Facts on Iran

The president of Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad attends the U.N seasonal opening each year. We watch him interviewed on CNN, we hear him on NPR with Charlie Rose, and on other major networks. But in all the interviews, he is the one who runs the show and he loves the limelight. If the questions are not in his likings, he lies. He is familiar with the code of ethics of American reporters that they would not argue with the person they interview, and he takes advantage of that. He never gives interviews to Iranian reporters outside of Iran, since he knows that they would challenge him on various issues. This year, he had the audacity to blame the U.S. government for the 9/11 terrorist attack. Last year, as well as a couple of years before that, he denied the Holocaust and called it a myth. At Columbia University, he also stated that there are no homosexuals in Iran; it is just a Western problem! The setback with all these interviews is giving this guy a platform to use for his propaganda for either the Islamic regime consumption, or an obvious play for approval by some Arabs, who otherwise detest him. When he is interviewed, the reporters need to be ready to challenge him on some of issues which are known and documented. Or they could follow up with an interview with the Islamic regime’s opposition group, and try to provide a balance of information for the audience. They could use some of the following facts:

• According to human rights organizations including Amnesty International, executions have increased four-fold since Ahmadinejad became president in 2005, and Iran now executes more people per capita than any other country in the world.

• According to Reporters without Borders, Iran is now the world’s "biggest prison for journalists.”

• According to the International Monetary Fund, Iran has one of the highest rates of brain drain in the world, with as many as 100,000 people leaving annually in search of greater economic dignity and political freedom. Economists estimate that the brain drain has accelerated during Ahmadinejad presidency.

• Islamic Republic’s Constitution only accepts the Shia Islam as the main religion in Iran; other religions are considered minorities, even the Sunni Islam, and they do not have the same privileges. Close to 85 percent of the world Muslims are Sunnis.

• The Islamic Republic persecutes Iranians of the Baha’i faith. Baha’i’s are not allowed to practice their religion and their gravesites are regularly destroyed. Seven of the Baha’i leaders were recently arrested and they are in prison now.

• Ahmadinejad has called for a U.N.-monitored referendum among Palestinians and Israelis to resolve the conflict in the Holy Land. Would he or the regime in Iran agree to an U.N.-monitored referendum among Iranians to determine their political future?

• Fidel Castro, who has been a longtime ally of the Islamic regime, recently implored Ahmadinejad to stop slandering the Jews, and argued that Iran’s religious dogmatism makes a nuclear compromise less likely.

• Three senior Iranian diplomats have recently defected in Europe, denouncing Islamic regime government’s illegitimacy and seeking political asylum.

• The Islamic regime of Iran has created dozens of adversaries but very few allies. At Ahmadinejad’s U.N. address, most of the audience walked out.

I personally think that Ahmadinejad, who is called "the little monkey” by his Iranian critics, loves shocking his audience by talking nonsense, such as denying the Holocaust, blaming the 9/11 terrorist attack on the U.S. government, claiming that the Islamic regime in Iran is the most democratic government in the world, there are no political prisoners in Iran and that the nuclear program is just for the peaceful purpose of providing electricity.

Unfortunately, Ahmadinejad’s interpretation of the Holy Koran is that you could lie to your enemy if you think this would help the Muslims. Through reading some of the Islamic regime’s controlled newspaper in Iran (via Internet), I have read that even some of the Grand Ayatollahs in Iran confirm the same belief, that it is not sin to lie to the so called enemies of Islam.

The world should be very much concerned about a nuclear Islamic regime in Iran. The regime has no respect for any life; during the presidential election last year, they killed more than 100 and imprisoned close to 1,000 demonstrators who were objecting the election result (of course Ahmadinejad denies all these, and calls it Western propaganda ). The irony is that most of these people arrested were part of the Islamic regime’s previous administrations.

Some people are hoping that with the effort of the opposition group (Green Movement) this regime will soon collapse, but we should remember that repressive regimes can last a long time, especially if they use force and impose a harsh crackdown.

Yousef Moradzadeh, an Iranian American, is a consulting civil engineer in the San Francisco Bay Area. He can be reached at y@yhmconsulting.com.