The Contemporary Awakening and Imam Khomeini's Thoughts

Well, he thought, did he not, that Oriana Fallaci was impudent.  And she was.  How otherwise might she have been able to interview the great man, the saviour of his country and the exponent extraordinaire of Islamism's renewal and Iran's irresistible march to domination of the world of Islam?  He thought also that people were expendable, most particularly if they demonstrated the unforgivable, unmitigated gall to challenge his dominance and his first-name relationship with Allah.

"We think reputable academic institutions have a moral obligation not to turn a blind eye on atrocities committed against their colleagues in other countries."  Expatriate Iranian Academics' first letter to Carleton University's president, Roseann O'Reilly Runte.

"Carleton University, one of the leading academic institutions in this country, negligently permitted its campus to become the site of a celebration of human rights violations, gender inequality and anti-Semitism."  Academics' second letter.

"Thank you and your colleagues for your recent letter.  Carleton University did not sponsor or act as host to the event you mention."  Terse response by Carleton's president Runte to Iranian-Canadian Academics' letters.

The occasion in question was an event co-hosted by the student group, Iranian Culture Association of Carleton University, and the Culture Centre of the Islamic Republic of Iran in honour of the 23rd anniversary of Khomeini's death.  Which was very thoughtful, honouring the man's death.  Three featured speakers at the event "provided the perfect image of how great the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran truly was", according to the student group's web site.

This was the very same Khomeini whom the world knows as somewhat other than a great man, a man whose human rights record is rather spectacularly soiled with mass executions of political prisoners and minority groups and scholars and activists imprisoned under his regime.  Quite a difference of perspective and certainly of opinion.

The letters were put together in protest of the event labelling itself "The Contemporary Awakening and Imam Khomeini's Thoughts", by ten Iranian-Canadian academics and fourteen additional prominent figures representing Iranian-Canadians, including the wife of Canada's Defence Minister, all of whom deplored the occurrence of the conference in question.

Carleton University spokespeople made an effort to protect their reputation, indicating that the views expressed at the conference were not a reflection of those of the university, that Carleton "like all other Canadian universities, encourages a culture of debate and free expression".  An explanation that did not serve to mollify its detractors, not should it have.

"This meeting is not an academic study of the writings or legacy of Khomeini, it's a propaganda exercise and one could argue hate speech because of what it omits.  It's a bit like having an event on the life and writings of Adolf Hitler without mentioning the Holocaust", observed Payam Akhavan, one of the signatories and a professor at McGill University, a co-founder of the Iran Human Rights Documentation Centre.

Invoking the halo-enshrined issue of multiculturalism,  Ehsan Mohammadi, president of the Carleton student group wrote an exculpatory note: "It is against the principles of Multiculturalism, Charter of Rights and Freedoms, freedom of speech, which are the significant principles of the Constitution of Canada", demonstrating yet again how those who despise the rights and freedoms of others use the Charter to defend their own agendas turning reality inside out to their advantage.

In response, a group of Iranians, some who attend Carleton, led by a member of the opposition party, the National Front of Iran and Iranian Green Movement Ottawa, explained that he was blocked by Carleton security from protesting the event by holding posters with photographs of detained political activists in Iran.

"Security told us they would not even allow us to go close to the doors", said Ali Tabatabaei.