Rape in the Mullahs’ Prisons

Jahanshah Rashidian

Since the inception of the Islamic regime in Iran in 1979, rapes of political prisoners have increasingly been committed, although rarely reported. Many courageous victims have recently revealed their subjection to rapes. Surprisingly, however, after the controversial June 2009 election, the losing candidate Mehdi Karrubi revealed that both male and female, detained during the post-election protests, have been systematically subjected to vicious rapes.

After the conquest of ancient Persia by the Arab Muslims in 644, tens of thousands, probably, millions of Iranian female were raped, enslaved, and transported away as war-booty to be sold in slave-markets of Arab-Islamic territories. The Persian word ‘Tajovoz’ does not only mean ‘rape’ by which a man seized or stole a wife, but also means destruction and occupation of one’s environment by invaders. In a belief system that a passive nine-year-old girl can be raped by her ‘husband’, rape, as an extension of such a patriarchal societal control over females, was introduced by the Arab Muslims as the most hideous, shameful, and submissive element in the culture of occupied Iran. Since the occupation by Arab Muslims, Iranian women, who once equated with their male compatriots, have been since viewed as male-possessions, first of their fathers, then of their husbands. In case of rape in Islamised Persia, they were subjected to blame and shame more than their rapists.

Rape of Female Prisoners
Shortly after the 1979 revolution, many intellectuals, political activists, and sympathisers of the leftist opposition were arrested, and many of them were summarily executed. Virgin prisoners were generally raped before being executed. The reason is that according to the Islamic regime’s interpretation of Islamic laws, killing of a virgin woman is prohibited, because a virgin’s soul goes to Heaven, not to Hell, after death. To solve the dilemma, the night before the execution, the virgin is married by one of the guards, and the marriage is consummated overnight, before carrying out the execution. Apart from such rape, the interrogators of the Mullah regime routinely use rape as a tool of torture to obtain information, confession, or, simply, to humiliate the prisoner.

Rape of Male prisoners
The rape of a male victim typically consists of forced penetration of the anus by a penis or other object as has been reported by some Iranian rape-victims. Because of traditional self-censor, male-rape has until recently remained unreported in Iran. It is believed that a man in a patriarchal culture should be masculine, strong and able to protect himself. Therefore, nothing can be worse, more shameful, for a proud man than being forcibly raped. Young men, who have survived the post-election rapes, are now suffering from rigorous psychological injuries. Rape of male prisoners in the Mullahs’ jails has caused serious damage to inner organs of the victims and depression to them. Since male victims feel shame to identify themselves, they avoid medical treatment unless the victim is seriously injured.

It is believed that religious permission of rape, including male-rape, of ‘opponents of the Islamic regime’ has been recently given by Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi, the monitor and spiritual guru of president Ahmadinejad. Islamic authorities usually deny that rape is being committed in their prisons, fearing strong reaction from the public, both inside and outside.

In an interview at the Jamkaran gathering after the revelation of rape in the Mullah’s prisons, Mesbah Yazdi was asked: “Can an interrogator rape the prisoner in order to obtain a confession?” He answered: “The necessary precaution is for the interrogator to perform a ritual washing first and say prayers while raping the prisoner. If the prisoner is female, it is permissible to rape through the vagina or anus. It is better not to have a witness present. If it is a male prisoner, then it’s acceptable for someone else to watch while the rape is committed.”

Zahra Bani Yaghoub, Azar Al Cana’an, and Roya Toloui are among the female prisoners, who were raped and murdered in past years under the same Islamic regime. Additionally, at least two recent teen female victims of the post-election oppression in Iran, Taraneh Mousavi and Saeedeh Pour Agha’i, were documented by the media as being burnt in an attempt to cover up the hideous crime.

To shed light on Mesbakh Yazdi’s permission of rape, it is believed that in numerous offensive raids, called ‘Ghazawat’, early Muslims, under the Prophet, attacked ‘infidel’ tribes; they killed men, robbed their properties, and took whichever females they wanted, raped them, and then brought them to their tribe as their slave-possession. Tolerance of such brutalities in Islam may not be universally believed by Muslims and might be regarded as myth. However, these are the mindsets of the brutal Islamic regime that rules Iran and commits such horrendous crimes.

In an ultimate psychological analysis of rape, rapists seem to come from a subculture of violence, whose values may be different from those of the mainstream. A rapist is often a poorly educated man from the lower socioeconomic strata, who had criminal records. Therefore such a man may be demonstrating his toughness and masculinity in a more violent and antisocial manner, but in the case of a rapist of the Mullahs’ prisons, this is not the dominant factor.

Rapists of the Mullahs’ prisons are not necessarily the psychopathic and antisocial torturers, but most likely ‘pious’ Muslims, married men, and even can be kind fathers. They just follow the ‘divine’ guidance of the Islamic regime, and do not consider those rapes as crimes, and do not feel remorse after the assault. These sexual ‘offenders’ are not accountable for their sexual assaults, because rape is allowed or tolerated by Islamic clerics of the regime.

Rape in the Mullahs’ prisons is not an individual decision of an interrogator, as one may commonly believe; it is a systematic process based on a belief system, and for promoting a political agenda. In the Mullahs’ prisons, rapes are often planned. The primary motive for rape is not sexual. They regard and believe in rape as a routine duty, due to its prescription by Islamic clerics of high stature like Ayatollah Mesbakh Yazdi, and its acceptance by the entire Mullah regime. With that in mind, their act of rape is not merely a question of psycho-criminality, but a justified crime.

Source: http://www.faithfreedom.org/2009/09/06/rape-in-the-mullahs’-prisons/

IHS

The Good Muslims, Part 1 (of 3)

Saleem Smith
Ironically, honorable Muslims are the worst Muslims, for they give a bad religion a good name and aid in its continuation. The survival of Islam would be a terrible calamity to befall humanity. These harsh statements are hard facts that ‘the good Muslims’ ought to consider deeply. This series of articles will attempt to shed light on this reality.

Those folks who consider themselves to be good Muslims must be troubled witnessing the constant horrors being created by their co-religionists. Muslims are now commonly viewed by non-Muslims as a dangerous segment of the population who hold very strange views of the world and their fellow humans. Those non-Muslims who are well-versed in Islamic theology and the ambitions of the Islamists to institute Sharia law are right to be mistrustful of the Muslim population.

The horrific state of the Islamic world and the dysfunctional behavior of their co-religionists must make ‘the good Muslims’ consider whether there is something intrinsically wrong with Islam. The good Muslims must be asking themselves why their brethren are behaving so violently toward each other and toward non-Muslims. It should make an honest person wonder whether Islam is really what it claims to be. It is worth considering this question rigorously as so many lives are at stake.

We know from Islamic history and by looking around us at the world today, Islam is not a religion of peace. The talk of Islam being the religion of peace is just talk. Islam has long proven itself to be a religion of violence and hatred that commonly inspires its adherents to commit acts of obscene bloodshed and intolerance. In light of all this, it seems that those who proclaim themselves to be Muslims would be wise to re-examine the claims of their religion.

Islam has historically created undemocratic societal structures which are steeped in nepotism and tyranny. Where Islam is the law of the land, Sharia law is devastating the well-being and civility of its citizenry. Without doubt Muhammad has betrayed his followers leaving them an unjust religion (for example women are granted rights inferior to those of men both legally and otherwise) producing an untenable mess. It is useless for Islamic apologists to attempt to deny these statements as the facts speak for themselves.

We know that Islamic terrorism is the result of Muslims acting upon Islamic doctrine. The adherents of no other major religion attempt to settle their real or imagined grievances with such consistent acts of savage violence as do Muslims. Both the Quran and the Sunnah state that Muhammad himself was a terrorist, a mass murderer and a thief who urged his followers to conquer the world by any means necessary. He claimed that this is what his god demands be done. This Islamic supremacism is sheer barbarism and insanity. Truth be told, radical Muslims are only following in Muhammad’s footsteps and acting upon his commandments.

Though the good Muslims prefer to acknowledge only the peaceful and sane Islamic traditions, the time has come for them to abandon this infantile approach and to stop over-looking the truly dark contents of their religion and what it demands of them and its negative impact upon humanity. The time has come for Muslims to take off their blinders and to embark upon an objective, critical examination of Islam. The evidence will unmistakably lead them to conclude that Muhammad was a full blown madman who will be recorded by history as the most notorious criminal and deceitful human being to have ever lived.

The question at hand is whether decent folks who currently call themselves Muslims are willing to compromise their integrity by continuing to practice and promote Islam while knowing of its many horrors. Many educated Muslims are now beginning to realize that adherence to Islam cannot be justified and are discretely walking away from it. It has become clear to them that the founder of Islam, Muhammad ibn Abdullah, was just one more charlatan who fabricated a religion. In this case a religion based primarily on fear, hatred and violence.

Islam should rightly be abhorred by all persons of conscience. ‘The good Muslims’ must decide whether they want to live a lie and go down the dark path of Islam or make the courageous decision to abandon the religion entirely and help in the effort to expose it for what it is. It is time for the good Muslims to come to the realization that Muhammad’s Islam, taken in totality, amounts to a colossal fraud and a terribly harmful ideology.

Saleem Smith is a Canadian Ex-Muslim. He has his own site in which he expresses his views on Islam and other issues. Here is a link to his site: http://www.considerationsofacanadianex-muslim.org

Source: http://www.faithfreedom.org/2009/09/06/the-good-muslims-part-1-of-3/

IHS

Thoughts of a Brooding Apostate

Arslan: Thoughts of a Brooding atheist, an apostate and an anti-theist   

Greetings to All,

The paradigm of change in the fundamental understanding of Islam that the world is currently witnessing is truly astonishing and heartwarming.

As though people with relatively stable cognitions have suddenly realized that Islam is, in fact, not a religion but an absolutist political ideology feigning as a religion.

Faith freedom international is one of the most prominent platforms and sources that are powering this current paradigm of change.

Bravo and salutations to the members, affiliates, and authors that have set this site up.

I am Arslan, an ex-Muslim, and a hard line atheist.

I am highly critical of Islam in all of its forms and flavors, a ‘blasphemer’ so to speak. Although the very word makes no logical sense, as I believe it to be impossible to blaspheme against Islam. i.e. stating the historical and factual realities of Islam does not qualify as being blasphemes. For example, if someone says that Muhammad was involved in looting, pillaging, assassinations, and subjugation of masses, he/she is not blaspheming, because these are facts of Islamic history. I need not cite references. One can find an abundance of them on this fantastic site.

Philosophical musings aside, I will say something about myself:

I am a medical scientist working as a researcher in Leeds, UK.  I am a Pakistani national currently residing in United Kingdom.

Now a few words about Pakistan:

Pakistan is a land that is indefinable.  A hodgepodge of chaotic forces; societal, ethnic and political, whose inhabitants have one thing in common: their love and devotion to Islam.  It’s not a country, just a piece of land that has managed to survive a split in 1971 and an earlier war with India.

I believe that is enough about Pakistan (Pakistan=’The land of the pure’, or ‘Pure land’……Need I say more?).

My personal journey from being a Muslim to being an atheist has been eventful and fraught with a few threats here and there.

Firstly, I never was a devout Muslim…mostly I was a non practicing, borderline Muslim. My arrival in UK opened up avenues for me to study Islam in a critical manner.

There is absolutely no space for an individual who abandons Islam (i.e. commits apostasy) in an Islamic society. An apostate is considered, implicitly and explicitly, an enemy of Islam, and more importantly an enemy of the Islamic state. It becomes the duty of Sharia abiding citizens to kill such a person. Pakistan’s Penal code 295, 298 state that a ‘Blasphemer’ should be executed.

Everyone, on this site, must be well aware of Gogra incident where seven Pakistani Christians were burned alive because of the rumored allegation that they desecrated the Quran.

I know for a fact that I would not be safe in my native country.

The added reason for my fear is that I am an active atheist, and an active anti-theist. I go out and actively participate in spreading the truth. That is how it should be. But I always strive to keep a modicum of decency and engage in proper dialogue, I do not believe that spewing hate against Islam without any rational basis is a good strategy to make a point.  In fact it is quite counterproductive.

I have had dialogues with Muslim scholars. A few prominent Muslim students in Leeds know my views and they positively despise me.

So far I have received two threats (one of them hidden death threat).

I have emancipated two individuals, so far, from Islam just through dialogue. Although I would say that they were already susceptible but my discussion with them served as the last nail in the coffin of Islam for them, so to speak.

Truth about Islam must be spread. Nothing more, nothing less! It is our duty (at least that is my personal conviction).

I say this because the greatest victims of Islam, in most instances, are Muslims themselves. I know of so many incidents where this political ideology has caused untold suffering to so many people, including my loved ones.  

What Islam does to a person or a society is simply heartbreaking.  I am often moved to the brink of crying my heart out over how women are treated in my country. The tales are harrowing and demonic.

I have witnessed Islam, very closely, and it is a very morbid and convoluted ideology that completely warps the mind of a gullible human being.  Islam crushes people. It vanquishes the soul and destroys any sense of humanity.  It transforms a person into something else.

Regards

A concerned Brother

Source: http://www.faithfreedom.org/2009/09/06/thoughts-of-a-brooding-apostate/

IHS

Bangladesh and the destruction of Hinduism and Buddhism

By Lee Jay Walker

Image of Vishnu — Vishnu is the Supreme God in Vaishnavite tradition of Hinduism. Smarta followers of Adi Shankara, among others, venerate Vishnu as one of the five primary forms of God. He is exalted as the highest God in Hindu sacred texts like the Taittiriya Samhita and the Bhagavad Gita.

The nation of Bangladesh is witnessing Islamization, just like Afghanistan in the distant past and currently now in Pakistan. It is clear that the Indian sub-continent flourished under both Hinduism and then Buddhism which came afterwards. Both faiths nurtured the very fabric of society but invading Islamic armies and the partition of India was one disaster after another. Therefore, just like Afghanistan, it would appear that one day you will have either complete Islamization or a very small minority which is on the margins of society.

Many stories are never told because of several factors. This applies to not being deemed important because of political factors and of course because of the abject failure of the mass media. Nearly everyone knows about the Palestinian problem or Tibet, but of course we have a deadly silence about the ongoing Islamization in Bangladesh and Pakistan.

However, the current crisis in Bangladesh should be headline news because minorities need to be supported and senior politicians in India must do more to raise this ongoing crisis. Also, the United Kingdom is responsible because the partition of India took place after the British colonial period and the Commonwealth should think about suspending both Bangladesh and Pakistan, on the grounds of failing to protect their respective minorities.

Before the partition of India took place you had sizeable minorities in what was to become Pakistan and Bangladesh. For example in modern day Pakistan the Sikh community is very small but prior to partition this community thrived in parts of what was to become Pakistan. Yet during partition many Sikhs were butchered and killed by Muslims, therefore, they had to flee from the outset.

Of course all religious groups suffered during partition and many innocents on all sides were murdered. Therefore, innocent Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, and other minorities, fled in various directions because the situation was chaotic. However, if we look at events many decades later we see one clear reality and this reality is Islamization.

After all, the Hindu and Sikh communities of modern day Pakistan are very small and they face many hardships and it is clear that Islamization is in full swing. Also, in Bangladesh the Buddhist and Hindu minorities are dwindling rapidly and both communities have suffered greatly and the Christian community also faces many problems because of radical Sunni Islam. Yet in modern day India the Muslim population is still strong and vibrant.

Of course you have other minorities who also suffer enormous persecution, for example Christians and Ahmadiyya Muslims in Bangladesh and Pakistan. Also, in India some radical Hindus have attacked Christian minorities. Despite this, the nation of India is democratic and people from all faith groups can reach positions of power.

Also, the government of India believes in pluralism and Ahmadiyya Muslims have more rights in India than they do in Pakistan because radical Sunni Islamic zealots persecute the Ahmadiyya Muslim community in this nation. The same also applies to Shia Muslims in Pakistan, because often Shia Muslims are killed by Sunni Islamic extremists but in India they have much more freedom.

Therefore, Muslim minorities have greater freedom in India and other religious minorities like Jains and Zoroastrians can pray and worship freely in modern day India. It also must be remembered that Zoroastrians fled to India in order to escape religious genocide because Islamic fanatics destroyed Zoroastrianism in ancient Persia (modern day Iran) and other places in Asia where this faith had thrived before the rise of Islam.

If we look at the plight of Hindus in Bangladesh and Pakistan then it is clear that millions of Hindus have fled both nations because of systematic persecution. The consequences of partition are clear and the same applies to the nature of both dominant faiths. After all, the Islamic population remains vibrant in India because of the nature of Hinduism; however, the Hindu population is in freefall in both Bangladesh and Pakistan because of the nature of Islam and its theory of superiority, dhimmitude, and inequality in law which is sanctioned by Islamic Sharia law.

Clearly the growth of Hindu militancy is the legacy of countless Islamic invasions and many massacres throughout history; and the legacy of British imperialism which enabled partition to take place. Also, the ongoing de-Hinduization of Bangladesh and Pakistan is ongoing, therefore, Hindu militants are rightly worried that Bangladesh and Pakistan is following the Afghanistan scenario, whereby all non-Muslims turn into dust and even ancient monuments face destruction at the hands of radical Sunni Islamists.

Therefore, several years ago the Human Rights Congress for Bangladesh Minorities (HRCBM) held a major exhibition in America in order to highlight the continuing persecution of all minorities in Bangladesh.

Amalendu Chatterjee, HRCBM director, pointed out that the Hindu population was over 30 per cent in the 1940s in what was to become Bangladesh, however, today it is a mere 11 per cent. Given this, Amalendu Chatterjee comments that “It is time that the world should know what is happening with the Hindu minorities in Bangladesh.” He also stated that the reasons for the decline of the Hindu population is “…..because of the atrocities perpetrated on the Hindus by the ruling class all these years.”

Utsav Chakrabarti, a member of the Foundation Against Continuing Terrorism (FACT) stated that “All the representatives and their staffers reiterated the need to protect the rights of minorities and to deal with Islamic groups in a resolute manner.”

American political leaders gave their support and Ed Royce, a Republican member of the House of Representatives, wrote “The international community must take an action against these genocidal acts now before this culture is extinguished and the minorities forcibly killed, converted or exiled in the face of an underground jihad.”

Ed Royce also focused on the extreme ” … persecution faced by Hindus, Buddhists and Christians due to the threat posed by Islamic fundamentalism in Bangladesh.” This threat, just like the systematic persecution and killings of Christians in Somalia is ongoing and it is based on the Koran, the Hadiths and the teachings of Mohammed.

Frank Pallone Jr. who is a Democrat member in the House of Representatives stated that “I was proud to be the Congressional sponsor of this important exhibition on human rights in Bangladesh. I believe it helped bring much-needed attention to the plight of minorities in Bangladesh who have suffered from increasing attacks over the past few years.”

Rape was also highlighted because some Islamists use rape in order to convert Hindus to Islam forcibly. It is also important to add that Islamists use this same method in Egypt because countless numbers of Coptic Christian women have been raped by Muslims and then forcibly converted to Islam.

Therefore, Rosalind Costa who is a social worker highlighted the case of two girls who were raped and then forcibly converted to Islam after being gang-raped by Muslim jihadists. This applies to Rita Rani Das and Purnima Shil who were both gang-raped by Islamists.

The current reality is simple, in Pakistan the Hindu population is in complete freefall because only around 1% of the population is Hindu and now Islamization is taking place in Bangladesh. At the same time the Muslim population in India remains strong and vibrant. Therefore, it is clear that state sanctioned policies, Islamic radicalism and persecution is to blame and once more we are witnessing the reality of Islam in action.

Today all minorities face persecution and alienation in Bangladesh and Pakistan because of the role of radical Islam and natural Islamization based on discrimination and persecution. After all, inequality and discrimination is part and parcel of Islamic Sharia law and the Hadiths.

Therefore, will the international community stand up and debate this issue seriously or will the international community remain shackled by fear and indifference?

What is clear is that Buddhism and Hinduism is in mortal danger in Bangladesh and Christian minorities and Ahmadiyya Muslims also suffer.

When the partition of India happened it was clear that the Hindu minority was sizeable in both Bangladesh and Pakistan. However, within a short period of time we are seeing the demise of Hinduism in Pakistan and now the same is happening to both Buddhists and Hindus in Bangladesh.

LEE JAY WALKER

Source: http://www.faithfreedom.org/2009/09/06/bangladesh-and-the-destruction-of-hinduism-and-buddhism/

IHS

Khamenei staggers, like a camel being ritually slaughtered – by Afshin Ellian

Islamic dietary rules require that animals that provide food for the faithful be slaughtered in a very specific way.   Muslims are allowed to eat camel meat, but how can you kill a camel according to ritual halal rules, which specify the precise manner in which the camel’s throat is cut?  A camel does not permit human beings to kill him according to the religious requirements, but if a camel has not been killed in the ritual way then one is not allowed to eat it. What to do?  

The first Muslims solved the problem by cunning.  Instead of attacking him, the slaughterers inserted a sharp pin in the camel’s neck. For a moment the animal feels pain but thereafter he feels nothing. Meanwhile, the blood slowly drains from his body. After a while the animal does not feel well. The only way to save the camel is by a blood transfusion, but if that is not done – a process unthinkable fifteen hundred years ago – then the animal is beyond rescue. After a while the camel slowly descends on his front knees and this the time to cut its throat in the name of Allah. 

This is the present condition of the Islamic regime led by Khamenei. I did not invent this metaphor; it is widely used these days by Iranians watching the supreme leader’s public and private behavior.   Khamenei is losing blood, and Iranians are waiting for him to slowly go down on his front knees and to fall down.  He has been punctured by the months of demonstrations and the nightly chant of “Death to the Dictator,” and he is visibly staggering. 

On August 26 [2009] Khamenei delivered an exceptionally important speech in Tehran. In this speech he demonstrated the weakness of a regime that slowly begins to perceive its own doom: About the Kahrizak detention center, where demonstrators were raped and tortured to death, Khamenei said the following: “Mistakes have been made, laws have been violated and crimes have been committed. The perpetrators have to be treated with a hard fist”.  And he decried the regime’s violent acts against students:  ”The attacks on the student dormitories at the campus have to be criminally investigated”. Fascinating! Khamenei, whose pronouncements were recently hailed as Divinely inspired, is now publicly speaking of crimes committed by his regime on basis of his own instructions. 

Khamenei even demanded the trial of the members of the security forces and the  Basjii (militia) who committed these crimes: “They have done a lot for this country, but this does not mean that the offenders should not be tried. The offenders must be prosecuted.“ 

To be sure, he threw a very small bone to those who have been loyal to him:  “but the case of Kahrizak and other cases should not be confused with the great injustice committed against the regime. The  desecrated honor of the regime is worse than the events at Kahrizak.”  

Mr. Khamenei, is this not a bit stupid? Kahrizak, where the young Persians were tortured, raped and murdered by the jihadist hordes, is less important than the honor of these rapists and murderers? 

           

What is the current opinion of Khamenei about the demonstrators and the leaders of the opposition? Do they still work for foreign intelligence services? Does the majority of the demonstrators still consist of spies working for the CIA, MI6 and the Mosad? No, the great leader has to admit that his people are not agents of the enemy. 

“The judiciary should not base its judgment on rumors but on hard evidence. I do not accuse the leaders of recent events (read Mousavi and others) to be in the service of England or America. It is not proven that they worked for America or England. Everything had been long been planned by the enemy, but perhaps they (the opposition) did not know this. Those who had designed the unrest did not know whether it would work. They used all their options [the media, internet] but they failed.“  

For weeks, Khamenei, Ahmadinezhad and a plethora of high officials have claimed that the opposition leaders were spies for the West. Until August 26th, they were collectively tried for espionage and involvement in an international conspiracy against the Islamic republic. 

Suddenly they are not spies. How can we understand this? Khamenei warned students to be careful. They should not use trivial matters as an alibi for the creation of unrest at the universities as that could cause the universities to be closed for a while. Yes, this is where it is all about: in about four weeks schools and universities are to open and there lies the problem, quite possibly the survival of the regime itself. What is going on in the court of Khamenei? 

Reliable sources report me the following straight from the heart of the regime (yes, leakage again): 

In recent days Khamenei has been confronted with facts and analysis by Rafsanjani and others. He was shown names and pictures of raped and murdered protesters. He received reports that several elements of the Revolutionary Guard (RG) can no longer handle this. 

After the opening of the academic year, when 14 million students return to the campuses, unrest will increase. Security forces will only for a period limited to a few weeks be able to address intensive conflicts in Tehran and other cities. The show trials did not have the expected effect. Nobody believes in these trials. 

The general economic situation is disastrous. Gasoline supplies are only sufficient for a period of about 70 days in case of a potential international gasoline boycott. Today [August 27], Mr. Ahmad Tavakoli, a member of the Iranian parliament and a follower of Ahmadinejad, stated that 200,000 employees of at least 50 factories have not been paid for more than three months 

In the next major conflict with the people, parts of the Revolutionary Guards and the army will remain neutral. If protests continue, they will chose the side of the people.  

In addition to this Khamenei was also confronted with a very secret message from Najaf [Iraq]. In this message Khamenei was seriously warned and criticized by Grand Ayatollah Sistani, the most important religious leader of all Shiites. The division between the ayatollahs is unprecedented.  And the highly respected Iranian Ayatollah Montazeri has just declared that the regime is neither Islamic, nor a republic.  In other words, it is illegitimate. 

How will the Iranian people react to Khamenei’s speech? The comparison with the Iranian revolution of 1979 is obvious: during the first months of the revolution the shah had also accused his own people of crimes, trying to win the support of the masses.  But it was too late. Like the shah thirty years ago,  Khamenei has lost all popular legitimacy: once the supreme leader totally reversed his position on the nature of the uprising, he can no longer command authority.   

A few weeks ago, he openly asked the security forces to suppress the demonstrators. Now he openly speaks of crimes committed by his security forces. According to Jahan News, a pro-government news site, Mortasavi, the notorious prosecutor of the Revolutionary Court, has been fired.  This suggests that other top officials will be sacrificed.  But mere changes in personnel are no longer sufficient to rescue the dying camel. 

What should the Americans and the Europeans do?  Above all, they must not try to save the regime.  They must avoid playing the role of paramedics who want to provide a blood transfusion to Khamenei, aka The Camel. The suffering is terrible, but it is not a ritual slaughter.  It’s simple justice. 

Afshin Ellian is professor at the Faculty of Law of Leiden University(Netherlands).

Source: http://www.faithfreedom.org/2009/09/06/khamenei-staggers-like-a-camel-being-ritually-slaughtered/

IHS