Ruth Gledhill - Times Online - WBLG

Persecution Index 9: United Kingdom

Update: The PMOI won their case, the British government lost. Bartholomew's blog has more details.

Opposed to the regime in Iran is an organisation called the People's Mojahedin Organisation of Iran. This is a resistance operation that has the support of a number of organisations. But in the United Kingdom, this organisation, one of the few Islamic organisations that campaigns with a feminist agenda and is wholly committed to women's rights, is proscribed by the British Government. The EU is among the organisations and states that has designated it a terrorist organisation, although the European Court of Justice overturned this. The group officially renounced violence in 2001. Its political arm, the National Council of Resistance of Iran, has helped provide intelligence on Iran's nuclear activities. Iran has also denounced the organisation as un-Islamic.Why am I writing this now? Because after legal action by no fewer than 35 MPs, the UK's Proscribed Organisations Appeal Commission ordered that these people be removed from the proscribed list, a list that influences directly the EU designation.  The Home Secretary has gone to the Court of Appeal to get this ruling overturned. The British Government remains convinced that these people are terrorists. Tomorrow, Wednesday, we get the result from the panel of three judges chaired by the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Phillips.

Sharia in Iran: 'Death to converts'

Life in Iran, in particular for women, can already be pretty grim, as the blog from which this picture was taken testifies. But it is about to get a whole lot worse. For just about everybody. The Iranian parliament is discussing a new penal code, under which citizens who convert from another religion will face execution. The Baha'i community, among the most persecuted of all in Iran as I've reported previously, today described this as a 'gross violation' of Iran's human rights obligations. At the same time, as we report, pollsters YouGovStone have found that nearly one in third of Britain's most influential people welcome the Archbishop of Canterbury's recent intervention on sharia as a useful contribution to the debate.

Iran ruthless in persecution of peace-loving Baha'is

This student is from Iran's long-suffering Baha'i community. She is studying music in the UK, and is here practising a piece by a composer from her homeland. Soon, she must return to Iran. There, her future like that of her family and all Baha'is is uncertain. We cannot identify her for fear of putting her family in danger. It's more than a year since I last addressed this issue. Things since then have got worse. Far worse.

Religion is my Football

Learning of the pending Israel versus England game has given me the excuse I needed to post this example of inter-faith 'harmony'. I used the word 'faith' lightly there, of course, except football is a religion for many. This video shows what happened when Queens Park Rangers went head-to-head in a 'friendly' with the Chinese Olympic Football Team. I am not sure what the score was, but the high-flying kung fu kicks and dervish-style whirling flying headlocks administered to the opposition by the Chinese were as nothing to the sheer fist power that left a Chinese defender with a broken jaw.

Purim: 'Bring Ahmadinejad to trial'

A former colleague Michael Gove is excelling himself in politics, and never more so with his Early Day Motion calling for the President of Iran to be brought to trial on the charge of 'incitement to commit genodice'. Irene Lancaster brought my attention to this on her Purim post, where she describes how one of her friends dressed as a cross between Honor Blackman in 'Pussy Galore' and someone from the cast of Cats. This picture shows Madonna as a 1920s flapper with her husband Guy Ritchie at a Kabbalah Purim party in Los Angeles. The picture below shows what she wore last year.