effects of the
hunger strike.
Hamed and five other prisoners began a hunger strike
on November 4th 2013, to protest against the news that
they would be transferred to a new ward. There were
fears the transfer was in preparation for their
execution.
They were violently moved to solitary confinement on
Wednesday 6th November, and suffered injuries when
they were beaten by guards.
One of the men, Syed Hadi Hosseini, was transferred
back to section 4, Unit 3 of the prison, after his
health deteriorated rapidly due to suffering from
seizures.
In recent days, the remaining five men were
transferred to a new section of the prison, where they
remained on hunger strike.
According to reports, there is increasing concern that
the men will be executed soon. The six prisoners were
all scheduled to be executed in September this year.
Their execution was postponed for a month by the
authorities, and they are now once again in danger of
execution.
A source told HRA News Agency , "officials from the
Ministry of Intelligence informed [the families] that
the death sentences for the six men was binding, and
would be implemented soon."
Free, Defend And Support The Sunnis in Iran
UPDATE: Seven Sunni
prisoners of conscience face continued uncertainty
about their case, Iran
Seven Sunni prisoners, Davud Abdullahi, Khosro
Besharat, Kamran Sheikha, Mamousta (Sheikh) Farhad
Salimi, Ghasem Abeste, Ayub Karimi and Anvar Khezri,
face ongoing uncertainty about their cases.
The men were summoned to branch 6 of Moghadis court,
on November 3rd, 2013, after being held for four years
without trial. Three have been acquitted of all
charges, yet have still not been released
The men, who had endured torture, solitary confinement
and the threat of execution, were informed that the
reason they had not faced trial yet was because their
case had been archived by the Ministry of
Intelligence.
"The prosecutor [Mr Naseri] stated that their files
have been archived by Intelligence and security
service, and that was what prevented the court from
processing the case," a source told the Human Rights
Activists News Agency (HRANA), "[he] promised to
summon them [back to court] within 10 days."
Three of the men, Kamran Sheikhah, Khozro Besharat and
Anvar Khezri were acquitted of all charges by branch
28 of the courts on September the 15th, yet they
remained imprisoned in Rajai Shahr prison, Karaj,
under orders from the Intelligence Agency.
Despite the seven men not being convicted of any
crime, the Iranian authorities seemed intent on
pressing charges that would carry the death penalty.
In September, several prominent Sunni scholars were
forced to announce their approval of the death penalty
being enforced on the prisoners.
Sources confirmed that the Iranian authorities
arrested and threatened a number of Sunni scholars
from the town of Mahabbad, who were forced to sign a
petition supporting the death penalty for some of the
men, leading to fears that the men would face
execution.
The men were detained in solitary confinement for 8
months in Urmia prison, then transferred to solitary
confinement in wards 240 and 209 of Evin prison. After
6 further months of solitary confinement, they were
transferred to Rajai Shahr prison in Karaj.
Free, Defend And Support The Sunnis in Iran
URGENT: Three Sunni
prisoners of conscience sentenced to death, Iran
Farshid Nasseri, sentenced to death, Iran
Three Sunni prisoners of conscience, Farshid Nasseri,
Timor Naderi Zadeh and Berezan Nasrollahzadeh have
been sentenced to death in Iran.
They were convicted of Moharebeh through the support
of Salafi groups, and were sentenced to death by Judge
Mohammad Moghisseh, in branch 28 of the Tehran
Revolutionary court.
One of the prisoners, Berezan Nasrollahzadeh was
arrested in 2010 at the age of 17.
"Berezan was attacked by plain-clothed Intelligence
agents as he was returning from school. He was shot in
the abdomen," a source told HRA News Agency.
"Despite his insistence, he was only admitted to the
local hospital for one hour, and then transferred to
Sanandaj Intelligence Agency," he said.
"Due to the severity of his injuries and the lack of
care he received, he lost his entire spleen," the
source said.
"[Berezan] was severely tortured," he said, "finally,
he made a [forced] video confession that he had
contact with Salafi groups."
Speaking about the second Sunni prisoner sentenced to
death, Farshid Nasseri, the source said, " [he] is a
26-year old Sunni from Sanandaj. He was arrested in
November 2010 by the Ministry of Intelligence, and
spent a period of thirteen months in solitary
confinement in Sanandaj Intelligence Agency. Then he
was transferred to Rajai Shahr prison, Karaj."
The third Sunni prisoner sentenced to death,
48-year-old Timor Naderizadeh, was arrested on June
10, 2010, in Sanandaj.
""He spent two months in solitary confinement in
Sanandaj Intelligence Agency, and [also] spent 12
months in solitary confinement in the Information
Administration Branch," the source told HRA News
Agency, "[he was] then transferred to Rajai Shahr
prison."
"All three men were sentenced to death for 'Moharabeh'
(enmity) through the support of Salafi groups," the
source said, "while throughout the trial they denied
all the charges."
He continued, "it is believed that their arrest and
death sentence is because they were promoting [Sunni]
Islam."
Numerous Sunni Muslims, especially those active in
propagating Sunni Islam, have been imprisoned and
executed under false charges in politically motivated
trials.
In 2011, the US Commission on International Religious
Freedom (USCIRF) stated that "Sunni Muslim leaders
regularly are intimidated and harassed by intelligence
and security services and report widespread official
discrimination."
Free, Defend And Support The Sunnis in Iran
Five Sunni prisoners
of conscience moved to new ward after nearly two weeks
in solitary confinement, Ghezel Hesar prison, Karaj
After nearly two weeks in solitary confinement, five
Sunni prisoners of conscience awaiting execution have
been moved to a new section of Ghezel Hesar prison,
Karaj. They are still on hunger strike.
Six prisoners, Hamed Ahmadi, Kamal Molayee, Jamshed
Dehghani, Jahangir Dehghani, Seddigh Mohammadi and
Syed Hadi Hosseini began a hunger strike on November
4th 2013, to protest against the news that they would
be transferred to a new ward. There were fears the
transfer was in preparation for their execution.
They were violently moved to solitary confinement on
Wednesday 6 November, and suffered injuries when they
were beaten by guards.
One of the men, Syed Hadi Hosseini, was transferred
back to section 4, Unit 3 of the prison, after his
health deteriorated rapidly due to suffering from
seizures.
The remaining five men have now been transferred to a
new section of the prison.
"[The ward] is one of the filthiest wards in the
prison. All of the detainees there are engaged in
services and manual labor," a source told the HRA News
Agency.
"[The men] have refused to end their hunger strike,
and they want to return to their previous section
[section 4 of Unit 3]," he said.
"Jamshed Dehghani's physical condition is very bad
because of the hunger strike," he said, "In addition,
two of his fingers were broken when he was attacked
and beaten by guards on the 6th of November. The
prison has given him no treatment."
According to reports, there is increasing concern that
the men will be executed soon. The six prisoners were
all scheduled to be executed in September this year.
Their execution was postponed for a month by the
authorities, and they are now once again in danger of
execution.
A source told HRA News Agency , "officials from the
Ministry of Intelligence informed [the families] that
the death sentences for the six men was binding, and
would be implemented soon."
Free, Defend And Support The Sunnis in Iran
Serious concerns for
11 Sunni preachers in solitary confinement awaiting
execution, Iran
Eleven Sunni political prisoners are currently being
held in solitary confinement awaiting execution, Iran.
Fears for their welfare are growing, and there has
been no recent news about many of them. They are all
under pressure, with some being tortured, beaten and
mistreated.
According to reports, there are fears that the men
will be executed soon. The five in solitary
confinement, and a sixth prisoner in Unit 3 of the
prison (Seddigh Mohammadi) were all scheduled to be
executed in September this year.
Their execution was postponed for a month by the
authorities, and they are now once again in danger of
execution.
A source told HRA News Agency, "officials from the
Ministry of Intelligence informed [the families] that
the death sentences for the six men was binding, and
would be implemented soon."
The men in solitary confinement have been on hunger
strike since November 4, 2013, in protest at being
transferred from their cells. There are worries that
the transfer is in preparation for their execution.
Prison guards violently removed them from their cells
to transfer them, and they were harshly beaten.
According to sources, the men were badly injured.
Two of the men, Hamed Ahmadi and Jamshed Dehgani, are
in a very bad condition. They are suffering from
internal bleeding from the stomach in addition to
injuries caused by the guards and the effects of the
hunger strike.
Evin prison:
There has been no recent news about the six prisoners
in Evin prison, and there are serious fears for their
welfare. They have been in solitary confinement for
more than a month.
They are held under extreme pressure, and the prison
is notorious for its torture and ill-treatment of
detainees.
Sheikh Kaveh Vaisi and Mokhtar Rahimi were able to
contact their family and inform them about the
pressure they were under. They also said that they had
no news about the condition of the four other
brothers.
Shahram Ahmadi had been psychologically tortured by
prison guards, who would regularly simulate his
execution.
They would tell him that his execution will be carried
out, and they would even take him to the execution
ground until he believes that he is about to be
executed. Then they return him to his cell. This has
been repeated on a number of occasions.
He was only being given one meal in the morning, and
was forced to remain hungry until the following day.
There has been no news about the remaining three
brothers, but it is likely that they are being held
under similar pressure.
These brothers are respected Sunni scholars and
students of knowledge, many of them have memorized the
entire Qur'an and are highly knowledgeable about
Islam.
They were active in peacefully teaching their people
Sunni Islam, and calling them to follow the Qur'an and
the Sunnah. Actively calling to Sunni Islam can be
dangerous in the Shia-ruled Iran.
Many preachers who actively spread Sunni Islam or
speak against the regime are harassed, imprisoned and
even executed.
Please keep our brothers in your du'a.
Free, Defend And Support The Sunnis in Iran
Sunni preacher
detained for nearly two years in solitary confinement,
tortured, without trial, Iran
Sanandaj Central prison, Sanandaj
Showan Sharifi, a Sunni preacher from Paveh,
Kermanshah province of Iran, has been moved to
Sanandaj Central prison after being held in detention
for almost two years without trial.
He was arrested on December 25, 2011, by officers from
the Ministry of Intelligence.
He was detained in the Ministry of Intelligence
detention center, where he was tortured and kept in
solitary confinement for 18 months. He has now been
transferred to Sanandaj Central prison, Sanandaj,
where he is still being held without trial.
"Shawan used to teach religious classes in subjects
such as the Tafseer of the Qur'an [and] Riyadh as-Saliheen,"
one of his relatives told the Human Rights Activists
News Agency (HRANA).
"He graduated with a degree in computer science from
the University of Hamedan, and then returned back to
Paveh [his native city] to serve the oppressed Sunni
people."
He continued, "however, when he started the religious
classes, the Ministry of intelligence arrested him,
due to their longstanding history of enmity and
hostility towards the Sunnis. In a cruel action they
arrested him on baseless accusations."
Showan was detained in solitary confinement for 18
months in the Ministry of Intelligence detention
center. The Ministry of Intelligence operates various
detention centers throughout Iran, plagued by
widespread reports of the ill-treatment of detainees.
Many detainees are forced to admit to false charges
after enduring physical and psychological torture from
intelligence agents during interrogation.
"Shawan Sharifi spent 18 months in solitary
confinement in the custody of the Ministry of
Intelligence, [subjected to] various types of torture
and harassment," a member of his family said.
"Finally he was transferred to the general ward of
Sanandaj Central prison. All this time, not even once
has he been summoned to court," he said, "so far he
has been kept in a state of uncertainty in prison."
Free, Defend And Support The Sunnis in Iran
Two Sunni prisoners
transferred to Rajai Shahr prison after a month of
severe torture and solitary confinement, Iran
Two Sunni prisoners, Foad Rezazadeh and Moslem
Marivani, have been transferred back to Rajai Shahr
prison after being held for over a month in solitary
confinement in Kermanshah Intelligence prison, Iran.
They had been removed from Rajai Shahr prison over a
month ago.
According to reports, the men were beaten and tortured
during their time in solitary confinement, in order to
extract false confessions.
"Both of them were in solitary confinement for the
whole time they were in Kermanshah Intelligence
[prison]" a source told HRANA, "they were put under
severe pressure and treated in a viciously bad way, to
force them to sign confessions."
Foad Rezazadeh, a Sunni Muslim who was active in
spreading the teachings of Sunni Islam, was subject to
such an unbearable level of persecution from the
authorities that he felt forced to sell his house and
leave the country.
He had been threatened many times by security forces,
and had already been imprisoned for 18 months in Rajai
Shahr prison. He was re-arrested shortly after his
release.
"Foad Rezazadeh was summoned and threatened many times
by the Ministry of Intelligence, until it reached the
point that he [decided] to leave the country," a
source told HRANA.
He continued: "Foad sold his house and had the money
with him when the plainclothes [agents] arrested him.
His money was confiscated by the agents and [this] was
not mentioned in the dossier."
The second Sunni prisoner, Moslem Marivani, was
arrested 14 months ago in Marivan, Kurdistan province
of Iran.
He was held in solitary confinement for 10 months in
the Kermanshah Intelligence Bureau detention center
(known as 'Naft square' detention centre) and in Evin
prison, before being transferred to Rajai Shahr prison
in Karaj.
Both men are now held in the infamous Rajai Shahr
prison in Karaj, which holds at least 130 Sunni
scholars, preachers and students.
Actively spreading Sunni Islam can be dangerous in
Iran, a Shia-ruled country, where ethnic and religious
minorities face discrimination and persecution. Many
Sunni scholars and students of knowledge have been
imprisoned and even executed after unfair trials using
'confessions' obtained through torture.
Free, Defend And Support The Sunnis in Iran
Prisoner profile:
Hamed Ahmadi, Sunni political prisoner, awaiting
execution, Iran
This is our Sunni brother, Hamed Ahmadi, awaiting
execution, Iran.
Can you imagine his heartache? - He has a four-year
old daughter who he has never met. She was born just
after he was imprisoned in 2009.
Imagine his sorrow as he sits in solitary confinement,
missing his beloved daughter who he has never been
given the chance to see.
How must he feel, knowing that he may be executed
without ever seeing his child?
How can we not cry over his situation, and the
injustice he is facing! He has committed no crime, and
the charges against him are baseless.
Hamed is from the city of Sanandaj, where he was a
knowledgeable and righteous member of his community.
He was active in spreading Sunni teachings and calling
people to follow Sunni Islam, and he was particularly
involved with the local Sunni mosque. It is for this
reason that he caught the attention of the Iranian
authorities.
He was arrested in July 2009, by officials from the
Ministry of Intelligence. He was taken to an
underground interrogation room, where officials
tortured him severely, in an effort to extract a false
'confession'.
After unbearable physical and mental torture, and
fearing for the safety of his family after they were
also threatened, he was forced to sign a false
confession.
He was sentenced to death in April 2011, in a case
involving ten other Sunni preachers. Their court case
lasted only ten minutes, and they were handcuffed,
blindfolded and shackled throughout.
Six of the Sunni prisoners were executed in December
2012.
Hamed Ahmadi and four other brothers are now in
solitary confinement in Ghezel Hesar prison, Karaj,
where they are awaiting execution.
Their execution was scheduled for the 26th of
September, 2013, but it was postponed at the last
moment for a month. According to reports, the men are
now at risk of imminent execution.
Hamed has endured regular torture since his arrest
four years ago, and the mistreatment is continuing to
this day. In a recent example, in September this year,
he was tortured in Ghezel Hesar prison by guards who
subjected him to electric shocks whilst he was in
solitary confinement.
His condition is now rapidly deteriorating. He is
suffering from injuries caused by torture and the
effects of a hunger strike that the men started
November 4, 2013, in protest at being transferred from
their cells. There are fears the transfer is in
preparation for their execution.
Prison guards viciously beat Hamed Ahmadi and the
other men whilst transferring them to solitary
confinement. According to reports, they are suffering
from severe injuries.
Hamed Ahmadi and Jamshed Dehghani are both also
suffering from internal bleeding from the stomach.
There are serious concerns for the men's health, yet
they refuse to be taken to the prison infirmary,
fearing abuse from the guards. On a previous occasion
when they were taken to the infirmary, the guards made
them return naked and demanded things that can not be
said.
Fears are growing for the men, after the Ministry of
Intelligence in Sanandaj informed the families that
the death sentence for the six men was binding, and
would be implemented soon.
Free, Defend And Support The Sunnis in Iran
Sunni political
prisoners were hanged while saying: "God is the
greatest" and "down with dictatorship", Balochistan,
Iran
16 Sunni prisoners were executed in Zahedan prison
on October 26, 2013, in 'revenge' for the deaths of
border guards who had been killed in clashes the
previous night, according to the public prosecutor,
Mohammad Marzieh.
According to eyewitness reports, the men showed no
fear and were hanged whilst shouting, "God is the
greatest!" and "Down with dictatorship!"
The prisoners who were executed had no involvement in
the clashes, and the cases against many of the men
were marred by allegations of torture and judicial
irregularities. The men said they were forced to make
false 'confessions' under severe torture.
A leaked report from a Sunni prisoner who witnessed
the execution of the sixteen men was published by
'Human Rights Activists for Democracy in Iran' (HRDAI).
The prisoner was also taken to the gallows with the
men, yet his execution was postponed at the last
moment. The following is a translation of his
eyewitness account:
"At around 12 o'clock midnight, in a secretive,
deceptive and hurried fashion, the political prisoners
were removed from their various cells and quarantined
in solitary confinement. None of the prisoners knew
the reason for their transfer.
Most prisoners were in their pyjamas. They [guards]
did not let them wear their clothes in case their
cellmates noticed that they were being transferred.
It was around 05:00 am when all the prisoners were
removed from quarantine in solitary confinement and
were taken to the execution ground.
All were astonished, they said, "This must be just a
mock execution [as a form of torture]. If they
[really] wanted to execute us, we would have had a
last meeting with our families."
The people present were: The public prosecutor of
Zahedan province, Mohammad Marzieh [and] head of
branch 1 of the Revolutionary court; Babaee, head of
the province's prisons; Khosravi, the head of the
prison; Bahrami, the head of the Intelligence prison;
and our interrogators who tortured us whilst we were
in detention in the Intelligence agency were [also]
standing there.
They took us to the place of execution and the public
prosecutor of Zahedan, Mohammad Marzieh, put the ropes
around our necks and went back to the rows of the
officials.
Here we realized that the execution sentence was
certain. All of us guys were in high morale, as if we
were not afraid of death - a strange force was over
us.
Mohammad Marzieh took a few steps forward, and he was
speaking to one of the prisoners who had a noose
around his neck and his hands and feet bound, like us
all.
A very loud cry broke the silence of the night, began
[to shout], "Allahu Akbar!" [God is great]. Another
political prisoner began [to shout], "Death to
dictatorship!"
Their screams were so loud that I think the whole
prison learnt what was happening.
Mohammad Marzieh and the other officials there
panicked for a moment, not knowing what to do. Then
Mohammad Marzieh was very angry, and ordered to [pull]
the stool of the first person who began shouting "Allahu
Akbar" [to hang him]. Then all the stools were pulled
[from underneath them and they were hanged].
To my surprise and disbelief, they [did not execute
me]. Ever since I have returned to my ward, the scene
of them and the sound of "Allahu Akbar" has not left
my ears. My life has changed completely."
According to the public prosecutor, Mohammad Marzieh,
the execution of the sixteen men was in 'retaliation'
for the killing of Iranian border guards during
clashes the previous night in Saravan.
Despite the numerous allegations from the prisoners,
documenting the shocking catalogue of abuse they were
forced to endure, the Iranian regime still upheld the
death sentence for the men.
In a further act of injustice, the Iranian regime
executed the men with little warning, as an act of
revenge following the death of Iranian border guards.
"What kind of justice system hangs 16 prisoners 'in
response' to a recent killing of security officials,
with no indication that they had anything to do with
these crimes," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East
director at Human Rights Watch.
The executions are the latest in a long list of Sunni
Baluchi Muslims who have been executed in 'revenge'
killings for events they were not involved in.
Mass revenge executions took place in 2006, following
the deaths of Iranian guards in 2010 in Tasuki,
south-eastern Iran. According to the October 2010
report by the International Federation for Human
rights (FIDH), in response to the attacks, "scores of
Baluchis were reportedly hanged, often after summary
trials." The report further stated that "many were not
perpetrators of the attacks but had family ties to
those in the Jondollah"
The Baloch people, who are mostly Sunni Muslims, face
a double burden of persecution due to being both a
religious and an ethnic minority group. They report
widespread political, cultural, religious and economic
discrimination.
Numerous Sunni Muslims, especially those active in
propagating Sunni Islam, have been imprisoned and
executed under false charges in politically motivated
trials.
In 2011, the US Commission on International Religious
Freedom (USCIRF) stated that "Sunni Muslim leaders
regularly are intimidated and harassed by intelligence
and security services and report widespread official
discrimination."
Serious concerns remain about the fate of countless
other Sunni Muslims facing execution in Iran following
forced confessions and unfair trials.