Ahmadinejad’s UN Address Omits Religious Freedom Abuses

Mikhail Bell
October 12, 2011

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad speaks at a 2009 press conference in Geneva, Switzerland (Photo credit: The Guardian)

On September 22, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad addressed the United Nations General Assembly, condemning America and Israel, among others, even as his own government tormented religious minorities and political opponents, among others.

Ahmadinejad spoke to his captive audience approximately 24 hours after another high-profile internationally covered event. On September 21, Iran released Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer, two of three American hikers who were accused of spying after they meandered across the country’s unmarked borders. Sarah Shroud, Bauer’s fiancé, was released last year.

According to CNN, American actor Sean Penn had petitioned his “friend” Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez to write Ahmadinejad. Apparently, the appealworked.

The release followed two years of wrangling between the United States and Iranian governments. It also reflects Iran’s consistently unforgiving and suspicious legal system.

In 2009, Roxana Saberi, an American journalist of Japanese and Iranian descent, was released after facing identically phony espionage accusations. Under duress, Saberi affirmed the allegations because her interrogators promised that her confession was the only door to freedom. She later professed in a Good Morning America interview, “I was never a spy, I am not a spy, and I never will be a spy.”

Her later recantation drew the ire of an Iranian judge, who sentenced her to eight years in prison. “I felt that God had abandoned me,” the former Miss North Dakota divulged. Yet the sentence fortified Saberi’s resolve. Unshaken, she started a hunger strike that drew international attention.

Throughout her detainment, diplomats and intermediaries continuously advocated for Saberi’s release. Yet the journalist found her greatest support from imprisoned religious minorities and her faith.

“I have to say they were some of the strongest and most admirable people I have ever met, not only in Iran, but in my whole life,” the Fargo native said of her fellow prisoners, which included Baha’is, researchers and students.

“I have never prayed so much in my life, actually through the whole 100 days,” Saberi told Diane Sawyer.

Mahmoud’s Loose Lips
In 2007 the Associated Foreign Press reported Ahmadinejad’s most dubious claim, “In Iran we don’t have homosexuals like in your country.”

In his September 2011 address, the leader wildly opined. “Can the flower of democracy blossom from NATO’s missiles bombs?” he queried about NATO involvement in Libya. He subsequently said Global North nations “sow seeds of hate” to prevent Global South countries from realizing their economic potential.

“The majority of the nations of the world have not had a role in creating the current crisis,” Ahmadinejad asserted. He then demanded “reparations” for those nations affected by the global financial crisis.

The more Ahmadinejad bloviated was the clearer was his reliance on straw men. His statements belied his own regime’s repression. Perhaps the leader should have contemplated his own policies while promoting “love,” “justice” and “freedom… across the world.”

Midway through Ahmadinejad’s polemic the U.S. delegation led a coordinated walkout. Yet nothing could slow down the ranter in chief as he directed  invectives at Israel, “Zionists”, “military dictatorships” and western powers past and present.

While Ahmadinejad attracted a cavalcade of media attention, religious minorities, namely Baha’is and Christians, in the Near East country are seldom afforded such attention. The July to December 2010 International Religious Freedom report, released on September 13, reveals draconian restrictions on “protected” groups hoping to spread their faith.

The Iranian government has adopted a narrow definition of “protected” groups to include Jews, Christians and Baha’is.

Among Iran’s 67 million people, non-Muslims, whether “protected” or not, are a tiny presence. Nearly 90 percent are Shia Muslims and 9 percent are Sunni Muslims, leaving only about 1or 2 percent as non-Muslim. Persecuted Christians in Iran have virtually no public advocates, a U.S. State Department report revealed. Last year, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expressed ‘deep concern’ about Iran’s spotty human rights record for non-Muslims and other minorities. In 2010, U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom chief Leonard Leo called Iran ‘a gross violator of human rights and religious freedoms’ a Christian Post article revealed.

On October 10, the National Council of Churches in India recently called for the release of pastor Youcef Nadarkhani, a 32 year old Iranian Christian who was jailed after converting from Islam. He faces a possible death sentence.  The U.S. National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) made an identical plea nearly two weeks earlier. “Iran’s conviction and threatened execution of Pastor Nadarkhani is religious persecution at its worst” NAE president Leith Anderson said. Anderson went on to reiterate Christians’ support for worship “by choice, not coercion.” In July, IRD denounced Nadarkhani’s imprisonment.

Let us hope that continued international pressure will help Iran’s imprisoned prisoners of conscience attain the “promise of a better tomorrow,” to which Ahmadinejad glibly referred before the UN.

Saberi offered the best encouragement to those still suffering under the oppressive regime. “Do what you think is right even if you suffer for it. In the end you will be victorious.”