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March 11, 2005

Iranians Stage Unique Airport Protest

Brussels:

Some 60 passengers claiming to be of Iranian origin were detained by Belgian police early Friday after staging a sit-in on a Lufthansa plane at Brussels airport for nearly 16 hours overnight, officials said.

About five of the 57 or 58 passengers refused to leave the aircraft voluntarily and had to be carried off the plane, according to another police spokesman, Vincent Olivier.

A young Iranian, who spoke to reporters at Brussels airport on behalf of the passengers, said the action had been under preparation for five months by a London-based Iranian monarchist group, "Azarakhsh."

"We all ask the leaders of the European Union (not to) support the regime in Iran. We don't ask nobody, no country, nor any power in the world to help us to change the regime. We can do it ourselves," said the man who identified himself as Ramin.

So far the press hasn't published much information on what the Azarakhsh organization stands for, or who is behind it.

Apparently, the group is headed up by one Dr. Fouladvand, who broadcasts a satellite program on U.S.-based Farsi-language Ma-TV.

One Iranian blogger watches Dr. Fouladvand's programs and has this to say:

But Fouladvand is not just another TV presenter. He has started a movement for overthrowing the Islamic regime and this TV station is a way of giving and getting information to and from Iran. I don't much about how they plan to overthrow the regime because obviously they are being secretive and don't want the regime to know their plans. A major problem is that not everyone has a satellite and knows about this show and this movement. But he has become very popular despite all odds. If any country is ready for leaving Islam, it is Iran. I mean lets face it. If this program was broadcasted in any other language this station would be bombarded with angry hatemail and hate phone calls about how you are insulting our religion and our prophet and you should be killed. But people call him left and right and thank him for saying what was in their minds all along but they didn't have the guts to come out and talk about it in public. The only ones who seems to be angry are mullahs such as Shariatmadari and his ilk. Plus people watch him despite the fact that his internet broadcast has very very very low quality and gets cut off every two minutes and there are a lot more interesting TV stations showing the latest fashion and music. Who wants to hear 24 hours of Islamic doom and gloom about beheadings and stonings when you can watch movies and listen to music? But people do.

Dr. Fouladvand's program has landed him in hot water with some fairly serious people. His claims that "Islam was invented by a dissident Persian" have propmted Iranian hardliners to called for his death:

Britain on Tuesday strongly condemned a UK-based Iranian exile TV presenter whose inflammatory broadcasts insulting Islam have provoked religious hardliners in Iran to call openly for his murder.
But in a case with echoes of the Iranian fatwa against British author Salman Rushdie, the British government hinted police were considering special protection for Manouchehr Fouladvand in view of the threats.

Clerics in Iran have not issued a religious edict, or fatwa, calling for Fouladvand's murder, as Iran's late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini did in Rushdie's case in 1989.

But his broadcasts on the U.S.-based Farsi-language Ma-TV, in which he frequently mocks the Prophet Muhammad and Islam's holy book the Koran, have upset many Iranians and spurred hardline commentators to call for his death.

"The firing of a bullet into his damned and blasphemous head is an incontestable necessity, and how cherished is the emissary of that bullet," Hossein Shariatmadari, editor-in-chief of the hardline Kayhan daily, said in an editorial.

That's not all, he's also pissed off Hizb Allah who claimed on January 19th: "After one month, our commandos will carry out suicide attacks in London against the shameless presenter of the channel." They're late.

Not being able to speak Farsi, it is difficult to know what Fouladvand's intentions are beyond bringing down the current Iranian political structure. It does seem as if he is as much a spiritual leader as a political one. At this point I do not think his "movement" is one which pro-democracy forces should align themselves.

Update: Don't miss this article where Dr. Fouladvand suggests Iran's recent earthquakes are actually caused by nuclear bomb tests.

Update: Here is more on the protest in Brussels:

"We want the European Union to remove the Islamic leaders from Iran. We want to remove the mullahs from power," Armin Atshgar, a protester on the flight, told Reuters by mobile phone from the aircraft.

Atshgar, who said he held a Belgian passport, added that he and his fellow protesters would not leave the aircraft until they had spoken to a member of the European parliament. He added that there were children and pregnant women on the aircraft but said there were no weapons and the mood was calm and safe.

Posted by bubba138 at March 11, 2005 09:56 AM