Just in case you were wondering about Iran and their role in the war against radical Islamist terrorism, there’s this little bit of planning for international atrocities.
The 300 men filling out forms in the offices of an Iranian aid group were offered three choices: Train for suicide attacks against U.S. troops in Iraq, for suicide attacks against Israelis or to assassinate British author Salman Rushdie.
It looked at first glance like a gathering on the fringes of a society divided between moderates who want better relations with the world and hard-line Muslim militants hostile toward the United States and Israel.
But the presence of two key figures — a prominent Iranian lawmaker and a member of the country’s elite Revolutionary Guards — lent the meeting more legitimacy and was a clear indication of at least tacit support from some within Iran’s government.
Since that inaugural June meeting in a room decorated with photos of Israeli soldiers’ funerals, the registration forms for volunteer suicide commandos have appeared on Tehran’s streets and university campuses, with no sign Iran’s government is trying to stop the shadowy movement.
On Nov. 12, the day Iranians traditionally hold pro-Palestinian protests, a spokesman for the Headquarters for Commemorating Martyrs of the Global Islamic Movement said the movement signed up at least 4,000 new volunteers.
Mohammad Ali Samadi, the spokesman, told The Associated Press the group had no ties to the government.
And Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told reporters recently that the group’s campaign to sign up volunteers for suicide attacks had “nothing to do with the ruling Islamic establishment.”
“That some people do such a thing is the result of their sentiments. It has nothing to do with the government and the system,” Asefi said.
No government involvement or support? I call bullshit.
Yet despite the government’s disavowal of the group and some of its programs, there are indications the suicide attack campaign has at least some legitimacy within the government.
The first meeting was held in the offices of the Martyrs Foundation, a semiofficial organization that helps the families of those killed in the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war or those killed fighting for the government on other fronts. It drew hard-line lawmaker Mahdi Kouchakzadeh and Gen. Hossein Salami of the elite Revolutionary Guards.
“This group spreads valuable ideas,” Kouchakzadeh told AP.
….
Iranian security officials did not return calls seeking comment about whether they had tried to crack down on the group’s training programs or whether they believed any of Samadi’s volunteers had crossed into Iraq or into Israel.
Suicide attacks against civilians, including an author, as valuable ideas? I call bullshit.
In general, Iran portrays Israel as its main nemesis and backs anti-Israeli groups like Lebanon’s Hezbollah. It says it has no interest in fomenting instability in Iraq and that it tries to block any infiltration into Iraq by insurgents — while pleading that its porous borders are hard to police.
The focus on Israel is obvious, as it has long since become the modus operandi of all oppressive Moslem governments — focus the anger of a suffering, economically-beleaguered people outward towards anyone external who can possibly be blamed. This is not new to the current ruling zealots in Iran, but the hoped-for hatred is nowhere near as cultivated among the Iranian populace as it is among other Moslem peoples, such as the Egyptians, the Saudis and the Palestinians.
Regarding the Iranian government’s interest in augmenting the instability in neighboring Iraq, it is an absolute necessity. The Iranian people will be a rather restive bunch were a successful democracy to take hold right next door, as there is already a pro-Western sentiment among many of the citizenry.
In 1998, the Iranian government declared it would not support a 1989 fatwa against Rushdie issued by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, founder of the 1979 Islamic Revolution. But the government also said only the person who issued the edict could rescind it. Khomeini, angered at Rushdie’s portrayal of the Islamic prophet Muhammad in “The Satanic Verses,” died in June 1989.
I’m guessing fatwas don’t have a statute of limitations.
Samadi claimed 30,000 volunteers have signed up, and 20,000 of them have been chosen for training. Volunteers had already carried out suicide operations against military targets inside Israel, he said.
But he said discussing attacks against U.S. troops in Iraq “will cause problems for the country’s foreign policy. It will have grave consequences for our country and our group. It’s confidential.”
As devoted Muslims, members of his group were simply fulfilling their religious obligations as laid out by Khomeini, he said.
In his widely published book of religious directives, Khomeini says: “If an enemy invades Muslim countries and borders, it’s an obligation for all Muslims to defend through any possible means: sacrificing life and properties.”
Samadi said: “With this religious verdict, we don’t need anybody’s permission to fight an enemy that has occupied Muslim lands.”
Islam is not an evil religion per se, but it does seem to provide quite fertile ground for evil to grow. The radicals governing Iran, just like the Wahabbi radicals in other parts of the Islamic world, have happily kissed their ties to modern civilization goodbye. These animals have chosen to surrender their humanity, though this fact should not be projected on the Iranian population as a whole.