GagWatch

Demonstrating a disconnection from reality that only the religious can achieve, several Islamic countries - including Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Indonesia - are demanding (via) that the Dutch government prosecute Geert Wilders on the basis that his film, Fitna, on the basis that it somehow violates their human rights.

According to Omar Shalaby, the delegate from Egypt (last election, political prisoners), the decision by The Hague District Court last week, which said the lawmaker’s right to free speech and role as a politician allow him to freely voice his criticisms of radical Islam and the Koran:

This ruling may suggest that the judiciary is out of touch with the relevant international and regional obligations and jurisprudence in the field of human rights.

It is probably a lot more accurate to say that Shalaby, and the rest of these Islamic delegates who have done so much to undermine the U.N. Human Rights Council, are out of touch with the meaning of the phrase “human rights.”

Iran, whose president recently attempted to cast doubt on whether the September 11th attacks actually happened, claimed that the film is “vivid example of Islamophobia and incitement to religious hatred,” and demanded that the Netherlands change their laws to give special protection to Islam.

Back in the real world, the Dutch embassy in Pakistan has been temporarily relocated because of security worries. Officials are looking at how to tighten security around the vacated embassy building so that staff can return.

And while we’re on the subject of Iran, guest which idiots have risen to the bait of Geert Wilders’ - so far unscreened - Muslim baiting movie. Yep, the Iranian justice minister, Gholam Hussein Elham, has written to his Dutch counterpart, Ernst Hirsch Ballin demanding that the film be banned.

The government has refused to intervene in Wilders’ antics as the issue is one of freedom of expression.

Three people were arrested in Denmark last week for plotting to murder cartoonist Kurt Westergaard who drew one of the Muhammed cartoons way back in 2005. The Danish press responded, commendably, by reprinting the cartoons in order to demonstrate their commitment to free speech and refusal to be threatened into silence. Now Iran has decided to stir things up - and display their ignorance of how a free society works - by demanding an apology from Danish MPs.

The nine members of Denmark’s foreign affairs committee were due to travel to Iran on Monday for a three-day trip focusing on human rights and the Islamic Republic’s nuclear programme. On Saturday, the Iranians demanded the MPs condemn the cartoon on their arrival in the country.

So the MPs cancelled their trip.

“We are not the ones to apologise,” said Villy Soevndal, the leader of Denmark’s Socialist People’s Party.

“If anyone needs to apologise for freedom of speech, human rights, imprisonments, executions and lack of democracy, it is the Iranians.”

Quite

I have previously mentioned that the Iranian authorities feel that they have the right to tell other countries film festivals what films they can and can’t show. Now it appears that the Bangkok International Film Festival agrees with them (via).

The festival has withdrawn the animated film Persepolis - which won the Jury Prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.

According to festival director Chattan Kunjara na Ayudhya:

I was invited by the Iranian embassy to discuss the matter and we both came to mutual agreement that it would be beneficial to both countries if the film was not shown.

It’s a good film, but there are other considerations.

Actually, there aren’t any other considerations. Either it’s a good film or it isn’t and the opinion of a bunch of over-sensitive authoritarians has no bearing on that whatsoever.

Iran has criticised the British government for its decision to give a knighthood to author Salman Rushdie.

Apparently, they feel that it is “Islamophobic” for the British government to award an honour to a British citizen without checking with the Iranians first.

Given that the Iranian authorities were pretty miffed that animated drama Persepolis, which is based on a comic by Marjane Satrapi, was screened at the Cannes Film Festival, you might be wondering whether they were less than happy at the film winning the Jury Prize.

You bet they were.

Not only have they objected to the film getting an award, but have gone on to make the rather bizarre claim that: “Islamophobia in Western drama started in France, and producing and highlighting the anti-Iranian film ‘Persepolis’ in Cannes falls in line with Islamophobia.” Which rather neatly equates any discussion of Iran with this year’s favourite phobia meme.

According to Stop Fundamentalism (via) the Iranian authorities have sent a letter of protest to the French Embassy in Tehran complaining that the Cannes Film Festival had the temerity to screen… an Iranian film.

The animated drama Persepolis is based on a comic by Marjane Satrapi and tells the coming-of-age story of a precocious and outspoken young Iranian girl that begins during the Islamic Revolution.

The letter sent by the state-run Farabi Foundation in Iran reads, “This year the Cannes Film Festival, in an unconventional and unsuitable act, has chosen a movie about Iran that has presented an unrealistic face of the achievements and results of the glorious Islamic Revolution in some of its parts.”

The film is in competition for the Palme d’Or and due to be screened on Wednesday.

ADN Kronos International (via) reports that the culture committee of the Iranian parliament approved on Monday a bill sentencing to death producers of ‘pornography’ - defined as films and videos deemed ‘vulgar’ by the country’s censors. The draft law will now go to parliament where it is expected to be approved by an ample majority.

The Iranian porn market has tolerated for a long time - with amateur films fetching up to €30 - but became a nationwide issue earlier this year after a porn film of popular television actress, Zohre Mir Ebrahimi, having sex with her partner was released.

Baztab, an Iranian fundamentalist site which has accused Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of betraying the Islamic revolution by attending a female dance show, has been closed for acting against the constitution and undermining national unity.

The order to close the website coincided with the confirmation of Gholamhossein Elham, who has supported restraints on press freedom, as Iran’s new judiciary minister. His appointment came as the government disclosed new measures to monitor and restrict unofficial news websites.

Baztab is one of Iran’s most widely read political sites and has criticised both the government’s economic policies, which have produced surging inflation and high unemployment, as well as blaming Ahmadinejad’s approach to Iran’s nuclear programme for bringing the country closer to confrontation with the west.

The website also posted video footage purportedly showing Mr Ahmadinejad watching a female dance performance at the recent Asian Games in Qatar, in breach of Iran’s prohibition on women dancing in front of men.

The culture and Islamic guidance ministry has deemed the site “illegitimate” and declared that its continued activity is “illegal and banned.” Access to the site is now blocked on most Iranian internet service providers.

adnkronosinternational (via) reports that 31 people arrested by Iranian police are facing the death penalty for making and distributing an amateur porn movie which was shot on a cell phone. The president of Tehran’s criminal court, Saiid Mortazavi, has announced that he will sentence to death all those involved in making amateur porn movies.

A parliamentary commission has also accused Mortzavi of being behind the death of Iranian-Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi, who died in Iranian custody on 11 July 2003, almost three weeks after she was arrested for taking pictures outside a prison during a student protest in Tehran.

Amateur porn films made with the video cameras of mobile phones have a proseprous market in Iran and can fetch up to 30 euros each.

The market, tolerated for a long time, became a nationwide issue after a porn film of popular television actress, Zohre Mir Ebrahimi, having sex with her partner, was released.

Iran, second in a world ranking of countries with the highest number of executions per year after China, has already executed at least three people since the beginning of 2007.