Former fundamentalist debunks Bible

By John Blake, CNN

Just so you know, Bart Ehrman says he's not the anti-Christ.

He says he's not trying to destroy your faith. He's not trying to bash the Bible. And, though his mother no longer talks to him about religion, Ehrman says some of his best friends are Christian.

Ehrman, a best-selling author and a professor of religious studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, is a biblical sleuth whose investigations make some people very angry. Like the fictional Robert Langdon character played by actor Tom Hanks in the movie "Angels & Demons," he delves into the past to challenge some of Christianity's central claims.

In Ehrman's latest book, "Jesus, Interrupted," he concludes:

Doctrines such as the divinity of Jesus and heaven and hell are not based on anything Jesus or his earlier followers said.

At least 19 of the 27 books in the New Testament are forgeries.

Believing the Bible is infallible is not a condition for being a Christian.

[Story continued on cnn.com]

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Risk of execution looms for dissidents in Iran

	Desperate to regain control over a country that has been rocked by recent uprisings and mass protests, the Iranian government has made it clear that they will stop at nothing to restore order. Urge Iran's leaders not to seek the death penalty for political activists who stood in support of dissident voices during post-election protests.

		Dear fellow citizens, Four prominent politicians are being held in the notorious section 209 of Evin prison, where incommunicado detention and torture are routine and deaths in custody have occurred. The men face indefinite detention all because they publicly supported either Mir Hossein Mousavi – who according to the Guardian Council lost the disputed election – or the other "reformist" presidential candidate, Mehdi Karroubi. Powerful Iranian government officials want to make an example out of well-known opposition leaders by charging them with serious offenses, where if found guilty, they could be sentenced to death. These four opposition leaders are at risk of facing this senseless and brutal punishment unless we show Iran's leaders that even the harshest of sentences will not silence the Iranian people's calls for justice and human rights. Remind the Iranian government that the world is still watching. Demand the release of opposition leaders from Tehran's infamous Evin prison.
		We have strong reasons to fear that these four men – Ali Abtahi, Mostafa Tajzadeh, Mohsen Aminzadeh and Abdollah Ramazanzadeh – are already experiencing Evin prison's infamous practices of severe torture first-hand. For over three weeks now, these four men have been locked away without any official charges. Since being taken from their homes, they have had no contact with family members or lawyers. If the Iranian government thinks that it can coerce genuine confessions from these men using these disdainful tactics, then they are sorely mistaken. But there are signs that Iran's wall is penetrable. Just last week, Mohammed Mostafaei, a lawyer mostly known for his work in defending juvenile defenders in death penalty cases, was released from Evin prison. While he must still face charges in court, he is at least free from the immediate threat of torture. Call on Iranian authorities to release opposition leaders from Evin prison immediately. Almost one month has passed since a flood of activism was unleashed on the streets of Iran. Over 2,200 people were arrested in the post-election unrest. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad most recently gave a speech on state television1 insisting that the meddling of Western nations was the cause of the violence. But as the fight shifts from off the streets and into the courtroom, it is imperative that all eyes stay fixed on those who stood up in opposition. Since the post-election violence broke out, nearly 30,000 Amnesty activists have put the pressure on Iranian authorities by sending a firestorm of emails and letters to their offices. We've got to keep up this intensity if we want to get through to them that the responsibility for protecting human rights cannot be deflected, nor will it be forgotten. This is an opportunity for the leaders in Iran to prove to the world that they are ready to embrace change. Until they do, we cannot lose sight of what continues to be the driving force for so many in Iran – an unrelenting need to protect human rights. In Solidarity -- Elise, Zahir, Christoph and the rest of the Iran crisis response team

Massachusetts sues feds over definition of marriage

By DENISE LAVOIE, AP Legal Affairs Writer

BOSTON – Massachusetts is suing the federal government over a law that defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman.

State Attorney General Martha Coakley filed the lawsuit Wednesday in federal court in Boston. It says federal Defense of Marriage Act interferes with the right of Massachusetts to define marriage as it sees fit.

The 1996 federal law denies federal recognition of gay marriage. Massachusetts was the first state to allow the practice.

The Boston-based Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders has already sued over the federal law. It says it discriminates against gay couples and is unconstitutional because it denies them access to federal benefits that other married couples receive.

Yahoo News story from Associated Press (news.yahoo.com)

Iranian theocracy continues to evolve: Largest group of clerics declare election invalid and condemn crackdown

By Martin Fletcher

Iran’s biggest group of clerics has declared President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s re-election to be illegitimate and condemned the subsequent crackdown.

The statement by the Association of Researchers and Teachers of Qom is an act of defiance against the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has made clear he will tolerate no further challenges to Mr Ahmadinejad’s “victory” over Mir Hossein Mousavi.

“It’s a clerical mutiny,” said one Iranian analyst. “This is the first time ever you have all these big clerics openly challenging the leader’s decision.” Another, in Tehran, said: “We are seeing the birth of a new political front.”

Professor Ali Ansari, head of Iranian Studies at St Andrews University, said: “It’s highly significant. It shows this is nowhere near resolved....” [Martin's story continues here]

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A World-Class hospital where surgeries are done free

India's Sri Satya Sai Institute Described as Heaven on Earth

"We literally bathed in the healing space created through Baba's loving vision...What we say was the highest level of technology, with some equipment even newer than the equipment we use at Duke Medical Centre. But the technology was dwarfed by the context into which everything in the Hospital dwelled - health care in God's service.

Dr. Mitchell W Krucoff,
Professor of Medicine/Cardiology, Interventional Cardiology, Duke University Medical Centre and Director, Cardiovascular Laboratories, Durham VA Medical Center.

By "Hurricane"

Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Medical Sciences was created by Bhagwan Sai Baba. This hospital is a Heaven on Earth, as the high cost heart surgeries are done free of cost. In this hospital there is no billing counter and all the medical treatments are free to all patients irrespective of caste, creed, religion and financial status. Besides heart surgeries, extremely complex brain & neuro surgeries are also done free of cost.

The most impressive & striking features about this hospital are :

Free medical treatment to all patients irrespective of caste, creed, religion and financial status.

World class state-of-the-art technology

The presence of healing powers of Bhagwan Sai Baba instilled in the patient the firm belief that he or she will get well.

Bhagwan Sai Baba has instructed the doctors at Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Medical Sciences not to conduct medical counseling, but to conduct patient counseling.. The doctors draw up an emotional profile of the patient to figure out the route of his emotional imbalance. This understanding helps the doctors in keeping their patients calm, and studies have proven that a calm mind helps heal a patient better.

Bhagawan Sai Baba had said on the day of the Inauguration of the hospital:

"This (Hospital) is not operating for financial gains. All medicines here will be free. Doctors should understand that it is not medicines alone but God's grace that cures patients. While this building is imposing from the outside, it will also confer inner bliss. This Hospital has a divine quality that will draw the whole world to it. We should see to it that there are no heart diseases (at least) in Karnataka.

Doctors should win over the minds of the patients by talking to them with compassion and concern, the diseases are half cured when the doctors win over the minds of patients by talking to them with love and consideration. The doctors should administer the injection of courage and encouragement.

Compassion is more important than money. Some doctors wonder how we can treat patients free of charge. You can work wonders with purity of heart. Any work which is started with purity of heart is bound to succeed. Money flows if your work is suffused with love and Sacrifice. People will volunteer with adequate funds to support any noble endeavour."

Dr Michael Nobel, chairman of the Appeal of the Peace Prize Laureats Foundation, had said,

"I have never seen anything like this on earth. It is a wonderful feeling, far removed from the national healthcare in the West, which does not seem to work very well.

Farah Pandith Appointed to Head New Office of The United States Representative to Muslim Communities

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has asked Farah Pandith to head the new Office of the United States Special Representative to Muslim Communities. Special Representative Farah Pandith and her staff (S/SRMC) will be responsible for executing the Administration’s efforts to engage with Muslims around the world on a people-to-people and organizational level.

“I am pleased to announce the appointment of Farah Pandith to serve as Special Representative to Muslim Communities. Farah brings years of experience to the job, and she will play a leading role in our efforts to engage Muslims around the world,” Secretary Clinton said.

Pandith was the senior adviser on Muslim engagement in the European and Eurasian region at the State Department. The position was created for the first time in the US history. Prior to the State Department, she served on the National Security Council at the White House where she worked on Muslim engagement and combating extremism. She worked at the U.S. Agency for International Development in the early 1990s and again in 2003. She also served in Kabul, Afghanistan in 2004.

Pandith, a Muslim, immigrated to the United States with her parents from Srinagar, India. She has said that she sees her personal experience as an illustration of how Muslim immigrants to the US can successfully integrate themselves into American society. She grew up in Massachusetts with a diversity of faiths, ethnicities and perspectives.

Farah Pandith on Bridging Cultural and Religious Divides

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Pink Mennonites protest Mennonite Church's exclusion of gays

By Megan Barr, Associated Press

COLUMBUS, OH -- In a quiet act of defiance, gay and lesbian Mennonites dressed in bright pink gathered outside the church's official convention in Columbus on Thursday and criticized its leaders for trying to push them out.

About 100 ministers and church members prayed, sang religious hymns and told stories of feeling ostracized growing up in the Mennonite church, which does not recognize openly gay people as official members. The "pink Menno" protest brought the deeply divisive issue to the forefront of the Mennonite Church USA conference, a biannual, national gathering of about 8,000 delegates.

Katie Hochstedler, 27, who grew up in Kalona, Iowa, declared herself "a young queer Mennonite."

"I've had to ask myself: Can I continue to participate in a church that's soul is so damaged that it does not follow its own stated values?" Hochstedler said.

With about 110,000 members, Mennonite Church USA represents the largest and most mainstream group of Mennonites in the United States, most of whom do not shun technology or wear traditional clothing like the more conservative branches of the church. But many progressive Mennonites have relatives who are part of the Old Order, and some women still wear head coverings.

The Mennonite religion is rooted in a 16th-century movement in Europe known as Anabaptism, which coincided with the Protestant Reformation and called for adults to be baptized before joining the church. The Mennonites took their name from Menno Simons, a Dutch Catholic priest who broke away from his church in 1536.

The gay rights movement among Mennonites, which for years lacked a visible presence within the church, gained steam several months ago when about 1,400 ministers signed a letter calling on the church to allow homosexual members to worship with everyone else.

The definition of what's acceptable and what's not is murky. In some congregations, gay Mennonites are welcome as long as they remain celibate. In others, they are shunned.

Congregations are disciplined -- and, in rarer cases, kicked out altogether -- for allowing non-celibate gay members to worship with them. Pastors who perform civil unions for gay couples run the risk of losing their ordination.

The issue is complicated by the various regional conferences, which are split on how to treat congregations that decide to be inclusive, said church spokeswoman Kerry Strayer.

Rev. Cynthia Lapp, pastor of a Mennonite church in Hyattsville, Md., said her congregation lost its voting rights within the denomination for welcoming gay worshippers in 2005. She declined to say whether they might face expulsion.

"I was astounded when I talked with a mother who said she was grateful that her gay son and his partner left the church," Lapp told those gathered at the protest. "It was too painful to have him stay and be rejected."

Kristin Sampson, 32, leads a youth group at the Hyattsville church with her lesbian partner, 37-year-old Becca Walawender.

"We heard there were some groups that were like, 'is it safe to bring our kids to the convention if the pink Mennos are there?"' she said. "They don't understand."

Inside the convention center in downtown Columbus, there was an unofficial moratorium on discussing homosexuality because the subject had stirred up such heated debate at previous meetings.

"I would love to talk about it without a lot of fire and sparks," said Naomi Engle, pastor of a Mennonite church in Wauseon, Ohio, who said she agrees with church doctrine that states marriage should be between a man and a woman.

While church leaders did not attend the protest, Strayer said the growing clamor over gay rights is likely to reopen the dialogue soon.

"There's still quite a bit of division across the church on this issue," Strayer said. "And I guess, with the campaign itself, there's some concern that it will only widen the division."

Hochstedler, 27, said it was a shock to her family when she came out in college, but they have since grown into advocates for gay rights. In the small Mennonite church where she grew up, there's a lingering sense of unease about her sexuality.

"I would say people are kind and warm," she said. "But nobody talks about it."

U.S. Representative Robert Wexler says: "Support Gay Pride Month with Equal Rights"

I was very moved to read Rep. Robert Wexler's letter, sent today to his constituents and supporters. Maybe we should send his letter to President Obama, to give our President some ideas about what he needs to say to America's LGBT community. We've waited a long time to hear from President Obama, and to get action, but nothing yet except nice sounding sound bytes and smiles, while our lives and families are ravaged by the effects of religion-inspired hatred written into the law.If Robert ever runs for President, he'll get my vote for sure. Check out his website. You can tell that this guy is with the times, and truly cares about people.

From the bottom of my heart, "Thank you," Congressman Wexler!

~Madison





Support Gay Pride Month with Equal Rights

Dear friends,

This week marks the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall riots - which occurred in reaction to anti-gay raids by NY police in 1969 and are considered by many to be the beginning of the modern gay rights movement in America.

My parents, compassionate people, taught me that it's not enough to be tolerant of people different than ourselves: We must go beyond tolerance, and accept others as equals.

In my lifetime, the struggle for equal rights has made significant progress. Yet today, even with an African American president... even as we continue to break gender barriers and reverse the effects of centuries-long discrimination against African Americans, Native Americans, religious minorities, the disabled community, and others.... our laws actively discriminate against men and women who are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgendered.

Throughout the country, this discrimination manifests in different ways.

In my own state of Florida, gays and lesbians are not allowed to adopt children, even as thousands of kids languish under state guardianship and in group homes. In Florida and most other states, no provision exists that grants legal recognition of civil unions - leaving many without benefits or visitation rights when their partner becomes ill or passes away.

This national lack of compassion and concern for our fellow Americans is immoral.

In Iraq and Afghanistan, honored combat veterans, desperately needed in the field, have been discharged from duty because it was disclosed they were gay.

Across America, couples who have lived together for decades in stable, committed relationships are denied health care benefits - because they are gay.

No one should have to uproot their family and move to a different state to gain these simple legal rights. It is fundamentally a denial of justice.

Like with so many issues we've discussed, we risk being defined by our inaction. Make no mistake -- there will be a time when the children of this country ask their parents why we allowed things to be this way - why we allowed decisions such as to who one chooses to love to be used as cause for denying a job, right of survivorship, or access to an ill companion.

On this issue, I have felt a moral obligation to stand on the side of compassion and justice. Long after my career ends, I hope to be proud of where I stood and of the support I gave for those who have made achieving equal rights their life's work.

I hope you see it as I do, and continue to push for equality for every American, including for our LGBT brothers and sisters.

With respect,

Congressman Robert Wexler


Washington, D.C. Office
2241 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
phone: (202) 225-3001
fax: (202) 225-5974

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Ludmila Zykina, the voice and soul of Russia, dies

Ludmila Zykina, the People’s Artist of the USSR, died at age 80 of cardiac arrest in Moscow on July 1. The legendary Russian singer was hospitalized in severe condition on June 25.

Zykina celebrated her 80^th anniversary only three weeks ago. President Dmitry Medvedev personally congratulated the singer on the phone, while his wife, Svetlana Medvedev, organized a special evening for her in the Kremlin.

Ludmila Zykina is best known for her song “Volga.” She became known abroad as “Miss Volga” afterwards. The entire Soviet Union was proud of her voice. It would not be an exaggeration to say that Zykina’s voice became the national endowment of the country.

“We lost the voice and the soul of Russia. Her songs, the sound of her amazing voice, the lyrics and depth,” singer Zurab Sotkilava told Kultura TV Channel.

Ludmila Zykina became a symbol of the Russian music. Over 6 million of her records were sold in the Soviet Union . She was on stage for over 60 years. [Ludmila Zykina's story continued here]

Astonishing new crop circle formations

You must see these new, truly astonishing crop circle formations that appeared over two nights beginning on June 21, at the base of Milk Hill near Alton Barnes in Wiltshire, England.

What do they mean? I for one, do not believe for a minute that terrestrial humans make these designs. This latest one from Milk Hill is a mind-blower. So what is the message for us?


+Important crop circle links (bltresearch.com)

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Iranian mullahs hang six Mousavi supporters in Mashad

Story by Sabina Amidi

As the Iranian authorities warned the opposition on Tuesday that they would tolerate no further protests over the disputed June 12 presidential elections, a report emerged of the hangings of six supporters of defeated candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi.

Speaking after Iran's top legislative body upheld the election victory of incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, sources in Iran told this reporter in a telephone interview that the hangings took place in the holy city of Mashhad on Monday. There was no independent confirmation of the report.

Underlining the climate of fear among direct and even indirect supporters of Mousavi's campaign for the election to be annulled, the sources also reported that a prominent cleric gave a speech to opposition protesters in Teheran earlier this week in which he publicly acknowledged that the very act of speaking at the gathering would likely cost him his life.

"Ayatollah Hadi Gafouri said that the Imam [Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini] never wanted [current supreme Leader] Ali Khamenei to succeed him. He even went to say that the Islamic republic died the day the Imam did," one source said...[Story continues on the Jerusalem Post]

Open letter by the Network of Homosexual University Students of Iran to the International Community

Distress and Despair in the Streets of Iran today:

Open letter By the Network of Homosexual University Students of Iran To The International Community

We know that our realities can sound like passages from an Eastern tale. For this reason, queer students in Iran feel compelled to tell of these tragic measures to the world and to stand witness.

. . .The Homosexual community of Iran has been living under harsh conditions of harassment and fear. We identify with the pain the People endured this last week; those who fought back tears and kept calm under attacks and assaults in which silence was the most effective or only shield. These days, the Government is dismissing demands for justice, opening fire on people, and calling them “less then dust,” “dirt,” “dirty” and “fags,” eliciting years of dual oppression in the mind of homosexual community. Iranian queers have been struggling with the merciless oppressive Regime for years; we know very well what it means to endure cruelty. In recent days, the Islamic Regime has been treating people in the same way it has treated the queer community over the past three decades. It is with this understanding in mind and with a hope for a fair and free future based on equality that we fight side by side, hand in hand against the dictator. We urge the international LGBT community to hear our voice and hear the People of Iran in their demand for new elections. We ask the international LGBT community to assist us in alerting the world of the cruelties and the killings taking place in Iran during these days.

We fear that in the days to come, if the dictator wins, a generation — our generation — will simply be eliminated. These days, the queer movement of Iran is alongside the people’s movement. We are certain that the death of democracy in Iran will sooner or later mean the death of all humanity. We are certain that in the denial of civil and individual rights – as Ahamdinejad did in his first speech after his second round of his appointment to power, calling all protesters “thieves,” “ruffians”, and “fags” – all hopes for a civil society will be wiped out. Yet we live with the hope of rescuing Iran from the spread of fascism.

. . . We ask the international community, the international LGBT community, and human rights organizations or the world to be watchful of the atrocities in the streets of Iran today, to respect the Iranian people’s vote and their wish to live in a democratic society, and to refuse to recognise Ahmadinejad as Iran’s elected president until a new election is held in the presence of UN monitors . . . For the people of Iran, particularly for the queer community and all other minorities, this is the only possible way forward.

Today the Iranian People are relying on their own capacity to resist and assert their quest for justice. This will not happen without the support of the international community.

Praised be the day when Iran is responsive and responsible for all its children and citizens.

In the name of freedom and social justice, Homosexual Students of Universities in Iran

Daneshjooyan.hamjensgera@gmail.com

For additional information about the grave situation faced daily by Iranian homosexuals, bisexuals and transgenders, contact and donate to the following Iranian LGBT organizations:

+IRanian Queer Railroad
+IRanian Queer Organization

+Will gay Iranians come out of the revolt better - or worse? (edgeboston.com)

Organization for Refuge, Asylum & Migration Launches Programs for Middle Eastern LGBT Refugees and Migrants

San Francisco, CA (June 18, 2009) – ORAM, a groundbreaking international refugee advocacy

organization, announced its launch today. The Organization for Refuge, Asylum & Migration is the first non-governmental organization (NGO) to focus exclusively on refugees and asylum seekers fleeing sexual and gender based violence.

ORAM provides free legal counsel for LGBT refugees in the Middle East and North Africa
(MENA), who have escaped violence, executions and “honor killings” in their home countries.
Additionally, ORAM conducts wide-ranging international advocacy to advance the protection of
all LGBT refugees and asylum seekers.

LGBTs often become “stuck” in their countries of first asylum, typically neighboring the places
they have escaped harassment, violence, torture or death threats. With hostility toward LGBTs
rampant in many areas, they are uniquely at risk, both in the countries they’ve escaped and in
their “transit” countries.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton highlighted these facts in her statement earlier
this month that “gays and lesbians in many parts of the world live under constant threat of arrest, violence, even torture.” According to the International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA), homosexuality remains illegal in eighty-five countries and carries the death penalty in seven. Often lacking formal refugee protection, LGBT refugees are particularly at risk.

“LGBT refugees often ‘fall through the cracks’ of the international refugee regime,” according to
Neil Grungras, executive director of ORAM. “They have escaped systematic hatred and
violence at home, and their LGBT identity brings serious new threats to their safety and
protection in countries of first asylum. Many live in a toxic mix of destitution and desperation.”
Grungras has more than twenty years experience working on behalf of vulnerable refugees and
asylum seekers. He founded ORAM in January 2009 after serving as director for Europe & the
Middle East at HIAS, a leading refugee and migration organization. Among his postings, he
directed the U.S. Department of State Overseas Processing Entity (OPE) for Iranian refugees in
Vienna, Austria.

Alongside its work helping individuals, ORAM also passionately advocates and educates on
behalf of LGBT refugees as a group. Raising consciousness about their plight to governments,
refugee organizations, communities and the media is critical in bringing desperately needed basic
protection to this at-risk population.

The NGO hopes its community-based “Adopt a Refugee” program will create a grassroots
network of inspired advocates for susceptible LGBT refugees. Supporting institutions can follow
migrants and refugees through their trek to freedom, receiving case updates. Adopted refugees
are invited to communicate with their sponsors, forming unique bonds of additional support.
ORAM has already assisted dozens of LGBTs who’ve escaped persecution and honor killings in
the MENA region. Using communications technology to assist refugees in places where help
was previously unavailable, the organization has been able to work with many LGBT refugees
who have sought its help in existing project areas.

“The recent surge in homophobic violence in Iraq has shone a spotlight on the painful truths
we’re dealing with first-hand in the Middle East,” said Grungras. “LGBTs are the most
persecuted people in many regions of the world today. For every reported execution, there are
likely tens of judicially or family sanctioned murders, often in the name of honor.”
ORAM will co-publish its first report later this month on LGBT asylum seekers and refugees in
Turkey. For more information, visit www.oraminternational.org.

Contact: Scott Piro (piros@oraminternational.org)
ORAM, 415.373.5299

Warning: Islamic Sharia law incompatible and destructive to non-Muslim civilizations

Sharia has no place in a civilised society. Ban Islamic tribunals and let everyone in this country abide by a single code of laws

By Denis MacEoin

There are many reasons to find problems with sharia law. In its full form, it contains numerous provisions that are barbaric and irreconcilable with any advanced society: stoning married adulterers, flogging the unmarried, throwing homosexuals from roofs or steep hills, amputating limbs for theft, and much more.

But sharia is much wider than that. It moves seamlessly from the public to the private realm, and it is in the latter that we find demands that a measure of sharia be introduced to this country. Such demands have been made, not just by Muslims, but even by an astonishingly naïve Archbishop of Canterbury. Sharia is only marginally about how a believer prays, fasts, pays the alms tax, or performs the pilgrimage. For the individual it carries obligations and penalties that cut deep into personal life. Here is a very simple example. If a Muslim man in a fit of temper uses the triple divorce formula, even if his wife is not present, the law considers the couple divorced. But if he comes to his senses, he cannot simply resume relations with his wife. In order to remarry, she must wait three months to determine that she is not pregnant. Thereupon, she is obliged to marry another man and to have sex with him, and this man must then divorce her (or not, if he decides to keep her). She must then wait another three months, after which her first husband may remarry her – see also Ask Imam). This revolting practice, known as halala, demeans the woman. In British law, it would be considered a form of coercion into unwanted sexual relations. Is this what the archbishop wants?

But sharia has already entered the UK through a back door....[Denis' story continued here]

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Islam, Iranian Style

By Melody Moezzi
author and attorney

Not long ago, I got a call from a reporter asking for my thoughts on the Islamic New Year. I immediately broke out laughing. "I'm Iranian," I told her, "We don't celebrate the Islamic New Year much. Our real new year is the first day of spring. So if you call back in March, I'll have something much more intelligent to say."

The Iranian New Year, Nowrooz, is just one of many old Zoroastrian traditions that Iranians have kept, often adding their own twist of Shi'a Islam. In most Iranian homes, the standard Nowrooz place setting (sofreh) includes a Qur'an. Our celebration of Nowrooz is just one of many examples of mixing Islamic, Zoroastrian and culturally Persian traditions.

Thus, while the Iranian brand of Islam is a very Shi'a one, it is also a very Zoroastrian and Persian one. This unique strain of Islam is perhaps one of the greatest assets that the current Iranian opposition holds in its battle against an increasingly brutal Iranian regime. Thus, this opposition is not purely an Islamic one. Iranians of other faiths are also invested in its success. This includes Zoroastrians, Jews, Christians, and Baha'is. All of us will benefit from the fall of the Islamic republic, but perhaps none more than Iranian Muslims.

The so-called Islamic Republic of Iran is a disgrace to the religion it claims to enforce. By persecuting minorities (religious or otherwise), the government has failed to follow the basic Islamic principles of diversity, justice and equality.

The "Islamic" Republic's most un-Islamic policy by far has been its use of coercion with respect to religious practices. The greatest holy book of Islam, the Qur'an, clearly teaches that there should be no compulsion in religion, that forcing religion on anyone is a grave sin.

Not only has the government dishonored Islam in its practices, it has turned many Iranians, especially youth, away from Islam entirely by convincing them that the regime's misrepresentations of the faith are accurate.

The growing drug and prostitution problems in Iran are no coincidence. Many have accepted that if the government's twisted version of Islam is correct, then they want no part of it. And as a result distrust, disillusionment and dismay have followed.

There is a miracle behind the current uprising in Iran. The youth have finally recognized the biggest and most damaging lie that the allegedly Islamic Republic has been spreading over the past 30 years like a drug-resistant air-borne virus: that the mullahs and ayatollahs are necessarily speaking Islam, when they are often speaking nothing but power and politics...

[Melody's beautifully written article about Iranian Shi'ih Islam's potential, is continued here on the Washington Post]

Islamic Society convention lands appearance from Rick Warren

The Indiana-based Islamic Society of North America will be holding its annual convention -- the largest yearly gathering of Muslims on the continent -- in Washington, D.C. over the Fourth of July weekend.

And while convention leaders are holding out hope that President Barack Obama might make the convention his latest stop in his outreach to the Muslim world, the convention has landed another pretty big fish as a featured speaker.

Purpose-Driven pastor Rick Warren has agreed to appear at the convention and be part of its main session discussing the convention's theme -- "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness." Joining Warren for the session is ISNA President Ingrid Mattson and noted Muslim scholar Hamza Yusuf. [Story continued here]

I Lieutenant Daniel Choi needs our help

Friends,

As many of you know, on Tuesday June 30th the Army National Guard will make their decision to fire (discharge) me based solely on my honest statement (“I am gay”). I have chosen to stand trial to fight to stay in the service. (Location: Thompson Rd. Armory, Syracuse NY… 8am)

The army has appointed me an attorney, and he is awesome. He says we can win. Our case (and future appeals if I do get fired) requires testimony from people who can attest to my character/abilities. ANYONE who believes I should be retained (for whatever reason) or feels the army is better off keeping me can write a statement.

Will you please consider writing, signing and scanning a letter? (I have an example below. It can be of any length)

It will be included in the official archive for my future cases as well. Will you ask all your friends to do the same? You an send your letters to dan.choi@knightsout.org. Please make sure I receive them by the 29th.


EXAMPLE LETTER:


June ___, 2009


To Members of the Board:

My name is ______ and I urge you not to discharge 1st LT Daniel Choi from the Army National Guard because he is a capable soldier and leader who can continue to play a vital role in a time of war. His dedication to West Point and Army Values brings credit to the military. His fighting spirit is inspiring.

[Add your observations about me here:]

[You can say things like, "He is a West Point Graduate who speaks Arabic, and Korean, and has studied Farsi: skills the military needs;" “I have seen him on TV and he is well spoken;” “He lives up to the army values and represents these values as he refuses to lie about his identity;” “He continues to live by West Point’s honor code;” “He can be a bridge to the Middle-East,” etc.]

[If you've worked with me before, please comment about it.]

[If you want to share your personal credentials please do! “I served in the navy.,” “I am a CEO.,” “I am a city council member.," “I am a mother of three.,” “I teach an ethics class.,” “I am a pastor.,” “I am his cousin.,” “I am gay and KnightsOut gives us hope.,” “I am straight and I support honesty.,” etc.]


I am available for further comment if necessary, my email is _______.


[signed]


Ms. Jane Doe



To send a quick online letter of support for Dan, click here:

http://www.couragecampaign.org/page/s/SupportDan

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• Obama 'Fires' Gay Arabic Linguist (outsidethebeltway.com)

Looking for their Martin Luther King, Jr.

Hamid Dabashi is Hagop Kevorkian professor of Iranian studies and comparative literature at Columbia University and the author of, among other books, “Iran: A People Interrupted.”

From the New York Times

Though the violent events of the past week have jolted me, many aspects of the current crisis in Iran are not surprising at all. That the ruling apparatus of the Islamic Republic is out of touch with the ideals and aspirations of a new generation of Iranians has been evident at least since the presidential election of 1997 that brought the icon of the reformist movement Mohammad Khatami to power.

"I thought my generation had courage to fight against tyranny. Now I tremble with shame in the face of the bravery I see today."

The student-led uprising in the summer of 1999 further showed a sea change in the demographics of the Islamic Republic, with upward of 70 percent of its population under the age of 30. The upsurge of youthful euphoria changed during the second presidential campaign of Mr. Khatami in 2001 when he had obviously failed to deliver on his prior campaign promises.

If you were to follow youth culture in Iran at the turn of the century — from the rise of a fascinating underground music (particularly rap) to a globally celebrated cinema, an astonishing panorama of contemporary art, video installations, photography, etc. — you would have noted the oscillation of this generation between apathy and anger, frustration and hope, disillusion and euphoria. In their minds and souls, as in their blogs and chat rooms, they were wired to the globalized world, and yet in their growing bodies and narrowing social restrictions trapped inside an Islamic version of Calvinist Geneva.

To me this was a post-ideological generation, evidently cured of the most traumatic memories of its parental generation, from the C.I.A.-sponsored coup of 1953 to the Islamic revolution of 1979. The dominant political parameters of third world socialism, anticolonial nationalism, and militant Islamism that divided my generation of Iranians seem to me to have lost all validity in this generation. I see the moment we are witnessing as a civil rights movement rather than a push to topple the regime. If Rosa Parks was the American “mother of the civil rights movement,” the young woman who was killed point blank in the course of a demonstration, Neda Agha-Soltan, might very well emerge as its Iranian granddaughter.

If I am correct in this reading, we should not expect an imminent collapse of the regime. These young Iranians are not out in the streets seeking to topple the regime for they lack any military wherewithal to do so, and they are alien to any militant ideology that may push them in that direction.

It seems to me that these brave young men and women have picked up their hand-held cameras to shoot those shaky shots, looking in their streets and alleys for their Martin Luther King. They are well aware of Mir Hossein Moussavi’s flaws, past and present. But like the color of green, the very figure of Moussavi has become, it seems to me, a collective construction of their desires for a peaceful, nonviolent attainment of civil and women’s rights. They are facing an army of firearms and fanaticism with chanting poetry and waving their green bandannas. I thought my generation had courage to take up arms against tyranny. Now I tremble with shame in the face of their bravery.

Read the New York Times' full story, as Iranian-American scholars share their views about Iran's social upheaval.

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Neda: An Angel of Freedom

By Amil Imani

I am so restless, I cannot cease thinking! It seems like the world we live in reveals to us incessantly, at certain moments or in certain circumstances, just how little we are and how vast the universe is. This world of ours is a very complex world. The world we live in is a world of many brutal voices. It is a world of heavy blows and delirious trances, but it is the only world that we know.

Like millions of people around the world, the tragic death of Neda has affected me tremendously. I felt a temptation to scream and run to the end of the world and say my prayers with unusual earnestness and a heavy heart. I felt like screaming for the overflowing flood of human blood. I felt like screaming for the weary eyes and innocent moans of the victims of Iranian revolution. I felt apprehensive, anxious, and fearful. And now, as I take up my pen, my hand trembles and my head swims with horror and disbelief at the magnitude of the human devastation.

What’s in a name? Sometimes a name seems void of any meaning and sometimes a name embodies profound meaning, mysterious and even prophetic. Your name, our beloved Neda, the martyr daughter of Iran, literally means Divine Call, or Divine Summons, in Persian.

Dear Neda, when on the blessed day of your birth your parents hugged you joyously and named you Neda, they could hardly envision that you would be slaughtered in the prime of your life by a bullet of savage Islamists as you peacefully marched along with throngs of other Iranians seeking nothing more than what is your God-given right—the right to liberty and dignity.

Dear Neda, on the dreadful day that the bullet of a henchman of tyranny pierced your young heart, you collapsed on the pavement, gasped for air as your crimson blood painted the black asphalt. Your father tried desperately to revive you. He kept frantically telling you not to be afraid, not to be afraid. He was witnessing the death of his little girl and all he could do was to breathe encouragement in a vain hope of keeping you alive.

Our great Zoroaster, the luminous ancient prophet of Persia, spoke of the ongoing battle between the forces of good under Ahuramazda—God, and the forces of evil directed by Ahriman— Satan. Zoroaster warned us not to fall for the enticements or be disheartened by the atrocities of the forces of Ahriman. He further informed us that evil can be recognized by the deeds of its people; people who would oppose the precepts of Ahuramazda. The turbaned murderers cloaked in the robe of religion are wolves in sheep’s attire. They are indeed the agents of death (Ahriman).

But you, dear Neda, are a champion of the work of Ahuramazda. You have been destined for a great mission that required you to wing away from the loving bosom of your family into the eternal embrace of Mother Iran.

Dear Neda—O, Divine Call—O, Divine Summons—we mourn your death, yet we honor your call and summons:

A call and summons to follow in your footsteps with iron resolve.

A call and summons for the complete emancipation of millions of women, as well as men, who are suffering under the yoke of Islamic savagery.

Dear Neda, the meaning and mystery of your name was revealed to us on the dreadful day of your slaughter. You are to shine forever as a beacon of hope and a source of inspiration to all who struggle for justice, equality, and liberty.

Dear Neda, your departure broke our hearts. Yet, by your untimely tragic death, you steeled our resolve to carry on with your mission.

Dear Neda, this is our covenant with you. We will never give up. We will pay any price and make any sacrifice to achieve the mission you have entrusted into our hands.

Dear Neda, as you have joined the rarefied ranks of the immortals, I am moved to share with you a poem composed in the honor of another young Iranian heroine by the name of Mona.

Oh, you earthly angels!
You immigrating birds,
Whose only adornment
Is a bed of white feathers!
The innocent children of Iran,
Are wearing your white glowing robe,
And have left the memories of life,
To others!

I see the poor black swallows,
Flying over the ruins of our city!
I see overflowing pain,
Intertwined,
With the hearts of every human being on earth!

My heart stops palpitating!
My breath starts to dry up!
My faith simply fades away,
And my bed falls silent.

Fly, little angel! Fly!
The wake of your wings brings new breath to our people!

Family, friends mourn 'Neda,' Iranian woman who died on video

European Parliament members and NGOs protest Lithuania's adoption of harmful, anti-homosexual law

Members of the European Parliament's Intergroup on gay and lesbian rights will join today other people and NGOs in a demonstration outside the Lithuanian permanent representation in Brussels to protest against new homophobic and oppressive law in Lithuania.

On 16 June 2009 the Lithuanian parliament adopted an amended Law on the Protection of Minors against the Detrimental Effect of Public Information. According to this law, “propaganda of homosexuality and bisexuality” is one of the detrimental affects on the minors and information on homosexuality and bisexuality is banned from schools and any other places where it can be accessed by youth.

"It is my duty as an elected member of the European Parliament to act strongly against grave attempts to diminish human rights of EU citizens", said Michael Cashman, President of the Intergroup. “This new law is a spit in the face of the European values. To limit freedom of expression based on homophobia is a clear breach of EU’s fundamental rights and principles.”

"Our recent research, Social exclusion of young LGBT people Europe brought to light the fact that young gays and lesbians experience high levels of physical and psychological violence all over the European Union. We found that the highest levels occurred in schools. Similar surveys from other countries find that suicide rates among young LGBT people are up to 10 times higher than among their heterosexual fellows,” said Simon Maljevac Chairperson of IGLYO (International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer Youth and Student Organisation). “All this suffering is caused by stigmatisation, intolerance and lack of access to information about homosexuality which young people need, both to understand their identity and to respect others differences. The new Lithuanian law will render even higher levels of suffering. We deplore the adoption of this law. It will harm young people, not protect them.”

Representatives of European Parliament's Intergroup on Gay and Lesbian Rights:

President: Michael Cashman MEP (UK/PSE)
Vice-President: Lissy Gröner MEP (DE/PSE)
Vice-President: Sophie in 't Veld MEP (ALDE)
Vice-President: Raül Romeva MEP (G/EFA)
Vice-President: Sirpa Pietikäinen MEP (EPP-ED)
Chairperson of IGLYO: Simon Maljevac
Executive Director of ILGA-Europe: Dirk De Meirlei

For further information please contact Juris Lavrikovs, ILGA-Europe’s Communications Manager: tel.: + 32 2 609 54 16; mob.: + 32 496 70 83 75, juris @ilga-europe.org

Background information is available on ILGA-Europe website:
http://www.ilga-europe.org/europe/news/lithuanian_parliament_bans_propaganda_of_homosexuality_and_bisexuality

Other related news:

+Gay education ban voted in (baltictimes.com)
+Amnesty International's statement on Lithuania (amnesty.org)

U.S. Senator Jim DeMint urges pastors and religious leaders to defeat federal Hate Crimes legislation

by Madison Reed

Today, Parents and Friends of ExGays and Gays (PFOX.ORG), a national anti-gay non-profit organization, published a letter, "Hate Crime Legislation Must be Stopped" addressed to "Pastors and Religious Leaders" from U.S. Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC). His letter was in reaction to the pending Senate version of federal hate crimes legislation, known as *Senate Bill 909, or the Matthew Shephard Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which needs to be passed by the U.S. Senate in order to enact a hate crimes protection law in the United States.

In his letter to America's religious leaders, he accuses the U.S. government of creating policies that "have proved destructive to faith, families, and freedom in America," and adds that nothing from the past will compare to the damage that will be caused by hate crimes legislation.

The most serious aspect of federal hate crimes legislation, according to DeMint, is that "it will lead to the criminalization of biblical truths as 'hate speech.'"

The criminalization of which biblical truth I'd like to ask? Is he serious? Biblical "truth"? So much so-called biblical truth - the truth that DeMint is referring to - is nothing more than a never-ending right-wing Christian fatwa that has always supported violence, discrimination and hatred against minorities. This biblical so-called "truth" was the "social truth" of a primitive 1,500 B.C. Semitic culture - not the eternal, immutable Word of God, and certainly not applicable to 21st Century humans or even people of the 14th Century. The "biblical truth" monster has reared its ugly head over the centuries, and has been used by the ignorant of the Christian church to justify the persecution and murder of Muslims, Witches, Polynesians, Native Americans, Mormons, Africans, Chinese immigrants, poor Indians and Pakistanis, American women, Jews, homosexuals, Japanese, Communists. Homosexuals are the last remaining whipping boy of the right-wing church cult.

I know what Senator DeMint means by "biblical truth" and "hate speech." He means HATRED against homosexual, bisexual and transgendered people.

His letter also says without directly saying it, that the United States is a theocracy where biblical law is the supreme law of the land - not the Constitution - and then he uses that as a justification to Christian religious leaders to call on them to rise up and defeat the pending federal hate crimes legislation.

Has Senator DeMint crossed the line? The last time I checked, an elected federal representative - especially a member of Congress - is required to uphold our federal Constitution and protect all Americans!

The United States was not founded upon Christianity. Its foundation was based upon universal spiritual values that are common to the hearts of all human beings who are free to feel, to think, and to express their own destinies. And the Bible is not the law of the United States, was never intended to be, nor is it the Constitution, the supreme law of the United States of America. It is dangerous for a member of Congress to be using the influence of his office to the detriment of Americans who are different by race, religion or sexual orientation, not to mention that Senator DeMint's activities as an elected official operating in his official capacity, rallying rightwing Christians to defeat federal hate crimes legislation, undermines Article 3 of the U.S. Constitution:

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof...."

Just in case some of you have forgotten the sworn oath that elected officials are required to take before they take public office, here's the oath that Senator DeMint took before he was allowed to become a Senator to represent American people:

"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God."

After reading Senator DeMint's signed letter to religious leaders, do you believe Senator DeMint is upholding his sworn oath, guarding the separation of government from religion, and defending the liberty of all Americans when he advocates the protection of the status quo environment of anything-goes-with-acts-of-hate toward gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Americans?

And I wonder why Senator DeMint hasn't mentioned his letter religious leaders on his official website or blog? To limit its exposure to the public 's eye, because his letter is written in his capacity as an officer of the United States - while stealthily getting the message to many conservative Christian organizations (potential voters) that he's on the side of the Bible?

Rightwing homophobes like Senator Jim DeMint, David Duke, Alan Keyes, Ted Pike, Devvy Kidd, Fred Phelps, Jeremy Dys, Henry Makow, and Phyliss Schlafly, along with other homophobic organizations such as the Family Policy Council network, are working feverishly to do everything within their power, including the use of lies, fear and coercion to frighten voters, to prevent the passage of this critically needed legislation. They've been urging their supporters to to jam congressional switchboards with demands not to pass Senate bill 909.

I urge Americans to contact Senator DeMint by email, fax and telephone, and tell him that his letter to Christian religious leaders crosses the line of separation between church and state, and that it is wrong for him, as a member of Congress to advocate the continuation of the status quo of hatred and persecution that he knows is so harmful to LGBT Americans. Remind him that the Constitution, not biblical law, is the supreme law of the United States, and urge him to change his mind and do what's right and support *Senate Bill 909, the Matthew Shephard Hate Crimes Prevention Act.

If you contact Senator DeMint by email, it is more effective if you follow your email with a phone call to his office to lodge you protest. Then, send a hardcopy letter by mail or fax. This gets the best results.

Senator Jim DeMint
United States Senate
340 Russell
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: 202-224-6121
Fax: 202-228-5143
Office Hours: 9am - 6pm (M-F)

*On April 29, the U.S. House of Representatives voted for and passed H. R. 1913 - the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009 - the House's version of federal hate crimes legislation. The Senate version, S. 909 - known as the Matthew Shephard Hate Crimes Prevention Act - is still waiting to come up for a vote in the Senate.

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Al-Qaeda threatens to use Pakistan's nuclear weapons against the United States

Al-Qaeda's third-in-command has told Al Jazeera that the group would use Pakistan's nuclear weapons against the US if it gained access to them.Pakistan has been battling the Taliban and its al-Qaeda allies in the Swat valley and tribal areas in the northwest since April when fighters took hold of a region just 100km away from the capital, Islamabad.

"By God's will, the Americans will not seize the Muslims' nuclear weapons and we pray that the Muslims will have these weapons and they will be used against the Americans," Mustafa Abul-Yazeed, al-Qaeda's leader in Afghanistan, said in an exclusive interview that aired on Sunday....[Story continued here]

***********

Watch Al-Jazeera's exclusive interview with Mustafa Abul-Yazeed, al-Qaeda's third in command, who gives a rare insight into the group's campaign. Al Jazeera's Shiulie Ghosh discusses the claims with Michael Griffin, an expert on al-Qaeda based in London.

Today everyone is an Iranian

Photo: Mt. Damavand

By Amil Imani

"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible
will make violent revolution inevitable." John F. Kennedy

Today, all Iranian expatriates are united in solidarity with the Iranian people in Iran. Today, we are all standing tall to let the world hear our continuous aspiration for a free and democratic Iran. Today, we pledge ourselves, under the divine inspiration, to stand beside the Iranians in Iran and echo their voices around the globe. Today, we make history, yet again.

It is critical that freedom-loving people, governments and media, rally behind the Iranian people and end the tyrannical mullahcracy that is a scourge on Iran as well as the world. The Iranian people themselves are fully capable and are determined to remove the cancer of Islamism from their country. The United States and Israel and other democracies have a huge stake in the success of the Iranian people to rid themselves of the Islamic oppression and tyranny.

The situation in Iran is dire indeed. Anyone who believes that sane rational people on both sides are engaged in brinkmanship to secure the best advantage, but would eventually work out a compromise, is deluding himself. In some cases, time works as a healer and even as a solution of thorny problems. Yet, this problem will not go away, and time would only make the cataclysmic clash more likely and deadly. The best chance for resolving the impasse is regime change in Iran.

For the past thirty years, the intrepid Iranians have been paying with their blood for liberty, independence and human dignity while the world looked the other way and did business with the Islamist rulers in Iran. Thirty years ago, a fanatic Shi'a Muslim by the name of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, with the assistance of western governments (with Jimmy Carter on top of the list), succeeded in overthrowing the Shah of Iran during Iran's 1979 revolution.


Khomeini promised Iranians heaven, but he created hell on earth, turning Iran into a bastion of Islamic fundamentalism and terrorism. Ever since, tens of thousands of political activists have been killed or imprisoned. Tens of thousands of opposition groups, women, ethnic and religious minorities, have been subjected to inhumane treatment and tens of thousands of political prisoners are spending their precious lives, in the medieval barbaric Islamic Republic dungeons.


Since 1979, this illegitimate government of the Islamic Republic has been waging a brutal war against the entire population of Iran who has been fighting for individual and religious freedom. In spite of tens of thousands of political executions, other brutal practices and years of a reign of terror, the Islamists have not succeeded in uprooting the nationwide movement for democracy in Iran....[Amil's story continued here]

Amil Imani is an Iranian—born American citizen and pro—democracy activist residing in the United States of America. Imani is a columnist, literary translator, novelist and an essayist who has been writing and speaking out for the struggling people of his native land, Iran. He maintains a website.

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Video of church's exorcism of homosexual demon spirit causes controversy

Photo: Prophets Patricia and Kelvin McKinney

A Connecticut church posted a controversial video on YouTube that raised questions about the treatment of children by a leader of a gay and lesbian teen mentoring group among others.

The video features church elders performing what looks like an exorcism, of what they refer to in the video as "homosexual demons."

The video shows leaders of the Manifested Glory Ministries in a frenetic scene, screaming, "Right now I command you to leave!"

At the same time a teen writhing on the ground as the adults around him implore so called "homosexual demons" to get out.

The leaders yell at the boy on the ground saying, "Right now in the name of Jesus, I call the homosexuality, right now in the name of Jesus."

For 20 minutes it continues with the boy in a near seizure, even vomiting.

By the looks of it, and the repeated references to his sexual orientation, it appears to be a gay exorcism.

Prophet Patricia McKinney and her husband, church overseer Kelvin McKinney have a weekly radio show. She wasn't much interested in talking, telling Fox 61's Laurie Perez, "Don't be following, I'm telling you no." [Story continued here]

Watch CNN's Ali Velshi recent interview "Prophet" Patricia McKinney

Urgent appeal to Baha'is worldwide to support the Iranian people

Followers of Baha'u'llah throughout the world,

Today was a dark, sad moment for many courageous, beautiful Iranian people who stood in the face of the ugliest form of oppressive monster, and took bullets into their bodies for the sake of freedom and equality.

I call on each and every one of you to forget about your own difficulties, and do everything within your power to help our Iranian brothers and sisters defeat their enemy! Stop, and actually do something.

Please take a moment and watch a video I obtained today, from Tehran, and listen to the sound of bullets being fired by the police at innocent Iranians.



This is the anti-Christ energy that 'Abdu'l-Baha said was waiting quietly to devour the "Child" of the new revelation. It was responsible for the mutilation of Islam, the murder of the Bab; the heinous killing orgies against the early Babis, the strangulation of Tahireh the Pure, Baha'u'llah's poisoning, and the now the attacks on our Iranian brothers and sisters.

Link up with other organizations and do everything you can to support the Iranian people, individually and through your institutions.

Please follow important updates that I will be providing here on my blog, as well as other important links that I list that will take you to information that will help you more of what is known to be happening on the ground in Iran. If you're on Facebook, link to my Facebook page.
There you will have access to many ideas on how to help the Iranian people.

Blessings and Light,

Madison Reed

+Fierce clashes in Tehran....Mousavi: "I am prepared for martyrdom." (huffingtonpost.com)

+Iran's Mousavi says ready for "martyrdom": ally (news.yahoo.com)

Urgent appeal to the LGBT community and leadership about the crisis in Iran

Dear LGBT family,

We should all temporarily pause our work for our own civil rights, and orient our hearts and activity toward doing everything possible to help the Iranian people who are in dire need of worldwide support. Today, members of our human family are being gunned down in Iranian streets by a monster. We're all one. We are Iranians. They are us. We all face the same monster.

As a group, individually and through our LGBT organizations, we should express publicly our solidarity with the Iranian people, and our outrage at what's happening to them.

Watch this recent video from Tehran that I just obtained a half-hour ago. You can hear the Iranian "Basij" (police) firing their guns, presumably at the demonstrators. It's difficult to watch, but you really need to watch it and listen to it.

Madison Reed

Follow the Iranian crisis at huffingtonpost.com

Jami: Khamenei has effectively removed himself from the guardianship of the people

"We are standing against radicalism - We, the Green Movement … its time for the people of the World to see what we are standing against…and join.”


By Mehdi Jami

This is the end of Khamenei and the beginning of a new era. He doesn’t hear our voice and doesn’t speak our language…today, Khamenei showed the people that he is not their leader…He sees us as enemies. Elections are not important for him. He only represents a small group of people. The problem is that he wants to suppress other groups so they cannot participate in decision-making. People feel this. They see that power is in the hands of a few. Khamenei even dislikes the old leaders of the revolution. In this regime, there’s no place for anyone with a different opinion.

“Khamenei will be remembered as a leader who split the people, ended his own leadership and became a tribal chief.”

Khamenei resigned from real leadership and was demoted to the leadership of a certain group of his supporters. He easily ignored and threatened this great opposition, which according to his own formal statistics, is composed of 13 million people. His problem is that he wants to ignore the population. His biggest mistake was to say that he is closer to the current president than to the people. According to our constitution, our leader cannot belong to one political party or another. He will be remembered as a leader who split the people, ended his own leadership and became a tribal chief. He created divisions in the society.

Khamenei says there are legal ways to protest. But in such a system, which laws are legitimate? A law on paper is not a law. A law together with its administrators is a law. When the administrators are corrupt, create roadblocks to the implementation of the law and interpret it any way they want, how can one have any hope in the role of law? Based on which law has he arrested hundreds of people? Based on which law has he ignored the complaints of millions of people?

I am certain that opposition by the great people of Iran will continue against this kind of politics and leadership until they find a new leader who is able to think of the people and does not dominate a small group over the larger population.

Mousavi and Karroubi are leaders of an opposition that did not vote for Ahmadinejadism. This is a result of Khamenei’s mistake who has tied his future with Ahmadinejad. This is a great movement by millions. Either Mousavi or Karroubi realize this and take the responsibility to lead it or they will retreat because of threats. But it is clear that this great power [opposition] will not remain without a leader and will not die down. Khamenei’s era is over and new leaders are compelled to emerge.

Mehdi Jami, a well-known Iranian journalist, photographer, filmmaker and writer said on his blog that Khamenei has effectively removed himself from the guardianship of the people by what he said in his speech today.

General Shalikashvili supports repeal of "Don't Ask Don't Tell"

By John M. Shalikashvili

The Supreme Court announced last week that it would not review a lawsuit challenging the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy forbidding homosexuals from serving openly. The Obama administration had asked the court not to take the case as the president considers ending the ban.

News that the president would change the policy had inspired a group of retired flag officers to argue on this page this spring that service by openly gay individuals would harm morale, discipline, cohesion, recruitment and retention in the U.S. military ["Gays and the Military: A Bad Fit," op-ed, April 15]. They wrote as part of a larger effort by more than 1,000 retired officers to keep the ban in place.

According to the generals and admirals, allowing gay men and lesbians to serve openly would make parents less willing to allow their sons and daughters to enlist. The argument assumes that anti-gay sentiment is so fierce and widespread that moving to a policy of equal treatment would drive away thousands and could ultimately "break the All-Volunteer Force." Not only is there no evidence to support these conclusions, but research shows conclusively that openly gay service members would not undermine military readiness. [Story continues here]

The writer, a retired Army general, was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1993 to 1997.

Wolfowitz: Obama must step forward and support Iranian demonstrators

"[...T]he reform the Iranian demonstrators seek is something that we should be supporting. In such a situation, the United States does not have a "no comment" option. Coming from America, silence is itself a comment -- a comment in support of those holding power and against those protesting the status quo." ~Paul Wolfowitz

President Obama's first response to the protests in Iran was silence, followed by a cautious, almost neutral stance designed to avoid "meddling" in Iranian affairs. I am reminded of Ronald Reagan's initially neutral response to the crisis following the Philippine election of 1986, and of George H.W. Bush's initially neutral response to the attempted coup against Mikhail Gorbachev in 1991. Both Reagan and Bush were able to abandon their mistaken neutrality in time to make a difference. It's not too late for Obama to do the same.

In 1986, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos had called a snap election, calculating that a divided opposition would hand him a clear victory that would undercut pressure from the Reagan administration for broad-based reform. Instead, the opposition parties united behind Corazon Aquino, and only massive fraud could produce a "victory" for Marcos.

On Feb. 11, as the votes were still being counted, Reagan announced a neutral position, reminding Americans that it was a "Philippine election" and praising "the extraordinary enthusiasm of Filipinos for the democratic process." Rather than blame Marcos for the fraud, which he called "disturbing," Reagan said that there may have been fraud "on both sides."

At the time, I was working for Secretary of State George Shultz as assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, and I shared Shultz's dismay at the president's comments. For more than two years, with the president's support, we had carefully pressed Marcos for reform. Reagan himself once cited Lord Acton's famous dictum, that "power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely," while speaking of Marcos. Nevertheless Reagan's unfortunate comment about fraud on "both sides" threatened to put the United States on the wrong side at a critical moment. [washingtonpost.com story continues here]

Iranian Artists and Writers in Exile to the People of the World

Statement from documentary filmmakers in Iran, read by Rakhshan Bani Etemad

Iranian Artists and Writers in Exile

Open Letter to the Media Outside of Iran

مردم آزاده جهان

امروز مردم ایران با حضور شجاعانه خود در خیابانها به مقابله به تفکری برخواسته اند که ریشه در فاشیسم و افراطی گری دارد.

تفکری که با نقض گسترده و مداوم حقوق بشر، جان مردم را به لب رسانده و از آن بدتر، با رفتارهای بی خردانه و تحریک آمیز خود، به صورت تهدیدی جدی برای صلح جهانی در آماده است.

ما هنرمندان و نویسندگان ایرانی در تبعید، دولت کودتا را به رسمیت نمیشناسیم. ما سرکوب وحشیانه مردم ایران و کشتار بی رحمانه تظاهر کنندگان را محکوم میکنیم.

آنچه مردم ایران میخواهد جزو ابتداییترین حقوق مدنی است:

خواست مردم برگذاری مجدد انتخابات در شرایطی آزاد و عادلانه و زیر نظر سازمانهای بیطرف بینالمللی است.

ما از تمام مردم آزده جهان میخواهیم ضمن حمایت از مطالبات به حق مردم ایران، اجازه ندهند دولتهایشان این رژیم کودتا را به رسمیت بشناسند.



هنرمندان و نویسندگان ایرانی در تبعید



کاوه یغمایی- بهروز وثوقی-پرتو نوری علا- مرتضی نگاهی- شیرین نشاط- ابراهیم نبوی- محسن نامجو- عباس میلانی- امید معماریان- عباس معروفی- نصیر مشکوری- محسن مخملباف- سهراب محبی -کیوسک(آرش سبحانی، بابک خیاوچی، اردلان پایوار،علی کمالی, شهروز مولایی)-نیک آهنگ کوثر- صمصام کشفی- ساسان قهرمان- رضا قاسمی -فریدون فرح اندوز- ناصر زراعتی-- زیبا شیرازی- امیر شیشه گران- فرهاد شاه حسینی- لونا شاد- پیمان سلیمی- حمید سعیدی-شهرزاد سپانلو- آرش ساسان- فرانک زرین آبادی- رضا دقتی- اسماعیل خویی- مامک خادم- اروین خاچیکیان- ماز جبرانی- مهدی جامی- کورش تقوی- فریبا تقوی- عباس بختیاری- آناهیتا باستانی- فرامرز اصلانی- مهرنوش ارسنجانی- شیلا ارسطوپور- آیدا احدیانی- آبجیز(ملودی صفوی، صفورا صفوی،صوفی صفوی)-شیما کلباسی-شیدا شفیعی


برای اضافه نمودن امضا خود به این نامه لطفا به این آدرس ایمیل بزنید

iranartexile@gmail.com

Open Letter to the Media Outside of Iran

To People of the Free World,

Today Iranians have courageously decided to uproot a radical and fascist mindset that not only routinely infringes upon their basic human rights, but also endangers world peace with its antagonistic attitude towards policy.

We, Iranian Artists and Writers in Exile, condemn the brutal repression of people in Iran and do not recognize a coup d'état government born out of electoral fraud.

We ask people all over the world not to allow their governments to recognize a coup d'état regime by supporting the just desire of Iranians to hold a new and fair election under the observation of impartial international monitors.



Abbas Bakhtiari , Abbas Maroufi , Abbas Milani , Abjeez (Melody Safavi, Safoura Safavi, Sufi Safavi) , Aida Ahadiany , Amir Shishegaran , Anahita Bastani , Arash Sasan , Behrouz Vosoughi , Ebrahim Nabavi , Erwin Khachikian , Esmail Khoi , Faramarz Aslani , Faranak Zarinabadi , Farhad Shah-Hosseini , Fariba Taghavi , Fereidoun Farahandouz , Hamid Saidi , Kaveh Yaghmaei , Kiosk (Arash Sobhani , Babak Khiavchi, Ardalan Payvar, Ali Kamali , Shahrouz Molaei) , Kourosh Taghavi , Luna Shad , Mamak Khadem , Maz Jobrani , Mehdi Jami , Mehrnoush Arsanjani , Mohsen Makhmalbaf , Mohsen Namjoo , Morteza Negahi , Nasser Zerati , Nassir Mashkouri , Nikahang Kowsar , Omid Memarian , Partow Nooriala , Peyman Salimi , Reza Deghati , Reza Ghassemi , Samsum Kashfi , Shahrzad Sepanlou , Sheema Kalbasi , Sheila Arastoopour , Shirin Neshat , Sohrab Mohebi , Soosan Ghahraman , Ziba Shirazi, Sheyda Shafiei,

Iranian Artists and Writers in Exile