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What happened in Tehran on the day of Ashura?

A critical Look

Everyone is curious to know what exactly happened in Iran on the day of Ashura. The friends and wellwishers are concerned and the enemies and those who harbor grudge are happy. Here we desire tohave a look at the ongoing events in Iran and briefly cast a glance on the background of these events.

Violation of sanctity of the day of Ashura

These sad events started on the morning of the day of Ashura when lovers of Imam Hussein (as) were allbusy in mourning for the tragedy of Karbala across Tehran. The day whose sanctity is respected by allthe people around the world and for Muslims in general and the followers of Ahlul Bait (as) in particularit is a day of mourning. However for a small group of people about whose identity we will speak soon itwas a day of clapping, whistling and going on a rampage across the city.

Who are these people?

Identity of these people is well known from the kind of clothes they wear

and the kind of things theyspeak. The identity of these people can be defined with the help of following attributes,1.

They have sold themselves to the Western ideals, culture and lifestyle2.

They have a strange kind of hatred for Islam3.

They do not respect any of the Islamic values and sanctities4.

They are a tool in the hands of the enemies and their proxy inside Iran5.

They prefer Shah (monarchy) over Islamic governance6.

They desire good relations with the leading oppressors of the world, viz. US and Israel7.

They prefer Nationalism over Islamic concept of one Islamic Ummah ( and hence they hateArabs)8.

They do not like that Iran is supporting Islamic movements across the world.Needless to say that these people have these qualities in varying amounts and not all are same. Somepeople show some of these qualities more intensely than others.But the important point that is worthy of attention is that the number of such people is few and thisgroup has existed since the Islamic Revoluon in 1979 and mainly such people are to be found mostly in

http://media.berbs.us/images/iranian-woman-protester1.jpg

Tehran which is the center of cultural attack from the West. Otherwise the people of Iran respect Islamand majority of them prefer Islamic governance over any other form.However the Western (or should I say Zionist!) media is trying to portray that “hundreds of thousands of people are on the streets!”

, “this is like a second revolution in Iran”

and was busy fabricating manysuch similar stories.

What did they do?

Now let us have a look at what these people were doing on the day of Ashura. The day on whicheveryone in Iran was busy mourning for Imam Hussein (as).

Clapping and whistling on the day of Ashura

Some of these people were clapping and whistling in order to cheer other rioters who weresetting the public property on fire on the day of Ashura.This was caught on video:hp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKoevdr5c&feature=youtube_gdata

Attack on the mourners of Imam Hussein and efforts to disrupt mourning ceremonies

The mourners of Imam Hussein (as) were attacked by these rioters. The following is an interviewwith one of the mourners who became a victim of the attack.hp://www.farsnews.com/media.php?nn=8810080573[Persian]Other than this those who watch Iranian channels saw several other interviews of people whowere beaten up by the rioters and maybe they might show these interviews again on PressTV orIRINN (http://www.irinn.ir) channel for those who wish see more proof of these claims.Following is the Album of photos showing aftermath of efforts to disrupt mourning ceremonieshp://www.irna.ir/View/FullStory/Photo/?NewsId=863270

Burning and destruction of property

These people went on a rioting across the city setting vehicles, banks, shops and public propertyon fire.This was also caught on camera. Please see,

http://www.irna.ir/NewsMedia/Photo/Larg_Pic/2009%5C12%5C28%5Cimg633976173983281250.jpg hp://www.irna.ir/NewsMedia/Photo/Larg_Pic/2009%5C12%5C28%5Cimg633976133226406250.jpg

hp://www.me.com/me/world/arcle/0,8599,1950176,00.html, see fourth line from top.

hp://www.guardian.co.uk/commensfree/2009/dec/28/iran-revolution-protests

hp://www.cnn.com/video/world/2009/12/28/griﬃn.sayah.iran.future.cnn.640x360.jpg

The details of the damages were provided by PressTV .Please see:hp://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=114838&seconid=351020101[English]

How many people died? How did they die?

In these unfortunate events according to the oﬃcial reports 7 people lost their lives. The details of which were provided by Iranian news outlets.Please see,hp://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=114882&seconid=351020101[English]hp://www.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=8810081405[Persian]But a more important question is how did these people die? The causes of death included stabbing todeath, throwing from the bridge, being hit by a vehicle, some unknown causes and gunshots. Two of theeight people were killed by gunshots.The chief of police in Tehran said no weapon was used against the rioters. The police and the anti-riotpolice are only allowed to carry batons and the Police used tear gas and pepper sprays to disperse therioters.Also during the same period time ten people affiliated to the terrorist organization MKO were arrestedin Tehran

and the Police gave a possibility that those who were killed with gunshots were killed by theterrorists.

Accusation on the Police

But the Western media claimed without providing any proof that police had opened fire on the rioters.This accusation was repeated in the media across the whole world. None of these media outletsprovided any proof for their claim. Please see some examples here,1.

Reuters:

TIMELINE: Police open fire in opposition protests in Iran

(hp://www.reuters.com/arcle/idUSTRE5BQ0P320091227)The entire news item does not mention anything about police opening fire on protestors. Onlytowards the end the report says,

‘Police in Tehran say they were investigating the "suspicious" deaths’

Time:

Police opened fire on an anti-government demonstration commemorating the Shi'iteholiday.

(hp://www.me.com/me/photogallery/0,29307,1950178_2017439,00.html)Two lies in one line. Firstly police were not carrying weapons and so could not open fire andsecondly the demonstrators were not commemorating Shi’ite holiday but rather they were

hp://www.presstv.com/classic/Detail.aspx?id=114774&seconid=351020101