Present mass trial in Iran involves Habermas

Saturday August 1, the Iranian authorities opened an mass trial against more than 100 political activists and protesters, accusing them of rioting and conspiring to topple the government in the turmoil surrounding Iran's presidential election.

According to a report in the independent online news magazine "Tehran Bureau", the prosecutor mentioned Jürgen Habermas's visit to Iran in 2002 in his opening statement. The Iranian regime sees the visit as part of a plan of spreading secularism in Iran.

From the report by Muhammad Sahimi (Los Angeles), Tehran Bureau, August 1, 2009:

"The prosecutor outlined the steps that had supposedly been taken by the reformists to move the country toward a secular government, including the fact that the Khatami administration had allowed the formation of the NGOs an a vast scale. Khatami was supposedly quoted saying in a meeting of the Supreme Council for Cultural Revolution [an unconstitutional body that sets the cultural policies of Iran] that, “there is no way of avoiding secularism.”

The prosecutor then accused the Center for Strategic Studies [an organ that was established by the office of the president after the Iran-Iraq war] of developing the theoretical framework for secularism during the Khatami administration. The prosecutor claimed that in an analysis prepared by Dr. Mohammad Reza Tajik of the Center and presented to Mr. Khatami, it was stated that, “In the near future no one can resist secularism, and we must also accept this fate of humanity.” The prosecutor claimed that Dr. Tajik is a member of the central committee of the Islamic Iran Participation Front [Iran’s largest political group and the most important reformist party], but he is not a member, let alone a member of the central committee.

According to the prosecutor, inviting Jürgen Habermas [the German philosopher and sociologist] to visit Iran in 2002 was done with this purpose in mind [spreading secularism in Iran]. The prosecutor said that when Habermas traveled to Iran, there was a confidential meeting at the home of [Dr.] Mohsen Kadivar [the distinguished Islamic scholar who is currently residing in the U.S.]. It was attended by [Dr.] Saeed Hajjarian and [Dr.] Mohammad Mojtahed Shabestari."