MEMRI Daily: March 14, 2012
The following is research published today from the MEMRI Special Dispatch
Series and TV Monitor Project.
Iran's Ninth Majlis Elections: A Show with Pre-Determined Results
PA President 'Abbas in Doha: Israel Is Carrying Out 'Ethnic Cleansing' in
Jerusalem
PA President Mahmoud Abbas: There Are No Ideological Disagreements between
Fatah and Hamas
Bassem Khafagi, Former Community Relations Director of Council on
American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and A Founder of Islamic Assembly of North
America (IANA) – Who In 2003 Was Convicted In U.S. and Deported – Says In
His Presidential Campaign in Egypt: I Pledge To 'Complete Implementation of
Islamic Law'
Inquiry and Analysis No. 810—Iran
Iran's Ninth Majlis Elections: A Show with Pre-Determined Results
By: A. Savyon & Y. Mansharof*
The elections for Iran's ninth Majlis were held on March 2, 2012, with 3,500
candidates competing for 290 seats. The number of eligible voters was close
to 48 million. Following calls from opposition circles to boycott the
elections, the regime stated in advance that it anticipated a turnout of
65%, and immediately after the elections, it announced that the turnout had
indeed been 64.2%.
The Elections – Key Trends and Facts
The elections were characterized by a number of key trends and facts:
1. In the wake of the crisis between Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the regime, under Khamenei's direction,
systematically disqualified pro-Ahmadinejad candidates, which are dubbed as
belonging to the "deviant stream." The regime's ostracizing of Ahmadinejad
and his supporters is reflected, for example, in statements made by the
president's former religious parton, Ayatollah Mesbah-e Yazdi, at a February
29 conference in Qom. He said that Ahmadinejad's election in 2009 had been
fair, but that afterwards, the president had worked against the regime: "We
[found ourselves] in a situation where the president, elected by the people,
was actually working against Islam, the Imam [Khomeini] and the interests of
the state, and was even party to killing hundreds of innocent martyrs. We
cannot say that he came to power through [election] fraud, because there was
no such fraud. But the public did not know him, and later events caused us
to realize our mistake. We must not repeat the mistakes of the past, and
must not fall for the deceit and propaganda of the deviant stream. You must
vote for those who realize the plight of the religion, the people's pain and
the plight of the revolution, and will therefore serve the people honestly."
2. Under Khamenei's direction, the regime also systematically disqualified
pro-reform candidates from running in the elections, as part of its ongoing
campaign to eliminate the reformist stream and the Green Movement, and to
marginalize Hashemi Rafsanjani.
3. The dissidents, the Green Movement and student organizations called upon
the public to boycott the elections, among other reasons, because they were
not free and because the Green Movement leaders, Mir Hossein Mousavi and
Mehdi Karroubi, have been under house arrest for a year at Khamenei's
orders.
To read the full report, visit
http://www.memri.org/report/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/6178.htm.
Special Dispatch No. 4573—Palestinians
PA President 'Abbas in Doha: Israel Is Carrying Out 'Ethnic Cleansing' in
Jerusalem
At the International Conference on Jerusalem, which took place in Doha on
February 26, 2012, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud 'Abbas said that
the Israeli authorities have stepped up their efforts to Judaize Jerusalem
while obliterating its Arab, Muslim and Christian character. He said that
Israel is pursuing this goal by constructing settlements, demolishing
Palestinian homes and historical buildings, carrying out "ethnic cleansing"
of the city by forcing Arab residents out, isolating East Jerusalem from the
West Bank by means of the "Apartheid Wall," and impoverishing the city and
destroying its infrastructures, for instance by withholding permits to build
facilities such as hospitals and schools.
'Abbas stressed the need to help East Jerusalem by means of joint Islamic
projects for health, education, infrastructure, trade and economy, and said
that Jerusalem must be a key issue in the Arabs' and Muslims' political and
economic relations with the rest of the world. He added that the 1976
Israeli law annexing East Jerusalem was "null and void" because Jerusalem
was the eternal capital of Palestine.
To read the full report, visit
http://www.memri.org/report/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/6177.htm.
Special Dispatch No. 4572—Palestinians/Inter-Arab Relations
PA President Mahmoud Abbas: There Are No Ideological Disagreements between
Fatah and Hamas
Following are excerpts from an interview with PA President Mahmoud Abbas,
which aired on Al-Jazeera Network on March 2, 2012:
To view this clip on MEMRI TV, visit
http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/3352.htm.
Interviewer: "Some say that there cannot be true reconciliation [between
Hamas and Fatah] unless there is a strategic change in the ideology of one
of the two. Do you think this is true?"
Mahmoud Abbas: "What do you mean by 'ideology'? If you are referring to
religious ideology – we are all Muslims, we are all believers. If you are
referring to political ideology – let me tell you in all honesty, there are
no disagreements between us."
To read the full report, visit
http://www.memri.org/report/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/6176.htm.
Special Dispatch No. 4571—Egypt
Bassem Khafagi, Former Community Relations Director of Council on
American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and A Founder of Islamic Assembly of North
America (IANA) – Who In 2003 Was Convicted In U.S. and Deported – Says In
His Presidential Campaign in Egypt: I Pledge To 'Complete Implementation of
Islamic Law'
In statements televised on March 12, 2012 on the Egyptian Al-Nas TV,
Egyptian presidential candidate Bassem Khafagi said: "[A]s a Muslim
Egyptian, I am convinced of [the need to] complete the implementation of
Islamic law in Egypt. I do not hide this truth in any way, because it is in
keeping with the inclination of the Egyptian people." He added, "As
president, I will personally assist in the completion of the correct
implementation of the shari'a, by consulting the experts [in Islamic law]."
Khafagi was sentenced in September 2003 in the U.S. to 10 months in prison
and deported to Egypt, after pleading guilty to two counts of bank fraud and
one count of visa fraud. He had been charged with funneling money to promote
terrorist activities through the Islamic Assembly of North America (IANA).
At the time of his arrest, Khafagi was also community affairs director of
the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).
According to the FBI, Khafagi was a founding member and former head of the
IANA. Federal prosecutors said that the group's objective was the
"dissemination of radical Islamic ideology, the purpose of which was
indoctrination, recruitment of members and the instigation of acts of
violence and terrorism." Federal investigators said the IANA has funneled
money to activities supporting terrorism and has published material
advocating suicide attacks on the United States. The IANA said it was formed
to promote Islam.
Khafagi was one of four former or current students at the University of
Idaho at Moscow, ID and at Washington State University at Pullman, WA who
were arrested in 2003 during an investigation of a suspected
terrorist-related network in the Moscow-Pullman area.
According to school records, Khafagi earned a master's degree in civil
engineering in August 1988 at the University of Idaho. After working as a
teaching assistant and taking postgraduate classes there, he enrolled at
Michigan State University, earning a doctorate in civil engineering in 1993.
He later lived in Ann Arbor, Mich., operating a business called
International Media Group from his home, court documents showed; according
to the documents, it was not clear what kind of business it was.
Following are excerpts from statements by Egyptian presidential candidate
Khafagi that aired on Al-Nas TV on March 7, 2012:
To view this clip on MEMRI TV, visit http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/3356.htm
To read the full report, visit
http://www.memri.org/report/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/6175.htm.
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