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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.

By Alliance Against Islamic Regime of Iran Apologists (AAIRIA) July 14, 2022 is a historic day for the world’s Justice Seeking Movement, especially for the Iranian people. Today, Hamid Nouri, one of the perpetrators of the 1988 Massacre of the political prisoners in Iran, was sentenced to a life sentence in a Swedish District Court in Stockholm. The verdict was issued in the trial against Hamid Nouri for allegations of war crimes and murder committed concerning the killing of 1000s in Iran’s jails in 1988 under the universal jurisdiction. This is the first-ever trial against an individual for core international crimes committed by representatives of the Islamic Regime of Iran. The court lasted for nine months, and in its 92 sessions, 58 former political prisoners and family members of the 1988 Massacre victims testified against Nouri. This verdict opens the door for the families of the victims of the 1988 Massacre to seek justice in the western countries’ courts against other perpetrators of this crime against humanity, such as Mohammad Jafar Mahallati, the so-called peace professor at Oberlin College. In his interview with Masih Alinejad on Voice of America, Mahallati repeated his false claims that the massacre was a secret. The findings of Swedish court and the articles from different US and British newspapers show that the massacre was not a secret and the world knew about it as it was happening. Since October 2020, our campaign against Mahallati has demanded Oberlin College to “fire Mahallati, apologize to the family members of the 1988 Massacre for hiring Mahallati, and review the process by which Mahallati was hired at Oberlin and the process by which he was granted tenure. We must know what due diligence was conducted on Mr. Mahallati before his hiring, whether human rights organizations were ever consulted on the role Iran’s former representative to the UN may have played in that country’s human rights crisis, and whether such widely available information was ignored.” We also like to know the connection between Mrs. Nancy Dye, Oberlin College’s President trip to Iran in 2004, and her decision to hire Mahallati. We, a group of former political prisoners in Iran, families of executed political prisoners, human rights activists who work for justice and accountability, and international jurists who have examined the record of Iran’s gross human rights abuses repeat our demands and hope that with this new verdict we can also continue our efforts against Mahallati in the courts of law. For more information contact: Lawdan Bazargan (562) 212-9546 lawdanbazargan@gmail.com

July 24,  2022 is a historic day for the world’s Justice Seeking Movement, especially for the Iranian people. Today, Hamid Nouri, one of the perpetrators of the 1988 Massacre of the political prisoners in Iran, was sentenced to a life sentence in a Swedish District Court in Stockholm. The verdict was issued in the trial against Hamid Nouri for allegations of war crimes and murder committed concerning the killing of 1000s in Iran’s jails in 1988 under the universal jurisdiction. This is the first-ever trial against an individual for core international crimes committed by representatives of the Islamic Regime of Iran. The court lasted for nine months, and in its 92 sessions, 58 former political prisoners and family members of the 1988 Massacre victims testified against Nouri. This verdict opens the door for the families of the victims of the 1988 Massacre to seek justice in the western countries’ courts against other perpetrators of this crime against humanity, such as Mohammad Jafar Mahallati, the so-called peace professor at Oberlin College. In his interview with Masih Alinejad on Voice of America, Mahallati repeated his false claims that the massacre was a secret. The findings of Swedish court and the articles from different US and British newspapers show that the massacre was not a secret and the world knew about it as it was happening. Since October 2020, our campaign against Mahallati has demanded Oberlin College to “fire Mahallati, apologize to the family members of the 1988 Massacre for hiring Mahallati, and review the process by which Mahallati was hired at Oberlin and the process by which he was granted tenure. We must know what due diligence was conducted on Mr. Mahallati before his hiring, whether human rights organizations were ever consulted on the role Iran’s former representative to the UN may have played in that country’s human rights crisis, and whether such widely available information was ignored.” We also like to know the connection between Mrs. Nancy Dye, Oberlin College’s President trip to Iran in 2004, and her decision to hire Mahallati. We, a group of former political prisoners in Iran, families of executed political prisoners, human rights activists who work for justice and accountability, and international jurists who have examined the record of Iran’s gross human rights abuses repeat our demands and hope that with this new verdict we can also continue our efforts against Mahallati in the courts of law. Alliance Against Islamic Regime of Iran Apologists http://www.aairia.org For more information contact: Lawdan Bazargan (562) 212-9546  lawdanbazargan@gmail.com

by Marilyn SternMiddle East Forum WebinarJuly 1, 2022 Susannah Johnston, investigative reporter for Focus on Western Islamism (FWI), a new Middle East Forum media outlet reporting on lawful Islamism in the West, spoke to a July 1st Middle East Forum Webinar (video) about an Oberlin College academic accused of ties to the Iranian regime, in an interview with Sam Westrop, director of the Middle East Forum’s Islamist Watch. Johnston said Mohammed Jafar Mahallati, a professor at Oberlin College who served as Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations (U.N.) in the late 1980s, is being targeted by protesters for his part in “the Iranian regime’s efforts to infiltrate and influence Western society … through campus academics.” Iranian dissidents are protesting Mahallati’s presence at the college because of Iran’s extrajudicial execution of several thousand political prisoners under orders of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini in 1988. The political purge occurred during Mahallati’s ambassadorship. His purported claim of ignorance about the massacre was exposed as a lie by an Amnesty International 2017 report that points to his complicity in a coverup. The dissidents’ protest is part of a “global movement” to remove Mahallati from his position. The varied groups of dissident protesters range from Iranian leftist groups to a group they “would traditionally not work with,” the controversial Mujahidin e-Khalq (MEK). The MEK was “designated as a terrorist group in the West” but removed from the U.S. government’s list of foreign terrorist organizations (FTOs) in 2012. Westrop said the FTO designation was made under “murky” reasoning, but asked Johnston if fractious groups opposing Mahallati and the “soft power elements of Iranian networks here in our universities” have sufficient common cause to overcome the divisions between them. Johnston responded positively, as the groups are now united not only by the fury they share over the 1988 executions, but also over “what’s happening now in Iran and wanting genuine positive Iranian regime change.” Johnston investigated the current ties of Mahallati, the former “senior regime figure,” now an academic. Mahallati serves on the board of Sepehr-e-Siasat, an Iranian-based journal, which praised Hezbollah, and includes fellow board members tied to Tehran. One of them works for Iran’s foreign minister and has an “INTERPOL red notice” issued against him; another belongs to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) [the ayatollah’s internal security force]; and yet another praised Qassem Soleimani, commander of the Quds Force [the IRGC’s military intelligence branch specializing in unconventional warfare], who was assassinated by the U.S. military in 2020. In 2018, an Iranian authored an article in Farsi “smearing” Mahallati, which landed the former on Iran’s “national suspect” list. In response, Mahallati wrote a letter to Ali Larijani, the former Speaker of the Iranian Parliament, objecting to the accusations in the article by underscoring “the importance of Shiite supremacy in the West,” and boasting of his “crucial” role “in fulfilling the mission.” His letter to Larijani also claimed he was “persecuted” as a Shiite professor and inferred that there were others like him. Johnston sees Mahallati as the “tip of the iceberg” of a network of academics in the U.S. who are here to expand Iranian influence in the West. She said that Iran’s interest in working through the universities is to take advantage of American naiveté in academia. Professors who are sympathetic to the regime present a narrative to students who may not know how to question the narrative. Tehran’s goal is to advance its foreign policies with university graduates who gain employment in political positions “shaping future foreign policy.” In the early 2000s, Mahallati founded the Ilex Foundation in Boston and hosted Seyyed Mohammed Khatami, the former president of Iran. Called “the silver-tongued Ahmadinejad” [a former Iranian president known for his hatred of the U.S. and Israel], Khatami “bragged” about developing Iran’s nuclear program and held several positions in the Iranian government in the 1980s. Johnston said Khatami would have “been involved” during Khomeini’s state-sponsored “slaughter” of political prisoners. Mahallati and the Ilex Foundation’s association with Khatami raises skepticism as to Mahallati’s protestations of innocence regarding these massacres. Johnston said that the Alavi Foundation in the U.S., begun as the Pahlavi Foundation under the former Shah, was “rebranded” when it came under the control of the Iranian government after the Shah fell. The Department of Justice (DOJ) prosecuted the foundation, exposing it as a “front group for the regime” that has given “thousands of dollars to Ivy league schools.” The Alavi Foundation funding influenced Columbia university to hire Mahallati as a professor after it received generous funding from his brother, who was president of the Alavi Foundation at that time. Johnston said the DOJ should investigate Mahallati’s connection to two other schools where he worked, each having received monies from the Alavi Foundation. In light of the myriad examples cited by Johnston of Mahallati’s apparent role as “an agent of a hostile foreign power,” she is very critical of the U.S. government. She said Washington should be “upholding the laws” in the U.S. regarding foreign agents and the “restrictions on financing of universities.” Johnston said it is “too easy” for foreign money to be “filtered” to academic institutions and warned that there are other conduits for foreign funding from “Shia networks,” such as “mosques [and] private grant-making foundations.” Yale university “didn’t report hundreds of thousands” of dollars they received in foreign funding. Universities such as Princeton and Georgetown received foreign funding that advances the foreign sponsors’ interests, many of which are at odds with those of America’s. Johnston urges greater media coverage of the Mahallati case which serves as an important insight into “how Iranian infiltration works in the U.S.” She said it is not only Tehran’s infiltration and funding of academic institutions that is worth the DOJ’s scrutiny, but also monies run through disingenuous “medical aid organizations,” and “mosques that are not serving appropriate religious purposes.” The Mahallati example is “just another piece of the puzzle.” Please Click Here for the article.

دوشنبه ۶ تیر ۱۴۰۱ برابر با ۲۷ ژوئن ۲۰۲۲ – لادن بازرگان: «سال گذشته به کالج اوبرلین نامه‌ای نوشتم و گفتم وقت تلف کردن به نفع شما نیست، هرچه زودتر محلاتی را اخراج کنید بهتر است. اما گوش نکردند و الان بیش از ۱/۲ میلیون نفر مصاحبه مسیح علینژاد با من و محلاتی را دیده و فهمیده‌اند کالج اوبرلین استادی دارد که در جنایات علیه بشریت دست داشته.  این تازه آغاز راه است، وقتی کنگره آمریکا درگیر شود، اوضاع بدتر از این خواهد شد.»– کاوه شهروز: گذشته از ۱۶ هشدار سازمان عفو بین‌الملل در زمان وقوع کشتار زندانیان سیاسی، اگر آقای محلاتی واقعاً از «جزئیات» اطلاع نداشت، می توانست در پاسخ به سوال سازمان ملل در مورد آنها اظهار بی‌اطلاعی کند، اما چنین نکرد. او عمداً دروغ جمهوری اسلامی ایران را تکرار کرد و مدعی شد که اعدام شدگان تلفات میدان جنگ بوده‌اند.»– نازنین بنیادی: «عجب! استاد محلاتی با طفره رفتن مکرر از پرسش در مورد جنایت علیه بشریت به وضوح از جمهوری اسلامی دفاع می‌کند.»– پویان تمیمی عرب: «در پس صحبت‌های محلاتی درباره جهان، مردی قرار دارد که واقعیت را انکار می‌کند و یاد نگرفته به ندای وجدان خود گوش فرا دهد.»– لن خودورکوفسکی: «پس از این مصاحبه با مسیح علینژاد، بیش از هر زمان دیگری متقاعد شدم که «استاد صلح» کالج اوبرلین، محلاتی، نه تنها در کشتار ۱۳۶۷ دست داشته، بلکه احتمالاً هنوز هم عامل رژیم ایران است. آیا ریاست اوبرلین از استخدام چنین فردی خجالت نمی‌کشد؟» Please Click Here for the article.

Mohammad Jafar Mahallati, a professor of Islamic Studies at Oberlin College in Ohio called the regime-sanctioned massacre of 5,000 Iranians “little details.” By BENJAMIN WEINTHAL Published: JUNE 23, 2022 00:43 Updated: JUNE 23, 2022 08:07 Oberlin College’s Islamic Studies professor Mohammad Jafar Mahallati’s alleged interview with Voice of America’s Masih Alinejad, an Iranian-American journalist and human rights activist on Friday, revealed a number of instances in which he covered up crimes against humanity during his time serving as Iran’s ambassador to the UN in 1988, according to lawyers and human rights experts. Iranian human rights activist Lawdan Barzargan has, in recent times, emerged as the pivotal leader of a dynamic international campaign called Alliance Against Islamic Regime of Iran Apologists to dislodge Mahallati from academia. The writing on the wall Bazargan told The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday: “Last year, I wrote to Oberlin College that ‘time is not your friend. The sooner you fire Mahallati, the better it is.’ They didn’t listen and now more than 1.2 million people have seen the interview of Masih Alinejad with me and Mahallati and learned that Oberlin College has a professor that is involved in crimes against humanity. This is just the beginning, once the Congress gets involved, it will get worse.” Prominent Iranian-Canadian lawyer Kaveh Shahrooz wrote on Twitter: “Mahallati begins by saying that as UN ambassador in NYC he couldn’t know all the  (little details) of what was happening back home in Iran. The ‘little details’ he refers to was the massacre of at approximately 5000 people.” In a highly detailed Amnesty International report on the clerical regime’s mass murder of 5,000 innocent Iranian prisoners in 1988, published in 2018, the London-based human rights organization said Mahallati committed “crimes against humanity” by covering up the slaughter of Iranian political prisoners. When international crimes aren’t so secret Shahrooz, who is part of a campaign seeking to secure Mahallati’s dismissal from Oberlin College in Ohio, added that Mahallati said that “the massacre was a secret when it was happening. This is a big huge lie on two fronts. First of all, the preparation for the massacre was a secret. But once the killings began, the killings were well-known. Amnesty International issued **sixteen** urgent alerts about the killings as they were happening. The UN asked about them. It was not secret.” The lawyer added: “Secondly, if Mr. Mahallati genuinely didn’t know about the ‘little details,’ he could have pleaded ignorance when asked about them by the UN. He didn’t. He deliberately repeated the [Islamic Republic of Iran] IRI’s lie, claiming that the people being executed were battlefield casualties.” Reverberating across the web The Voice of America Farsi interview with Mahallati has electrified Iranian diaspora social media and reached inside the highly repressive theocratic state.   British-Iranian actress Nazanin Boniadi, who is an Amnesty International Ambassador for human rights, tweeted: “Wow. Prof. Mahallati is so clearly defending the Islamic Republic by repeatedly evading questions about their crimes against humanity.” The misery and bloodshed Mahallati and other officials of the clerical regime reportedly caused during the murder sprees of the summer of 1988 remain largely unpunished.  The US government has sanctioned Tehran’s current president Ebrahim Raisi for his role in the infamous “’Death Commission” that determined who would face the lawless system of the regime’s judiciary. Shahrooz wrote: “Mahallati is then asked whether the people who actively perpetrated the 1988 massacre (e.g. IRI prez  Ebrahim Raisi, who sat on the ‘Death Commission’) should be prosecuted. His answers is revealing and dispels all the Oberlin College lies about him promoting peace.” Mahallati and The Jerusalem Post  The Alliance Against Islamic Regime of Iran Apologists wants Mahallati to not only be fired but to face crimes against humanity charges in court.  Mahallati denied that he covered up the 1998 massacre in an email to The Jerusalem Post in 2020. ”Behind the universal messages [Mahallati] refers to is a man who is in denial and who hasn’t learned to listen to his conscience.”Pooyan Tamimi Arab, Utrecht University in the Netherlands, Mahallati lashed out at Barzargan in the VOA interview: “Of course, I have nothing to say to Ms. Bazargan, who, with the support of an Israeli newspaper, wants to blackmail a university professor without any documents.” Bazargan’s older brother Bijan, an advocate of trade unions, was executed by the regime in 1988 for his left-wing views. The “Israeli newspaper” that Mahallati apparently referenced was The Jerusalem Post due to its extensive coverage of the Mahallati affair. The Post revealed last year that Mahallati urged a violent global jihad against Israel and laid the ideological foundation for the genocide of the persecuted religious community  Baha’is in Iran while he was Tehran’s top envoy at the UN.  Pooyan Tamimi Arab, a professor of religious studies at Utrecht University in the Netherlands, wrote on Twitter: ”Behind the universal messages [Mahallati] refers to is a man who is in denial and who hasn’t learned to listen to his conscience.” The academic added that “Oberlin College don’t think that we will forget. I will do everything in my power to let my academic colleagues in the Netherlands know about how your institution is standing on the wrong side of history.” Mahallati bitterly complained about the protests launched against him on the Oberlin campus and across the world.  “There is no need to come to the streets,” said Mahallati. The Iranian campaign to oust Mahallati includes seeking to chip away at revenue and contracts won by the chairman of the Oberlin College board of trustees, Chris Canavan. Canavan is a partner with Lion’s Head Global Partners, which is based in the United Kingdom and has received government funds. Canavan, according to his critics, has gone to great lengths to shield Mahallati from criticism about his role in the mass murder. Canavan has declined to answer Post press queries. Mahallati went as far as to compare the intense criticism of his conduct and rhetoric at the UN to “a crime against humanity.” He said, “Likewise, if you commit a character assassination against a university professor, you have also committed a crime against humanity.”  Len Khodorkovsky, a former USContinue reading “Pro-Iran professor slips up on his ‘crimes against humanity’ in interview”

Last year, Oberlin College closed an investigation into Mohammad Jafar Mahallati over allegations that he helped cover up the mass murder of political prisoners in Iran in 1988.Mahallati claims that his ‘personal views’ are different from the views he expressed as the ambassador of Iran, citing his books and published works as evidence. Kate Anderson | Reporter Wednesday, June 22, 2022 11:30 AM FacebookTwitterEmailMore Demonstrators gathered at Oberlin College recently to protest Iranian professor Mohammad Jafar Mahallati.  The protest was an effort by the Alliance Against Islamic Regime of Iran Apologists, Jewish News Syndicates reports.  Last year, Oberlin College closed an investigation into Mahallati over allegations that he had been involved in covering up the mass murder of political prisoners in Iran in 1988 and comments that he made to the UN in regards to Israel. Mahallati was Iran’s United Nations ambassador at the time.  He joined Oberlin in 2007 and is currently a professor of religion and “presidential scholar in Islam.”   In a speech to the UN in 1989, Mahallati made remarks indicating he believed that Israel belongs to Palestine. [RELATED: ANALYSIS: 92% of Harvard newspaper’s Israel reporting has negative bias] “The land of Palestine is the platform of the ascension of the Prophet Mohammad; its significance is that it contains the first kiblah direction−towards which Muslims prayed,” he said. “Its occupation by Zionist usurpers is a transgression against all Muslims of the world and its liberation is therefore a great religious obligation and commitment.” Mahallati also condoned the “first Palestinian intifada.” “On December 9th, 1987, the heroic uprising of Palestinians began,” he told the U.N. According to a 2020 letter obtained by Fox News, Mahallati later claimed to be a purveyor of peace.  “[I] dedicated my life to research, teaching and writing about peace and friendship,” the letter reportedly states.  The college closed the investigation in October 2021 and announced that they had found no evidence of Mahallati being involved in the mass murders or any evidence of anti-Semitic behavior.  Mahallati claims that his “personal views” are different from the views he expressed as the ambassador of Iran, citing his books and published works as evidence. “The official positions I formally took at the United Nations during the time I served do not portray my personal views,” he via the Oberlin website. “My personal views are well portrayed in all my published books, articles, and teachings during the last 30 years since I left the U.N.” [RELATED: Anti-Israel activist delivers graduation address at ‘hotbed of radical antisemitism’] A fatwa, an Islamic legal ruling or decree, was issued by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1988 that ordered the execution of political prisoners that would not convert to Islam.  “It is decreed that those who are in prisons throughout the country and remain steadfast in their support for the Monafeqin [Mojahedin], are waging war on God and are condemned to execution.” This took place during Mahallati’s tenure as United Nations ambassador for Iran from 1987-1989.  Campus Reform reached out to Scott Wargo, Director of Media relations at Oberlin, and he referred to the fact sheet put out by the school regarding the subject. Oberlin College closed its investigation into Mahallati in October of 2021 after the school found no evidence of his involvement or knowledge of the massacre.  “The inquiry did not find proof to corroborate the allegations that Professor Mahallati knew of the atrocities at the time he was asked about them during his tenure at the United Nations,” the sheet said. The college also stated that the investigation did not find a “pattern of anti-Semitic behavior.” “The review could not identify a pattern of anti-Semitic behavior or ongoing calls for the destruction of Israel,” it stated. Campus Reform reached out to Mahallati and will update this article accordingly.  Please Click Here for the article.

(New York, N.Y.) – June 21, 2022 United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) is renewing its call to Oberlin College in Ohio to terminate its employment of former Iranian Ambassador Mohammad Jafar Mahallati, a tenured professor. Mahallati, who served as Iran’s Ambassador to the U.N. at the time of the regime’s infamous massacre of 5,000 political prisoners in 1988, stated on June 17 in an interview with Voice of America that he couldn’t know about the “little details” like the massacre. In June 2021, UANI called upon Oberlin College President Carmen Twillie Ambar to relieve Mahallati from his position on the faculty and disassociate Oberlin from Mahallati for his role in covering up gross human rights abuses.   UANI CEO Ambassador Mark Wallace stated the following: “Oberlin College must terminate Mahallati’s professorship immediately. We condemn in the strongest terms Mahallati’s barbaric characterization of the 1988 massacre of 5,000 innocent prisoners by the Iranian regime as ‘little details’ and his false claim that the executed dissidents were ‘battlefield causalities.’ For Oberlin, the choice is clear: They can either cut ties with Mahallati, or they can continue associating themselves with agents of the world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism.”   Last month, Wallace authored an op-ed in the Jerusalem Post that condemned both Oberlin and Princeton University for maintaining ties with Iranian agents. Princeton currently employs former Iranian Ambassador to Germany, Seyed Hossein Mousavian; under his watch, Iranian regime agents carried out the assassinations of political refugees on German soil. Recently, Mousavian attended, and appeared in a documentary about, the funeral of Iranian Commander Major-General Qassem Soleimani, a U.S. designated foreign terrorist responsible for the deaths and of hundreds of American service members. In the documentary, he gleefully remarked on several threats made by Iran to a former U.S. official’s family.    In the op-ed, Wallace stated, “Leading universities like Princeton University and Oberlin College in Ohio have for too long chosen to cast their lot with the Iranian regime, not the United States and its democratic allies. Iranian government agents are members of the faculty at both institutions. Princeton must cut ties with Iranian Ambassador Seyed Hossein Mousavian and Oberlin with Iranian Ambassador Mohammad Jafar Mahallati. They represent the brutal Iranian establishment and hide behind calls for diplomacy and peace to mask their bloodstained records. It is shameful that both schools are standing by their side instead of prioritizing student safety and upholding their moral obligations to protect against infiltration by agents of hostile foreign powers.”   UANI has also recently launched a petition calling Princeton President Christopher L. Eisgruber to immediately take action and terminate the employment of Mousavian. To join UANI in demanding Princeton remove Mousavian, please sign the petition here.  To read UANI’s letter to Oberlin College President Twillie Ambar concerning their employment of Mahallati, please click here. Please Click Here for the article.