Page 4-Tuesday, November 20, 1979-The Michigan Daily Ninety Years of Editorial Freedom Harassment of Iraniansis misdirectedanger Vol. LXXXX, No.65 News Phone: 764-0552 Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan iF l( ^ : r :<: . ; . ti, , qty ' a, . '< <; , } . , ,t z r Anger directed against Iranians in the United States is both counterproductive and dangerous. Many Americans, especially students, are confusing criticism of the taking of hostages in Tehran with hostility towards Iranians in this country. Such unnecessary harassment of Iranians here is misplaced anger and may serve to hurt the chances of freeing the hostages safely. The harrassment of Iranian students here "hasn't changed their stands and has poisined relations with the U.S.," according to at least one expert, Prof. Kenneth Luther of the University's Near Eastern studies depar- tment. But, regardless of its political effect, the hostility against Iranians living and studying here has implications even more dangerous. The most obvious ramification is the harassment of innocent Iranians. "It scapegoats and punishes people who have no responsibility for what is going on," commen- ted one local minister. Iranians in Ann Arbor have received death threats, and harassing telephone calls in the middle of the night. One Iranian woman said she and some friends are afraid to leave their houses in the evening. Judging from the behavior at Friday's anti-Iranian demon- stration, the woman's feeling is more than justified. People with dark skin or a mideastern ac- cent are being mistaken for Iranians and sub- jected to the same kinds of harassment. What's more, this misdirected anger is being encouraged by some government of- ficials. Senate majority leader Robert C. Byrd (D-W. Va.) said he understood Americans "throwing rocks or eggs or anything else" at Iranians who choose to demonstrate in the United States. "I'd feel like taking a punch at one myself if I could get to him," Byrd said in one copyrighted inter- view published Saturday in the Charleston Daily Mail. Luther said he was treated with respect by Iranians who knew he was American when he By Laurie Krauth if she is deported. Political experts at the U of M agree that some Iranians here may face surveillance and unemployment if they are sent back to Iran. How different is deporting those Iranians from the herding of Japanese descendants in- to concentration camps during World War II? Americans who understand the racism in calling Blacks "niggers" are not making the connection in calling Iranians "camel- jockeys." .it is ironic that while A mericans aren't injured or villified in Iran, Iranians are villified and harassed in the U. S. -Prof.-Kenneth Luther, Near Eastern studies department visited their country. He said it was ironic that while Americans aren't injured or villified in Iran, Iranians are villified and harassed in the U.S." The hostility against Iranian students here continues the dangerous tradition of punishing descendents and visitors from countries we have no political disputes with. One Iranian said she fears reprisals in Iran Many people are realizing that seeing the Vietnamese as "gooks" made it possible to justify U.S. policies against them. Will seeing Iranians as "terrorists" and "camel- jockeys" allow us to abuse them as well? Laurie Krauth is a senior in the Univer- sity's residential college. HOS'f bC ED46 13(FwiML R~E56RE Ai'f C OIN INFLATION Anti-Iranian backlash is misplace( P ERHAPS THE ugliest aspect of continuing hostage crisis in Iran is the base instincts of Americans it has fueled across the country and here on campus. The feeling of helplessness at the events in Tehran, and the in- dignation at being subjected to a government-condoned act of official terrorism in our own embassy there is of course more than enough to give rise. to frustration among most Americans. But that frustration has taken the form of protests, often violent, directed. against students here in this country, whom we recognize as having the same rights to free speech and assem- bly as American citizens. To vent that frustration at Iranians here exercising their rights may be satisfying for a few, but in the long run runs rough- shod over those very principles of freedom this country purports to protect. What would be the difference between the United States and Iran if this country disallowed all pro-Iranian dissent, just as Khomeini censors the opposite line? The backlash here against Iranians reeks of the kind of concentration camp discrimination the Roosevelt administration practiced in locking up Japanese Americans during the Second World War. A federal judge has already ruled unconstitutional the government park services ban ors parade permits in the District of Columbia, and the administration should take careful note - even in flammable situations, the rights of in- dividuals are guaranteed under the Bill of Rights and must not be usurped. This includes Iranians, who have the I outrage right to rally for Khomeini and con- demn U.S. imperialism in their home country, if they so desire. That misguided and misdirected anger might better be directed towar- ds the Carter administration, with a demand for a full public explanation as to how the deposed Shah of Iran got in- to this country in the first place. The United States must not cave in to the terrorist demands of Khomeini s student blackmailers in Tehran, but neither must this country become a haven for the likes of deposed despots, fascists, and friends of Henry Kissinger. The shah must not be turned over to the terrorists, but neither must we allow the shah to remain in this country once events in Tehran have played their course. And the ad- ministration's buckling under to Kissinger and David Rockefeller, allowing the shah to set foot here, will be something President Carter must be forced to answer to in the next weeks and months. Khomeini is a brutal despot, ranking about a 10 on a scale of world oppressors. But when it comes to sheer brutality and repressiveness, the shah is not even on the scale. So to those students here on campus and elsewhere who evoke the memory of John Wayne and march against Iran, chanting fanatically to Nuke Iran or kill all Iranians, be reminded that such a response to events in Tehran only exchanges repression and bar- barity for repression and barbarity. And the ultimate victim in the end will be the civilized nature of civilization it- self, since U.S./Iranian relations seem hopeless soured forever. Daily Photo by PETER SERLING Satan America? To hell with Iran! - Or so reads the sign of this angry protester on the steps of the graduate library for last week's demonstration. LETTERS TO THE DAILY: Iranian protests draw crossfire To the Daily: We feel that Steve Roach's letter concerning the Iranian situation is totally deplorable and void of the principles on which our Constitution is based upon. America has traditionally been a country of equal opportunity for all (even Steve Roach's Iranian "bastards")and Roach's idea to deport Iranians is against the American principal that one should not be discriminated against because of his nationality, race, or religion. Roach complains about the dic- tatorships of the Ayatollah and the Shah. He implies that they have oppressed the Iranian people, but in proposing that we deport the Iranians, he is ad- vocating that the American government do the same thing to the Iranians. In short, we feel that Steve Roach is an arrogant, prejudiced sonuvabitch. (We should know, we're his room- mates.) We feel that Steve Roach, not the Iranians, should be extradited. (This way we'd have a double instead of an economy triple.) -Jeff Forman, Jeff Banker To the Daily: be civilized. To that end, he recommends deporting all Iranian students from America, after taking a few hundred (or thousand) hostage. After all, they did it to us first! Although, just to teach them a lesson, perhaps we should round them all up instead and put them all into detention camps. After all, if it was good enough for the Japanese Americans in the 1940's, it's good enough for Iranians in 1979, right? Or, alternatively, we could in- vade Iran. (Another laudable suggestion of Mr. Roach's). Let's kill a few thousand Iranians; that should teach them to act civilized, by gum! And let's face it, who really cares if they kill the American hostages? It's the principle of the thing, dammit! The nation which produced John Wayne, George Patton, and Richard Nixon will surely never stoop so low as to act solely in regard to preserving human life. That would be soft. Now that we see the situation in its proper perspective, I have only one question: Who is Stever Roach and why is he saying these ridiculous things? --Andrea Darvas placing and maintaining him in power, the US media has misled the American people as to the nature of the crisis today, and has created an stmosphere of virulent super patriotism and racism against Iranians and Arabs. After the first time the Iranian people deposed the Shah and replaced him with an elected government, the US, through the CIA, sponsored a coup d'etat that brought the Shah back into power in 1953. The Shah maintained his power through a US trained secret police force, called. SAVAK, that tortured, beat, and killed political opponents. It is estimated that the Shah was responsible for the murder of 600,000 to 800,000 persons during his 25 year reign of terror. In one day alone, in September 1978, at a a demonstration against the Shah in Tehran, the Shah's soldiers killed about 6,000 unarmed demonstrators. THE RECENT ENTRY of the Shah into the US was engineered by the likes of Henry Kissinger, David Rockefeller, and Sen. Barry Goldwater. These agents of big business, who have been involved in military coups from Indonesia to Chile and who were hostages have signed a petition supporting this demand, accor- ding to the Nov. 11, 1979, edition of the New York Times. In response to this, the US government has seized all Iranian assets in the US and has taken the first steps toward an economic blockade of Iran which is considered an act of war by in- ternational convention. In ad- dition, the use of food as a weapon has been raised along with the spectre of open military interven- tion in Iran. THE BIG BUSINEgs rulers of this country are trying to foise on the American people a view of Middle Eastern peoples as savages and inferior. By whip- ping up racist stereotypes and hatred, as they do against Blacks, Latinos, Native Americans, Asians and other minorities, an atmosphere is created where the most extreme and brutal forms of repression are advocated and justified. The workers, students, and oppressed peoples of this country must op- pose those who fan racism and super-patriotism and unite with the struggle of the Iranian people against US imperialism. 111ii 1x il a i Uf