|
||||||
|
|
||||||
| The Iranian regime operates many Arabic-language Internet sites to spread its radical Islamic ideology to the Arab and Muslim populations around the world. They preach violence and hatred of Israel, the Jewish people, the United States and the West. At the same time Iran strictly censors Western Internet sites. |
||||||
 Using cartoons to spread hatred for Israel and the Jewish people: a page of cartoons from Al-Quds TV's Website, most of them dealing with Holocaust denial and equating Jews and Nazis. |
||||||
|
||||||
1. The Iranian regime makes a great effort to export Khomeini's radical Islamic ideology. One of its objectives is to advance Iran 's aspirations for hegemony in the Middle East and another is to support its political ideology and propaganda campaign against the United States and Israel . 2. To that end the Iranian regime makes extensive use of the Internet, which it perceives as an effective means for spreading propaganda and sending messages to its various target audiences in the Middle East and beyond. The Iranians have established a broad Internet presence of sites in many languages, primarily Farsi, Arabic and English. They also operate sites in Russian, French, Turkish, Spanish, Urdu and Albanian. All the sites reflect the same political propaganda orientation which serves Iran 's strategic needs. The technical aspects are dealt with by Iranian Internet companies, but also by companies in the United States and Canada (See below). 3. A central target audience is the Arab public in the Middle East and beyond. The Arabic-language sites spread radical Islamic ideology, hatred for the West, loathing for Israel , anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial. They also support terrorism and violence (including fostering the suicide bomber cult), and the terrorist organizations, especially Hezbollah and Hamas. 4. The Iranian Internet sites in Arabic can be divided into three main groups:
5. In addition, Iran supports a broad network of sites operated by Hezbollah, where Arabic is the language of choice. Their contents provide indirect support for the Iranian regime's propaganda and indoctrination. 1 6. An examination of the Iranian sites' Internet service providers 2 shows that the sites belonging to the Iranian agencies are supported by Internet American and Canadian companies. The media sites and sites of the Iranian leaders use Iranian companies, possibly governmental or government-supervised. 7. While the Iranians make extensive use of the Internet to spread the regime's ideas, conversely, they impose strict censorship on the Internet (which has gained great popularity in Iran 3) as a conduit for importing ideas into the country. For example, Iranian Internet surfers who tried to log on to the popular video site at www.youtube.com saw an announcement stating that “according to the laws of the Islamic Republic of Iran, access to this site is unauthorized.” A similar announcement was seen by surfers trying to access Iranian opposition sites. It has also been reported that sites such as the New York Times have been blocked (apparently for a number of days) and Wikipedia (AP, Tehran , December 5). 8. Reporters Without Borders warned that the censorship imposed by the Iranian regime was an attempt to create “digital borders” and prevent Iranians from accessing culture and information from abroad. During October 2006 Reporters Without Borders put Iran on its list of the 13 worst “Internet enemies,” the countries which impose the strictest censorship on the Internet (along with Belarus , Burma , China , Cuba , Egypt , North Korea , Saudi Arabia , Syria , Tunisia , Turkmenistan , Uzbekistan and Vietnam ). (AP, Tehran , December 5). 9. The following are Iran 's main Arabic-language Internet sites:Iranian News Agency Sites IRNA, at www.irna.com
10. IRNA (Islamic Republic News Agency) is Iran 's main news agency. The Website appears in eight languages, among them Farsi, Arabic, English, Russian, Turkish and Spanish. Most of the articles deal with Iran . Important Iranian public figures are often quoted, especially the president, Ahmadinejad. They send messages in the spirit of radical Islamic ideology and express hatred for Israel and the West. 11. Examples of the site's contents are:
12. The site's technical details:
IRIBNEWS, at www.irib.com
13. IRIB (Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting) has Websites in Farsi, Arabic and English. It features quotes by Khamenei and senior Iranian officials and spreads the ideology of the Islamic revolution. It has a link called “The Intifada Link” which posts articles identifying with the violent Palestinian terrorist campaign against Israel and manipulative items meant to support terrorism and violence. For example, on November 26 an article was posted entitled “The pressure of the resistance (i.e., violence and terrorism) forces the Zionist entity to retreat from Gaza,” ignoring the ceasefire understanding achieved between Palestinian chairman Abu Mazen and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert which led to the IDF's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.
14. The site's technical details:
Mehr News Agency, at www.mehrnews.com
15. Mehr (“affection” in Farsi) News Agency is an important Iranian agency, with Websites in Farsi, Arabic, English and Urdu. The site features articles supporting the Palestinian “resistance” (i.e., terrorism) and Hezbollah, which tries to represent the second Lebanon war as a “victory.” Anti-Semitic motifs sometimes appear, and the site often quotes Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Ali Khamenei. 16. Mehr's November 16 homepage featured a Magen David in flames. The motif appears regularly on the site, as it does on other Iranian sites and the Hamas Farsi site. To the left is a link to a letter sent by Khamenei to Hassan Nasrallah, congratulating him on his victory over the “plundering Zionist entity” and praising him for his jihad against the “Zionist entity.”
17. The site's technical details:
IQNA, the Iranian Quran News Agency, at iqna.ir/ar
18. IQNA (the Iranian Quran News Agency) deals with religious matters in the spirit of the ideology of the Islamic revolution in Iran . The site appears in Farsi, Arabic, Turkish, French, Urdu, Spanish and Albanian. The Arabic version emphasizes Shi'ite-Sunni unity and concept of jihad against Israel and the West. The site glorifies terrorist actions, for example, on December 10 an article appeared announcing the Tehran Film Festival, during which films would be shown about “the heroic activities of Hezbollah,” among them suicide bombing attacks against Israel . 19. The site's technical details:
Iranian Arabic-Language Television Channel Websites Al-Alam (“the world”), at www.alalam.com
20. Al-Alam is an Iranian Arabic-language satellite news channel which began broadcasting in January 2004. The site has Arabic, Farsi and English versions. It surveys world news, with an emphasis on the Arab world and the Palestinian issue with an anti-Israeli anti-American attitude. The IDF is called the “occupation army,” the American forces in Iraq are the “American occupation forces,” and Palestinian terrorist activity is called maqawamah , “resistance.” 21. The site's technical details:
Al-Kawthar TV, at www.alkawthartv.ir
22. This is the homepage of the Iran 's Al-Kawthar, an Arabic-language satellite TV channel which was set up in 1980 to disseminate the Islamic revolution's ideology to residents of the Arab states. In the past it was known as the Sahar channel, often reporting on Hezbollah operatives and broadcasting programs dealing with the Iranian revolution. 5 The site features anti-Semitic motifs and is integrated into Iranian Holocaust denial campaign.
Al-Quds (“ Jerusalem ”) TV, at www.qodstv.ir/ar/index.php
24. This Website was launched recently. Its main emphasis is on the “Palestinian resistance” (i.e., Palestinian terrorism) and it preaches hatred for Israel and the United States . The site appears in Farsi, Arabic and English and has a daily edition of photographs. Surfers can click on links to Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad Websites. The site features anti-Semitic cartoons (See first page) and information about Palestinian shaheeds (“martyrs for the sake of Allah”) who carry out suicide bombing attacks in Israel , including Wafaa Idris, the first female suicide bomber. It also features many articles about Hezbollah and quotes by its general secretary, Hassan Nasrallah. 25. The site also posts articles denying the Holocaust. For example, a link to the “Audio/Visual Gallery” has two programs from Sahar (Al-Kawthar) claiming that no Jews died in gas chambers during the Holocaust and that the Jews contrived it all. In addition, they claim that similar holocausts were carried out by the Americans in Saigon and Hiroshima , but that they received less attention than the Jewish Holocaust.
26. The site's technical details:
Iranian Leader Websites Ali Khamenei's Website, at www.leader.ir
27. The Iranians sponsor Websites fostering the personality cults of the “leader” Ali Khamenei and their president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. 28. Ali Khamenei's Website appears in Farsi, Arabic, English, French and Urdu. It often quotes statements made by Ali Khamenei, texts of his speeches, information of his doings, his biography, etc. It also features many pictures of him. He is referred to as al-qa'id (“the leader”) and sometimes as wali amr al-muslimin (“the leader of the Muslims,” the epithet of a sultan or Muslim caliph). The first refers to him as a political and military leader, the second as leader of the Islamic nation and not only a leader of the Shi'ites in Iran .
29. The site's technical details:
Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's blog, at www.ahamadinejar.ir
30. The site appears in Farsi, Arabic, English and French, and is either written by him or others who write for him in the first person singular. The site posts emails sent by surfers expressing support for him. 31. The site's technical details:
|
||||||
1 For further information see our Bulletin entitled “Terrorism and Internet: Hezbollah's widespread use of the Internet as a means to distribute anti-Israeli, anti-Jewish, and anti-American incitement as part of the war for the hearts and minds,” at http://www.terrorism-info.org.il/malam_multimedia/English/eng_n/html/hezbollah_int_e.htm and http://www.terrorism-info.org.il/malam_multimedia/English/eng_n/pdf/hezbollah_int_e.pdf . 2 According to the Haganah and Whois sites. 3 The Inter Press Service (IPS) news agency reported that more than 10% of Iran 's 70 million inhabitants are connected to the Internet and that the number constantly increases. The Iranian regime is aware of that and appointed a committee to supervise the use of unauthorized sites (for details see the November 27 article by Kimia Salani, IPS) 4 The translation was taken from the site's English version. 5 Al-Kawthar is the name of a spring in the Muslim paradise. One of the treatises written by the Ayatollah Khomeni is called Al-Kawthar .) |
||||||
