IRAQ: Iraqis pay tribute to a strongman

Memories of Abdul Kareem Qasim (right), Iraq’s first leader after the monarchy, were alive today as Iraq celebrated the anniversary of the establishment of the modern Iraqi republic in 1958.

His supporters view him as a defender of the poor who fought for the state’s rights against the interests of the West. His detractors view him as the first in a series of disastrous would-be strongmen who led Iraq on to the path to instability that culminated in dictator Saddam Hussein.

Qasim was killed by the Baath party in a coup in 1963, bookending his own power grab five years earlier, which ended with his supporters killing King Faisal II. By 1963, Qasim had been undone by his poor relationship with the West, rivalry with Egypt, a Kurdish rebellion in the north and his own crackdowns against opponents.

But today, state television broadcast a documentary, entitled “Supporter of the Poor,” remembering him in a favorable light. The movie showed grainy footage of the tall, lanky army general in uniform, invoking nostalgia for the era before Iraq was plagued by successive wars and upheaval. The timing was interesting given the ongoing debate in Iraqi politics about whether the country needs a strong head of state or whether power should be decentralized and have a series of checks and balances to avoid the emergence of another autocratic ruler like Hussein.

EGYPT: Poet accused of insulting Mubarak awaits final verdict

A poet recently sentenced to three years in jail and fined 100,000 Egyptian pounds for insulting President Hosni Mubarak is awaiting his ultimate fate.

Mounir Saied Hanna was arrested in May after authorities charged that 15 of his poems cast the president in a less than flattering light. On June 27 he was sentenced to prison and fined. However, the court's decision was appealed on the basis that he did not have a lawyer during the investigation phase. A new verdict is expected by Saturday.

Under Egyptian law, any citizen who publicly insults the president can be imprisoned for between 24 hours and three years. Hanna's lawyer was stunned that his client received the maximum penalty. "The court's ruling is illegitimate and very harsh. It is clear evidence of the regime's position toward freedom of speech," said Hamdi El Assiouty, who is also a legal counselor for the Arabian Network for Human Rights.

"Hanna's poems were about his and other people's everyday lives, but they were put out of context by the attorney general," El Assiouty said.

TURKEY: Government defends Chinese Uighur minority

When Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan criticized Israel’s actions in Gaza, he was aligning himself with his fellow Muslims.

Now he’s picking up the standard of the Uighurs in northwest China.

The Uighurs, who like  the Turks are an ethically Turkic and Sunni Muslim people, are the focus of riots in Xinjiang Province, sparking tensions with both the Chinese government and members of the Han Chinese ethnic group.

In response to ethnic violence as a result of the riots, Erdogan didn’t mince words: “These incidents in China are as if they are genocide…. We ask the Chinese government not to remain a spectator to these incidents. There is clearly a savagery here.”

The Turks have rushed to the defense of the Uighurs, while the Iranian government has remained silent, even alleging that the Uighurs were acting at the behest of the U.S. 

Iran has fashioned itself as a leader of Muslims worldwide, but the unrest following the Iranian elections may be keeping the government silent.

IRAN: Analyst says the people have left their leaders behind

Nasser Zarafshan is a well-known human-rights lawyer who spent many years in jail both before and after the Islamic Revolution.

His latest stint was for revealing the faces of those who were behind the so-called "chain murders," the serial killings of intellectuals during the late 1990s by people linked to Iran's  security forces.

The Los Angeles Times recently sat down with him near Tehran University, where he studied law and was a political activist during the 1970s, for a conversation about the recent election controversy.

What’s your analysis of the current political situation? 

Describing the political behavior of the Iranian people, it’s said that their political behavior is unexpected, unforeseen.

IRAQ: International soccer returns to Baghdad

Iraq’s future might be fraught with peril. Bombs explode daily around the country and its myriad political problems remain unsolved. But on Tuesday night, Iraqis’ desire for  ordinary lives was on display as international soccer returned to Baghdad.

For the first time since 2002, a team from abroad dared venture to Baghdad to engage in the national pastime. The opponents were the Palestinian team, a people themselves no stranger to war and still without statehood. Baghdad, where on any given day bloodshed can occur, from mortar fires, to rockets to suicide bombs, took all security precautions.

IRAN: Mother of slain protester Sohrab Arabi 'won't remain silent'

Hundreds of mourners attended the funeral in Tehran on Monday of 19-year-old Sohrab Arabi, whose body was returned to his family after a month of frantic searching by family and friends who feared the worst after the teenager disappeared during a protest on June 15.

“I won’t remain silent," said Arabi's mother, Parvin Fahimi, according to the reformist news website Norooznews.org, the online reincarnation of a newspaper by the same name that was closed by authorities in 2002.

"The authorities were playing with me all this time," she added. "My son had been killed, but they refused to tell me.”

Public outrage over the teenager's death is being fueled by video (below) depicting Fahimi outside Evin Prison, clutching a picture of her son and pleading for information about his whereabouts.

According to a coroner's report dated June 19, Arabi died of a gunshot wound to the chest, but family members expressed skepticism to reporters. They believe that he might have been shot, taken to a hospital and abused before he died. And several human rights groups have demanded an independent investigation.

SAUDI ARABIA: A lawsuit against a genie

A family in Saudi Arabia has filed suit in a religious court against an unnamed genie, or jinn, who sounds most unpleasant: It steals cellphones, whispers threats and occasionally flings stones.

 “We began to hear strange sounds,” a family member who requested anonymity told the Saudi daily Al Watan. “At first we did not take it seriously, but then stranger things started to happen, and the children got particularly scared when the genie started throwing stones.”

The genie -- or genies -- had demands: “A woman spoke to me first, and then a man. They said we should get out of the house,” said the family member, adding that his clan fled their home near the city of Medina.

Jinns and genies are spirits born out of fire that have supernatural powers. They appear in the Koran and Arab mythology, creatures living between humanity and the elements. One of their most famous incarnations lived in Aladdin’s lamp.

LEBANON: Israeli cow incursion sparks border controversy

The Blue Line dividing Lebanon and Israel has been a flash point for conflict ever since the Israeli withdrawal in 2000 and is closely guarded by two national armies, thousands of United Nations troops and the ever-vigilant militant group Hezbollah.

But despite these elaborate security measures, it seems one group has been crossing the security fence daily and with impunity. 

Lebanese shepherds report Israeli cows are being driven into Lebanese territory to drink from the Baathail Lake, which they claim lies entirely within Lebanon.

"Each Israeli cow drinks more than 40 of our goats put together," shepherd Ismail Nasser, from the border village Kfar Shuba, told the Daily Star's Mohammed Zaatari. "Why doesn't UNIFIL consider this as a violation of the Blue Line?"

IRAN: Nation headed for 'disintegration' if crisis festers, former candidate warns

Presidential candidate Mohsen Rezai, the sole conservative candidate who ran and lost against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in last month's marred elections, issued a pointed statement late Sunday night warning of "disintegration" of the country's Islamic system if the quarreling sides didn't settle their disputes.

In the aftermath of marred June 12 presidential elections, Iran has been shaken by its worst domestic political crisis since the early years after the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Rezai acknowledged in the message on his website that the election and its aftermath "have raised questions in the minds of our people," blaming an "imperfect electoral structure" and politicians' "tactlessness" as well as "mismanagement of civil protests," which all served to undermine the system and push the country "toward a crisis," he wrote.

Below are excerpts from the lengthy note:

IRAN: Are China's Muslims worthy of Islamic Republic's support?

Although Iranian authorities were quick to condemn the killing of a Muslim Egyptian woman by an alleged racist in a German courtroom last week, allowing protesters to organize a demonstration and hurl eggs at the German Embassy in Tehran, they've been less than compassionate about scores of Muslims killed in western China.

"The United States is behind the riots in Xinjiang," said an analysis published by the official Islamic Republic News Agency, or IRNA. "Living conditions have improved for the Chinese Muslims. These riots have no religious aspect and they are just the outcome of a U.S. conspiracy. However, the Western media have exaggerated the events in Xinjiang."

The government's domestic critics have been outraged by its response. Already emboldened and angered by the marred reelection of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, they have been quick to pounce. 

SUDAN: Female journalist faces 40 lashes for choice of clothes

A prominent Sudanese female journalist faces 40 lashes for the crime of dressing in a way that contradicts the country's social and religious values.

Lobna Ahmed al Hussein, whose daily column Men Talk often criticizes the Sudanese regime and Islamic fundamentalists for their oppression of women, was charged with violating a 1991 law that forbids women to dress in a manner that causes "public discomfort." She was wearing a loose hijab, top and pants and allegedly wasn't covered in the traditional way of Sudanese women.

The journalist reacted to the charge by sending the media, as well as her supporters, thousands of printed invitations to attend her upcoming trial. Al Hussein said that if convicted she will send similar invitations to her public whipping.

IRAN: Mehdi Karroubi warns of 'unimaginable consequences'

Iranian presidential candidate Mehdi Karroubi (at right), a prominent reformist who served twice as speaker of Iran's parliament, issued a scathing letter about the June 12 presidential election and subsequent crackdown on protesters that was featured today on the front page of his newspaper, Etemad-e-Melli. 

Below is a rough translation of excerpts from the letter, which was delivered to outgoing judiciary chief Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, a conservative cleric who analysts say may be replaced by the even more conservative Ayatollah Sadegh Larijani in the coming days:

The June 12 election could have bolstered the legitimacy of the Islamic Republic of Iran and guaranteed ethnic and factional convergence as well as national unity. But on the contrary, the election made the Iranian nation disappointed and depressed. 

IRAN: U2's green-tinted tributes to Iranian protesters

Anyone familiar with U2 knows that the band is not afraid to be political. Probably its best-known song, “Sunday, Bloody Sunday,” was written about a violent crackdown on a peaceful protest in Northern Ireland.

The sentiment behind the song could also be applied to the protesters in Iran, which is precisely what U2 did during two huge concerts in Milan and Barcelona:

The performance is quite a visual spectacle (after all, it is a rock concert), and the symbolism is less than subtle: the entire stage is flooded in green light, the signature color of the protests, and Persian text scrolls across the screen.

The text reads “Listen! Listen! Listen!” which one blogger attributed to "The Song of the Reed Flute," by famous Persian poet Jalaladdin Rumi. 

Persian poetry and Rumi in particular are some of the strongest sources of Iranian national pride.

The history of a violent crackdown behind the original song coupled with Rumi adds some intellectual weight to the visual spectacle of a rock concert.

It looks like the selection of the work itself was not coincidental. A reading of the poem suggests allusions to the violent crackdown in Iran as well as the disputed elections:

“Listen to the reeds as they sway apart,
hear them speak of lost friends.”
…
“This reed bends to spent lovers and friends,
its song and its word break the veil…”

This isn’t the first rock 'n' roll tribute to the protesters in Iran. Jon Bon Jovi collaborated with Iranian artist Andranik Madadian to cover  "Stand By Me." Both artists sing in Farsi and English.

-- Jahd Khalil in Beirut

IRAN: Large crowd gathers, gets dispersed by tear gas

In this amateur video that emerged from today's anti-government demonstration in Iran, an impressive crowd gathers, shaking off its fears of security forces, but is dispersed by incapacitating albeit nonlethal tear gas.

At first the demonstrators attempt to remain quiet, but after they're scared by approaching security forces, they begin chanting: "Don't be afraid, don't be afraid. We're all together."

The tear gas makes them gag and run for shelter.

The video could not be confirmed, but the events match accounts by several witnesses in contact with The Times.

-- Los Angeles Times 

Video: Demonstrators in Tehran.

IRAN: First images emerge from July 9 protests

The first shaky amateur videos are emerging from today's protests in Iran, where thousands of people have taken to the streets in defiance of the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has made it clear that further opposition will not be tolerated.

But the protesters are not only marching but also upping the ante with new slogans slamming Khamenei's son Mojtaba, who, according to analysts, is the leading force behind the violent crackdown. 

In the following clip, protesters can be heard shouting "Mojtaba, we're not going, we won't give you the supreme leadership."

IRAN: Middle East split over protests

The Middle East remains torn over the election fallout in Iran. Many are inspired by the protests and wish their own populations would rise up against repressive regimes. But, as is common in the conspiracy-minded Middle East, many also see the hand of the U.S. orchestrating or, at the very least, exploiting Iran’s unrest.

In an essay in Al-Ahram Weekly, Mustafa Labbad writes that “Arab public opinion is divided between support for the demonstrations as the legitimate right of all peoples and rejection of them as a product of the West and a tool for bringing down the Iranian regime.”

Two dynamics are unfolding: The peaceful demonstrations, Labbad says, have turned into a global war against Iran while the supporters of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad “sum up Iran and its unique culture in the president's persona, and in doing so, they come very close to classic models of dictatorship and its political values from the Middle East -- one opinion, one voice, one group.”

This raises an intriguing notion. In countries like Iran, where security forces have tightened their grip, can democracy be willed through popular resistance, or does it need a bit of help from outside forces?

Click here for Labbad's full essay.

-- Jeffrey Fleishman in Cairo

Photo: Protests in Iran. Credit: AFP 

IRAN: A defector from the hardline camp tells his story

It started out as a frantic Facebook message plea for help about a tense confrontation at an airport in Istanbul between Amir Farshad Ebrahimi (above, right) and Turkish security officials in March 2008.

Over the course of more than a year's worth of phone conversations with Ebrahimi, 33, and a visit to his Berlin home a few months ago, his amazing story, detailed in Thursday's Times, emerged: from pre-adolescent Basiji warrior on the front lines of the Iran-Iraq war to hardline militia member who hobnobbed with the likes of Mojataba Khamenei (above, left), the son of Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, to jailed dissident, to exiled blogger.

“His story does really crystallize the disillusionment of the children of the revolution,” said Pooya Dayanim, a Los Angeles-based Iranian opposition activist who befriended Ebrahimi over the years.

Some elements of his extraordinary story are difficult to confirm. But much is verifiable through documents and photographs he provided, including rare 1990s photo of Mojataba above, and accounts in the Iranian press. 

EGYPT: Government rounds up Muslim Brotherhood leaders

In another attempt to tighten its grip on the  Muslim Brotherhood, the Egyptian government  detained a number of the group's members last week, including Guidance Bureau official Abdel Moneim Aboul-Fetouh.

Aboul-Fetouh, who is also secretary general of the Union of Arab Doctors, was among detainees facing various charges, including conspiring with international terrorist organizations against the country and money laundering.

The prosecutor's report alleges that those detained were responsible of forming terrorist cells inside Egypt and funneling Muslim Brotherhood members to be trained in the Gaza Strip under the supervision of Hamas. The report also alleges connections between the Muslim Brotherhood and the Lebanese Hezbollah party.

"Aboul-Fetouh led a cell that received instructions from Hezbollah. The orders focused on staging streets protests in Egypt and other Arab countries," the report read.

IRAN: Protesters advised to carry roses as weapons

Keep quiet under all circumstances, the circular advises those planning to march in Thursday's unauthorized demonstrations in Iran cities.

"The heaviest weapon to carry is one rose in the hand," it says. 

As Iranians prepare for what could be another violent day of confrontations Thursday between demonstrators and security forces, including pro-government plainclothes Basiji militias, supporters of opposition candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi have distributed instructions to try to keep any anticipated violence to a minimum.

One video making its way around the Internet shows demonstrators how to make devices to disable the motorcycles used by truncheon-wielding Basiji and Ansar-e-Hezbollah militiamen. 

The marches, which are taking place amid continued political discord over the June 12 election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, are  meant to mark the 10-year anniversary of the storming of Tehran University dormitories by pro-government militias and subsequent weeks of unrest. 

The circular urges marchers to avoid wearing the green that has become the official color of the Mousavi campaign or "flashy make-up" in order to demonstrate the marchers' serious intent. 

It suggests demonstrators leave cellphones and jewelry at home and carry only an identification card and relatives' phone numbers.

If protesters decide it's too risky to take part in the rally, the circular advises them to walk or drive around in their own neighborhoods, flashing the "victory" sign with their fingers.

"Bear in mind the most important point is to walk to the destination and not follow the exact path," the message advises. "Wherever you see the anti-riot police or militia ... hindering you ... change your path ... the goal is to keep on going."

-- Los Angeles Times

Photo: A protester shows a victory sign and white rose as people protest in front of the Iranian Embassy in Brussels on June 20. Credit: Yves Logghe / Associated Press

SAUDI ARABIA: Saudi princes' feud goes public

Arab royalty is famous for its ability to resolve familial disputes in private, but that isn’t the case with Saudi princes Khaled and Al-Waleed bin Talal.

In an act of rare public criticism, Prince Khaled bin Talal openly criticized his billionaire brother for propagating vice, and attempting to change the traditionalist norms of the kingdom. In an interview with an Islamist blog, Prince Khaled said, “the objectives of Prince Al-Waleed and others are to open a wide range of intellectual, religious, and ethical changes.”

 He also leveled the charge of violating Shariah, or Islamic law, which makes up the majority of Saudi law.

Prince Al-Waleed is one of the better-known Saudi royals, due to his extensive financial power and his extravagant lifestyle. So extravagant that his 460,000-square-foot palace was featured on VH1.

He is also among the less-conservative Saudi princes and has suggested reforming the legal code to allow modest reforms such as allowing women to drive. This has put him at odds with conservative members of the Saudi royal family, as well as the Saudi clerical establishment.