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Iran stages suicide bomber recruiting drive
A small hardline Iranian group launched a fresh suicide bomber recruitment drive, hoping to lure volunteers ready to die in the fight against Israel, Salman Rushdie or foreign invaders."The most important martyrdom-seeking operations that we call on people to register for is to defend the country in case of an attack," explained Mohammad Samadi, spokesman for the "Committee for the Glorification of Martyrs of the Global Islamic Movement." "We feel a serious threat by America," he told AFP at the event, held in a Tehran university building and attended by around 100 people. After some three hours of speeches and films on Palestinian bombers, just a few dozen people stuck around to sign a form with three options: target the "occupiers of Qods (Jerusalem)", the "apostate Salman Rushdie" or "invaders." Samadi said that over the past year, 1,000 people have registered to die and 300 of them had entered training courses including "theory and practice." Iran's previous reformist government had distanced itself from the group. It asserted that this was merely a symbolic way for people to express their anger against Israel or Rushdie -- sentenced to death by Iran's revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1989 over his book "The Satanic Verses." But radicals have been given a new lease of life with last June's election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has labelled Israel a "tumour" that "must be wiped off the map" and branded the Holocaust a "myth." "The average age range of participants is between 18 and 25, but we also get 80-year-old applicants," Samadi said. "This is a way to give chance to people who have potential to show their capability to fight against invaders." One of those signing up was Hamidreza Shahnazari, a bearded 24-year-old electrical student. "I registered to prove that Iranian youth are not only those on the street with the latest fashions. There are many young people that dream about martyrdom every night," he said. "It does not matter where or when; if there is a possibility for me to fight I will definitely dedicate my life to it. Arezou, a 21-year-old Spanish language student, added: "I think the only choice is martyrdom. Israel is the main and biggest problem that we have to fight against it by martyrdom-seeking actions." Posted by: Dan Darling 2006-02-19 |
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