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To: Ruffian who wrote (66080)	2/5/2000 4:23:00 PM
From: Jon Koplik	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 152472

Off topic (another silly post) - should QCOM open an office in the city mentioned in the following article ? February 5, 2000 Iranian Hard-Liners Fight Cartoons Filed at 3:55 p.m. EST By The Associated Press QOM, Iran (AP) -- A political cartoonist who portrayed an Iranian cleric as a crocodile was arrested Saturday, his colleagues said, and angry clergymen and theology students demonstrated for a third day against government tolerance of such comment. The cartoonist, Neekahang Kowsar, was imprisoned without bail after Iran's Press Supervisory Board referred the case against Azad -- the reformist newspaper that ran the cartoons -- to court, Kowsar's co-workers said. The press board also issued a warning reminding newspapers and magazines that it is illegal to publish ``any insults to Islam, officials, organizations, institutions and those who are religiously respected.' Azad published a notice Saturday saying it was voluntarily suspending publication for three days ``to soothe tensions.' It also has published apologies, saying cartoons that depicted hard-line cleric Ayatollah Mohammad Taqi Mesbah Yazdi as a fat thug and a crocodile -- a symbol of treachery and deception -- were not intended to be offensive. Last week's cartoons were the first time a publication had so pointedly lampooned the clergy since the 1979 Islamic revolution. Newspapers have been in the vanguard of Iranian reformists' struggle for greater democracy and fewer religious constraints. Outrage against the cartoons continued Saturday. More than 5,000 theology students and clergymen demonstrated for a third day in the holy city of Qom, a bastion of conservative clerics 80 miles south of Tehran. Seminaries throughout Qom were closed to allow students to join the protests at the Azam Mosque. Protesters condemned Azad and called for the resignation of Culture Minister Ayatollah Mohajerani, who is responsible for press licensing. A day earlier, demonstrators had been demanding Mohajerani's execution. Later in the day, state-run television said the protest had ended on the order of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. One of Kowsar's cartoons showed a fat thug, with dollars inside his stomach, ready to club a scrawny journalist and demanding: ``Confess immediately. Where have you hidden the dollars.' Yazdi has claimed that a former CIA chief traveled to Iran with a case full of dollars to finance some newspapers -- a veiled stab at the credibility of reformist journalists. He did not identify the former CIA chief or the newspapers. The other cartoon portrayed a crocodile shedding false tears to lament the ``cultural invasion' by foreigners in Iran. Protesters said it alluded to Yazdi because the Persian word for crocodile -- temsah -- sounds similar to Mesbah. Since the 1997 election of reformist President Mohammad Khatami, hard-liners have closed down several pro-reform newspapers. Last year, they failed in their effort to impeach Mohajerani for allowing reformist papers to flourish. ``The political attack against the culture minister is part of a general plan against reform just before the elections,' said the reformist Peyam-e-Azadi newspaper, referring to Feb. 18 parliamentary elections. Copyright 2000 The New York Times Company