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