Maryam Rajavi said: Extremism, fundamentalism and terrorism which is currently taking place under the name of Islam has nothing to do with Islam. Islam is the religion of mercy and emancipation and not vengeance and violence. Islam is the religion of coexistence and fraternity and not sectarianism, war and hostilities.

SOLIDARITY OF RELIGIONS AGAINST EXTREMISM AND FOR PEACE AND FRATERNITY

Maryam Rajavi welcomes recent remarks by the Sheikh of Al-Azhar and the Pope regarding fraternity between the followers of Islam and Christianity and calls on followers of all religions for solidarity in confronting extremism
On Friday, 5 May 2017, Maryam Rajavi met with Bishop Jacques Gaillot in Auvers-sur-Oise. In this meeting the threat of extremism under the pretext of religion and the genuine message of religions including Islam and Christianity for peace, fraternity and coexistence were discussed.

Maryam Rajavi said: Extremism, fundamentalism and terrorism which is currently taking place under the name of Islam has nothing to do with Islam. Islam is the religion of mercy and emancipation and not vengeance and violence. 

Islam is the religion of coexistence and fraternity and not sectarianism, war and hostilities. Theories like Velayat-e-Faqih and religious dictatorship which have been invented by Khomeini have nothing to do with Islam or Shiites.

 Khomeini, Khamenei and the religious fascism ruling Iran, which have invented and spread this theory, are the biggest enemies of Islam. The misuse of Islam, like other great religions, dates back to long ago, but the phenomenon that we are facing today, i.e. terrorism under the banner of Islam stems from the regime which has been ruling Iran for the past 38 years.

On behalf of the people of Iran and the Iranian Resistance, I welcome the recent remarks by Sheikh Ahmed Tayeb from Al-Azhar and Pope Francis regarding brotherhood between followers of Islam and Christianity in confronting extremism and terrorism which in my view is rooted in Iran under the

Iran mine blast: At least 35 miners killed, more than 40 trapped

Coal miners react following an explosion in a mine in Azadshahr, in northern Iran, leaving dozens of miners trapped on May 3, 2017

Tehran,  4 May 2017 - Iran's deputy Labor Minister acknowledged that at least 35 miners have been killed in Wednesday's mine explosion in Golestan Province and more than 40 others are still trapped. But the resucers, according to the AFP have been able to recover only 21 bodies from the coal mine in the northern Iran.

Reza Bahrami, a mining industry official in the province of Golestan where the accident occurred, said the 21 bodies were those of miners who went into the tunnel to try to save colleagues, including many who were trapped.

“Some 600 metres (yards) of the tunnel has been cleared” and emergency crews were still at work in the mile-long Zemestan Yort mine, Bahrami added.

“Thirty-two miners have been trapped at the end of one of the shafts 1,300 meters deep into the mine,” Golestan governor Hassan Sadeghlou said, quoted by state media. Poisonous gas inside the tunnel has hampered the rescue work.

NCRI - Reports indicate that Iran’s proxy group Hezbollah is bordering on bankruptcy because of its massive expenditure in Syria.

NCRI Iran News | Terrorism and Fundamentalism

Around 70 per cent of Hezbollah’s annual finances is provided by Iran – approximately $1 billion. However, Iran is forcing Hezbollah further and further into the Syrian war, but is not providing any additional finance.

It is said that the group has been extorting donors and Lebanese expatriates around the world. This has angered those high up in the group because Lebanese Shiites have had to sell property and assets to keep the Hezbollah operations going.

The group has started to collect tariffs on goods in place of the government in areas of south and east Lebanon that border with Syria.
The war in Syria and the cost of fighting there has made a real impact on the group’s financial situation, but the US sanctions has just made it much worse.

The US sanctions restricted Lebanese banks from doing business with the group and Shiite businessmen in Lebanon want to steer clear in case they face sanctions too.
Hezbollah, no doubt feeling like it is in an impossible situation, is still funding the numerous social programs it supports to help the Shiite community in Lebanon. It is also still making payments to the families of fighters that have died or been hurt. This is clearly because it does not want to lose support.

The terror group leaders, however, seem to have disregarded the financial difficulties and are still helping themselves to the money pot. Apparently the son of Hassan Nasrallah – the Hezbollah leader – has helped himself to enough money to fund a whole chain of cafés in Beirut. And it must be noted that his father is worth around $250 million.

NCRI Iran News | Terrorism and FundamentalismNCRI Iran NewNCRI Iran News | Terrorism and Fundamentalism
NCRI INCRI - Reports indicate that Iran’s proxy group Hezbollah is bordering on bankruptcy because of its m
assive expenditure in Syria.an

Parallel to such policy overhauls, the U.S. should stand alongside the Iranian people and their organized resistance, represented for decades by the National Council of Resistance of Iran, the umbrella group of different organizations and individuals led by Maryam Rajavi, advocating regime change and peaceful transition to democracy.

Why Trump should focus on Iran's human rights abuses

While Iran does pose a major military threat, through supporting what has been described by Trump as "radical Islamist terrorism," Tehran's ongoing human rights abuses should finally receive the long overdue attention they deserve. 

In fact, U.S. interests can be advanced through a robust challenging of Iran's domestic dissent crackdown. U.S. strategy seeking to confront Iran would receive a correct boost through combating Tehran's authoritarian dogma.

What needs comprehension in the West is that the mullahs fear U.S. military power far less than its ability to launch a "cultural war." While Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has mistakenly invested on a theory of military threats rallying the Iranian population around the flag, a cultural onslaught, however, would weaken the willpower of his already dwindling base.

To this end, at a time when Iran's human rights abuses have intensified enormously from the early days of the 1979 revolution, the regime has pressed the gas pedal on such measures when deemed necessary, when the very doctrine of its Islamist rule faces an escalating threat.

For example, through the past four years, while President Hassan Rouhani claimed to lead a so-called "reformist" or "moderate" approach, he has simultaneously sent more than 3,000 people to the gallows.

Following the signing of the Iran nuclear deal, Tehran launched a major crackdown campaign resulting in waves of arrests, reminding many of the days following the 2009 uprising. The regime was quite aware to make it crystal clear for all parties that the nuclear pact would not render any widespread engagement between Iran and the West, most specifically Washington.

In 1988, Rouhani himself was a high-ranking official in the defense ministry, making it highly unlikely that he was not aware of the massacres taking place.

Pictures of some of the Iranians massacred in 1988 by Khomeini’s regime at an exhibition in the mayor’s office in Paris.

Iran’s presidential election is scheduled for May 19. Last week the Guardian Council, the body controlled by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei which vets election candidates, eliminated all but six candidates. 

Only two of the remaining six are considered serious applicants for the Islamic Republic’s next president: incumbent President Hassan Rouhani and Ebrahim Raisi, a cleric currently heading the Astan Quds Razavi, a so-called charity foundation with an estimated value of $15 billion.

As far as the Iranian people are concerned, there is no difference between these two candidates and no fundamental change will result from the selection of either candidate.

However, this presidential election has set the stage for the Iranian people and the international community to witness the most unprecedented confessions by various candidates regarding the 1988 massacres and crimes against humanity carried out by the entire Islamic Republic regime.

Based on a decree issued by the leader of the Iranian Islamic revolution, Ayatollah Khomeini, Iran’s brutal ruler from 1979 until his death in 1989, the regime massacred over 30,000 political prisoners in a span of four months during the summer of 1988.

AP, April 28, 2017 - Experts cautioned that international statistics on executions are difficult to obtain because many countries shroud the process in secrecy.

Iran executed more in capita than any other country in the world

Iran has reportedly executed 10 people since April 20, when Arkansas executed its first inmate since 2005.

Iranian news media reported that 29-year-old Mehdi Mirzaei was executed on April 22 after serving three years in western Iranian city of Khoramabad. He had been sentenced to death for carrying and possession of seven kilograms of amphetamine.

A second person executed the same day was identified by local media as a 21-year-old man sentenced to death for killing another man during an argument about a year and a half ago. He was executed in the northern Iranian city of Babol.

Eight prisoners were hanged in Iran on April 20, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency, a group run by Iranian human rights activists living outside the Middle Eastern country who collect information from reporters operating in Iran. The agency said the prisoners received death sentences following murder convictions in recent years. No names were given and there was no corroboration by officials, who do not always release details of those executed.

Executions in Iran are typically carried out early in the morning in prison gallows, often with a chair or bench kicked out from under the inmate. Most happen in the presence of families of victims and the condemned.

- On Tuesday April 25, furious people of the city of Behshar Iran, whom their savings were plundered by a state - owned company called Caspian, set a branch of this company on fire.

Iran: Protesters Set Fire on a Regime - Owned Company

This company which has eight sub-companies under the guise of ‘cooperative entities’, had collected small capitals of 2 million people in various cities and looted it all.

One of these entities called ‘Fereshtegan’ alone, has plundered around 4 Billion Tomans (more than one Billion and 66 Million dollars).

All these companies belong to regime’s authorities and in order to concentrate power. 

Their foundation and activities are all sponsored by government institutions.

 Caspian Company is also one of them which was founded under the authorization of Central Bank, and now is refusing to turn back the people’s savings, and to this date, the complaint of these poor plundered people has received no response from the regime’s judicial