UCLA Abuse.2, Or Muslim Against Muslim
November 21st, 2006The victim of the UCLA incident was an American abused by the American system. However, many of us preferred to look at him through his connections to Iran or Islam. Still, we are not sure if Mostafa Tabatabainejad can read Persian or if he says his prayers, but after all, this was a good reason to blame the American system and discrimination. What happens if an Iranian Muslim is killed by the Iranian Islamic Republic?
A few days ago a person very similar to Mostafa was abused. Unfortunately, no one had a cell phone with an embedded camera to capture the moment he was stabbed. Even if anyone did have a handy camera, I am not sure he would dare take pictures. The story goes like this,
Saturday evening, around 8pm, Towhid Ghafar Zadeh (Persian: توØید غÙارزاده) is standing in front of the gates of the university of Sabzevar, accompanied by his fiancee. That is right before a member of Basij, the Islamic militia, starts struggling with him [for having relationship with a female person out of wedlock] and subsequently stabbs him. He passes away in the hospital. University security says the stabber has called his action “to be inspired by his religious ideas and Sharia” (see).
We all laughed sarcastically when UCLA administration called for an investigation to the incident. In the Iranian version, though, the Ministry of Higher Education implicitly praises the idea, while condemning “overreaction”. As the ministry sees the event, the killer has been “trying to save the girl from an abuser” (see). Then, dean comments on the incident, which to his information “has been only one minute long”. He denies that the killer has been a member of Basij by saying “he has had mental problems and his mood is very different from Basij members” (see).
From the experience of living in a country controlled by Sharia, or whatever they call it, I know that an important part of “Islam” is the so called “lead to the good and stop from the bad”. In my ideology books I was even taught how to carry out that. So, basically, I am allowed to judge people and then apply my ideas on them. This rather negligible deviation leads to what has happened.
If you think anything serious will happen to the killer, you are dead wrong. He can use the mental disorder claim or very simply “prove” that he has had a religious goal. Just like that…
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Arash, You are sooo right. On top of that, if someone had taken photos of the incident, s/he would most likely end up in prison.
There is nothing the Islamic Republic fears more than a bad image which is why it is so important to keep the spotlight on.
Very soon the technology will advance enough that many Iranians will get unfettered access to both the internet and the means to post videos on it. That will be the beginning of the end for repressive regimes. Hopefully.
Esther,
Exactly.
Rancher,
The problem is not only not having free access to Internet. Above that, you should be really brave to take the risk.
Arash
I’m envisioning something the size of a cell phone that can record video but does not require an infrastructure inside the country, maybe satellite based, something the regimes could not filter or otherwise control. Also they would have to be untraceable like the throw away cell phones we have now. Even better if they had a jack that you could use to tie into a small camera that is not easily visible.
Rancher,
Now you are talking about James Bond.
Yes, lol, I was thinking the same thing as I wrote it. But alot of those devices in the movie were real, such as the rocket pack. Many weren’t, like the underwater breathing thing bond stuck in his mouth in Thunderball. Nevertheless the British Royal Navy called the producers to see where they could some.