Harry's Place

Cross-posted from Potkin Azarmehr

Well before a fraudster named Austin Heap, was fooling the world that his non-existent Haystack software was breaking the internet filter barriers in Iran [see here], a young Iranian computer genius, Hossein Ronaghi Maleki, was the real hero who was helping the people of Iran achieve their inalienable right: ‘access to free information’.

At the time when Austin Heap was receiving Guardian’s Media Innovation Award and getting state department exemptions for a product that never existed, Hossein Ronaghi’s proxies were demolishing the regime’s fortress walls which were attempting to contain and  control the flow of information to the Iranian people.

Hossein’s proxies which circumvented the regime’s online censorship, were released under the name of Babak Khorramdin, an ancient Iranian hero from the Azeri part of Iran, who resisted the Arab invasion for 22 years and died defiant like a true hero.

To pay for the costs of his proxies, Hossein, a computer student from Arak university, laboured on building sites. He had even bought a server inside Iran and continued to release his proxies during the post-election protests at the height of the internet censorship in Iran. Much of the footage that came through, which showed the regime’s brutality to the world, would not have come through, had it not been because of Hossein’s anti-filter proxies. In fact the Green Movement seemed to subside after Hossein’s arrest. Information was the life line of the Green Movement and the forces of the darkness had stifled it by imprisoning the modern day Babak Khorramdin.

Islamic Republic’s security agents were after Hossein Ronaghi ever since 2004. Mojtaba Saminejad, an Iranian blogger who was imprisoned in 2004, said his interrogators were pressuring him to say who Babak Khorramdin was in 2005. It was just lucky that Mjtaba didn’t know either.

Finally after many years of slipping through the regime’s net, Hossein was arrested in his home town of Malekan in East Azerbaijan province.

Iran’s intelligence ministry, furious at Hossein having given them the chase for so many years, came down on him with everything they had. Hossein was sentenced to 15 years in prison. His sentence sparked outrage amongst human rights organisations. Amnesty International said he is “held solely on account of his peaceful exercise of his right to freedom of expression”.

In Tehran’s notorious Evin prison, Hossein spent 376 days in solitary confinement. His health has deteriorated and he has developed kidney problems. The Intelligence Unit of the Revolutionary Guards who are holding Hossein in Evin prison, are still raging at this one man who singlehandedly helped so much to promote freedom and have so far denied him medical attention.

Hossein however; has remained as resolute and as true to the spirit of the Iranian hero, Babak Khorramdin. His hunger strike in protest at his treatment and denial of his basic prisoner rights has caused deep concern and anxiety amongst many of his friends and supporters. The intelligence ministry agents even threatened Hossein’s father, telling him “if you speak too much, you too will be put in jail”. A threat they could easily carry out. Last week, Arash Sadeghi’s 80 year old grand father was imprisoned for protesting ‘too much’ against his grandson’s conditions.

Unknown and un-praised in the West, Hossein Ronaghi Maleki, is the true definition of a freedom fighter; who deserves much more international support.

As part of the campaign to release Hossein, many Iranian activists have emailed and written to Heather Gautney, the Fordham university lecturer who recently went to the Islamic Republic and showered praise on the religious dictatorship in Iran. The campaigners want Heather Gautney to call for the release of Hossein from prison.

After all the propaganda the Islamic Republic made from Gautney’s trip and the interviews she gave, it would be hugely costly for the regime, if she only makes a simple public statement and asks for Hossein’s release.

As yet, this Wall Street Occupier and US university lecturer who lectures her Fordham University students on ’social movements’ and is about to earn some extra cash from her latest book on “Global Justice”, has chosen to remain silent and not say anything to help release Hossein Ronaghi Maleki.

HP adds: Of course Heather Gautney is only one on a depressingly long list of Western apologists for, and collaborators with, the regime of the Islamic Republic.

Women protesting against sexual harassment in Cairo yesterday were set upon by hundreds of men who proceeded to molest them. This frightening incident was not of course an isolated event. Some have claimed that recent attacks represent a deliberate attempt to stop women engaging in the public sphere, and surveys suggest that sexual harassment is a commonplace occurrence for many Egyptian women:

Sexual harassment of women, including against those who wear the Islamic headscarf or even cover their face, is common in the streets of Cairo. A 2008 report by the Egyptian Center for Women’s Rights says two-thirds of women in Egypt experienced sexual harassment on a daily basis. A string of mass assaults on women in 2006 during the Muslim feast following the holy month of Ramadan prompted police to increase the number of patrols to combat it but legislation providing punishment was never passed.

Although the one more heartening aspect of this dispiriting story is the fact that many men marched in solidarity with the women:

Ahmed Mansour, a 22-year-old male medical student who took part in the march, said there are “people here trying to abuse the large number of women protesters who feel safe and secure. Some people think it is targeted to make women hate coming here.”

Gene adds: Here is a video of the demonstration before the attack:

Or something like that.

It’s a pretty song, anyway.

The subtext seems to be, “He’s dying, but at least he can still walk unaided, and he still cares, so give him one last victory by voting for him.”

A rather melancholy start for his reelection campaign, and it’s hard not to feel some sympathy for him as a human being facing mortality. It would be nice to think that the prospect of death had moved him to reconsider his support for brutal and murderous dictators like Bashar al-Assad, especially in light of the recent massacres in Syria by pro-regime militias. Sadly, no.

(Hat tip: Caracas Chronicles)

The Guardian has published a piece by Nader Elkhuzundar this evening. Elkhuzundar writes:

Hamas has always been the spike in Israel’s throat. The latter took advantage of this and tightened up the siege on the Gaza Strip, in the name of “self defence” and anti-terrorism acts. The Gazan border is almost always closed. [...]

Hamas has slowly stripped the big families in the Gaza Strip of their weapons, which has made Gaza safer by almost eliminating the murders and by making accessible streets and neighbourhoods one couldn’t enter before.

Elkuzundar’s tweet:

best part about dying a martyr is that you get 72 hoor in jannah <3

Elkhuzundar maintains the Sleepless in Gaza blog. Some selections of his writings.

“Kill a zionist“:

Nothing is more honoring yet dooming at the same time than being a Palestinian. It’s a bragging right you’re born with. Something many, many people would kill for. Kill a zionist of course. Don’t bother to explain to me how a lot better it is to exchange your Palestinian citizenship for an American one because if this means something it means that you’ve given up on Palestine, Palestinians, and more importantly the Palestinian cause. [...] And if there’s a reason why you’re alive, it’s because you’re to help your brothers and sisters free Palestine. If you disagree, know that Palestine has disowned you. And once this happens, there’s no way back.

A friend’s poem he published:

Dear Israel,

[...]

I need to have this out.
I want to stomp out every grain of sand that has settled here,
Each illegal morsel that has forced itself in to my homeland,
Deflate any soul that is resisting my existence.
I won’t just fight, I will kill,
Bloodbaths, to bring back, the truth of it all.

Elkhuzundar is a writer for the Palestine Telegraph.

The Palestine Telegraph is a racist paper, known for:

• - Praising Gilad Atzmon’s “courageous” new book and ludicrously comparing Atzmon to Salman Rushdie.
• - Publishing an antisemitic video by former KKK grand wizard David Duke. This proved too much even for Jenny Tonge, who resigned as a patron of the Palestine Telegraph.
• Publishing a ridiculous story about Israelis stealing organs in Haiti after the earthquake.
• More organ theft poison pieces on Ukraine and Israel.
• Running an article claiming that World Wars 1 and 2 were both Jewish plots.
• Promotion of Holocaust denier Fredrick Toben.
• Running a piece by the racist Khalid “Kikes” Amayreh where he argues the USA is far more evil than Osama Bin Laden.
• Marking Holocaust Memorial Day by publishing a revolting Israelis-are-Nazis screed by Gilad Atzmon.
• Threatening legal action against “Nothing British About the BNP” when it criticised Habeeb for his role in inviting the fascist Jobbik MEP Krisztina Morvai to a London conference of the PRC.
• Publishing another Israelis-are-Nazis slur and an absurd terrorism denial piece by Mahboob Khawaja. No wonder Khawaja engages in terrorism denial: his own son, Mohammed Momin Khawaja, was convicted in 2009 of taking part in the UK fertiliser bomb plot.

The Guardian saw fit to publish praise of Hamas from a Palestine Telegraph writer.

If you haven’t reached this point already, it is really time to stop being surprised at a “left-wing” paper publishing fascists and racists.

The Guardian represents a political movement, that takes Islamist versions of Anders Breivik, as its idols, and the Guardian uses its print to glorify terror and racism.

The Guardian is the cornerstone of the Breivik Left.

No! Israel! But, he really meant Jews. Ilias Kasidiaris then went on to physically assault two female television guests, and disappear from view.

Following his op-ed, “We Palestinians are reclaiming our destiny“, which was published in The Guardian today, Ismail Haniyeh has kindly agreed to an interview with Associate Editor Seumas Milne on the state of Palestinian politics.

Seumas Milne: Prime Minister Haniyeh, now that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has been implicated in a £100 million corruption scandal, how does Hamas intend to further its reconciliation agreement with Fatah?

Ismail Haniyeh: First, Brother Seumas, let me thank you for your offer to allow me to express my solemn wishes for peace and the overdue establishment of the Islamic State of Palestine on occupied land. There are few newspapers in the West that are as open-minded and aware of the political aspirations of Hamas as The Guardian. Second, as your readers surely know, Abu Mazen has forfeited his claim to be a legitimate leader of the Palestinian resistance not by thieving from the kufar Western funds which is the only good thing he has done, but by agreeing to negotiate with an illegal and criminal occupier regime. He is very old and perhaps because of this he has gone to America to sit with the Zionist leadership and assure them that holy cities such as Acre, Eliat and Tiberias belong to them. Remember, Fatah came to us, not the other way around, begging us for an agreement so that they could continue their perfidious negotiations. And what has it come to? Abu Mazen went to the UN and asked for half a country, he returned to Ramallah in disgrace with no country at all. [Laughs]

SM: So are you saying that there can be no reconciliation?

IH: Did I say this?

SM: You seem to strongly imply it by your characterisation of Abbas.

IH: Brother Seumas, please do not rely on innuendos and mistranslations from Mossad-run websites. I am very clear that we, the Palestinian people, are one people and will continue the struggle against the Zionist enemy as one people.

SM: The United States and European Union say they are committed to the so-called two-state solution, arguing that both Jews and Palestinians have the right to self-determination…

IH: The Jewish people already enjoy this right in New York City.

SM: And the Israelis say that Jerusalem is their true capital because is this where the Second Temple once stood.

IH: We both know that this is a lie. I have seen this so-called temple — it was really an ancient polytheists’ brothel. It is in Yemen, but Arafat was wrong. It is not in ruins. Saleh had his bowling alley there. Now al-Qaida uses it to manufacture fertiliser bombs.

SM: With Arab nations now rising up to overthrow their Western-backed dictators, how do you see the future of the Palestinian struggle developing? Some would argue that the current NATO conspiracy to dislodge the Assad government in Syria has led your party to “moderate” its line. Your former politburo chairman, Khaled Meshaal, has signalled a willingness to commit to a truce with Israel and possibly even recognise its right to exist.

IH: I feel as a Khan Younis school mistress listening to a clever but rascally student argue that Zionist children have human rights too. First of all, we know that these brave uprisings were waged in the name of Islam, which is what we have been saying for decades would happen. Second, Khaled, as you know, was once poisoned by Netanyahu in his ear and this has unfortunately had an effect on how he speaks sometimes. I can assure you that our line, as you call it, is as committed as ever to seeing historical justice done. What you call Israel is just a name, and we know that names can refer to real things such as the earth and the sky, or they can can refer to invented things such as the Holocaust. One hundred years ago, what was Israel? A Viennese journalist’s fantasy about moving to Madagascar. In a hundred years, it will return to being a fantasy and, inshallah, The Guardian will help us mark the occasion.

Back in 2010, anti-Israel campaigners in the Seattle area tried to purchase billboards on the sides of public buses with the message: “Israeli war crimes: Your tax dollars at work.” Their effort ultimately was blocked by the managers of the bus system.

By contrast, in London:

Does anyone want to look into this? Does London Transport have a policy on this? Is it possible that the sign was placed without authorization?

(Via you’ll never guess.)

Update: Jamie Slavin writes:

The sign was indeed unauthorised – it was a piece of paper made using paint and was slipped in the top of the case. This photo doesn’t show it because it’s at some distance. Clear Channel, who own the space, were informed and the sign removed very quickly.

Jessica Elgot reports in the Jewish Chronicle:

A strictly Orthodox man from Manchester has addressed a meeting of the extreme nationalist New Right group, warning them about the “dangers” of Zionism.

Neturei Karta’s Aharon Cohen, who styles himself rabbi and has attended a Holocaust denial conference in Iran, addressed a group at St George’s Tavern in London, according to anti-facist organisation Searchlight’s investigation. The group, led by ex- National Front member Troy Southgate, declares itself “opposed to liberalism, democracy and egalitarianism.”

Holocaust denier Lady Michele Renouf, a champion of David Irving, was one of the 30 attendees.

Mr Cohen, a key figure in the anti-Zionist strictly Orthodox sect, was introduced to the group by New Right member Alexander Baron, who described him as “one of the real Jews.”

Mr Baron wrote after the meeting: “While the Zionists use antisemitism as a big club to batter the goyim over their heads, for the devout Torah-true Jews it is a sign that they are doing something wrong. The Rabbi [sic] differentiated what he said was the ancient bigotry of antisemitism with the response particularly in the Muslim world to Zionist atrocities, and said the actions of the Zionists endanger Jews everywhere.”

Last weekend, another far-right group, Iona, was addressed in London by German neo-Nazi Günter Deckert, of the National Democratic Party.

Mr Deckert has served five years in prison for Holocaust denial and incitement to racial hatred. According to sources at the meeting, Mr Deckert accused the British far-right of “watering down” its policies to gain support.

Gerry Gable, editor of Searchlight, said: “I cannot understand why the Home Office has allowed this Holocaust denier to enter the country as his presence is not conducive to the public good. As to Mr Cohen, the Nazis are welcome to this quisling.”

A spokesman for the CST said: “Having played with left-wing extremists and Islamists, including the Holocaust-denying Tehran regime, Neturei Karta can now add British fascists to their list of consorts. We look forward to the pathetic and hypocritical excuses that will be trotted out on their behalf.”

As Harry’s Place wrote previously,

The “New Right” is a neo-nazi organisation, run by a former National Front activist, Troy Southgate (who seems to be advertising this meeting on Gay.com). It is the successor organisation to his “National Revolutionary Faction”, which Southgate describes as:

…a hardline revolutionary organisation based on an underground cell-structure similar to that used by both the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) and the IRA…[...] Southgate’s comrade in “New Right”, Alisdair Clarke, is presently calling for “an organized homosexual boycott of halal/ kosher outlets

Now that the Neturei Karta is in bed with Nazis, will this be the end of the NK-Far Left-Islamist alliance?

Not a chance.

The “Free Asia Bibi” campaign has been boosted today, with the release of this video by the band Ooberfuse:

Coverage in Christianity Today, Sight Magazine and Independent Catholic News.

Meanwhile, the campaign to hang Asia Bibi is led by Akber Choudhry’s “Khatm-e-Nabuwwat” organisation in Forest Gate, who are seemingly providing financial backing to Asia Bibi’s persecutors in Pakistan. The linked Khatm-e-Nabuwwat group in Pakistan, recently dissuaded Asia Bibi’s accuser from dropping charges against her.

Hamas is an organisation dedicated to killing Jews. Its charter:

“The Day of Judgement will not come about until Moslems fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Moslems, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him. Only the Gharkad tree, (evidently a certain kind of tree) would not do that because it is one of the trees of the Jews.” (related by al-Bukhari and Moslem).

The day that enemies usurp part of Moslem land, Jihad becomes the individual duty of every Moslem. In face of the Jews’ usurpation of Palestine, it is compulsory that the banner of Jihad be raised. To do this requires the diffusion of Islamic consciousness among the masses, both on the regional, Arab and Islamic levels. It is necessary to instill the spirit of Jihad in the heart of the nation so that they would confront the enemies and join the ranks of the fighters.

Israel, Judaism and Jews challenge Islam and the Moslem people. “May the cowards never sleep.”

The Islamic Resistance Movement consider itself to be the spearhead of the circle of struggle with world Zionism and a step on the road. The Movement adds its efforts to the efforts of all those who are active in the Palestinian arena. Arab and Islamic Peoples should augment by further steps on their part; Islamic groupings all over the Arab world should also do the same, since all of these are the best-equipped for the future role in the fight with the warmongering Jews.

Hamas calls for the death of Jews and Christians:

This is why Hamas’ leader Ismail Haniyeh is met with chants of “kill the Jews“, when he travels abroad.

Hamas claim that Jewish children around the world are legitimate targets for them to kill.

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in the Guardian:

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