page 8 - The Behrend College Collegian. Thursday, December 11, 1997
Arrest of former Islamic leader shakes Ira
By Nicholas Goldberg.(c) 1997,
Newsday
QOM, Iran- In this holy city, where
the Islamic revolution was born
more than three decades ago, the
arrest of Grand Ayatollah Hussein
Ali Nlontaieri has left people shaken
and worried, and wary of the secret
police now crawling the streets.
Montazeri's school has been
wrecked and closed, his books
burned by vigilantes. He himself was
assaulted, according to his son, and
kn ir ked to the ground. Once a great
leader of the Islamic revolution, he's
now an elderly man under house
arrest, being punished for his
thoughts, and it is unclear what will
become of him.
"If it is treason against the people
which it is- there will be no laxity,"
warned Ayatollah Ali Khamenei,
Iran's supreme leader. Treason, in
this country, is punishable by death.
The bearded, 75-year-old mullah
made his offending remarks last
month during a speech on a
seemingly obscure religious subject
to a roomful of students. In it,
Montazeri- a teacher of Khamenei
and former President Ali Akhbar
Hashemi Rafsanjani, a leader of the
Iranian revolution since the 19605,
and a man once slated to take over
Robert Downey gets 6-month
sentence for violating probation
By Robert W. Welkos=(c) 1997,
Los Angeles Times
MALIBU, Calif.- Delivering a
stern message to a celebrity who has
grappled repeatedly with substance
abuse, a judge Monday ordered actor
Robert Downey Jr. to serve 6 months
in
. lail for violating terms of his
probation for a 1996 drug conviction.
Municipal Judge Lawrence Mira
told Downey, 32, that the jail term
he was imposing was intended "to let
you know that when you make the
choice for drugs, you're going to jail
it's that simple".
"I'm going to incarcerate you, and
I'm going to incarcerate you in a way
that's very unpleasant for you," the
judge said. "I don't care who you are.
What I care about is that there is a
life to be saved from drugs."
l)owney issued an emotional
statement at the hearing, noting at one
point that he had been addicted to
drugs since the age of 8.
"I have no excuses," he told the
judge. "I find myself defenseless."
The actor, whose finely tuned
performance as comedian Charlie
Chaplin led to an Oscar nomination
for the 1992 film "Chaplin," added:
"I don't know why... the severity
and the fear... of you, of death and of
Hard winte
for homele
By Cindy Loose=(c) 1997, The
Washington Post
WASHINGTON- Housing
Secretary Andrew M. Cuomo urged
providers of services for the
homeless Monday to gear up for a
particularly had winter that could
"Homeless people will
die; the only question is
how many,"
-Andrew M. Cuomo
Housing and Urban
Development Secretary
he a death sentence for hundreds of
the people they serve.
He also called on volunteers
throughout the nation to step
forward, and announced the
Department of Housing and Urban
Development will operate a toll
from the late Ayatollah Ruhollah
Khomeini as supreme leader- joined
a growing movement of dissidents
challenging the most basic
underpinning of the Islamic
republic: the right of a clerical leader
to run the government.
Along the way, he served as a
harsh reminder that the revolution
that was made in Qom can he
unmade there as well.
"The system is being shaken from
within- that's why they're so upset,"
said Daryoush Farouhar, a longtime
opponent of the regime. "When it
comes from one of their own,
someone like Montazeri especially,
who is respected as a learned Islamic
scholar, it's like throwing a bomb
into a building."
Nor is Montazeri the only insider
criticizing the role of the supreme
leader. There's also Ayatollah Ahmed
Azari-Qomi, a senior cleric who
distributed a 35-page document
defending Montazeri. There's
Abdelka rim Soroush, an influential
Islamic philosopher who has been
arguing for years that mosque and
state should be disentangled- and
who was physically barred from
speaking to a student meeting in
Tehran just a few weeks ago. There
are others as well, like Ayatollah
Sayed Sadegh Rohani, who has been
not being able to live a life free of
drugs has not been enough to make
me not continually relapse... again. I
really need to do this, even if I don't
want to, I need to."
As he was led away in handcuffs
to Los Angeles County Jail, Downey
nodded and smiled to his supporters
in the courtroom.
In addition to jail time, which could
be reduced for good behavior, the
judge ordered Downey to enroll in a
residential treatment program upon
his release from custody.
Downey has been in and out of
courtrooms and treatment programs
since the summer of 1996, when he
was stopped for speeding. Police
searching his pickup truck found
cocaine, heroin and a pistol. His
name made headlines again a month
later, when he was found passed out
in a child's bed in a neighbor's home.
He was later arrested after leaving a
recovery center.
Downey was sentenced to three
years probation after pleading no
contest to drug and weapons charges.
He spent about three months in a live
in treatment program. His probation
was revoked Oct. 17 after his drug
counselor said he violated a court
order by using drugs again. The actor
could have been sent to jail for as
r pred
ss
free number to link potential
volunteers with local agencies
needing help.
That number- 1-800-HUD-1010
- also can be used to report
homeless people in need of
services. A HUD operator will alert
local providers who can respond
immediately.
Using a satellite TV hookup from
HUD headquarters, Cuomo spoke
Monday to 5,000 providers for the
homeless gathered at 70 HUD field
offices. He was accompanied by a
meteorologist who predicted El
Nino would bring floods and
unusually rough winter storms to
large areas of the country, requiring
a bigger and more coordinated
response if deaths by exposure are
to be avoided.
"Homeless people will die; the
only question is how many,"
Cuomo said. "El Nino will make a
bad situation worse, but how much
World aid Nation
living under house arrest in Mashad
for 14 years.
The controversy comes in the
wake of May's watershed election
for president, in which Mohammed
Khatami won a stunning upset over
the heavily favored, right-wing
candidate backed by Khamenei. The
election result was widely viewed as
a call for dramatic change in Iran and
for a loosening of social strictures
that have gone along with Islamic
rule.
Nevertheless, voicing dissent is
not a safe practice here, When
Heshmatollah Tabarzadi, head of the
Union of Islamic Students and
Graduates, said in an interview last
month that the supreme leader
should be popularly elected, rather
than appointed by other clerics, his
office was soon stormed by thugs
believed to be directed by right-wing
government forces.
"For 15 minutes, six or seven men
beat me and kicked me," said
Tabarzadi, whose hand was still in a
cast during an interview last week.
"They hit me in the face with a cable,
and with brass knuckles. They yelled
`Why have you criticized the leader.'
Few believe that the Islamic
regime, which came to power under
Khomeini almost 20 years ago when
long as three years or allowed to
remain free in a rehabilitation
program
"What's ordinary about you is your
drug use," the judge told the
defendant. "What is exceptional
about you is your willingness to
endure so much pain and so much
turmoil in your life just to use these
drugs. You need to find out why, and
I hope by the help of all the people
that I got letters from today, that we'll
be able to do that."
Despite his legal troubles,
Downey's film career seems to have
gone ahead full steam. He has several
films scheduled to come out next
year- "U.S. Marshals," a spinoff of
"The Fugitive," for Warner Bros.;
"The Gingerbread Man," a Robert
Altman-directed thriller for
PolyGram Films, and "Two Girls and
a Guy," a dark comic look at an
unusual love triangle for Fox
Searchlight.
The actor also is scheduled to
appear in a still-untitled film for
Dream Works SKG directed by Neil
Jordan. The film, which also stars
Annette Bening, is a thriller about the
search for a serial killer who kidnaps
young children.
icted
worse we don't know."
Cuomo announced HUD would
distribute more than 300,000
wallet-size cards that include the
800 number and 10 tips on ways to
help the homeless. The cards will
be distributed by HUD field offices
to supermarkets, bookstores and
community centers.
Cuomo said federal resources for
the homeless have never been
greater: When he joined the
department about four years ago,
HUD had $3OO million available in
grants for homelessness programs.
Despite shrinking federal budgets
generally, that figure has increased
this year to $823 million.
Moreover, nonprofit groups have
been working with the private
sector and state and local
governments to maximize their
efforts.
"Now," Cuomo said, "we need to
get individuals involved."
Shah Mhammed Reza Pahievi was
driven)ut, is on the verge of
collaps, But for Khamcnei, the
hard-lin leader known as "Allah's
deputy .n Earth," the events of
recent weks are significant.
"Everpne knows that when
change omen, if it comes, it will
come frai within," said Shirin
Ebadi, a uman-rights lawyer in
Tehran. "'bat is why these internal
battles area important."
At the heart of Montazeri's
comments-as well as those of
Soroush, Talirzadi and Qomi- is the
concept o the ideological
underpinninpf clerical rule in Iran.
As enunciated)) , Khomeini in 1970,
it calls for slecting a supreme
political leacr from among the
ranks of top a'atollahs, to run the
government as the prophet
Mohammed 'an the Islamic
community in le 7th century. This
supreme leader Khomeini was the
first- is empovored, among other
things, to dismis the president; to
appoint militry and police
commanders ando declare war. The
leader, expectec to be the most
senior and learnedleric in the land,
is chosen by a conmittee of senior
clerics.
In his speech, Motazeri, himself
a religious leader, as re virtually all
Wal-Mart and Kmart
from shelves over lyrics
British band
Prodigy spark.
controversy oter
"Smack my BUM
Up"
By Chuck Philips=(c) 1997,;.0s
Angeles Times
Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the nation's
largest retailer, yanked .a
controversial album by the Britisi
rock act Prodigy from 2,300 store:
on Friday because of objectionable
lyrics contained in the song "Smack
My Bitch Up."
This is apparently the first time
Wal-Mart has pulled a record after
it already was on the shelves based
on the content of its lyrics. The
decision is certain to have a
significant impact on sales because
the company is one of the largest
sellers of records in the country.
Kmart, the giant Troy, Mich.-
based mass merchandiser, also
pulled the recording from its 2,100
stores late Friday. Both retailers
decided to take the album off their
shelves following a report
published Wednesday in the Los
Angeles Times.
"Smack My Bitch Up"- a tune
that critics say glorifies domestic
violence- was released last week as
a single on Madonna's Maverick
label, which is half-owned by
Warner Bros. Records, a subsidiary
of Time Warner. The song is also
included on Prodigy's Time
Warner-distributed "The Fat of the
Land" album, which debuted in
April at No. 1 on Billboard's
national pop chart and has since
sold 2 million copies in the U.S.
The controversy underscores
problems with the system used by
record companies and retailers to
monitor and label music with
potentially offensive lyrics. Some
albums, mostly by black rap
groups, have become lightening
rods for criticism while seemingly
offensive lyrics by rock groups
frequently slip under the radar.
Janice Rocco, president of the Los
Angeles chapter of the National
Organization for Women,
applauded Wal-Mart and Kmart for
pulling the record.
senior government officials, did not
call for a separation of religion and
politics. But he made two key
assertions: First, he argued that
Khamenei was not qualified to serve
as the faqih because he was neither
a senior-enough cleric nor a serious
enough scholar. Second, he argued
that the supreme leader, whoever
that person is, should act as an
overseer, ensuring that secular
government does not conflict with
Islamic law, rather than as a hands
on politician running the machinery
of secular government day-to-day.
"The duty of the leader is to
supervise that nothing violates the
religious principles," Montazeri
said. "It does not mean that you form
a large organization and a royal
guard bigger than the ones of the
kings and that no one can be in touch
with you."
Montazeri, who studied with
Khomeini as early as 1939 and was
a leader of the anti-shah movement
from the 19605, was Khomeini's
original choice 'to succeed him as
supreme leader'.
But in the late 1980 s, the two
clashed when Montazeri criticized
mass executions as well as the
regime's treatment of dissidents and
its conduct of the Iran-Iraq war. Just
three months before his death, in
"Given their internal policies on
monitoring lyrics, it is the only
appropriate thing to do," Rocco
said. "It sends a message to women
and men who shop at their stores
that these companies do not want
to be a part of the problem in our
culture that perpetuates violence
against women."
Warner Music continues to back
the song, which Prodigy says has
nothing to do with domestic abuse,
and blames the Times for
instigating the controversy.
"In the past five months, we have
not received a single complaint
"This thing should have
been a stickered product,
and if it had been, we
would have never carried
it to begin with."
-Dennis Wigent
birector of internal communication jiff
atout this recording from
an!body," said Bob Merlis, senior
vile president of worldwide
corporate communications for
Wainer Bros. Records. "In fact, the
album was critically acclaimed
arould the country- especially in
the LA. Times. It wasn't until an
L.A. Times reporter brought it to
the attention of people who could
only expected to take exception
to it that the record became an issue.
In my opinion, the L.A. Times
seized on an oportunity and in
essence created the news- and then
covered it."
Rocco said NOW intends to
request a meeting next week with
the top brass at Time Warner to
discuss the content of the
company's product. On Friday,
Richard Parsons, president of Time
Warner, said "if NOW wanted to
meet with executives from Time
Warner's businesses, Time WaiTier
would be gl,Ad to do that."
Prodigy producer Liam Howlett
has denied that the group's song is
about hitting women, saying that "
`Smack My Bitch Up' is a phrase
(that means) doing anything
intensely, like being on stage- going
for extreme manic energy."
That interpretation isn't apparent
in the song, which repeats the lyric
a dozen times, or in the 3,000
Warner-financed promotional
June 1989, Khomeini purged
Montazeri from the inner circle and
removed him as designated
successor.
To this day, many of Montazeri's
opponents argue that he is nothing
more than a disgruntled has-been
who wishes he had gotten the top
job.
"In his last days, Imam Khomeini
no longer recognized Montazeri as
a good figure to replace him, and he
changed his mind," said Ayatollah
Makarem Shirazi, one of the senior
clerics in Qom, during an interview
last week at his Koran school. "But
he and some members of his
entourage believe it was his right,
and they're still trying to make that
point."
Others argue that Montazeri
simply hasn't done his homework.
"Any source which claims that the
holy prophet Mohammed was only
an adviser in the consultative body
which (guided) Islam at that time
doesn't know what the Koran has
revealed," charged Ayatollah
Mohammed Yazdi, head of Iran's
judiciary, during his sermon at
Friday prayers in Tehran. "Have you
not observed in history that the
Prophet himself issued decrees both
on wars and peace, in addition to
taking care of financial affairs?"
pull album
posters making the lyric into a
slogan for display in record stores.
Prodigy's album, one of this
year's best-selling albums around
the world, contains no parental
warning sticker indicating that it
includes explicit or potentially
offensive lyrics. Sources say that
officials at Maverick and Warner
Bros. determined that the album's
lyrics did not merit a parental
advisory.
Nevertheless, the companies,
with Prodigy's approval,
manufactured an alternate version
of the record's artwork- one which
obscured the word "bitch" on the
CD jacket- to be sold to mass
merchants that refuse to stock
albums with lyrics or cover art they
deem objectionable.
Wal-Mart, Kmart and other mass
merchandisers refuse to carry
recordings with parental warning
stickers. The retailers rely on record
companies and distributors to
identify potentially offensive
music.
The amended version of Prodigy's
album artwork shipped to Wal-Mart
and other mass merchandisers
contained a CD with the same lyrics
as the original album. When it was
called to their attention, Wal-Mart
and Kmart officials listened to the
recording and decided that the lyric
"Smack My Bitch Up," would
offend its customers.
"This thing should have been a
stickered product, and if it had
been, we would have never carried
it to begin with," said Dennis
Wigent, director of internal
communication for Kmart.
"Smack" continues to be played
uncensored on about a dozen
stations across the nation..
A music video based on the song,
originally rejected by MTV, will
begin airing in an edited version
with a disclaimer next week on the
music cable station between 1 a.m.
and 5 a.m. The video contains
images of women being
manhandled as well as explicit
scenes of sex and injecting drugs
in the bathroom of a dance hall. In
the past, MTV has rejected videos
made by rap artists with similar
imagery.