Published: July 31, 2008

Iran Democracy Monitor No. 76, July 31, 2008

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By Ilan Berman, American Foreign Policy Council

Ahmadinejad's New World Order

Since taking office in 2005, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has made the idea of a Third World "revolution" one of his main foreign policy themes. Three years on, this effort does not appear to have lost any steam. On Tuesday, Ahmadinejad used a meeting of the foreign ministers of the Nonaligned Movement (NAM) in Tehran as the platform for a renewed call to arms in the Third World. In his remarks before the summit, Ahmadinejad blamed the West for everything from the spread of AIDS to nuclear proliferation, and called on the NAM countries to band together to create an alternative to the United Nations as a way of becoming "the pioneer of peace and justice in the world." [Jerusalem Post, Press TV (Tehran)]

The War on Secular Education

The government of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is stepping up its pressure on "secularism" and "un-Islamic" attitudes in Iran's universities. According to government sources, Ahmadinejad's cabinet is currently putting in motion a plan to "Islamicize" Iran's institutions of higher learning. The progenitor of the effort, as well as its supervisor, appears to be none other than the Ayatollah Mohammad Taqi Mesbah-Yazdi, the Iranian president's spiritual mentor. Mesbah-Yazdi's seminary, the Imam Khomeini Education and Research Institute, is said to be one of several religious institutions with broad discretion to implement the re-education initiative. [Tehran Rooz]

A New Egyptian-Iranian Row

Just a year ago, the historically tense ties between Iran and Egypt appeared to be thawing, with both countries signaling their willingness to resume diplomatic relations. No longer. In recent days, relations between Tehran and Cairo have declined dramatically, spurred by a new Iranian documentary feting Khaled Eslambouli, the killer of the late Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. The film has sparked outrage in Egypt, with officials there saying that it "harms relations between the two countries" and "shows that Iran has no understanding of Egyptian sensitivities." And they are taking steps in response.

On July 24th, Egyptian authorities shut down the Cairo office of Iran's Al-Alam television channel and confiscated the station's professional equipment. The ostensible reason given was the lack of a proper broadcasting license, but observers say the move is a direct message to Tehran. "Without a doubt, the Egyptian government is retaliating for the Anwar El-Sadat movie," the station's manager, Ahmed El-Seyoufi, has told reporters. [Cairo Al-Ahram Weekly; Cairo Daily Star Egypt]

Bolstering The Basij

With fears of some sort of conflict over their nuclear program on the rise, Iranian officials are taking steps to bolster domestic security within the Islamic Republic. The regime's feared domestic militia, the Basij, has reportedly received a massive budgetary increase as part of military efforts to build a "20 million or multi-million army." The financial boost, formally announced by Basij commander Hassan Taeb, amounts to a "200 percent increase in the budget of the Basij resistance bases" for the current year alone. [Tehran Rooz]

The High Cost of The Internet

Internet usage is about to become an even riskier business in Iran. Iran's parliament, the majles, is reportedly considering a new law that would greatly expand penalties on what the regime deems inappropriate uses of the World-Wide Web. If passed, the bill, which parliamentarians say is intended to "toughen punishment for harming mental security in society," makes offenses such as "establishing weblogs and sites promoting corruption, prostitution and apostasy" a crime punishable by death. [Agence France Presse]