Page 8
Daily Nebraskan
Wednesday, February 24, 1982
M
ojahedin supporters demonstrate in New York
"Swear to martyr's blood, swear to orphan's tears,
swear to the widow 's tears and pain
that we'll never rest till freedom. "
- Song of the Mojahedin
"Dad told me when I was little that if I wanted some
thing bad enough I should fight for it to the end with all
my will and determination, and one day, it would be
mine." That is the philosophy of members of the Moslem
Student Society, supporters of the People's Mojahedin Or
ganization in Iran. Fight. To the end. Until it is yours. Un
til you win freedom.
The People's Mojahedin Organization, founded in 1965
as a vehicle against the Shall, is struggling now to expose
the alleged crimes of Khomeini in its country and to pro
mote "democracy, independence and obliteration of ex
ploitation," according to a spokesman of the society.
The Moslem Students' Societies of the United States
and Europe organized a world-wide demonstration cam
paign last week to call for human rights in Iran and the
condemnation of "the atrocities of Khomeini that are car
ried out in the name of religion," according to a pamph
let. Members of local chapters of the M.S.S. from all over
the United States, including five UNL students - three
Moslems and two Americans gathered last week to partici
pate in national demonstrations, one Feb. 12 in San Fran
cisco, Calif., the other Feb. 16 in New York City, N.Y.
Before the demonstrations the organization members
collected 100,000 signatures to petition against Khomei
ni's refusal to allow a missionary into Iran to investigate
prison conditions. Almost 000 signatures from the Lincoln-Omaha
area, primarily those of students and teach
ers, were taken to the New York demonstration. They
were to be given to an official from the United Nations
who is headquartered in New York, along with other pe
titions. Supporters embark
When the supporters gathered to leave Lincoln for New
York, they greeted each other with a customary kiss on
each cheek and embraced, and headed east toward New
York for a demonstration.
They traveled 40 hours, stopping to pick up other sup
porters. They were unified. And in the chill of the wet
mid-dawn they sat huddled together singing the songs of
their people: "We want to be free!"
They spent hours and miles discussing Islam, Khomei
ni, evolution, and the goals of the Mojahedin, and there
was a pleading in their voices which said, "believe us; un
derstand us."
They stopped to pick up 10 more in Iowa to join in
the New York demonstration. At four in the morning
they all filed into a tiny apartment and sat on the floor,
lining the walls of a near-empty room searching for a ra
dio station that would come in without static on a port
able radio.
"They say Khomeini is dead," a woman traveler said.
But the false rumor did not prompt celebration in their
eyes or actions. Everything remained normal with only a
slight air of tension.
Evening prayers
One by one the Lincoln travelers and their companions
went to the bathroom to wash themselves before their
prayers together. They gathered in a living room in rows,
facing what they believed to be Mecca as the three Ameri
cans in the group sat crouched against the walls facing
them, fidgeting, bowing their heads, not knowing if they
should watch the praying or not.
One Mojahedin stepped forward to lead. "Allah-akbar"
(God is Great), he chanted, raising his hands to the sky.
Others echoed him, bowing, kneeling to the ground and
standing again. And then they left, traveling eastward
through Indiana and Pennsylvania.
As they traveled they explained Mojahedin philoso
phies. The key factors in their beliefs are revolution and
evolution.
"It would be easy to kill Khomeini. We want to try
him publicly to expose him and his wrongdoings," a
spokesman said. After a revolution against Khomeini, a
cultural revolution must take place in order to change the
values of the people of Iran before the initiation of a new
democratic government, he said. The government would
be headed by a council of people which represented the
society and were elected by the people.
In New York
"If you believe religiously that people shouldn't be ex
ploited then you have to be political. Taking a political
position isn't going away from your religion. We are
fighting for the rights God demanded for us, politics get
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mixed in," said a man who asked not to be identified.
The Lincoln group, plus some, arrived in New York
just one hour before the ll a.m. demonstration. An esti
mated 800 demonstrators, mostly Iranian males but also a
surprising number of Iranian females and a few Ameri
cans, gathered hi Washington Square. An old drunk stum
bled through the mob, begging for quarters as he tipped
liis head back to take another swig from the bottle he car
ried. The demonstrators organized themselves in rows of
tliree each and stood in a circle around a large circular
fountain where a junkie was sprawled in the middle,
smoking a joint and soaking up the sun. Banners were
passed out to the group; those who would participate in a
hunger strike after the demonstration wore bright pink
signs around their necks. The banner leading the entire
procession proclaimed, "There is no God but one God"
in Arabic. As they began to march in a circle around the
fountain they chanted slogans in unison, "Long live free
dom; down with Khomeini," and "The people united, will
never be defeated."
The march
Leaving Washington Square they prepared for a three
hour police-guarded march downtown. New Yorkers were
generally apathetic. They stopped to watch the line of
demonstrators that swallowed two blocks of city streets
and as they passed, many people cut through the demon
strators to get to the other side of the street. A passer-by,
noting the banner, "30,000 political prisoners in Iran,"
mumbled, "It should have been 100,000," and kept walk
ing. Several people with the organization walked ahead of
the demonstration line to pass out information sheets
about Khomeini's crimes. The colored sheets lined the
sidewalks, blowing through the crowds and across the
streets. The demonstrators stopped in front of what they
wrongly believed to be the building which contained the
Iranian Embassy.
They then marched to Ralph Bunche Plaza, across
from the United Nations building, and after a mass-prayer
on the street corner, hunger strikers sitting on a long
cement step in the cold with little more than a coat, a
sleeping bag, a bright pink sign around their necks. They
planned to stay there, striking, until their conditions were
met; freedom of the 30,000 political prisoners in Iran;
an end to torture and mass executions; international ob
servation of missions to be in Iran; stopping Khomeini's
actions by the United Nations; and condemnation by all
governments of Khomeini's actions.
The night of the demonstration the Lincoln demonstra
tors ate in Harlem, then left New York, heading west.
Once inside the bus, they began again, softly at first
and then louder, the songs they sang about their people
and of the sturggle they would battle until the win: "We
want to be free!"
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