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TEHRAN - Hundreds of conservative students called for the resignation of leading members of Iran’s government Tuesday.
The students, most of them members of Iran’s volunteer militia, called for the "hanging of the writers" reponsible for the publication in a Tehran varsity magazine of a play deemed "anti-Islamic and offensive."
"The mercenary writers must be hanged and the incompetent ministers must resign," the protestors chanted in a reference to Culture Minister Ataollah Mohajerani and Higher Education Minister Mostafa Moin. "The silence of every Muslim is a treason against Islam," they chanted.
The conservative students charged that supporters of the armed Iranian opposition, the People’s Mujahedeen, had infiltrated the pro-Khatami Islamic Student Association at Tehran Polytechnic University.
"Monafeqeen (literally hypocrites, the regime’s term of abuse for the Mujahedeen) have shame and leave the university," the demonstrators chanted.
Parliamentary speaker Ali Akbar Nateq-Nuri
accused the country’s opposition movements of plotting "treason" in the
nation’s universities.
Rally Demands Death for Iran’s Student Playwrights, Reuters, September 28
TEHRAN - Angry demonstrators rallied in central Tehran on Tuesday to demand death for two student playwrights whose lampoon of campus conservatives has been condemned as an unforgivable insult to Islam and touched off a national crisis.
A crowd of about 2,000 people gathered outside the gates of Tehran University to condemn the students and the Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance.
Others pledged to carry out a religious death order, issued by a senior ayatollah, against the two students -- increasingly compared to British author Salman Rushdie. ‘‘The mercenary pen-holders must be executed,’’ they said.
‘‘Let them call us violence-mongers, let them condemn us for abusing human rights, but we will definitely carry out the Islamic (execution) order,’’ Ahmed Mokhber, an engineering student, told the crowd.
‘‘These people are Salman Rushdie clones
in Iran,’’ Mokhber said.
Khatami Terms Students’ Play "An Intolerable Oppression", State-Controlled Iran News, September 27
TEHRAN - … Mohammad Khatami yesterday described the publication of a sacrilegious play in a campus magazine, as "an intolerable oppression" toward the Islamic Revolution and government.
"Issues are raised these days which pain the hearts of the public and prompt their concern," he said at a meeting of Cabinet ministers.
Khatami pointed out, "Matters are being printed in periodicals which, though published with a limited circulation, contrast with the ideals and faith of the committed masses and in particular the senior religious dignitaries."…
"Those who publish such materials, commit an unforgivable oppression
toward the Islamic Revolution and the government by disturbing the ulema
and the faithful," the Chief Executive pointed out.
MP Warns Against Plots to Create Unrest, State-Controlled Tehran Times, September 25
TEHRAN - Two people charged with writing an offensive play that was carried by a student publication have been arrested, said the Public Relations Department of Iran's Information Ministry in a statement Thursday night…
… Majlis Deputy from Mashhad, Khorasan Province, Ms. Qodsiyeh Alavi told the TEHRAN TIMES that the print media should avoid hurting the people's religious feelings and creating tension and discord in society.
Regarding the relationship between the publication of such insulting articles and the commencement of the universities and also the possibility of a new student unrest, she said, "The enemy seems to be preparing the ground for creating tension at universities on the threshold of the new academic year.
However, the students should remain
wary and not get ensnared in the enemy's trap."…
Only "Loyal to… System" Has Benefit of Security-Official, State-Controlled Iran News, September 27
TEHRAN - Hojjatoleslam Mohammad Ali Rahmani, director of the Political-Ideological Department of Iran's Law Enforcement Forces (LEF), on Saturday said: "Any one who is loyal to the Islamic system of government will naturally enjoy the security that he will deserve as the result of his non-hostility with the government."