News Archives

By BENJAMIN WEINTHAL    Published: APRIL 7, 2023 06:18 Updated: APRIL 7, 2023 15:59 Tehran University is a sponsor of genocidal antisemitism targeting Israel and one of its law professors defended the regime’s fatwa to murder Salman Rushdie. The Montreal-based McGill University pulled the plug on its research program with one of the world’s leading antisemitic institutions, Tehran University, The Jerusalem Post can first reveal. “Currently, there is no active research program associated with the Tehran Branch and McGill has no formal partnership agreement with the University of Tehran,” the McGill University Media Relations Office wrote the Post by Email on Wednesday. Tehran University is a sponsor of genocidal antisemitism targeting Israel and one of its law professors defended the regime’s fatwa to murder Salman Rushdie. Iran’s regime imprisoned McGill alumnus Niloufar Bayani, a wildlife conservationist,  over five years based on trumped-up spying charges, according to Amnesty International. “No place for Zionist regime” The Iranian regime cleric Hojjatoleslam Mohammad Javad Haj Ali Akbari declared on Al-Quds Day in 2022 on the campus of Tehran University that “There won’t be any place for the Zionist regime in the world future.” Al-Quds Day is an annual regime-sponsored event across Iran that calls for the destruction of the Jewish state. The Tehran University professor, Mohammad Sadegh Koushki, endorsed the assassination of Rushdie in August 2022, following the pro-Iranian regime suspects Hadi Matar’s attempt to kill Rushdie in upstate New York. The founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, authorized the fatwa to murder Rushdie in 1988 because he said his book, “The Satanic Verses,” denigrated Islam. The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) translated an Iranian television interview with Koushki, who defended the fatwa to kill Rushdie, noting that Khomenei “had the wisdom to issue this verdict back then, so that such a thing would never repeat itself.”  Koushki also said that Rushdie was a “dead man walking.” On McGill University’s Institute of Islamic Studies webpage, there is a section devoted to its “Tehran Branch.” The entry of the text is dated April 3, 2013. “Originally founded by McGill, the Tehran Branch faced a period of financial uncertainty before securing a suitable location and a yearly allocation from the University of Tehran… McGill’s Institute of Islamic Studies is proud of its 44-year association with the Tehran Branch and its scholarly activities, “ states the Tehran Branch webpage. The Post had sent numerous press queries to McGill University and its Institute of Islamic Studies since late February 2022 in an effort to secure transparency about relations between McGill and Tehran University. Both McGill and the Institute of Islamic Studies refused over a 13-month period to answer media queries. McGill also declined to provide a reason for why the research program with Tehran University is inactive. During the period of McGill’s partnership with Tehran University, the Iranian regime-controlled academic institution promoted the obliteration of Israel. The International Quran News Agency reported about a 2008 conference at Tehran University titled, “The Rise of Islam, Destruction of Israel.” McGill added in its Wednesday statement to the Post that “The Tehran Branch of the Institute of Islamic Studies at McGill was established more than fifty years ago. It has focused on scholarly activity with an emphasis on the recovery and study of historic Persian texts and has supported a collection of reference materials, including some of the most important books and manuscripts of different Islamic Sciences.” McGill University and its Institute of Islamic Studies refused to answer multiple follow up queries as to when its partnership with Tehran University became inactive. In March, the author of this article and Dr. Charles Asher Small, executive director of the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP), published an article in the Canadian broadsheet, the National Post, titled “McGill University’s deep ties with Iran’s murderous regime.” It is unclear if the March National Post article played a role in McGill’s announcement that it has severed relations with Tehran University. Tehran University has a long history of promoting lethal antisemitism and working with US-designated terrorists. The Iranian outlet affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Fars news, published a declaration from the Basij professors at Tehran University stating that they will do everything possible to bring about the “destruction of the infamous Zionist regime.” The US government designated the IRGC, which includes its subsidiary, the Basij, as a foreign terrorist organization. McGill’s Institute of Islamic Studies received $270,000 in donations between 2004 and 2010 from the Iranian regime-controlled U.S.-based Alavi Foundation. The US government seized the building of the Alavi Foundation due to the foundation’s role in busting US sanctions against the Islamic Republic. McGill University’s Islamic Studies department awarded Mohammad Jafar Mahallati a PhD in 2006. Amnesty International accused Mahallati of covering up crimes against humanity when he was the Iranian regime’s ambassador to the UN in 1988. Iran’s rulers executed 5,000 political prisoners in 1988. In a 2020 email to the Post, Mahallati rejected the Amnesty allegations. Alireza Nader, the engagement director for the US-based National Union for a Democratic Iran (NUFDI), told the Post that “The Islamic Republic has established significant influence in Western and American academia which deserves scrutiny and investigation. The regime’s influence operations and lobbying are particularly strong in Canada and may have impacted Ottawa’s policies toward the Islamic Republic.” Canada has refused to proscribe the IRGC a foreign terrorist organization. Sheina Vojoudi, an associate fellow for the Gold Institute for International Strategy, told the Post “If, according to McGill’s Media Relations Office, there’s no formal and active cooperation between the Islamic Republic and McGill University, it should be announced publicly and it would be a right course of action because Islamic Republic universities never respect other religions and discriminate against them. And, of course, the antisemitic Al-Quds rally will never be stopped at the universities under the Islamic Republic.” She added that “There are security departments at every university in Iran which cooperate with the IRGC Intelligence and the ministry of intelligence in Iran and help them to identify the students whoContinue reading “McGill University ends research with antisemitic Iranian university”

AAIRA is concerned that Ms. Fleming’s presence at Oberlin College would lend credibility to an institution who has Mohammad Jafar Mahallati, accused of involvement in covering up and denying the 1988 Massacre of Iranian political prisoners, on its payroll. Mahallati served as Iran’s Ambassador to the United Nations from 1987 to 1989, during which time the Iranian government executed thousands of political prisoners. Over the years, Oberlin College has honored Mahallati and misrepresented his credentials leaving out his dark past. Despite his involvement in the 1988 Massacre and his ongoing defense of the Iranian regime’s human rights abuses, Mahallati has been allowed to promote his fundamentalist views on the international stage. Ms. Fleming has been a staunch advocate for human rights and has consistently worked towards promoting diversity and inclusivity. However, by agreeing to speak at an institution that has celebrated and promoted a figure like Mahallati, she risks undermining her own principles and the important work she has done to combat intolerance and discrimination. In light of these concerns, AAIRIA respectfully requests that Ms. Fleming reconsider her decision to speak at Oberlin College. We believe it is essential to stand up against those who seek to cover up and deny human rights abuses, and we urge Ms. Fleming to stand in solidarity with the victims of the 1988 Massacre and their families.We invite Ms. Fleming to engage with us and learn more about Dr. Mahallati’s troubling history and Oberlin College’s problematic relationship with him. We believe constructive dialogue and collaboration are critical to fostering understanding and promoting positive change. About AAIRA:The Alliance Against Islamic Republic of Iran Regime Apologists (AAIRIA) is a group of former Iranian political prisoners, families of Iranian executed political prisoners and human rights activists who work for justice and accountability. We have tirelessly worked to hold Mahallati accountable for his part in the Iran Regime’s crimes against humanity. For more information, please visit https://aairia.org

اتحاد علیه لابی های رژیم جمهوری اسلامی ایران از ملیسا فلمینگ، معاون دبیرکل سازمان ملل متحد در امور ارتباطات جهانی، می خواهد تا در مورد حضور خود در کالج اوبرلین در ۱۰ آوریل ۲۰۲۳ تجدید نظر کند. اتحاد علیه لابی های رژیم جمهوری اسلامی ایران نگران است که حضور خانم فلمینگ در کالج اوبرلین, موسسه‌ای که محمدجعفر محلاتی, متهم به دست داشتن در سرپوش گذاشتن و انکار قتل عام زندانیان سیاسی ایران در تابستان سال ۱۳۶۷ را به عنوان استاد استخدام کرده، به این کالج اعتبار بخشد. محلاتی از سال ۱۳۶۶ تا ۱۳۶۸ سفیر ایران در سازمان ملل بود و در این مدت حکومت ایران هزاران زندانی سیاسی را اعدام کرد. در ۱۳ سال گذشته کالج اوبرلین برای محلاتی اعتبارخریده و گذشته تاریک او را نادیده گرفته و از دانشجویان خود پنهان کرده است. محلاتی علیرغم دست داشتن در کشتار ۱۳۶۷ و دفاع مداومش از رژیم ایران، یکی از بزرگترین ناقضان حقوق بشر در دنیا، اجازه یافته است که دیدگاه های بنیادگرایانه خود را در صحنه بین المللی ترویج کند. خانم فلمینگ از مدافعان سرسخت حقوق بشر بوده و پیوسته در جهت ارتقای آن تلاش کرده است. با این حال، با قبول سخنرانی در مؤسسه‌ای که شخصیتی مانند محلاتی را مورد تجلیل و ارتقاء قرار داده است، خانم فلمینگ اعتبار خود و کارهای مهمی که برای مبارزه با نابردباری و تبعیض انجام داده است، را به خطر انداخته است. با توجه به این نگرانی ها، اتحاد علیه لابی های رژیم جمهوری اسلامی ایران محترمانه از خانم فلمینگ درخواست می کند که در تصمیم خود برای سخنرانی در کالج اوبرلین تجدید نظر کند. ما معتقدیم که ضروری است در برابر کسانی که به دنبال سرپوش گذاشتن و انکار نقض حقوق بشر هستند بایستیم. ما از خانم فلمینگ می خواهیم که در کنار خانواده های قربانیان کشتار ۶۷ بایستد و از ایشان دعوت می کنیم تا برای اطلاعات بیشتر درباره تاریخچه هولناک محلاتی و رابطه ممشکوک کالج اوبرلین با او با ما وارد دیآلوگ بشود. ما معتقدیم گفتگو و همکاری سازنده برای تقویت تفاهم و ترویج تغییرات مثبت حیاتی است. درباره اتحاد علیه لابی های رژیم جمهوری اسلامی ایران:اتحاد علیه لابی های رژیم جمهوری اسلامی ایران گروهی از خانواده های زندانیان سیاسی اعدام شده ایرانی، زندانیان سیاسی سابق، و فعالان حقوق بشر است که برای عدالت و پاسخگویی تلاش می کنند. ما تلاش کرده ایم تا محلاتی را به خاطر نقشی که در جنایات رژیم ایران علیه بشریت داشته پاسخگو کنیم. برای اطلاعات بیشتر لطفا به سایت این گروه مراجعه کنید.

McGill must end its academic partnership with an Iranian regime-controlled university that seeks the extermination of the Jews Author of the article: Benjamin Weinthal and Charles Asher Small,  Special to National Post Published Mar 09, 2023  •  Last updated Mar 17, 2023  •  5 minute read While some academic institutions, such as the University of Freiburg in Germany, have pulled the plug on their affiliation with Iranian universities that urge the destruction of Israel, McGill University in Montreal continues to mainstream lethal antisemitism through its partnership with Tehran University. McGill University’s Institute of Islamic Studies is now in a position to deliver a crystal-clear message — that it will no longer partner with an institution controlled by a regime that arrested Bayani and actively seeks the destruction of the world’s largest Jewish community in the State of Israel — by closing its branch in Tehran. Tehran University, which is home to the Institute of Islamic Studies’ Tehran Branch, has a history of hosting speakers and hiring professors promoting the destruction of the State of Israel and other acts of violence. The Iranian cleric Hojjatoleslam Mohammad Javad Haj Ali Akbari announced on Al-Quds Day in 2022 on the campus of Tehran University that, “There won’t be any place for the Zionist regime in the world future.” Advertisement 3 STORY CONTINUES BELOW Article content Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, launched Al-Quds Day in 1979 as a protest against Israel’s right to exist. Al-Quds Day demonstrations blanket Iranian cities and, in a revolutionary expression of genocidal antisemitism, call for the total elimination of the Jewish state. The International Quran News Agency, a regime-controlled news website, also published a report about a 2008 conference at Tehran University titled, “The rise of Islam, Destruction of Israel.” Elsewhere, Fars News — an Iranian outlet affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which has been designated as a terrorist organization by the United States — published a statement from the Basij professors at Tehran University stating that they will do everything possible to bring about the “destruction of the infamous Zionist regime.” The Basij is militia organization that falls the under the control of the IRGC and is responsible for crushing the current demonstrations unfolding in Iran. Tehran University is not only obsessed with promoting the demise of the Jewish state. One of its professors, Mohammad Sadegh Koushki, endorsed the assassination of the British-American author Salman Rushdie in August 2022, shortly after the pro-Iranian regime suspect Hadi Matar sought to murder Rushdie in upstate New York. Khomeini issued a fatwa to kill Rushdie in 1988 because he said his book, “The Satanic Verses,” defamed the Islamic faith. The Middle East Media Research Institute translated an Iranian television interview with Koushki, a professor in the faculty of law and political science at the University of Tehran, in which he declared that Rushdie was a “dead man walking.” Koushki went on to defend the fatwa to murder Rushdie, noting that Khomenei “had the wisdom to issue this verdict back then, so that such a thing would never repeat itself.” Canada, to its credit, has not had formal diplomatic relations with the Islamic Republic since 2012, but financial and academic ties between the two countries remain. Between 2004 and 2010, McGill’s Institute of Islamic Studies received $270,000 in donations from the Iranian-controlled, U.S.-based Alavi Foundation, which is used by the regime to advance its interests in North America. McGill itself is a hotbed of pro-Iranian regime activity. In October, McGill Prof. Soroosh Shahriari tweeted in support of the Islamic Republic’s brutal crackdown on the female-led revolt against misogyny and the forced wearing of the hijab in response to the murder of Mahsa Amini, who died while in the custody of the state’s infamous morality police after being picked up for not wearing her hijab properly. Shahriari tweeted about how “sweet” and “heartwarming” it would be to see the demonstrators killed. The link between McGill University and the Islamic Republic was catapulted into the spotlight after family members of victims of a 1988 massacre in Iran exposed the fact that Mohammad Jafar Mahallati, a professor of religion at Oberlin College in Ohio and former Iranian ambassador to the United Nations, had, according to an Amnesty International report, attempted to cover up the mass murder of an estimated 5,000 Iranian prisoners. Mahallati received a PhD in Islamic studies from McGill in 2006, which shows that the university failed to properly vet him in its admissions process. While the Amnesty report wasn’t released until 2018, Mahallati’s tirades against Israel at the UN — including his genocidal antisemitism, in which he called for a global jihad against the Jewish state and sought to negate its right to exist — have long been a matter of public record. While at the UN, Mahallati also excused his government’s violent persecution of Iran’s Baha’i religious community. A 2021 editorial in the Oberlin Review student newspaper — titled, Evidence Against Mahallati Irrefutable — took Mahallati to task for lying about his role in covering up the mass murder of Iranian citizens and for his incitement against the Baha’i community. Despite this, Oberlin College launched an investigation, which amounted to little more than a cover-up of Mahallati’s cover-up of Iran’s crimes against humanity. McGill’s Institute of Islamic Studies promotes material that mirrors the anti-Israel propaganda that Mahallati peddles. One telling example is an entry on the institute’s website congratulating an incoming student for publishing an article on the U.S.-based Mondoweiss website, which critics consider profoundly antisemitic, anti-Israel and anti-Zionist. According to the Anti-Defamation League, Mondoweiss is a “vociferously anti-Israel news website” that “posted a cartoon by antisemitic cartoonist Carlos Latuff, who won second place in a 2006 Iranian contest for the ‘best’ cartoon belittling or denying the Holocaust.” Given this history, it’s little wonder that outbreaks of antisemitism have punctuated McGill campus life over the years. One example was revealed when a Jewish student leader, Jordyn Wright, accused the Student Society of McGill University of antisemitism after it tried to oust her from the student union for accepting a trip to Israel. Unfortunately, McGill’s Institute of Islamic Studies has failed to respond to our inquiries on these matters since February. McGill University should endContinue reading “Opinion: McGill University’s deep ties with Iran’s murderous regime”

Karmel Melamed Posted Mar 13, 2023 at 4: 01 PM More than 100 Iranian Americans and Jewish activists gathered on March 8 at the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles for an International Women’s Day event in solidarity with the women of Iran. “The world must recognize the struggle Iranian women have taken on for their freedom and how for the first time Iranians of all backgrounds are demanding equality rights for everyone in their country,” Leibe Geft, the museum’s director, said at the event. Lisa Daftari, an Iranian American journalist, was master of ceremony at the event co-sponsored by the Simon Wiesenthal Center and the nonprofit organization No to Antisemitism. She called it historic that Southern California’s Jewish and Iranian communities had come together. “There is such an outpouring of support from all people for the Iranian revolution, but the Jewish community and Iranian community have a natural allyship that has been underscored and is now coming to a crescendo after five months of protests against the regime,” Daftari, who runs a website called the Foreign Desk, told JNS. The Iranian regime has targeted both Iranians and Jews. “They understand each other and are now openly supporting each other against a common enemy,” she added. Los Angeles is home to the largest Iranian ex-pat community in the world—nearly 45,000 of whom are Jews, according to some estimates. When organizers played a recording of Iranian singer and songwriter Shervin Hajipour performing his song “Baraye”—the Iranian revolution’s unofficial anthem and the winner last month of the first Grammy for Best Song for Social Change—via video feed, many attendees wiped away tears as they sang along. Attendees also saw a video social-media post from January featuring some 50 popular entertainers, including Cate Blanchett, Jason Momoa, Samuel L. Jackson and Bryan Cranston held signs with the hashtag “Stop executions in Iran.” Iranian-American artists Nicole Najafi, Ana Lily Amirpour and Mozhan Marnò created the video, according to the Hollywood Reporter. And in a live video, Daftari interviewed Iranian American activist Mariam Memarsadeghi and Iranian American CNN news editor Artemis Moshtaghian at the Los Angeles event. The Biden administration has disappointed many Iranian Americans with its Iranian policy, which they find weak in addressing the Iranian regime’s human-rights abuses, according to Memarsadeghi, founder of the Cyrus Forum. By keeping negotiation doors open, the Biden administration is allowing the Iranian regime to blackmail Washington, Memarsadeghi said in a live video feed during the event. “Our community wants to see a clear break from their current policy of appeasement of the regime, and it seems as if the Biden administration has not done that,” she said. And in recent months, Iranian American journalists and activists have had difficulty persuading U.S. news outlets to continue to cover the regime’s harsh crackdowns on protesters in Iran. “It’s been a struggle to get Western news media to cover the freedom movement in Iran, but I think now we have been doing a better job to get the information out there,” she said. After Iran’s “morality police” arrested and beat a 22-year-old woman, Mahsa Amini, in Tehran last September for not covering her head, protesters have taken to the streets in many Iranian cities. As the protests have increased, security forces have beaten, arrested and shot many protesters, including killing more than 500—60 of them minors—according to the nonprofit Human Rights Activists News Agency. Lawdan Bazargan, an Iranian American activist who spoke from Washington, D.C., via live feed at the event, addressed the efforts of her organization, Alliance Against Islamic Regime of Iran Apologists, to lobby Oberlin College to fire Mohammad Jafar Mahallati, former Iranian ambassador to the United Nations, from his religion professorship. She cited Mahallati’s alleged role in covering up the Iranian regime’s massacre of at least 5,000 Iranian dissidents in 1988. In a Feb. 6 report, Amnesty International cited Mahallati’s participation in covering up “facts and whereabouts of thousands of political dissidents they extrajudicially killed in the 1980s and dumped in unmarked graves.” “What is truly outrageous is that after this report came out, the administration at Oberlin College still didn’t fire Mahallati but continues to pay him by giving him office work,” Bazargan told JNS. Oberlin and Mahallati did not return calls and emails from JNS. ‘We will always be grateful for their help’ Another event speaker was Gazelle Sharmahd, a Los Angeles-based activist and daughter of Iranian German journalist Jamshid Sharmahd, kidnapped by the Iranian regime in July 2020 from his Dubai hotel. In February, it sentenced him to death for terrorism. Annalena Baerbock, the German foreign minister, has said the arrest occurred under “highly questionable circumstances,” and Sharmahd “never had even the semblance of a fair trial.” Sharmahd told JNS she did not attend in person at the Museum of Tolerance out of fear for her security. She praised the museum and Jewish organizations for informing U.S. and European officials about her father’s plight. “Members of the Jewish community were the first to help us because they realized the evil nature of the Iranian regime’s dictatorship since they have experienced the trauma of terror from this regime firsthand,” said Sharmahd. “We will always be grateful for their help to save my father’s life.” Iranian Americans who attended the event were inspired by brief comments from Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean and director of global social action at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, directing them to petition the U.S. government to place greater economic and political pressure on Iran’s Islamic regime. “Rabbi Cooper’s speech was a strong voice of hope demanding justice and freedom in Iran,” said Arshia Sajedi, an Iranian American activist in Los Angeles. “His message was one I so desperately needed to hear, as many of our human rights political leaders still refuse to publicly state their full support for regime change in Iran.” Bijan Khalili, a founder of No to Antisemitism, told JNS that some non-Jewish Iranians have hesitated to participate in Iran-focused events at Jewish organizations, for fear of being labeled Zionist spies or collaborators by the Iranian regime. “This taboo is slowly dyingContinue reading “Iranian Americans and Jews have ‘natural allyship,’ can work more closely, LA event suggests”

Karmel Melamed Posted Mar 13, 2023 at 4: 01 PM More than 100 Iranian Americans and Jewish activists gathered on March 8 at the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles for an International Women’s Day event in solidarity with the women of Iran. “The world must recognize the struggle Iranian women have taken on for their freedom and how for the first time Iranians of all backgrounds are demanding equality rights for everyone in their country,” Leibe Geft, the museum’s director, said at the event. Lisa Daftari, an Iranian American journalist, was master of ceremony at the event co-sponsored by the Simon Wiesenthal Center and the nonprofit organization No to Antisemitism. She called it historic that Southern California’s Jewish and Iranian communities had come together. “There is such an outpouring of support from all people for the Iranian revolution, but the Jewish community and Iranian community have a natural allyship that has been underscored and is now coming to a crescendo after five months of protests against the regime,” Daftari, who runs a website called the Foreign Desk, told JNS. The Iranian regime has targeted both Iranians and Jews. “They understand each other and are now openly supporting each other against a common enemy,” she added. Los Angeles is home to the largest Iranian ex-pat community in the world—nearly 45,000 of whom are Jews, according to some estimates. When organizers played a recording of Iranian singer and songwriter Shervin Hajipour performing his song “Baraye”—the Iranian revolution’s unofficial anthem and the winner last month of the first Grammy for Best Song for Social Change—via video feed, many attendees wiped away tears as they sang along. Attendees also saw a video social-media post from January featuring some 50 popular entertainers, including Cate Blanchett, Jason Momoa, Samuel L. Jackson and Bryan Cranston held signs with the hashtag “Stop executions in Iran.” Iranian-American artists Nicole Najafi, Ana Lily Amirpour and Mozhan Marnò created the video, according to the Hollywood Reporter. And in a live video, Daftari interviewed Iranian American activist Mariam Memarsadeghi and Iranian American CNN news editor Artemis Moshtaghian at the Los Angeles event. The Biden administration has disappointed many Iranian Americans with its Iranian policy, which they find weak in addressing the Iranian regime’s human-rights abuses, according to Memarsadeghi, founder of the Cyrus Forum. By keeping negotiation doors open, the Biden administration is allowing the Iranian regime to blackmail Washington, Memarsadeghi said in a live video feed during the event. “Our community wants to see a clear break from their current policy of appeasement of the regime, and it seems as if the Biden administration has not done that,” she said. And in recent months, Iranian American journalists and activists have had difficulty persuading U.S. news outlets to continue to cover the regime’s harsh crackdowns on protesters in Iran. “It’s been a struggle to get Western news media to cover the freedom movement in Iran, but I think now we have been doing a better job to get the information out there,” she said. After Iran’s “morality police” arrested and beat a 22-year-old woman, Mahsa Amini, in Tehran last September for not covering her head, protesters have taken to the streets in many Iranian cities. As the protests have increased, security forces have beaten, arrested and shot many protesters, including killing more than 500—60 of them minors—according to the nonprofit Human Rights Activists News Agency. Lawdan Bazargan, an Iranian American activist who spoke from Washington, D.C., via live feed at the event, addressed the efforts of her organization, Alliance Against Islamic Regime of Iran Apologists, to lobby Oberlin College to fire Mohammad Jafar Mahallati, former Iranian ambassador to the United Nations, from his religion professorship. She cited Mahallati’s alleged role in covering up the Iranian regime’s massacre of at least 5,000 Iranian dissidents in 1988. In a Feb. 6 report, Amnesty International cited Mahallati’s participation in covering up “facts and whereabouts of thousands of political dissidents they extrajudicially killed in the 1980s and dumped in unmarked graves.” “What is truly outrageous is that after this report came out, the administration at Oberlin College still didn’t fire Mahallati but continues to pay him by giving him office work,” Bazargan told JNS. Oberlin and Mahallati did not return calls and emails from JNS. ‘We will always be grateful for their help’ Another event speaker was Gazelle Sharmahd, a Los Angeles-based activist and daughter of Iranian German journalist Jamshid Sharmahd, kidnapped by the Iranian regime in July 2020 from his Dubai hotel. In February, it sentenced him to death for terrorism. Annalena Baerbock, the German foreign minister, has said the arrest occurred under “highly questionable circumstances,” and Sharmahd “never had even the semblance of a fair trial.” Sharmahd told JNS she did not attend in person at the Museum of Tolerance out of fear for her security. She praised the museum and Jewish organizations for informing U.S. and European officials about her father’s plight. “Members of the Jewish community were the first to help us because they realized the evil nature of the Iranian regime’s dictatorship since they have experienced the trauma of terror from this regime firsthand,” said Sharmahd. “We will always be grateful for their help to save my father’s life.” Iranian Americans who attended the event were inspired by brief comments from Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean and director of global social action at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, directing them to petition the U.S. government to place greater economic and political pressure on Iran’s Islamic regime. “Rabbi Cooper’s speech was a strong voice of hope demanding justice and freedom in Iran,” said Arshia Sajedi, an Iranian American activist in Los Angeles. “His message was one I so desperately needed to hear, as many of our human rights political leaders still refuse to publicly state their full support for regime change in Iran.” Bijan Khalili, a founder of No to Antisemitism, told JNS that some non-Jewish Iranians have hesitated to participate in Iran-focused events at Jewish organizations, for fear of being labeled Zionist spies or collaborators by the Iranian regime. “This taboo is slowlyContinue reading “Iranian Americans and Jews have ‘natural allyship,’ can work more closely, LA event suggests”

Dr. Fatemeh Pishdadian Dr. Frieda Fuchs Dr. Hamid Charkhkar February 24, 2023 On Dec. 12, 2022, President Carmen Twillie Ambar received a letter from three prominent Iranian-born human rights advocates: Nobel Peace Prize laureate and lawyer Dr. Shirin Ebadi; acclaimed author of the international bestseller Reading Lolita in Tehran Dr. Azar Nafisi; and historian and co-founder of the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center for Human Rights in Iran, located in Washington, D.C., Dr. Ladan Boroumand. In their letter, Ebadi, Nafisi, and Boroumand call upon President Ambar to conduct a new investigation of Professor of Religion Mohammad Jafar Mahallati with respect to his role in covering up Iran’s 1988 prison massacres. The 1988 prison massacres refer to a crime against humanity that took place during Mahallati’s tenure as Iran’s Ambassador to the United Nations from 1987–1989, when several thousand leftist political prisoners were summarily executed on orders of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini. In 2020, the families of the prison massacre victims organized a campaign to revoke Professor Mahallati’s tenure on the grounds that his deliberate obfuscation of the massacres and lack of contrition made him morally unfit to be a professor at Oberlin. Faced with intense media scrutiny, Oberlin College initiated an internal investigation into the allegations and released a fact sheet summarizing its findings on Oct. 28, 2021. The report claimed that the institution had engaged a law firm to investigate the allegations and had conducted several clarifying conversations with Professor Mahallati. The report took at face value that Mahallati’s residence in New York meant that he was not aware of the prison massacres, even though it is well known that he was receiving alarming reports about mass atrocities from Amnesty International and credible news sources at the time. Additionally, protesters staged demonstrations in 1988 outside the U.N. Headquarters where Mahallati’s office was located. The report went on to highlight Mahallati’s constructive role in ending the Iran Iraq War and depicted him as an exemplary professor devoted to humanitarian causes. The College report’s conclusions contradict the 2018 Amnesty International Report — “Iran: Blood-soaked Secrets” — as well as the earlier 2011 report by internationally renowned human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson — “The Massacre of Political Prisoners in Iran, 1988”. Ebadi, Nafisi, and Boroumand claim that the “secretive” manner in which Oberlin College conducted its review and the report’s “bizarre findings” motivated them to write the letter. The authors underscore that the College did not explain how it came to the conclusions published in the report, ignored evidence from human rights experts, and refused to engage in dialogue with the victims’ relatives. As a result, the authors conclude, the College’s handling of the affair represents “an exercise in whitewashing a controversy rather than an attempt to arrive at the truth.” In concluding their letter, the authors call on President Ambar to allow a neutral “third party to conduct a transparent investigation of the allegations against Mahallati.” Ebadi, Nafisi, and Boroumand have confirmed that they have not received a response from the College to date. Quite apart from the high public profile of these human rights advocates, their letter comes at a critical juncture in Iranian history. Iranian women and their male supporters have launched nationwide protests designed to dismantle repressive gender laws imposed by the clerical regime. The Iranian regime’s response has been vicious: according to the Human Rights Activist News Agency, as of Jan. 29, 527 protesters were killed — 71 of them minors — and nearly 20,000 were arrested. The presidents of major academic institutions, including Case Western Reserve University, have issued statements publicly affirming their support for the Iranian community, whereas President Ambar and Oberlin College remain silent. Let us make this outrageous hypocrisy patently obvious: The institution that is justly proud of its role as a historic pioneer in women’s education and women’s rights refuses to condemn a religious autocracy that is killing women who wish to discard the veil, wear jeans, or dance in public with their friends. As for Professor Mahallati, to the best of our knowledge, he has never shown any contrition about the 1988 massacres. While in his courses and public events Professor Mahallati professes values of peace and friendship in the tradition of Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela — in 2016 he organized an online Peace Posters Dialogue Project at the Mary Church Terrell Main Library to which Iranian art students from his hometown of Shiraz contributed — he remains silent about the current violations of civil rights and women’s rights in Iran. The Islamic Republic of Iran has a long history of demonizing its victims and opponents as imperialist warmongers — an umbrella slogan that seeks to discredit regime critics of very different political persuasions, but one that is very difficult to apply to the leftist revolutionaries and others, like members of the minority Baha’i faith and Kurdish rebels, whom the regime brutally executed after holding them captive for years beforehand. Oberlin College should not be complicit with this strategy of discreditation. We demand that President Ambar respond to the request of prominent human rights activists and conduct a more transparent investigation of Mahallati’s role in covering up the 1988 massacres. The College should also consider Amnesty International’s most recent report, published Feb. 6, 2023, which provides a more thorough account of the role of Iranian diplomats, including Professor Mahallati, in deliberately deceiving international public opinion. Rather than summarily dismissing the victims’ claims, the College should follow standard academic and ethical practice, consider the evidence provided in all the above-mentioned human rights reports, and conduct its investigation in a transparent and public manner. Please Click Here for the article.

by Len Khodorkovsky and Lawdan Bazargan  February 23, 2023 01:00 AM The Islamic Republic of Iran has carried out terrorism worldwide since its founding in 1979, frequently using its “diplomats” and embassy personnel to commit, then cover up, these attacks. Just a few weeks ago, the FBI charged three assassins with ties to Tehran who targeted Masih Alinejad, an American citizen and critic of the Islamic Republic, in her own neighborhood in Brooklyn. A new Amnesty International report cites evidence against a number of Iranian officials, including Mohammad Jafar Mahallati, Iran’s former United Nations ambassador. Mahallati is accused by Amnesty of crimes against humanity. According to the human rights group, “Mahallati played a particularly active role in seeking to undermine credible reports by the then U.N. Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran, and Amnesty International, and to weaken the U.N.’s response. For instance, he undertook efforts in late November and early December 1988 to block the adoption of a resolution by the U.N. General Assembly that expressed concern about the mass executions.” Yet incredibly, Mahallati is now the Nancy Schrom Dye chairman of Middle East and North African Studies at Oberlin College in Ohio. Not only is this “professor of peace” implicated in the killing of thousands of Iranians, but he also called for the destruction of Israel and has a long record of antisemitic statements. During a speech at the U.N. in 1989, Mahallati called Israel “an Islamic territory, an Islamic heritage,” and “an Islamic point of identity.” He concluded, “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 complained about condemnations of Iran’s persecution of the Baha’i community. He attempted to justify the revocation of Baha’i Iranians’ citizenship, as well as their imprisonment, torture, and execution. He endorsed the fatwa against Salman Rushdie and mocked the killing of American soldiers. During a recent interview with Alinejad, Mahallati refused to acknowledge his well-documented connection to the Iranian regime, despite calling himself its loyal servant in a letter to the head of Iran’s parliament. Family members of the Islamic Republic’s victims, human rights groups, Soviet dissident Natan Sharansky, and Nobel Peace laureates have called for Mahallati’s termination. To date, Oberlin’s current president, Carmen Ambar, has chosen to ignore the school’s “enduring commitment to a sustainable and just society” and hypocritically cover for Mahallati’s crimes. Oberlin’s board remains silent. Recognizing the need for transparency, Reps. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) and Jim Banks (R-IN) wrote a letter demanding details of Mahallati’s employment. Their letter questioned Oberlin College’s reporting of foreign funding and whether the regime had a role in Mahallati’s hiring. But Mahallati is not the only former Iranian regime official to have been allowed to reinvent himself by an American university. Princeton University professor Seyed Hossein Mousavian made news after getting caught on camera giggling about Iranian threats against the family of Brian Hook, the former U.S. special representative for Iran. During his stint as the Islamic Republic of Iran’s ambassador to Germany in the 1990s, Mousavian was involved in political assassinations and plots. As a result of his activity, the German government demanded his removal. Eventually, four Iranian “diplomats” were expelled, and Mousavian left shortly thereafter, escaping prosecution and landing comfortably at Princeton. American universities are a big target for hostile nations to advance radical religious and political beliefs. U.S. schools have received at least $12 billion in foreign funds from 2013 to 2019, with little to no transparency. The Islamic Republic of Iran is one of the major donors, giving millions to Columbia, Harvard, Princeton, and other schools. Former Rep. Dan Donovan (R-NY) described such funding as an attempt to “subvert American academic institutions.” In 2019, the Clarion Project discovered that the Alavi Foundation, serving as a front for the Iranian regime, has exerted much influence over mosques and schools in the United States. Interestingly, Mohammad Jafar Mahallati’s brother, Mohammad Hossein Mahallati, served as the Alavi Foundation’s director. According to Amnesty International, “direct perpetrators of the prison massacres are not the only people who must be subject to criminal investigations … all former and current officials who have contributed to the climate of secrecy and denial facilitating the continued enforced disappearances of thousands of victims must also be held to account.” Neither Mahallati nor Mousavian has been held accountable. Indeed, American universities continue to reward them. That’s not only painful for the families of the victims, but it inflicts reputational damage on U.S. universities and poses a serious national security threat. Len Khodorkovsky is a former deputy assistant secretary of state and senior adviser to the U.S. representative for Iran. Lawdan Bazargan is an Iranian-American human rights activist and the sister of one of the victims of the 1988 massacre, Bijan Bazargan. Please Click Here for the article.

– در واکنش به اطلاعات جدید عفو بین‌الملل،  سازمان «اتحاد علیه حامیان رژیم اسلامی ایران» بیانیه‌ای منتشر کرده و بر اتهامات خود علیه محلاتی تاکید کرده, اعلام کردند: «با توجه به این شواهد جدید، با اطمینان به این نتیجه می‌رسیم که آقای محلاتی از اعدام‌ها آگاه بوده و در موقعیتی قرار داشته که مانع از وقوع آنها شود.» دوشنبه ۱ اسفند ۱۴۰۱ برابر با ۲۰ فوریه ۲۰۲۳ آوا میلر (اوبرلین ریویو) – روز ۱۷ بهمن، سازمان عفو بین‌الملل گزارشی ۱۷صفحه‌ای منتشر کرد که در آن اقدامات استاد دین‌شناسی، محمد جعفر محلاتی، به عنوان سفیر سابق جمهوری اسلامی در سازمان ملل متحد محکوم شده است. در این گزارش آمده است که محلاتی نقش فعالی در سرپوش‌گذاری بر کشتار جمعی زندانیان سیاسی در ایران در سال ۱۳۶۷ داشته است. در این گزارش، که اخیرا منتشر شده، ادعا شده که محلاتی تلاش می‌کرده با دادن اطلاعات گمراه‌کننده به سازمان ملل و تهمت زدن به قربانیان اعدام‌ها، از تحقیقات این سازمان در مورد کشتار سال ۱۳۶۷، که تا سال ۱۳۶۸ ادامه داشته است، جلوگیری کند. این گزارش ادعا می‌کند که محلاتی «در آذر و دی  ۱۳۶۷ برای جلوگیری از تصویب قطعنامه‌ای توسط مجمع عمومی سازمان ملل، که در مورد اعدام‌های دستجمعی ابراز نگرانی می کرد، تلاش کرده است.» سایر شواهد ذکر شده در این گزارش حاکی از آن است که محلاتی اعدام‌ها را به‌عنوان «مرگ در میدان جنگ» جا زده است. در سال ۱۳۶۸، پس از ارائه شواهد قابل توجهی از اعدام های فراقانونی خرداد تا شهریور ۱۳۶۷به مقامات ایرانی، محلاتی همه گزارش‌های مربوط به اعدام‌های دستجمعی را رد کرد. در آذر ۱۳۶۷، سازمان ملل با تصویب قطعنامه‌ای «نگرانی شدید» خود را درباره هدف قرار دادن زندانیان سیاسی توسط جمهوری اسلامی ابراز کرد. طبق گزارش رسانه‌های بین‌المللی، محلاتی تلاش کرده است که این قطعنامه «لغو» یا «تضعیف» شود. محلاتی در بهمن ۱۳۶۷ نامه‌ای از طرف نمایندگی دائم جمهوری اسلامی ایران به سازمان ملل متحد در نیویورک نوشت و مدعی شد که افراد کشته شده «ارتباطات سازمانی مستقیم با… یک شبکه جاسوسی خیانتکار» داشته‌اند. از مهر ۱۳۹۹، اعضای خانواده کشته‌شدگان خواستار اخراج محلاتی و عذرخواهی دانشکده بابت استخدام او شده‌اند. در سال ۱۴۰۰، کالج اوبرلین یک شخص ثالث ناشناس را برای بررسی اتهامات علیه محلاتی استخدام کرد. بر اساس یافته‌های تحقیقات، دانشکده به این نتیجه رسید که هیچ مدرکی برای تأیید این اتهامات علیه محلاتی وجود ندارد. اتحاد علیه حامیان رژیم اسلامی ایران در مراسم پایان تحصیل دانشجویان کالج اوبرلین در خرداد ۱۴۰۱ علیه محلاتی دست به اعتراض زدند. در شهریور ۱۴۰۱، نمایندگان جمهوریخواه اعلام کردند که تحقیقات خود علیه کالج اوبرلین را آغاز خواهند کرد. نمایندگان کنگره جیم بنکس از ایالت ایندیانا و ویرجینیا فاکس از کارولینای شمالی شواهدی در مورد ارتباط محلاتی با سپهر سیاست، یک روزنامه ایرانی که متهم به حمایت از گروه شبه نظامی اسلامگرای لبنانی حزب الله است، منتشر کردند. عفو بین‌الملل شواهدی ارائه کرده که نشان می‌دهد محلاتی همچنان اطلاع خود از اعدام‌های دستجمعی را انکار می‌کند. محلاتی در مصاحبه‌ای با مسیح علینژاد در سال ۱۴۰۱ گفت: «من مطلقاً هیچ اطلاعاتی نداشتم و در دفتر نماینده دائم ایران در سازمان ملل در نیویورک، یک تلکس یا یک سند وجود ندارد که نشان دهد اطلاعاتی در این باره به سفیر داده شده است.» محلاتی در مدت تصدی پست سفیر جمهوری اسلامی، نماینده آیت‌الله خمینی، بنیانگذار جمهوری اسلامی ایران بود. کامرون امین، استاد مطالعات خاورمیانه در دانشگاه میشیگان- دیربورن که در مورد ایران و تاریخ ایران تحقیق می‌کند، به خشونت رژیمی که محلاتی نماینده آن بود اشاره کرده, می‌گوید: «آیت‌الله خمینی تصمیم‌های بی‌رحمانه‌ای گرفت، وی بسیاری از اعضای سابقاً مورد اعتماد حلقه درونی خود را پاکسازی کرد، قدرت قانونی مقامی را که در اختیار داشت تشدید کرد، او جنگ ایران و عراق را پایان داد زیرا این جنگ منابعی را که دولت می‌توانست برای سرکوب بیشتر مخالفان استفاده کند، از بین می‌برد. جانشین خمینی، آیت‌الله خامنه‌ای، با ترور مخالفان برجسته در ایران و خارج از کشور، این میراث خونین را ادامه داد. قتل عام سال ۱۳۶۷ اشتباه نظام جمهوری اسلامی نبود، بلکه یکی از ویژگی‌های آن بود. » در واکنش به اطلاعات جدید عفو بین‌الملل،  سازمان «اتحاد علیه حامیان رژیم اسلامی ایران» بیانیه‌ای منتشر کرده و بر اتهامات خود علیه محلاتی تاکید کرده, اعلام کردند: «با توجه به این شواهد جدید، با اطمینان به این نتیجه می‌رسیم که آقای محلاتی از اعدام‌ها آگاه بوده و در موقعیتی قرار داشته که مانع از وقوع آنها شود. ما او را به دلیل عدم استفاده از موقعیت خود در سازمان ملل برای جلب توجه عمومی به رژیم اسلامی یا جنایات جمهوری اسلامی علیه بشریت، جلوگیری از اعدام‌های بیشتر و گمراه کردن سازمان ملل متحد، سهل‌انگار و شریک جرم می‌دانیم… همچنین کالج اوبرلین را به دلیل دفاع مستمر از یک ناقض حقوق بشر و عدم ملاقات با خانواده قربانیان، بررسی مدارک  و گوش سپردن به داستان‌های آنها محکوم می‌کنیم.» *منبع: اوبرلین ریویو*نویسنده: آوا میلر*ترجمه و تنظیم: لادن بازرگان Please Click Here for the article.

Mohammad Jafar Mahallati, who teaches Islam at the Ohio-based Oberlin College, was the Islamic Republic of Iran’s UN ambassador from 1987-1989. By BENJAMIN WEINTHAL Published: FEBRUARY 19, 2023 22:02 The US-based organization the Alliance Against Islamic Regime of Iran Apologists provided damning new evidence to Amnesty International for its new report on Oberlin College Professor of Religion Mohammad Jafar Mahallati’s alleged role in the cover-up of the massacre of at least 5,000 Iranian dissidents in 1988. Amnesty’s report titled “Involvement of Iran’s former diplomats in covering up the 1988 prions massacres” was released on February 6. According to the findings of Amnesty’s 17-page report, ”Iran’s then Permanent Representative to the UN in New York, Mohammad Jafar Mahallati, played a particularly active role in seeking to undermine credible reports by the then UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran, and Amnesty International, and to weaken the UN’s response. For instance, he undertook efforts in late November and early December 1988 to block the adoption of a resolution by the UN General Assembly that expressed concern about the mass executions.” ”Iran’s then Permanent Representative to the UN in New York, Mohammad Jafar Mahallati, played a particularly active role in seeking to undermine credible reports by the then UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran, and Amnesty International, and to weaken the UN’s response. For instance, he undertook efforts in late November and early December 1988 to block the adoption of a resolution by the UN General Assembly that expressed concern about the mass executions.” Amnesty International Mahallati, who teaches Islam at the Ohio-based Oberlin College, was the Islamic Republic of Iran’s UN ambassador from 1987-1989. The story of Oberlin College’s Mahallati and his denial of mass executions Despite Amnesty International’s urgent warnings sent to Iran’s regime at the time and media coverage about the massacre, “Mahallati denied all reports of mass executions” during 1988, wrote the human rights group. “Amnesty International notes with gratitude that it obtained some of the media articles cited in this annex from the Alliance Against Islamic Regime of Iran Apologists, a group of former prisoners, victims’ relatives and human rights activists who launched a public campaign in October 2020 to seek accountability for Iranian officials who denied or distorted the truth about the mass executions of 1988,” wrote the authors of the Amnesty report. Hamid Charkhkar, a professor of biomedical engineering at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland and a member of the Alliance Against Islamic Regime of Iran Apologists (AAIRIA), uncovered a crucial Financial Times article from Aug. 17, 1988, that stated, “Iran has resorted to mass executions of political prisoners.” The article added, “systematic executions of leftist prisoners, both Marxist and Islamic … greatly accelerated… particularly since the incursion into Western Iran by Iraqi-backed Islamic leftists (People’s Mujahedin).” Amnesty and AAIRIA argue that Mahallati should have had knowledge about the mass executions due to the Financial Times article, additional media reports at the time, and Amnesty’s urgent warning notices sent to Iran’s regime in 1988. AAIRIA also revealed the self-immolation of Iranian dissident Mehrdad Imen protesting the 1988 massacre in front of the UN and obtained pictures of demonstrators in front of the UN seeking to draw attention to the mass murders unfolding in Iranian prisons in 1988. The Iranian’s regime 1988 execution spree targeted Iranians affiliated with the  Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization ( MEK),  the left-wing parties Tudeh Party and Fadaiyan Khalq Organization (FKO), as well as the Kurdish organizations (Komala and the Kurdish Democratic Party of Iran).  “In light of this new evidence, we conclude with certainty that Mr. Mahallati was aware of the executions and was in a position to stop them from happening,” AAIRIA said in statement, adding that  “We find him negligent and complicit for failing to use his position at the UN to draw public attention to the Islamic Regime or Iran’s crimes against humanity, prevent further executions, and mislead the UN… We also condemn the college for continually defending a known human rights abuser and failing to meet with the victims’ families, look at their evidence and listen to their stories.” The refusal by Oberlin College’s president Ambar to meet with the victims’ families and take action against Mahallati has caused outrage among Oberlin alumni and students. Rebecca McKelvy, who graduated in 2015, told The Jerusalem Post that “As an Oberlin alumna I find the hypocrisy exhibited by the college to be a disgusting embarrassment. Oberlin has long purported to fight for justice, but apparently that passion to protect human rights has its limitations. Now the college continues to employ Prof. Mahallati, a man who knowingly covered up heinous war crimes, even now that Amnesty has published the evidence of his lies and atrocities.” “As an Oberlin alumna I find the hypocrisy exhibited by the college to be a disgusting embarrassment. Oberlin has long purported to fight for justice, but apparently that passion to protect human rights has its limitations. Now the college continues to employ Prof. Mahallati, a man who knowingly covered up heinous war crimes, even now that Amnesty has published the evidence of his lies and atrocities.” Rebecca McKelvy She added that “I have received no word back from President [Carmen Twillie] Ambar or the board of trustees, all who continue to protect him without an ounce of shame. The fact that someone as evil as Mahallati sits in a comfy Oberlin office on payroll is a disgrace to the college and stains the reputation of anyone associated with the now cowardly, hypocritical institution.“ Jerold S. Auerbach, a professor Emeritus of History at Wellesley College, told the Post that Mahallati “degrades Oberlin—and himself.” Auerbach graduated from Oberlin College in 1957 and is an internationally distinguished historian. The lead organizer of AAIRIA’s campaign, Lawdan Bazargan, is an Iranian-American human rights activist whose 29-year-old brother, Bijan, was executed by the regime in 1988 for his leftist views. Mahallati lashed out at Bazargan in a Voice of America interview in 2022 for her efforts to dislodge him from his academic position. The clerical regimeContinue reading “Pro-Iran regime prof. in US covered up mass murder – human rights report”