posted on May 8, 2007 02:25:51 PM new
And one day I hope they'll get it.
Might just come about if we can get the problems in Iraq settled down.
Iraq could well be an example of muslims living freely...and other nations will want it also.
I picture a region, someday, where more and more muslims/arabs people in those states will want to enjoy FREEDOM and liberty also....and who will one day stand up to THEIR oppressive governments/dictators and be a FREE nation.
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Iranian students defiantly hold vote
Nazila Fathi, New York Times
Tuesday, May 8, 2007
(05-08) 04:00 PDT
Tehran -- Students at Amir Kabir University fended off club-wielding university guards on Monday and went ahead with elections for a pro-democracy association.
Despite the successful election at Amir Kabir, it is not clear that balloting for student associations will be allowed at other universities. The associations, a powerful center of support and communication among student democracy advocates, are a constant irritant to the government, which seeks to maintain strict control over politics and cultural norms.
The University of Science and Industry, where President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad taught before he was elected, has not been permitted to hold elections for the past two years.
Students at Tehran University have vowed to hold a ballot but have yet to do so.
Amir Kabir University has long been a center of student political activity.
Students there chanted against Ahmadinejad when he visited the university late last year and set fire to posters bearing his likeness.
A student leader, Mehrdad Khalilpour, was arrested Monday by security officials, but two of his comrades managed to escape. Among other student leaders, Babak Zamanian was arrested late last month and Ahmad Ghassaban was arrested Friday.
However, the student democracy advocates said they scored a victory Monday when they managed to hold their annual elections.
"The students reached the conclusion that the only way was to resist," said Ehsan Mansouri, a student leader who has been banned from attending classes. "The students guarded the ballot boxes as they were attacked and clubbed severely by the university guards."
Protests erupted last week after four student publications had appeared with articles that offended religious sensibilities.
Student advocates denounced the articles, saying the publications had been forged in an effort to frame the students.
Under Iran's Islamic law, punishment for the offense, technically "insulting religious sanctities," can be death.
One of the articles had raised what were seen as offensive questions about the return of the 12th Imam -- the messiah in Shiite Islam.
Conservatives protested last week inside and outside the university, calling for a second cultural revolution.
Under the first, which followed the 1979 Islamic Revolution, universities around the country were closed and liberal students and professors were purged.
The pressure on student advocates seems to be part of a major social and political crackdown.
Women and younger men have been the target of the vice police in the past two weeks, with officers patrolling the streets and cautioning or arresting people they accused of looking immodest.
This article appeared on page A - 16 of the San Francisco Chronicle
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"While the democratic party complains about everything THIS President does to protect our Nation": "What would a Democrat president have done at that point?"
"Apparently, the answer is: Sit back and wait for the next terrorist attack."
Ann Coulter
[ edited by Linda_K on May 8, 2007 02:29 PM ]
