Sign the Petition
Re: Awarding an Honorary Degree
to Mohammad Khatami on 31 October 2006
We the undersigned strongly object to your university’s decision to award an Honorary Degree to Mr. Seyed Mohammad Khatami, the former president of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
During Mr. Khatami’s presidency (Voted in by millions of Iranians whose aspirations were to see an improvement in the social, political and economic conditions in Iran), the people of Iran continued to suffer from the Islamic Republic’s theocratic and oppressive policies!
Only after 2 years into Mr. Khatami’s presidency, following the banning order of many newspapers and suppression of any voice for democracy, the Tehran University students’ uprising in July 1999, demanding for the freedom of speech and calling for Democratic Rights was brutally vanquished by the Regime’s military forces!
Mr. Khatami himself delivered a speech during the students’ protest which condemned their movement declaring to ”Crush any movement which would undermine the foundation of the Islamic Republic, at any cost”!
During Mr. Khatami’s presidency the infamous “Serial Murders” of the leaders of the opposition, both inside Iran and abroad, were continued by the mercenaries of the regime and although demanded from him by the international Human Rights Organisations such as “Amnesty International” and “The Human Rights Watch”, to bring the perpetrators to justice, he chose to take no action!
During Mr. Khatami’s presidency, many intellectuals such as Mrs. Zahra Kazemi, an Iranian born Canadian Journalist and Dariuosh Forouhar and his wife, well known members of the banned opposition party (Iran Nation’s Party) were brutally murdered.
Mr. Khatami’s position on Mr and Mrs Forouhar’s murder was such that just hours before the murders were reported; he had delivered a speech to condemn secular political activists.
Khatami's condemnation of opposition activities on that day was his personal endorsement to carry out these murders!
Mr. Saeedi Sirjani, and many more Iranian scholars, thinkers and intellectuals were murdered while he served the Islamic Republic as the Minister of “Islamic Culture & Guidance” and in fact, one needs to refer to Mr Saeedi Sirjani’s testamentary preface in many of his books to find out that he personally held Mr. Khatami responsible for his death!
While Mr. Saeedi Sirjani’s books were being torched and his house ransacked by the security forces and the regime's thugs, Mr Khatami and his office were too busy “Guiding” the Nation into the Islamic Values!
To this effect, the people of Iran were soon disillusioned by Mr. Khatami’s so called “Reforms” and soon realised that he was just another brick in the wall of the Fascist state of the Islamic Republic of Iran!
Mr. Khatami has a talent for hiding his true face behind a charming smiley mask and the people of Iran learnt this the hard way.
Today, the entire free world holds the Islamic Republic of Iran responsible for many commotions and terrorist activities around the world including agitating the Moslem extremists to rise against the world’s democratic values. The international policy of the Islamic Republic of Iran is to destabilize the entire region to achieve its expansion programme and to establish its supremacy in the Middle East and the entire Islamic World!
Mr. Khatami is an integral part of the Islamic Republic Regime who remains faithful to the survival of the regime in decisive moments. In July 1999, the heroic students of Tehran University unveiled the demon behind his deceitful face and proved that he and his so called “Reformist” allies are the other side of the same coin as the Islamic Conservatives who strive to oppress the Iranian people and to ravage the natural resources of Iran on the one hand, and to break apart the civilised world’s democratic values and pose a threat to the world’s peace on the other!
The Western Democracy has yet to learn not to fall into the same trap as did the people of Iran by voting him into power in 1997 which is why you have this petition before you!
Awarding Mr. Khatami with an Honorary Degree from your University would be an insult to your own university students and intellectuals, the families of those whom had their loved ones murdered by the Islamic Republic's security agents, the people of Iran, the established Democracy in the United Kingdom and the rest of the civilised and peace loving world.
By doing so, you would undoubtedly be jeopardising the free world's will to maintain its hard earned Democracy during these turbulent times.
By awarding Mr. Khatami with an Honorary Degree of your University, you would be endorsing the legitimacy of one of the most brutal and dictatorial regimes in history and would only legitimise the current subversive policies of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
We therefore, urge you to withdraw your invitation of Mr. Khatami’s visit to your University and maintain your University's position as a centre of excellence to play its rightful part by standing beside the Iranian people in their struggle to establish a secular system based on Democracy and the International Charter of Human Rights and to promote peace and Democracy throughout the world.
Sincerely,
