I suspect the Irani government is shuddering at this very moment. This information came to Mick through a Yahoo Alert. It is a Letter to the Editor from the Berkeley Daily Planet:
IDs Come Home to Roost: The UCPD Taser Case in a Global Context
By now many people have seen the shocking YouTube images of a UCLA student being tasered by UCPD while refusing to be ?escorted? out of the library because he didn?t have his student ID on him. Several weeks out, an ironic twist has emerged in the case.
Since Mostafa Tabatabainejad, the student who got electro-shocked multiple times by UCPD, is an Iranian-American, the Iranian government has been quick to express shock at this show of US police aggression against ?one of its own.?
The twist is that Mostafa is a Baha?i, which is a religious minority in Iran that is heavily persecuted by the Iranian state, clergy, and your run-of-the mill zealots. Routinely denied civil rights and frequently arrested and even killed for identifying as Baha?is in their homeland, members of this faith, are part of a world-wide diaspora. Their crime: belief in Baha?u?llah and his teachings of oneness and unity, under a state that mandates that Muhammad was the Seal of the Prophets.
The fact that the Iranian state would express consternation at the ill-treatment of a Baha?i is one layer of irony. The fact that Mostafa?s ill-treatment is a result of failing to show his identification is even more poignant, since Baha?i?s in Iran are persecuted precisely for failing to renounce their identification.
To speak nothing of the Iranian police violence against non-Baha?I students at Tehran University a few yrs back, the ongoing harassment and penalization of Baha?i?s there, adds an amazing twist to the Iranian government?s intervention in Mostafa?s case. Even while they may very well have plans to throw his (hypothetical) Baha?i cousins in jail next wk for simply practicing their faith, the minister of foreign affairs or whoever is busy faxing Washington about their ?outrage? at Mostafa getting tasered.
Note: At this writing, the UN confirms that a new governmental surveillance program has been initiated to monitor the activities of Baha?i?s, and that 129 Baha?is are awaiting trial on false charges, targeted solely because of their religion.
Ruha BenjaminThe url is:
Berkeley Daily PlanetThis might seem like a "so what?" by those who are not familiar with the abuse Baha'is have been receiving from the Irani government, but for those who are very familiar with the current issues at hand, it is a small triumph.
One phrase comes to my mind which is directed toward the Irani government... it is said by Ted Danson in the movie "Three Men and a Little Lady"... "In your face, pal!"
Sass
