SWC Calls for World Leaders to Convene Emergency UN Security Council Meeting on Iran
Iranian and Interfaith Communities Join Together to Express Solidaritywith People of Iran
A cross section of Los Angeles’ Iranian American activist community were joined at the Simon Wiesenthal Center Museum of Tolerance by Christian and Jewish leaders in a show ofsolidarity with the people of Iran. The activists, academics and analysts discussed the current situation in Tehran and other Iranian cities and the ways in which theinternational community should respond. The event, moderated by Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Wiesenthal Center, brought a wide range of opinions from “regimechange” to careful, deliberative diplomacy.
Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder and dean of the Wiesenthal Center opened by asking, “Why are the lights out at the United Nations?”
"An election, in the minds of millions of people in Iran, has been stolen. And the question is, ‘What is the world going to do about it?’ Is there an electricity strike at theUnited Nations that the lights went out and they can’t act?" he added.
Hier pointed out that the UN can put together a resolution condemning Israel in less than 12 hours, but so far not one member country of the UN Security Council has come forwardto call an emergency session about the flawed election. To demonstrate to protesters throughout Iran that there is strong international commitment to punish their government’sviolence with swift sanctions, leaders have to offer more than careful statements. “What is required is a meaningful response in terms of actions,” said Hier. But instead, heconcluded, “What we have is total silence.”
Among the speakers were: Mr. Roozbeh Farahanipour, a student protester who tortured by the regim in 1999, now the Secretary General of Marz-e-porgohar (Iranians for aSecular Republic); Professor Hamid Arabzadeh from the University of California, Irvine; Mr. Faryar Nikbakht, Director, Committee for Religious Minority Rights in Iran, here inLos Angeles; Mohammad Amini, a noted political analyst and the son of Nosratollah Amini, the former Mayor of Tehran and confidant of the deposed Prime Minister MohammadMossadegh; and Roxanna Ganji, political activist and advocate for the rights of women in Iran. They were joined by Randolph Dobbs, Secretary of The Spiritual Assembly of theBaha'is of Los Angeles who spoke out for Baha’is who are brutally repressed in Iran and Reverend Walter Contreras, the cofounder of La Red, which represents over a thousandLatino evangelical churches in Southern California.
