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“It’s shameful that Oberlin College allows Mahallati, with such a dark past and present, to have access to young students and brainwash them,” human rights activist Lawdan Bazargan tells the Post. By BENJAMIN WEINTHAL Published: SEPTEMBER 27, 2022 18:21 Oberlin College has again been plunged into chaos after a prominent Iranian-American academic and Tehran’s first ambassador to the UN in late September urged Oberlin professor Mohammad Mahallati to condemn the Islamic Republic’s massacre of political prisoners. Dr. Mansour Farhang, a professor of Politics at Bennington College, slammed Mahallati “as an agent of Iran’s totalitarian theocracy” who refuses to take responsibility for the clerical regime’s mass murder of 5,000 Iranians in 1988. Mahallati served as the Islamic Republic of Iran’s ambassador to the UN from 1987-1989. Farhang resigned as the top UN envoy for the theocratic state in Tehran in 1980 because the founder of the Islamic Republic Ruhollah Khomeini refused to release American hostages. Khomenei’s revolutionary Islamic regime dismissed a UN Commission of Inquiry recommendation report to free the US embassy hostages. Farhang published a scathing indictment of Mahallati’s refusal to confront the reported crimes against humanity carried out by the Iranian regime in the September 23 issue of the student paper Oberlin Review. The article was titled “Professor Mahallati Should Condemn ’88 Iran Massacres.” Who is Dr. Mansour Farhang? Farhang is the first formidable former top-level Iran diplomat to blast Mahallati. His role as a distinguished academic also adds a new dynamic to the growing calls for Oberlin College to fire Mahallati. Farhang wrote about Mahallati’s reported car crash June interview with Voice of America journalist Masih Alinejad, in which she asked the Islamic studies professor Mahallati what knowledge he had about the 1988 massacre. Mahallati told Alinejad “I strongly believe that killing one person is equal to killing the entire world.” Farhang wrote “This absurd and demagogic answer to a specific question reveals the shameless hypocrisy of Mahallati. Has there ever been a despot who admits to killing innocent people? All dictators consider their critics or opponents guilty. Mahallati, as an agent of Iran’s totalitarian theocracy, implicitly follows the same rule but uses the preposterous words quoted above to hide his position.” The former ambassador added that “Mahallati denies knowing about the massacre when it happened.” He maintains that “one is responsible based on the information they are aware of. This is another example of his sophistry. The truth is that, shortly after the Iranian state started its criminal acts, Amnesty International and several news organizations, including the Associated Press, reported the crimes. The information was out there; Mahallati chose to continue the regime’s cover-up.” Lawdan Bazargan, an Iranian-American human rights activist who has been leading a campaign to secure Mahallati’s dismissal from Oberlin College, told the Post: “Dr. Farhang’s decision to resign from his post as Iran Islamic Regime Ambassador to the United Nations and his choice to leave the country and work for a Human Rights organization proves that Mahallati had options other than staying close to Iran’s regime too. “Mahallati willingly chose to stay with a brutal regime, promote its propaganda and its leaders, such as Khatami, and stay close to power. It’s shameful that Oberlin College allows Mahallati, with such a dark past and present, to have access to young students and brainwash them.” In a highly detailed 2018 Amnesty International report, the London-based human rights organization accused Mahallati of covering up “crimes against humanity” when he was ambassador. A press query was sent to Mahallati on Tuesday. In a 2020 response to The Jerusalem Post, Mahallati denied that he played a role in the cover-up of  “crimes against humanity.” Iranian-Americans from Alliance Against Islamic Regime of Iran Apologists protested against Mahallati and the Islamic Republic’s president Ebrahim Raisi last week in New York City in front of the United Nations and in front of the business of the chair of Oberlin College’s Board of Trustees, Chris Canavan. Raisi delivered a speech at the UN. Canavan’s company Lion’s Head Global Partners is located in Manhattan. Iranian-Americans urged Canavan to “stop protecting Mahallati.” In a digital information flyer, the protestors wrote Canavan “has turned a blind eye to crimes committed by the former Iranian official and & Oberlin College Professor, Mohammad Jafar Mahallati.” The Iranian-American activists noted that “Mahallati defended the killing” of author Salman Rushdie. The Post reported in May that Mahallti supported the Iranian regime’s directive to assassinate Rushdie for allegedly defaming the prophet Mohammad in his 1988 novel The Satanic Verses. In August, a pro-Iran regime suspect named Hadi Matar stabbed Salman Rushdie while he was onstage in Chautauqua, NY. The Post sent press queries to the president of Oberlin College, Carmen Twillie Ambar. Please Click Here for the article.

The Oberlin review Editorial Board|September 23, 2022 Oberlin has a national and historical reputation for its politically active student body and campus that is constantly abuzz with activism and protests. We have noticed, however, that besides a few gatherings in Tappan Square with chanting and posters, there have been few, if any, sustained protests or movements since the College shut down due to COVID-19 in March 2020. Observed from a distance, the trend of protests growing fewer and farther between reveals a disconcerting pattern in the spirit of activism on campus. Last fall, Nancy Schrom Dye Chair of Middle East and North African Studies Mohammad Jafar Mahallati was investigated by the College for alleged war crimes during his time as Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations in the late 1980s. When the College finished its investigation into his alleged wrongdoing and concluded that the allegations were unsubstantiated, an activist group mostly consisting of members from outside the Oberlin community took to Tappan Square to express their discontent with this decision. Considering that the protest was organized by people outside Oberlin, College students needed only to educate themselves and show up. Still, very few students participated in these protests, despite the severity of the allegations and numerous disputes to the College’s investigations. The same activist group held two more protests against Mahallati — one in March and one over Commencement Weekend in June — both of which drew limited student involvement. In addition to the virtual absence of students from protests, there was scant, if any, conversation among students about the allegations against Mahallati during this period, and little conversation has occurred since. A prior Editorial Board commented on this lack of student engagement in “Evidence Against Mahallati Irrefutable,” The Oberlin Review, Nov. 5, 2021. In the past year, we have continued to witness the lack of a campus response in the face of other massively consequential issues that directly affect students, contradicting Oberlin’s rich history of student activism. Thus far, there has been little organized activism against the College’s decision to contract with Harness Health Partners, despite HHP’s recent announcement that it will not provide students with certain essential reproductive and gender-affirming services. Many students will tell you that they are upset even though the College has since contracted with a new provider for reproductive and gender-affirming services. In our conversations with peers, we have heard lamentations about the injustice of HHP’s change in position; many believe that the College supporting a Catholic health provider is problematic regardless of the quality of care they expected.   This widespread anger and concern, however, has yet to bring anything larger to fruition. There have been few public statements or actions from students on the situation, despite the fact that this change has deeply shaken and infuriated the student body. There have been no protests against HHP for going back on its agreement with the College, and even more surprisingly, there have not been any fliers or posters condemning HHP or the College distributed around campus.  When Ohio legislators introduced HB 454, a bill that required school officials to out transgender students to their parents and prohibited public funds from being given to organizations that provide gender-affirming care to minors, campus discourse was once again scarce. When the bill passed, there was no large-scale response, save for people posting infographics on their Instagram stories about the bill and the damage it would cause. While this practice does educate viewers who are unaware of the issues at hand, it is hollow in the absence of continued action. Hosting information sessions, posting fliers around campus, and organizing in protest are just some of a variety of approaches we could have taken to gather momentum against this intrusive and problematic bill. Each of these actions produces media attention and demonstrates support that adds to the broader symposium of voices fighting against injustice. The Review inherently plays the role of disseminating information on campus ,while also creating a platform for members of our community to comment and educate each other on the goings-on around campus. In the past year, the Editorial Board has repeatedly used this column to comment on issues such as faculty pay, abortion restrictions, and the College’s failure to recognize its problematic history, but we also understand that there is more that every individual on this Editorial Board can do to promote positive change. We, along with the rest of the student body, must hold ourselves accountable and work with one another to revitalize campus activism. Actions speak louder than words, and in the past few years, Oberlin students have whispered at best.  Please Click Here for the article.

Dr. Mansour Farhang, Professor of Politics at Bennington College|September 23, 2022 Editor’s note: Segments of this piece are reprinted from the author’s book review, “Nasser Mohajer, Voices of a Massacre: Untold Stories of Life and Death in Iran, 1988,” published on Oct. 27, 2020 in the Center for Human Rights in Iran. The author served as the Islamic Republic of Iran’s first ambassador to the United Nations between 1979-80. The clerics who run the authoritarian theocracy in Iran represent one of the predominant anti-Enlightenment regimes of the modern world. That is to say they seemingly reject the very idea of human rights and demand that citizens follow duties and obligations dictated by the self-appointed “viceroys of God” on earth. The hostility of these characters toward gender equality has a certain barbarity in common with what Margaret Atwood describes in The Handmaid’s Tale. When supporters or representatives of Iran’s theocracy face Western audiences, they become sophists in answering questions or rationalizing their position.  An example of such behavior is illustrated in a recent Voice of America Persian News Network interview with the former Iranian Ambassador to the United Nations, Oberlin College Professor Mohammad Jafar Mahallati. The interviewer, Masih Alinejad, asked Mahallati about his response to the 1988 execution of an estimated 5,000 political prisoners in Iran, pointing out Mahallati’s position in the U.N. at the time of the massacre. Mahallati said he did not know about the executions — an unprecedented tragedy in Iranian history. Then, Alinejad asked Mahallati what he thought about the massacre now that he knew about it, to which Mahallati replied, “I strongly believe that killing one person is equal to killing the entire world.”  This absurd and demagogic answer to a specific question reveals the shameless hypocrisy of Mahallati. Has there ever been a despot who admits to killing innocent people? All dictators consider their critics or opponents guilty. Mahallati, as an agent of Iran’s totalitarian theocracy, implicitly follows the same rule but uses the preposterous words quoted above to hide his position. Mahallati denies knowing about the massacre when it happened. He maintains that “One is responsible based on the information they are aware of.” This is another example of his sophistry. The truth is that, shortly after the Iranian state started its criminal acts, Amnesty International and several news organizations, including the Associated Press, reported the crimes. The information was out there; Mahallati chose to continue the regime’s cover-up.  In 1988, then Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ayatollah Khomeini, issued a secret fatwa (a religious edict) ordering judicial authorities to execute political prisoners, resulting in between 4,500 and 5,000 killings. The inmates were men and women, young and old, who had been arrested over the previous 10 years for writing, speaking, or demonstrating against the regime. Some of them were teenagers at the time of their arrest. A tribunal that came to be known as the death commission carried out the order within three months.  Bodies of the victims were buried in mass graves, and their families were kept in the dark for the following three months.  Since then, international human rights organizations have documented the massacre and described it as a crime against humanity. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have thoroughly documented and exposed the crimes. Several exiled Iranian writers, artists, and political analysts have published articles and produced documentaries about these atrocities. Ervand Abrahamian’s Tortured Confessions: Prisons and Public Recantations in Modern Iran and Geoffrey Robertson’s The Massacre of Political Prisoners in Iran, 1988, published by Abdorrahman Boroumand Foundation in 2011,  provided witness testimonies and official statements disclosing the crimes. Some members of the death commission, including current Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, are still in positions of authority in Iran. Yet, mass media in the United States has hardly covered this unprecedented massacre. In Voices of a Massacre: Untold Stories of Life and Death in Iran, 1988, author and scholar of modern Iranian history Nasser Mohajer gives a unique and creative portrayal of this tragic reality. This new book provides a highly credible series of reflections, testimonies, eyewitness descriptions, and memories of the victims’ loved ones and friends during the massacre. It reveals how the death commission executed Khomeini’s sociopathic fatwa in such detail that the Iranian regime’s denial of its crimes becomes a nihilistic absurdity. It provides eyewitness accounts by inmates of what happened to prison victims and how executions were carried out in different cities. The suffering of Iran’s prisoners in general, and those of the great massacre in particular, is most vividly illustrated by the activities and memoirs of the victims’ families and friends, for they played a central role in drawing international attention to the plight of political prisoners in Iran. “The vanguard of this resistance and struggle was made up of women: the mothers, wives, daughters, and sisters of those who braved tyranny, aspiring for a better future for their country,” Mohajer wrote. These activists made a significant contribution to the rise of the women’s movement in Iran, unprecedented in the Islamic world’s history. The purpose of Voices of a Massacre, as Mohajer explains, is more than to expose the lies of Iran’s clerical rulers. Instead, it “seeks to embody what Primo Levi defines as the ‘Duty of Memory.’” That is to say, we need “to gain insight into the historical reality and portray the subtle details of the ‘policy of cruelty’ in the Islamic Republic of Iran,” the author wrote. Lynn Novick, co-director with Ken Burns on the documentary The Vietnam War, bemoans the obvious lack of transparency. “It is a shortcoming and self-humiliating to say that they have lied constantly; there is no doubt that they have lied,” Novick said. “But what we really want to do is to show what has happened.” Voices of a Massacre reveals the cruel nature of a theocracy that rejects the idea of human rights politically, socially, and in the private sphere of life. Mohammad Jafar Mahallati, whom we call upon to condemn these crimes against humanity, currently teaches Muslim Oral Culture: Persian Poetry in Translation, Music and Calligraphy at Oberlin College. Dr. MansourContinue reading “Professor Mahallati Should Condemn ’88 Iran Massacres”

Mohammad Jafar Mahallati was Iran’s UN ambassador when the fatwa was issued. Says 1989 quote in Reuters that “all Islamic countries agree with Iran” was out of context: “I have simply condemned blasphemous statements that have harmed many hearts, whatsoever the source.” Posted by Johanna Markind Wednesday, August 17, 2022 at 07:00am In May of this year, the Jerusalem Post uncovered a 1989 Reuters report suggesting that Mohammad Jafar Mahallati supported Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s fatwa against author Salman Rushdie. Mahallati was then Iran’s Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations and is currently a Professor of Religion at Oberlin College. According to the 2022 Jerusalem Post report, Mallahati was asked in 1989 about the fatwa and whether Khomeini had the right to put a bounty on someone’s head. As reported contemporaneously by Reuters, Mahallati responded: I think all Islamic countries agree with Iran. All Islamic nations and countries agree with Iran that any blasphemous statement against sacred Islamic figures should be condemned. I think that if Western countries really believe and respect freedom of speech, therefore they should also respect our freedom of speech. We certainly use that right in order to express ourselves, our religious beliefs, in the case of any blasphemous statement against sacred Islamic figures. Rushdie was stabbed multiple times in a barbaric attack on August 12, 2022, and remains hospitalized with reportedly life-altering injuries. Khomeini issued the fatwa in 1989 after claiming Rushdie’s 1988 novel Satanic Verses was blasphemous. Declaring Rushdie an apostate, Khomeini’s ruling was a death warrant legitimating the murder of Rushdie and of all the book’s editors and publishers. Since then, at least one of the book’s translators has been murdered, others attacked and injured, and in Turkey at least 37 people were killed in a fire evidently targeting the Turkish translator. The price on Rushdie’s head is currently worth about $3.3 million. In response to LIF’s inquiry, Mahallati did not deny making the above comments but claimed they’ve been taken out of context. Mahallati’s response, in full, was as follows: Dear Johanna Greetings! Thank you for asking the question before wrongful judgment about my position on this unfortunate episode and an out of context quotation from me more than 30 years ago. I am and have been fundamentally and strongly opposed to any physical or verbal violence against human beings, against people’s sacred beliefs and against harmless institutions. By implication, I do not believe in an absolute freedom of speech if it is abused to harm an individual or a group of people verbally or physically. I believe it is very unfortunate that an absolutist view of the “freedom of speech” has mutually harmed a large number of Muslims and Mr. Rushdi himself. Again, I cannot find myself in any agreement with physical or verbal violence whatsoever the context. Belief systems cannot provide an excuse for irresponsible and immoral use of pen or arms on all sides of human relations. Presently or in the past, I have never supported any act of violence, but I have simply condemned blasphemous statements that have harmed many hearts, whatsoever the source. Therefore even in my misquoted statements there is NO support for ayatollah’s fatwa. In case you are truly interested in my diplomatic or individual stance and record regarding violence, I invite you to look into my entire activity records in the UN Security Council in the year 1988 when I served in the United Nations. The year began with the murder of 5000 unfortunate Kurdish people with Chemical Weapons and I pressed the UN Security Council to issue TWO resolutions condemning the use of chemical weapons. I went beyond my mandate to push for peace between Iran and Iraq and managed to play a major role in the ceasefire. I convinced the Iranian government to accept the UN Human Rights Representative to visit Iran for a close enquiry about human rights, an unprecedented development since the Iranian revolution of 1979. I worked with the UN Security Council to condemn the downing of the Iranian passenger flight by an American missile which killed 299 unfortunate innocent passengers. As you see above, that specific year was full of international violence and Mr. Rushdi’s episode was just one amongst many. So I consistently worked with the UN system to condemn all kinds of violence through historic resolutions. In the following 30 years of my academic career, I continued my stance against violence through my teachings and writings. I have produced more than 20 books in three languages on promoting global friendship, forgiveness, tolerance, gratitude and observing ethics even in wars. In the face of these undeniable records, accusing me of supporting violence is more than a mistake. I hope this is clear enough. Respectfully Jafar Mahallati Mahallati’s current endorsement of non-violence is commendable, but readers may compare his current comments with the 1989 statement and form their own opinion as to whether his earlier statement supports violence. The question Mahallati was answering, according to the 1989 Reuters report (as reported earlier this year by the Jerusalem Post), was whether Khomeini had the right to put a bounty on Rushdie’s head. A fair interpretation of his 1989 response is that calling for and committing violence against a ‘blasphemer’ are ‘expressive activities.’ Tragically, this Orwellian claim that murder is an “expressive” activity is what passes for received wisdom among today’s left, particularly at universities. To Islamists and the woke left, words are violence, and violence is speech. Mahallati has also come under criticism over the past couple of years as reports surfaced that he helped cover up some of the Iranian regime’s crimes against humanity. Please Click Here for the article.

سه شنبه ۲۵ مرداد ۱۴۰۱ برابر با ۱۶ اوت ۲۰۲۲ ما، جمعی از بستگان جانباختگان  قتل عام زندان‌های ایران در دهه ۶۰ و کشتار زندانیان سیاسی در تابستان ۶۷، اعضای جامعه ایرانی- آمریکایی، دانشجویان و دانش‌آموختگان کالج اوبرلین و شهروندان نگران اوهایو، در سال ۲۰۲۰ کمپینی را علیه محمدجعفر محلاتی، سفیر سابق جمهوری اسلامی ایران در سازمان ملل و استاد فعلی دین در کالج اوبرلین آغاز کردیم. تا کنون ما سه تجمع در کالج اوبرلین و چندین تظاهرات در شهرهای مختلف (سانفرانسیسکو، لس آنجلس، آتلانتا، واشنگتن، لندن، برلین) در مقابل بیزنس‌های مرتبط با اعضای هیئت امنای اوبرلین  برای تحت فشار قرار دادن کالج اوبرلین برای پایان دادن به استخدام محلاتی برگزار کرده‌ایم. با توجه به حملات تروریستی رژیم جمهوری اسلامی ایران برعلیه مسیح علینژاد روزنامه‌نگار ایرانی- آمریکایی، مایک پمپئو وزیر امور خارجه سابق آمریکا، جان بولتون مشاور امنیت ملی و سفیر سابق ایالات متحده در سازمان ملل و سلمان رشدی نویسنده انگلیسی- آمریکایی، ما از پلیس دولت فدرال (اف‌بی‌آی) درخواست می‌کنیم در مورد روابط محلاتی با سپاه پاسداران انقلاب اسلامی تحقیق کند. در ماه مه ۲۰۲۲، کمپین ما شواهدی را کشف کرد که دفاع محلاتی از فتوای قتل سلمان رشدی و ادامه روابط  او با رژیم اسلامی ایران را تأیید می‌کرد. چنین شواهدی حاکی از آن است که محلاتی خطری برای امنیت ملی آمریکا و ارزش‌های لیبرالی است که این کشور از آن حمایت می‌کند. محلاتی به دروغ مدعی شد که فتوای خمینی در حیطه «آزادی بیان» مسلمین است، اما فتوا حکم یا قانونی شرعی  و قابل اجرا است. اظهارات محلاتی نفرت‌پراکنی و تحریک به خشونت بود. فتوای سلمان رشدی هفت ماه پس از آن صادر شد که خمینی در فتوایی دیگر دستور اعدام زندانیان سیاسی ایران را صادر کرد. بیش از ۵,۰۰۰ زندانی که قبلاً به حبس محکوم شده بودند، ناگهان متهم به ارتداد شده و به دار آویخته شدند. محلاتی به خوبی عواقب فتوای خمینی را می‌دانست، زیرا در آن زمان مسئول سرپوش گذاشتن بر قتل عام زندانیان سیاسی در سال ۱۳۶۷ از جامعه جهانی بود. متأسفانه خانم کارمن تویلی آمبار، رییس کالج اوبرلین، و آقای کریس کاناوان، رئیس هیئت امناء، از محلاتی، متهم به انکار کشتار جمعی و محافظت از مسئولین در برابر پاسخگویی، حمایت می‌کنند. ما نه تنها درخواست سال ۲۰۲۰ خود را تکرار کرده و خواستار برکناری فوری محلاتی از سمت استادی در کالج اوبرلین هستیم، بلکه همچنین خواستار محاکمه محلاتی به دلیل نقش وی به عنوان همدست در قتل عام زندانیان سیاسی در سال ۱۳۶۷ هستیم. ماه گذشته، دادگاهی در سوئد، حمید نوری، معاون دادستان ایرانی را به دلیل قتل و ارتکاب جنایات جنگی در جریان قتل عام زندان در سال ۱۳۶۷ به حبس ابد محکوم کرد. ما معتقدیم محلاتی نیز مانند نوری باید محاکمه شود و پشت میله‌های زندان قرار گیرد. Please Click Here for the article.

منتشر شده در: 16 اوت ,2022: 04:04 شب GST آخرین به روزرسانی: 16 اوت ,2022: 04:21 شب GST این کمپین با انتشار بیانیه‌ای خاطرنشان کرد، محلاتی «خطری برای امنیت ملی آمریکا» است کمپین «عدالت برای قربانیان محلاتی» با انتشار بیانیه‌ای از اداره تحقیقات فدرال آمریکا موسوم به «اف‌بی‌آی» خواست تا تحقیقاتی را درباره دفاع محمد جعفر محلاتی، استاد کالج اوبرلین آمریکا از فتوای قتل سلمان رشدی، نویسنده بریتانیایی آغاز کند. این بیانیه خاطرنشان می‌کند، کمپین «عدالت برای قربانیان» محلاتی، در ماه مه سال جاری، شواهدی را کشف کرد که دفاع محمد جعفر محلاتی از فتوای قتل سلمان رشدی را نشان می‌دهد. تهیه‌کنندگان این بیانیه تصریح کردند: «محلاتی خطری برای امنیت ملی آمریکا و ارزش‌های لیبرالی است که این کشور از آن حمایت می‌کند.» به‌دنبال انتشار کتاب «آیات شیطانی» توسط سلمان رشدی، نویسنده هندی – بریتانیایی، فتوای قتل او توسط روح‌الله خمینی، بنیان‌گذار جمهوری اسلامی صادر شد. کمپین عدالت برای قربانیان محلاتی در بخش دیگری از این بیانیه، خواستار آغاز تحقیقاتی درباره ارتباط بین محلاتی و سپاه پاسداران شده است. محمدجعفر محلاتی که پیشتر سفیر ایران در سازمان ملل متحد بود، متهم به ایجاد «سپر دفاعی» برای عاملان اعدام‌های دسته‌جمعی زندانیان سیاسی مخالف جمهوری اسلامی در تابستان 1367 و جلوگیری از «پاسخگو دانستن» مجریان این اعدام‌ها در سطح بین‌المللی است. سازمان «عفو بین‌الملل» در گزارشی در سال 2018، مدعی شد که محلاتی از جمله مقامات ارشد و دیپلمات‌هایی است که «در مصاحبه‌های رسانه‌ای و مبادلات با سازمان ملل متحد در انکار کشتار جمعی [زندانیان سیاسی] فعالانه شرکت داشتند تا از مسئولین در برابر پاسخگویی محافظت کنند.» کمپین «عدالت برای قربانیان محلاتی» در ادامه بیانیه خود، خواستار برکناری فوری محلاتی از سمت استادی در کالج اوبرلین و محاکمه او به دلیل «نقش وی به‌عنوان همدست» در قتل عام زندانیان سیاسی در تابستان 67 شده است. Please Click Here for the article.

We, the relatives of the victims of Iran’s 1988 prison massacres, members of the Iranian-American community, Oberlin College students and alums, and concerned citizens of Ohio, started a campaign in 2020 against Mohammad Jafar Mahallati, a former Islamic Republic of Iran Ambassador to the United Nations and a current professor of religion at Oberlin College. Since 2020 we have had three rallies at Oberlin College and several protests in front of company headquarters connected to Oberlin Board of Trustees members (San Francisco, Los Angles, London, Berlin) to pressure Oberlin College to terminate Mahallati’s employment. In light of Iran’s attempted terrorist attacks on Iranian-American journalist Masih Alinejad, Former US Secretary of the State Mike Pompeo, former United States National Security Advisor and Ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, and British-American writer Salman Rushdie, we demand that FBI investigates Mahallati’s ties with Iran Revolutionary Guards Corps. In May 2022, our campaign uncovered evidence corroborating Mahallati’s defense of FATWA (Islamic Decree)to assassinate Salman Rushdie and continued ties with the Islamic Regime of Iran. Such evidence suggests that Mahallati represents a danger to the US national security and the liberal values that it stands for. Mahallati falsely claimed that FATWA is “free speech,” but fatwa is a ruling or decision under Islamic law and actionable. Mahallati’s statement was hate speech and incitement to violence. Salman Rushdie’s fatwa was issued seven months after Khomeini ordered the execution of Iran’s political prisoners in another fatwa. More than 5000 prisoners who had been previously sentenced to prison terms were suddenly accused of apostasy and were hanged. Mahallati knew well the consequences of Khomeini’s fatwa since, at that time, he was in charge of covering up the 1988 Massacre of political prisoners from the world community. Unfortunately, the Oberlin College leadership, Mrs. Carmen Twillie Ambar, Oberlin’s President, and Mr. Chris Canavan, the Chair of the Board of Trustees, have been protecting professor Mahallati, accused of denying the mass killing and shielding those responsible from accountability. We not only stand by our 2020 campaign demand, calling for Mahallati’s immediate removal from his professorship at Oberlin College, but we also demand that Mahallati be prosecuted for his role as an accomplice to war crimes in the 1988 prison massacre. Last month, a court in Sweden convicted Hamid Noury, an Iranian deputy prosecutor, to life in prison, for having committed war crimes during the 1988 prison massacres. We believe Mahallati, like Noury,  should face trial and be put behind bars.  For more information contact: Lawdan Bazargan (562) 212-9546  lawdanbazargan@gmail.com Alliance Against Islamic Regime of Iran Apologists http://www.aairia.org

August 15, 2022, Jonathan Truley, Jonathantruley.org It appears that Oberlin has another major controversy on its hand. For the last couple years, Oberlin has been embroiled in a fight with a small family-owned grocery that it defamed over a shoplifting case involving black students. Oberlin lost $25 million in a record verdict but Oberlin President Carmen Twillie Ambar continued to refuse to apologize. In the meantime, the school seems intent on running the 137-year-old grocery into insolvency as it delays paying on the judgment. Now the school is under fire over a faculty member, Mohammad Jafar Mahallati, who supported the fatwa against Salman Rushdie. The author of Satanic Verses is recovering from a savage knife attack. Hadi Matar, 24, is accused of carrying out the stabbing attack and has expressed support for Iran in the past. The campaign to have Mahallati fired could present some difficult free speech and academic freedom questions. Mahallati is a professor of religion and Islamic Studies and once served as the Islamic Republic’s ambassador at the United Nations. According to Fox News.com, Mahallati was asked in 1989 about the “right to put a bounty on someone’s head” and responded “I think all Islamic countries agree with Iran. All Islamic nations and countries agree with Iran that any blasphemous statement against sacred figures should be condemned.” He then added insult to injury: “I think if Western countries really believe and respect freedom of speech, therefore they should also respect our freedom of speech. We certainly use that right in order to express ourselves, our religious belief, in the case of any blasphemous statement against sacred Islamic figures.” It was a familiar misrepresentation of free speech values. Islamic countries have long claimed that banning speech or killing those who engage in blasphemous speech is a form of free speech. The Iranian view of free speech shows the extreme end of the slippery slope of relativism in free speech. We have been debating this increasingly common claim that shutting down speech is free speech. At the University of California campus, professors actually rallied around a professor who physically assaulted pro-life advocates and tore down their display.  When conservative law professor Josh Blackman was stopped from speaking about “the importance of free speech,”  CUNY Law Dean Mary Lu Bilek insisted that disrupting the speech on free speech was free speech. (Bilek later cancelled herself and resigned after an inappropriate comment in a faculty meeting). In this case, Iran issued a fatwa supporting the killing of Rushdie and offering a huge reward. Ultimately, two of his translators were knifed, one fatally.  Supporting a fatwa is an exercise of free speech. Acting on a fatwa to harm someone is a crime. Critics, however, insist that Mahallati was a high-ranking official supporting this state action.  Nevertheless, I still believe that a professor has the right to voice unpopular and frankly shocking positions in such controversies. I have defended faculty who have made similarly disturbing comments “detonating white people,” denouncing police, calling for Republicans to suffer,  strangling police officers, celebrating the death of conservatives, calling for the killing of Trump supporters, supporting the murder of conservative protesters and other outrageous statements. I also defended the free speech rights of University of Rhode Island professor Erik Loomis, who defended the murder of a conservative protester and said that he saw “nothing wrong” with such acts of violence. A more serious allegation has surfaced over a 2018 Amnesty International report accusing Mahallati of carrying out “crimes against humanity” for covering up the massacre of at least 5,000 Iranian dissidents in 1988. That is conduct or action by Mahallati that would raise grounds over his fitness as a member of a faculty. Yet, he has denied that allegation and Oberlin said that it has investigated and rejected it. If the school has previously investigated the matter, it should be treated as closed absent new evidence. We recently saw the reopening of an investigation at Princeton as a pretext to fire a controversial faculty member. On what we know, it would seem that Mahallati would be protected under free speech and academic principles despite his reported anti-free speech views. Of course, it does not take away from the grotesque position that he has taken. Ironically, his faculty page discusses how he “developed innovative courses with interdisciplinary approach to friendship and forgiveness studies and also initiated the Oberlin annual Friendship Day Festival.” His personal website further states his research is “focused on the ethics of peacemaking in Islam in the context of comparative religions.” Nothing says ethics and peace more than a lethal fatwa targeting dissenting authors. As for Iran, it denies any involvement in the attack but added its own sense of offense at being criticized. Instead, it again attacked Rushdie. Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said “We, in the incident of the attack on Salman Rushdie in the U.S., do not consider that anyone deserves blame and accusations except him and his supporters.” He added that the West “condemning the actions of the attacker and in return glorifying the actions of the insulter to Islamic beliefs is a contradictory attitude.” It is strikingly similar to Mahallati’s statement back in 1989. Only in the most twisted view of free speech (and logic) would there be a contradiction in condemning the attempted murder of an author while supporting the author’s right to express his views. Few academics would support Iran’s blood-soaked interpretation of free speech. However, we need to address the creeping relativism that is sweeping across our campus. A recent poll was released by 2021 College Free Speech Rankings after questioning a huge body of 37,000 students at 159 top-ranked U.S. colleges and universities. It found that sixty-six percent of college students think shouting down a speaker to stop them from speaking is a legitimate form of free speech.  Another 23 percent believe violence can be used to cancel a speech. That is roughly one out of four supporting violence. Faculty and editors are now actively supporting modern versions of book-burning with blacklists and bans for those with opposing political views. Others are supporting actual book burning. Columbia Journalism School Dean Steve Coll has denounced the “weaponization” of free speech, which appearsContinue reading “Oberlin Faces New Controversy over Islamic Scholar’s Support of the Rushdie Fatwa”

Mohammad Jafar Mahallati, currently a professor of religion at Oberlin College in Ohio, served as the Iranian ambassador to the United Nations in 1989 That year  Iranian Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini issued an order calling for the death of Rushdie – an order known as a fatwa  When asked about the fatwa in a 1989 Reuters story, Mahallati reportedly supported Iran’s ‘right to put a bounty on someone’s head’ A 2018 Amnesty International report found that while ambassador Mahallati helped cover up the massacre of 5,000 Iranians being held as dissident By ALEX OLIVEIRA FOR DAILYMAIL.COM PUBLISHED: 15:16 EDT, 14 August 2022 | UPDATED: 18:11 EDT, 14 August 2022 An Oberlin College professor is facing criticism after it was revealed he endorsed the bounty Iran placed on Salman Rusdie’s life in 1989 which led to the author’s brutal stabbing last week. Mohammad Jafar Mahallati, currently a professor of religion at Oberlin College in Ohio, was serving as the Iranian ambassador to the United Nations in 1989 when Iranian Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini issued an order calling for the death of Rushdie – an order known as a fatwa. When asked about the fatwa in a 1989 Reuters story, Mahallati reportedly supported Iran’s ‘right to put a bounty on someone’s head.’ ‘I think all Islamic countries agree with Iran. All Islamic nations and countries agree with Iran that any blasphemous statement against sacred figures should be condemned.’  Iran ordered the fatwa against Rushdie, 75, for his 1989 novel The Satanic Verses, which many in the Muslim world accused of being blasphemous against Islam. The state-sponsored bounty forced the author to live largely in hiding since its issue, and had recently climbed as high as $3million. Last Friday Rushdie was stabbed 15 times while speaking at the Chautauqua Institution in western New York on Friday. Though the motivations of the attacker, Hadi Matar, 24, remain unclear it is suspected his attack was in response to the fatwa. Rushdie remained and critical condition over the weekend, though his family said on Sunday he had been removed from a ventilator and was in high spirits.  Mahallati, who has taught a number of courses about ‘peace studies,’ in his academic career, has not commented on the murder. Oberlin College has not commented on the professor’s 1989 stance on the Fatwa. Mahallati’s comments were revealed by Iranian-American journalist Masih Alinejad in a tweet on Friday after the attack on Rushdie. ‘Guess who defends Khomeini’s FATWA against #Salmon_Rushdie,’ she wrote sharing a grab of the 1989 Reuters report in which the professor made his comments.     ‘We Iranians call on [Oberlin College] again to investigate about Mahallati the Islamic Republic’s former ambassador at the UN who defends the Fatwa against Salman Rushdie. I can provide many other documents which shows his role on covering up the mass execution in 1988 in Iran.’ Alinejad is herself the target of a fatwa, according to Fox News, with Iran having issued an order that she be kidnapped from her New York City home and assassinated. The emergence of Mahallati’s comments about the Rushdie fatwa are far from the professor’s first spat with controversy.  In 2018 an Amnesty International report found that Mahallati had carried out ‘crimes against humanity’ by covering up the massacre of 5,000 Iranians being held as dissident prisoners in 1988 while he was a diplomat for the country. Mahallati has vehemently denied allegations of being a part of a covering, saying he did not know the executions were going on at the time.  Amidst calls from within the student body for Mahallati’s ousting, Oberlin college launched an investigation into the accusation but said ‘The college could find no evidence to corroborate the allegations against Prof. Mahallati, including that he had specific knowledge of the murders taking place.’ An attorney for Matar entered a not guilty plea on his behalf during an arraignment in western New York on Saturday. The suspect appeared in court wearing a black and white jumpsuit and a white face mask, with his hands cuffed in front of him. A judge ordered him held without bail after District Attorney Jason Schmidt told her Matar took steps to purposely put himself in position to harm Rushdie, getting an advance pass to the event where the author was speaking and arriving a day early bearing a fake ID.  Meanhwhile, on the same day Iran‘s deranged state media gleefully celebrated the attack on Rushdie, hailing the British author’s suspected knifeman and branding the novellist an ‘apostate’ and ‘heretic’ whose book The Satanic Verses ‘blasphemed’ the Prophet Muhammad.   Please Click Here for the article.

An Iranian dissident accused Mahallati of helping cover-up the 1988 massacre of 5,000 Iranians By Benjamin Weinthal | Fox News Jerusalem, Israel – An Islamic studies academic dubbed the “Professor of Peace” at Oberlin College in Ohio endorsed the campaign to assassinate U.S. and British writer Salman Rushdie because the famous novelist depicted the Muslim prophet Muhammad irreverently. A 24-year-old man named Hadi Matar allegedly stabbed Rushdie on Friday in the neck and liver during the author’s speech in Chautauqua, New York. Rushdie is on a ventilator and cannot talk. According to law enforcement officials, Matar’s social media footprint showed that he was a fan of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization. Matar was also sympathetic to radical Shia Islamism—the governing religion of the Islamic Republic of Iran. When asked about the then-Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini’s fatwa and the “right to put a bounty on someone’s head,” according to a 1989 Reuters report, Iranian scholar and former diplomat Mohammad Jafar Mahallati responded: “I think all Islamic countries agree with Iran. All Islamic nations and countries agree with Iran that any blasphemous statement against sacred figures should be condemned.” ALLEGED SALMAN RUSHDIE ATTACKER CHARGED WITH ATTEMPTED SECOND-DEGREE MURDER, HELD WITH NO BAIL Mahallati added, “I think if Western countries really believe and respect freedom of speech, therefore they should also respect our freedom of speech. We certainly use that right in order to express ourselves, our religious belief, in the case of any blasphemous statement against sacred Islamic figures.” Fox News Digital sent a press query to Mahallati. An automatic reply from Mahallati’s Oberlin College email said: “Greetings! I am on summer leave. I will respond back whenever I can.” Fox News Digital also sent press queries to the president of Oberlin College, Carmen Twillie Ambar.  The prominent Iranian-American journalist Masih Alinejad took to Twitter to blast Mahallati. She wrote: “Guess who defends Khomeini’s FATWA against #Salman Rushdie? Mahallati the Islamic Republic’s former ambassador at the UN who is a now a professor at @oberlincollege.” Alinejad’s tweet went viral, securing 502 retweeets and 1,629 likes. Iran’s regime has targeted Alinjead on New York City soil to be kidnapped and assassinated, according to law enforcement officials and experts on Iranian regime-sponsored terrorism. An armed man was indicted on Friday for standing outside of her home in Brooklyn armed with an AK-47-style rifle In a second tweet, the women’s rights activist Alinejad wrote: “We Iranians call on @oberlincollege again to investigate about Mahallati the Islamic Republic’s former ambassador at the UN who defends the Fatwa against Salman Rushdie. I can provide many other documents showing his role on covering up the mass executions in 1988 in Iran.” A detailed 2018 Amnesty International report accused Mahallati of carrying out “crimes against humanity” for covering up the massacre of at least 5,000 Iranian dissidents in 1988. Mahallati denies that he played a role in the cover-up of the 1988 massacre of innocent Iranian prisoners. After Fox News Digital exclusively revealed in Feb. 2021 that Mahallati called for the destruction of the Jewish state and denigrated the persecuted religious minority Bahá’í community, Oberlin College launched an investigation. WHITE HOUSE CONDEMNS ‘REPREHENSIBLE’ ATTACK AGAINST SALMAN RUSHDIE: ‘THIS ACT OF VIOLENCE IS APPALLING’ Oberlin College spokesman Scott Wargo told the local Chronicle-Telegram newspaper in Oct. 2021 that “The college could find no evidence to corroborate the allegations against Prof. Mahallati, including that he had specific knowledge of the murders taking place.” The Oberlin College student paper The Oberlin Review conducted its own inquiry and issued a scathing editorial entitled: “Evidence Against Mahallati Irrefutalble.” 50 UN-affiliated NGOs demanded earlier this year that the UN launch an inquiry into Mahallati’s alleged crimes against humanity. Iranian dissidents also claimed Oberlin College “whitewashed” Mahallati’s crimes. IRAN STATE MEDIA CONDEMNS ‘APOSTATE’ SALMAN RUSHDIE, ‘BLASPHEMOUS’ WRITINGS AFTER ATTACK Kaveh Shahrooz, an Iranian-Canadian lawyer, and Iranian-American human rights activist, Lawdan Bazargan, wrote a joint response in the student paper to Oberlin’s report at the time. They said “The evidence is, in fact, overwhelming” against Mahallat and that “Oberlin’s investigators must have exerted great effort not to find it.” The theocratic state in Iran executed Shahrooz’s uncle, Mehrdad Ashtari, in 1988 and Bazargan’s brother, Bijan, in the same year. Critics point out the Orwellian twist to Mahallati’s title at Oberlin College as the “Professor of Peace.” According to a New York Times article, the Islamic Republic of Iran attacked the U.S. guided-missile cruiser Wainwright, causing the deaths of two American crew members: Capt. Stephen C. Leslie of New Bern, North Carolina, and Capt. Kenneth W. Hill of Thomasville, North Carolina. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Mahallati said at the time “The American administration has miserably failed both politically and militarily, “after the report that Iran’s clerical regime destroyed three American vessels.  Mahallati added that this will “show the United States the lesson one learned in Vietnam.” Both Democratic and Republican administrations have classified Iran’s regime as the world’s worst international state-sponsor of terrorism. Please Click Here for the article.