Iranian.com questionnaire and my response

[NUR]

http://wahidazal.blogspot.com/2012/04/iraniancom-questionnaire-and-my.html

The following appeared as a blog on the AIPAC, American Enterprise
Institute, NED and Haifan Baha'i controlled site (un)Iranian.com on 9
April 2012:
http://iranian.com/main/blog/cim/questionnaire-site-users-regarding-iranian-com-preliminary-intake

The following below are my answers to these questions.
---

1. How would you describe the level of difficulty in obtaining an
account or having one approved? (Easy /Some Effort Required /
Difficult)?

As of the past two years (since late 2010) it has generally become
difficult to obtain an account on Iranian.com. Currently all accounts
have to be approved by the moderator/admin whereas previously one
could subscribe automatically without hassle. These days if one gets
to the stage of actual approval, which usually entails sending an
email or two to the admin querying and/or reminding them about the
status of a subscription, it takes from between one week to sometimes
three or more weeks for one to have this account approved and/or
activated.

Given this, it appears to me that the site is now generally reluctant
to take on any new subscriptions; and when such new subscriptions are
given the new subscriber appears to be placed under some kind of
unspecified probationary watch by the admin/webmaster – a watch which
includes the collective participation by the regulars/entrenched
clique as well -- to ascertain their ideological disposition and
leanings vis-a-vis the party-line of the site. In other words, there
is an unspecified litmus test operating on the site regarding
subscriptions and new subscribers. Currently an assumption seems to
have become consensus among the regulars/entrenched clique of the site
and its admin/webmaster that new subscriptions and new subscribers are
coming mainly from agents of the Iranian regime or its sympathizers.
No need to mention that this appears to be a case of psychologically
reversed collective paranoia since evidently the regulars/entrenched
clique and admin/webmaster are themselves arguably paid lobbyists
working for assorted North American Foundations (eg. AIPAC, AEI, NED,
etc), not to mention the US and Israeli governments, and certain
religious organizations (such as the Haifan Baha’i organization) who
maintain vested interests in a certain slanted discourse regarding
Iran and the Middle East.


2. How many accounts do you have on this site (or have you had)?

I have had a sum total of 13 accounts since March-April 2009 when I
first subscribed to IC and began actively posting there. All of these
accounts have subsequently been disabled and blocked by the admin/
webmaster. I currently do not have an account there. My last account*
was blocked for no specified reason on the first week of April 2012
following this blog posted by me, including a few initial comments,
http://www.iranian.com/main/blog/shahab-ferdowsi/zionism-and-nazism.

I should note that various individuals on IC have been accused at
various times by the admin and regular site members (especially by the
Haifan Baha’is) of being my identities. This is not the case however,
and even when I have used handles, I have never denied my true
identity. My written styles in both English and Persian are also
fairly consistent and I have never used any program to conceal my IP
address when posting on the site. The accusation that certain posters
are one of my identities is a typical canard on the site by its
entrenched clique: a red herring argument first initiated by the
Haifan Baha’is, and one indicative of a specifically Haifan Baha’i
brand of paranoia.


3. Have you encountered any censorship on this site? (If “yes,” a
short description of the content would be helpful.)

Yes, absolutely -- and in loads, tons. Iranian.com is censorship-
central and the general vibe of the place is as of a totalitarian
dictatorship not unlike the one presently ruling Iran. It censors at
will as a matter of policy (albeit unstated but concealed behind
contradictory platitudes). The site censors any voice which the
entrenched clique of the site and its admin/webmaster, Jahanshah
Javid, deem to be problematic to the party-line being foisted and
imposed there. The censorship manifests in assorted varieties and
guises, manifesting particularly in the uneven and selective manner in
which site policies are implimented from one poster to another. When
the censorship escalates, it usually rounds off with accusations,
canards, red herrings, outrageous innuendos, abuse, bullying and
psychological reversal games from regulars/entrenched clique members
against a given poster whose views are contrary to theirs. These
include accusations that the poster is an agent of the regime in Iran
or a sympathizer thereof.

Discussions usually get heated and degenerate at the point when a
poster attempts to defend themselves from such accusations, and it is
usually at this point when the admin or webmaster steps in and tout
court deactivates/blocks the account of the ‘accused’. Attempts to
humiliate and/or otherwise embarrass ideological opponents is a long
established modus operandi of the webmaster/admin and IC regulars/
entrenched clique members alike. Certain topics are verboten on the
site and if a given poster broaches them and pushes against the
consensus-reality of the site’s party-line too hard, their messages
are either flagged or deleted, or the ‘offending’ poster will face the
prospect of their account being blocked altogether shortly thereafter.
These topics include but are not limited to:

a. Any nuance or ambiguity on the question of a US/Israeli preemptive
military strike or war on Iran (meaning, anti-war positions are
generally unwelcome there and relegated to verboten status by
Iranian.com although the site does also allow its token pro-peace
positions and token pro-peace posters from time to time);
b. Criticism of Zionism/Israel and Israeli policies;
c. Defense of Palestinian rights;
d. Criticism of the Haifan Baha’i organization and Bahaism’s history,
figures and doctrines;
e. Resistance to the Islamophobic hate-speech and Islamophobic
misinformation and disinformation campaign pervasive on the site;
f. Criticism of the webmaster Jahanshah Javid and his politically
sordid past as a propaganda journalist working under the banner of the
IRNA (Islamic Republic News Service);
g. Criticisms of American foreign policy in the Middle East and the
Islamic world, and especially American policy towards Iran;
h. Taking umbrage or criticizing the continual denigration of Iranian
culture by the site and the generally pejorative tone used about
Persian culture and its mores;

Any poster who trumps the party-line there on these questions
immediately faces a barrage of red herrings, canards, abuse,
psychological reversal games, bullying and accusations of being a paid
agent of the regime in Iran on their payroll; this, whilst
Islamophobia is vigorously promoted by the consensus/entrenched clique
of the site, any criticisms of Baha’ism and the Haifan Baha’i
organization is met with accusations of “hate-mongering” and/or
“Baha’i-bashing.” Posters who “Baha’i-bash” too much, or criticize
Zionism too vigorously, will first be ignored and/or ostracized by
other regulars and then, finally, will get their accounts blocked by
the admin/webmaster. Attempts at self-defence or defensive responses
by problematic or outspoken posters deemed persona non grata will
always result in their messages being deleted or their accounts
blocked. As such censorship and the culture of censorship is endemic
to Iranian.com.


4. In your own words what are the standards for featuring content on
the site?

Usually it is ideological consistency with the site’s talking points/
agenda or articulation of said agenda/talking points. These include
Islamophobia, Baha’o-philia, unnuanced hatred and virulent criticism
of the present regime in Iran, misrepresentation and exaggeration of
life in Iran under the present regime, anti-Arab anti-semiticism and a
generally pro-Israeli/pro-Zionist stance(s). There are exceptions, of
course, and from time to time the admin will feature all sorts of
blogs, especially on days when site content appears to be meagre or
low.


5. Are certain viewpoints represented more than others on the site as
a result of editorial choices?

Yes, they most certainly are. The reasons specified above regarding
censorship and an entrenched clique likewise explain here the whys and
wherefores on this question as well.


6. [a] What are the stated standards for approving comments orremoving
them on the site and [b] based on your experiences are those standards
applied equally or selectively?

The standards/policies on IC are malleable by the admin/webmaster
depending on whether one is part of the in-group or the out-group. The
standards are always implemented selectively. The claimed standard
‘nothing is sacred’, which functions as the site’s logo, is, however,
a complete farce.


7. Is material on the site ever rejected on the basis of political
content?

Yes, consistently and continually so. Numerous blogs of mine regarding
the corruption and political activities of the Haifan Baha’i
organization and their connections with Super-PACs in Washington have
been deleted in the past while libel, defamation and hate-speech
against myself by one of the financial donors of the site is allowed
to stand in perpetuity.


8. Is government-created-or-financed content ever shown on this site,
and if so, are disclaimers or notices of the same featured with the
content?

Yes, they are. Sometimes they have come with disclaimers; at other
times not.


9. Do any corporations, special interest groups, or governments
provide any financing or revenue for any of the site's operations?

Yes, they do. As mentioned before, Iranian.com is thoroughly a
propaganda site, and the following North American foundation think-
tanks or Super-PACs are rumoured to be funding it, with some of its
regular posters/entrenched clique members being paid lobbyists of
these organizations: 1) AIPAC (The American-Israeli Public Affairs
Committee), 2) The American Enterprise Institute, 3) The National
Endowment for Democracy (NED) and 4) The Haifan Baha'i organization:
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Baha%27i_Faith. The first
three of these organizations are at the top of the chain of those
North American Super-PACs currently lobbying Washington intensely for
war with Iran. The North American lobbyist arm of the Haifan Baha'i
organization is closely allied with the aforementioned.


10. How receptive are the administrators of the site in publicly
answering questions about the site in instances where neutrality or
bias is questioned?

Never. They are simply not interested or receptive to answer such
questions at all. Their responses in situations where serious
questions have arisen has always been conspicuously one of digital
imprimatur. You may note that Wikipedia (also accused of being a front
for assorted corporations and intelligence agencies) also operates the
same way.


11. Please provide any other information you think is germane for
assessing the bias or neutrality of the site.

Another issue for your consideration is the fact that several posters
on the site are articulating platforms which were once those of the
Iranian Neo-Nazi front of Dariush Monshizadeh's SUMKA. There is one
particular regular on the site who even openly displays the SUMKA
insignia as their site avatar: http://iranian.com/main/member/mrx1
Several others appear to be spouting its rhetoric, particularly this
individual, http://iranian.com/main/member/siavash300

The original SUMKA was disbanded in the late 1950s (and subsumed by
the Pan-Iranist Party) but in recent years there appears to have been
a SUMKA resurgence of sorts,
http://sumka.blogfa.com/ and
http://www.iranianminorities.org/2009/01/minorities-political-parties-suppressed.html
and http://iranleaks.wordpress.com/shekarenazi/


Iranian.com harbors a hodge-podge assembly of strange political
bedfellows, ultra-Zionist and pro-American war-mongerering lobbyists,
Haifan Baha'is and Neo-Nazis, neo-liberals and reformed pro-British
monarchists, all singularly united in their hatred of Iran, Iranian
culture, Islam and its people.

----
* In my last account on Iranian.com I took the alias Shahab Ferdowsi.
A personal hero of mine, Shahab Ferdowsi was a pre-revolutionary era
pro-Babi and pro-democracy Iranian Muslim cleric who was active in the
Iranian literary circles of the 1950s-1960s. Among his peers he was
the only Shi'ite mullah whose assesment of the Bab and Babism has so
far been the most fair, accurate and sympathetic ever provided by a
non-convert and Muslim authority (an assesment free of the usual
canard, distortions and polemics by many of his fellow peers in the
Shi'ite clerical establishment both before and after him). In a series
of published articles and responses, Shahab Ferdowsi demonstrated the
general untenability of the Baha'i position vis-a-vis Babi doctrine
and history, unmasking in these writings the historical whitewashes
and deceptions committed by the Baha'is upon the history and doctrines
of Babism. Recently these articles were digitally re-published on
Bayanic.com: http://bayanic.com/showPict.php?id=shahab&ref=0&err=0&curr=0