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The ultimate convergence of America-bashers and capitalism-haters: The Iranian regime, apparently curious about this thing called “Occupy Wall Street” and the odds that it might succeed in toppling the capitalist system, invited several American — or should I say anti-American — professors and “experts” to discuss this glorious new political movement and what it means for Iran.
Although the conference happened two months ago, word of it is just leaking out now thanks to the diligent work of the nonprofit MEMRI, which monitors Middle Eastern television stations round-the-clock and preserves noteworthy broadcasts for posterity. Luckily, “Press TV,” the propaganda wing of the Iranian regime, did various reports about the conference, at which the American feminist/leftist academics were more than willing to wear hijabs to show their anti-western bona fides. MEMRI recorded the broadcasts and uploaded them to both their own site and to YouTube, so the rest of the world can see these American Occupy sympathizers consorting with rank anti-Semites and Islamists, who seem pleased that this new revolution may soon topple our democratic system of government.
Three videos tell the story. Here’s the first:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3Hf8n09hmc
Here’s a partial transcript:
Imam Abdul Alim Musa, Masjid al-Islam, Washington DC: “The people of [Occupy] Wall Street are not anti-Iranian, anti-Iraqi, anti-Islam: They’re pro-humanity. They feel that all of us are part of the 99%. Right? They are against one government [referring to Israel] killing scientists, engineers, peaceful people, right? So they are naturally against Zionism.”
…
“And I believe that [Occupy] Wall Street is fighting the monster of the day. The monster is not the Shah, the monster today is global Zionism. You’re using riba [usury] and interest — the tool that they use to control the world, to control each state and each area of the world, is debt.”
Among the academics and experts at the conference, described as “Three American activists from the Occupy Wall Street movement,” were:
• Alex Vitale, of Brooklyn College
• Heather Gautney, of Fordham University
• John Hammond, of City University of New York
(A quick Googling of these three will reveal their far-left anti-capitalist beliefs.)
Joining them were three American religious figures representing the conspiracy-theory wings of the three monotheistic religions:
• Imam Abdul Alim Musa, of Masjid al-Islam, Washington DC (and an infamous anti-Semite)
• Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss, of Jews United Against Zionism (and spokesman for Neturei Karta)
• Hank Hanegraaf, of the Christian Research Institute (and who promotes the notion of literal Biblical inerrancy)
Playing host to them (and possibly others not mentioned in the report) were various Iranian Islamist academics.
This additional video features a completely different set of interviews:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fK7qhXj3Ag
The reporter at the end of the clip makes this hopeful prognostication:
Press TV reporter: “Experts here say that the Wall Street movement is putting pressure on the politicians to make policy changes in favor of the movement, and in the long run it can lead to the collapse of the government.”
By “collapse of the government” they don’t mean the ouster of the Obama administration specficially but rather the collapse of the American system of government.
This final video is a shorter compilation of interviews that appear in the first two clips:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSWFhu1KQTA
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