Neglected History (2)

Critique of Internal Historiography of the United Islamic Students Association Abroad

An interview with Mojtaba Baghernejad

M.M. Moosakhan
Translated by: Fazel Shirzad

2019-12-24

Interviewed and compiled by: Mohammad Mahdi Musa Khan

In the first part of the interview, Mr. Bagharnejad described the history of the United Islamic Students’ Association Abroad to understand the subject and the reasons for its importance in the historiography of the Islamic Revolution and its lack of resources. In this section, books published titled the United Islamic Students’ Association Abroad within this country (Iran), their strengths and weaknesses are reviewed. At the end of this section, two books published abroad (in Persian) are introduced, but due to the length of the discussion, the critique and review of the books will be offered to readers in the third part of interview.

What books have been written and published as yet in Iran on the topic of the United Islamic Students’ Association Abroad?

Before answering this question, I need to make a point. Members of the United had been thinking about collecting documents and writing the United's history in 1976, but it did continue for some reasons. In 1978 the issue of the history of the United was raised again in which Mr. Seyyed Mahdi Seyed Mohammadi, a member of the Clausthal Association of Germany, began this work and conducted a detailed interview with Dr. Mehdi Navab, one of the primary members of the United, made an effort to turn the sound into text too. But this work was not continued, and only that tape was turned into text. After revolution taken place, many active members of the United returned to Iran and worked in various places. I was personally pursuing the history of the United for my own personal interest. Until I was determined in 80-81, we had a small meeting with my old friends in Tehran and discussed about writing the history of the United. Friends also accepted my words, and it was planned to follow up.

The first step was to collect the documents that my friends had cooperate with me and provided the United documents that they personally had at home. While I was collecting the documents, i called Dr. Alireza Beheshti, the son of the late martyr Beheshti, to know whether he also had documents about his father or not; I need to thank and appreciate his for his cooperation here; he helped me a lot to make the history of the United a great. Through Dr. Alireza Beheshti, we have asked Mr. Javad Ajei to provide us the documents of the United; because we had heard that the United documents had been brought to Iran, they had prepared an office on Pasteur Street as the United office and collected the United documents there. With the negotiations that took place, we were unable to obtain the documents and were forced to use documents the members had. At the beginning, from the beginning of the United until the Sixth Session, a pamphlet was written as a draft in early 2006. I should note here that in the first session it was intended to present only the United's documents in compiling this history and to present an analytical discussion of the United's activities in another series. Another meeting was held on August 7, 2006 to present the draft to experienced members of the United and receive their comments and suggestions.

Those who present at the meeting were approximately the first generation of the United including: Dr. Mehdi Navab, Karim Khodapanahi, Jafar Nikoee, Mohsen Karbassfaroshan, Hossein Kashifi, Seyyed Mahdi Seyed Mohammadi, Mahmoud Mohammadzadeh and one others I can't remember my mind. The number of people present at that meeting was given the draft. It should be noted that the basis of our work initially was the tape of Mr. Seyyed Mohammadi's interview with Mr. Navab. You really have to value the work that was done by Mr. Seyed Mohammadi in the year 57, which opened a door to get started, because the work was unclear at the time, and when one wanted to get started and had nothing to know about the work, he desperately needs a sample and a guide. That writing and the tape script was a working sample for us.

Was it a primary asset?

Yes, it was a primary asset. At that meeting, after distributing the booklet, I asked the audience to comment on the process of work that would go on like this. The conclusion of that session was that friends read the draft we gave them and give us their comments on the sidelines of the book or separately. I have all the comments because it is necessary to prove the subject that I am going to mention later. After studding, friends gave their comments, or if they had no idea, they sent me back all the pamphlets except Mr. Karim Khodpanahi. Mr. Karim Khodapanahi neither returned the pamphlet nor commented on it. Since all the friends accepted the whole process, we continued the same process with the suggestions of friends and added the seventh meeting to the first volume. And thank God, the first volume of book titled "History of Islamic Movement of Iranian Students Abroad" was prepared until September 2007. Again, I emphasize what we have included in this book, except footnotes, are written  by myself or there are biography of members, all that you see are  the United's documents, and the first chapter of the book, which describes the social situation of Iran and the status of Confederation abroad, was taken from one of the works. Because the pamphlet was literally messed up, I arranged it so that it could be read fluently, otherwise I wouldn't edit the text, even that part of book was a the United's document.

Who prepared the pamphlet?

It was not clear, but that pamphlet was a collection of documents obtained by the United. I have already said that because of the secrecy and security of the United, it was forbidden to mention names and photos in the writings as well as in taking photo. See the letters of the United's officials now available; at the end of many of them you won't see any names except a few letters whose signatories were known to SAVAK. You will find the tittle of letters addressed to, for example, brother, the head of a Cultural Office, the director of a publication and so on. So the author of the booklet was also unknown and it was not clear who it was. Finally, the first volume of book, "History of the Islamic Movement of Iranian Students Abroad; the United Islamic Students' Associations in Europe; 1965-1981".[1] It was published in September 2007 and was welcomed by friends and the united members.

So was this the first book published in Iran about the history of activity and the documents of the United of Islamic Associations in Europe?

Yes, the first volume of History of Islamic Movement of Iranian Students Abroad was the first book published in this regard. With the publishing of other books we can conclude that others were working at the same time, and by the way, our book was historically ahead.

What was the second book?

The second book was published by Shahid Beheshti Publication Office (headed by Dr. Alireza Beheshti) entitled "Martyr Ayatollah Dr. Beheshti and the United of Islamic Student Associations in Europe"[2] in 2007. This book is about the messages of martyr Beheshti to the United and their lectures at the fifth and sixth sessions; That is, the 180-page book is a collection of messages and lectures by Mr. Beheshti in the United of Islamic Student Associations in Europe, but you will not find any details on the history of the United in this book.

In the same year, a book called Imam and the United of Islamic Students 'Associations in Europe[3] was published by Mr. Javad Ajei, after September, because Mr. Ajei has pointed out it in the first volume of History of Islamic Students' Movement. The first part of this book was the draft I had sent to Mr. Karim Khodapanahi for comment, to review and comment on, and return to me, but I found he had been copied it; the name of Mr. Khodapani has come to an end. After he were protested that he were responsible for this draft hands and why he published it in his name. He said that he hadn't copied it; we had copied my writings.

Did Mr. Khodapanahi say these words?

Yes. After this event, I had no contact with them and I sent my message them through Dr. Safati and Dr. Nikui, and he had responded. At the beginning of the book, the mentioned pamalet about the six meetings of the United with the name of Karim Khodapanhi, which is the same book I had delivered to him and the rest of it was the messages of Imam Khomeini and the messages of the United of Islamic Associations in pamphlet to the Imam and also the Islamic associations in America and Canada.

Another book to be mentioned is "The Student Movement in the Mirror of Memories; A Historical Look at the Activities of Islamic Students' Associations Abroad"[4] written and published by Mr. Davood Ghasempour. The book, of course, was published by the Ministry of Science and Cultural and Social Affairs in cooperation with the Office of Social Planning and Cultural Studies in 2008. The main content of the book is based on interviews with members of the European and American Islamic Associations in the Islamic Revolutionary Documentation Organization and a series of documents that were available there. The author has started the historical process from the beginning of the student's departure abroad and continues with the activities of Islamic associations in 1987.

Has he addressed all Islamic associations abroad?

Yes, he has examined Islamic associations in France, America, Britain, India, and so on. Another book is about Dr. Sadeq Tabatabai's[5] Political and Social Memoirs, the first volume of which deals extensively with the topic of the United of Islamic Associations in Europe and described his activities in Germany during the formation of the United and some of the meetings he himself attended until the presence of Imam Khomeini in Paris and returning to Iran, and published various materials and personal documents and photographs in the book. This book is in field of memory. In this regard, we can refer to Dr. Ibrahim Yazdi's memoir titled" Sixty Years of Patience"[6], written in three volumes. The second volume of this book, which is about 580 pages, is devoted to his activities abroad, which deals with the formation and activities of the Islamic Student Association in the US and Canada, and is one of the few memoirs whose content is documented. I don't know the exact date of editing second volume of the book, but it was published in 2015 by Kavir Publications.

The next book published in this field is a book entitled "the United Islamic students’ Associations narrated by Documents"[7], compiled by Mr. Akbar Ghasemloo and published by the Islamic Revolution Documentation Center in 2010. This book has been compiled and published on the basis of SAVAK documents on the United. The second and fifth volumes of book (History of Islamic Students' Movement Abroad) was also published by Information Institute, respectively from 2009 to 2017, which historically describes the activities of the United until Mehr 1979. It should be noted that the book "Twenty-five-year Political History of Iran"[8] by Colonel Gholamreza Nejati in two pages gives a brief overview of the European and American Islamic Association. This is a collection of books published in Iran and published briefly.

What do you think of the strengths and weaknesses of interior writing on the subject of the United?

If we take into account the totality of these books (with the exception of the one I mentioned above), the rest of them are an attempt to identify collection of books of the United that their sincerity was a strength factor in each of them. Any book may have weaknesses but when you read the text of the book you see that there was an honesty in writing this book, for example (to avoid the way) Dr. Sadegh Tabatabai was our friend (God bless him) but there were weaknesses in his written memories. But we know very well that he was a very honest man in the pre-revolutionary activities in the United and even in writing this book. Or a book prepared by Mr. Akbar Ghasimlu and published by the Documents Center of Islamic Revolution. This book is really a book written honestly may have been the best of all those published domestically among all the books I have discussed for some of the analytical inland.

Why?

Because he did his works based on the documents in Documentation Center and referred to documents for whatever he said, or if he quoted a narration in his analysis, he referred documents of former members of the United whose interviews are available. Even if he has given a wrong narration on a subject, he provided evidence and document in an interview with Mr. Hossein Kashefi with Documentation Center. That is, the honesty that used in the book and nowhere is central themes in the book, is one of the highlighted factor of this book. Other books have followed the same pattern. In addition, each of these books describes a part of the history of the activities of Islamic associations; they are complementary narrative of the history of Islamic association.

What are the weaknesses of these interior published books on the topic of the United of Islamic Associations?

Its overall weaknesses are evident even in the five volumes we've been studied for nearly 12 years and tried to collect. Firstly, the delay in writing the history of Islamic associations abroad has left many memories and names out of mind, and the minds are not as ready as early years. The members of the associations are interviewed when they have come to old age, and many memories have been erased from their minds. One of the other disadvantages of all these books, including our books, is that there is not much evidence of the activities of the United Islamic Associations. I already told you that one of the most important documents of the United was the reports of the boards at the annual meetings. Each year that the United's congresses were held was, the first meeting agenda was one-year performance report that was read and presented in written form after the preparatory meeting, to and the members of the meeting voted to in the favor of their functions. Those reports were almost a mirror image of the United's one-year activity, which unfortunately, with the exception of one or two mentioned in our books that is related to initial meetings (one was for Combative School magazine and the other accidentally found in documents). This is one of the biggest disadvantages of all books, including ours. Because those board’s reports were very decisive. Other weaknesses of the United's documentaries, which are evident in all books, are the lack of reports from the United's cultural seminars. The United held approximately two to six cultural seminars each year, two of which were nationwide and four at the regional level, and these cultural seminars were crucial to the thinking of the United's members, because these cultural seminars were heavily worked on. Seminar reports for our generation could be very important to know people were working on what kind of subject matter. The absence of these reports is one of the major weaknesses of the documentary of printed books, including the history book.

Alongside cultural seminars, there were organizational seminars with no reports of those seminars as well. Organizational seminars outlined the framework of the united organization, and you could easily see what the basis of the United was, how its foundation and details are.

Another point concerns the secrecy of the United's activity. This secrecy is one of the great achievements of the United Islamic Associations Abroad, both in Europe and in the United States. As I said in the previous section, this security work on recruitment and organizational work prevented SAVAK from penetrating the United. But this method later created a serious problem in the history of the United of Islamic Association, because one of the weaknesses of Islamic Association's historiography abroad is that, people are very difficult to identify due to security issues; that is, it is not possible to find those who were responsible for The United's affairs and wrote letters and exchanged documents. This is also one of the weaknesses of all of the books I was personally involved in, including the editing of the history book, which made difficulty to access many other documents.

The books as you mentioned, there is only one book, "Student Movement Abroad; Islamic Association" by David Ghasimpour, which is an investigative work with about ninety pages, but most of pages consist documentary. What are the weaknesses of Mr. Ghasempour's book, as you are familiar with the history of the United of Islamic Associations?

Before I mention the weaknesses of this book, I have to point out one of the other weaknesses of the book, and that is, most of people who went into the research were not from the members of the united, because it is very important that you are the members of the united and interested in this field so you can comment on whether or not the content of the United is correct. One of the disadvantages of Mr. Ghasempour's work is that he was not a member of the Islamic Associations, and he has referred his research to available oral and written sources. It is very likely that the narrator's statement is not true in oral narratives. The researcher puts the basis on the validity of those narratives. When I read some of the interviews, I felt that they did not coincide with the realities of the united collection, and the current documents are not enough, so I never used them. But Mr Ghasempour made lots of attempt to search on oral and written sources, but he has failed to distinguish between correct and inaccurate narratives among the comments.

That is to say, he did not criticize the various narrations!

Yes, it was natural that he did not. I do not mean that I did not do intentionally. A person who was not a member of that association and didn't feel a member of the united can easily distinguish the wrong word of a person from the correct word. He considered the memoirs of different people as correct ones, and quoted the same words in different situations has weakened his book. His book is more quoted, especially when it comes to the British debate only quoted by British people, which is in fact one of the biggest disadvantages of this book, the Islamic Associations of England, which needs to make a rethink. He has various subjects in the book that, since he used most of the memoirs of people, naturally, these mistakes also occurred.

What's wrong about the British Association's narration?

Friends of the Islamic Association of England tend to show that we had nothing to do with the United Islamic Associations. If you look at the various interviews of their members, like Mr. Ali Mohammad Farzin and Abdullah Mahmoudzadeh and a few others, they do not want to show that their associations were members of the United, if it was not. London Association, Bradford Association, Manchester Association, etc. were all members of the United, so we can find in documents what year they become members of the united Mr. Ghasimpour quotes British Association's narration, and the result for the reader is that the British Association were independence like American and Canadian ones.

But is it really wrong?

Yes, it's wrong. It is mentioned in the United's documents, and it is also reflected in the history of Islamic Student Campaign. Historically, if they had not been a member of the United until the year 56, and when they have gone to London for Dr. Shariati's funeral in June 1977, and as this important historical subject mentioned in the book, so who would have done this coordination? If the UK’s associations were independent, there should be a statement indicating that the British Independent Associations had issued a report on Shariati's death. For example, the Manchester's Association may have set up assembly of and have issued a statement there, but there is not any collection named Islamic association in the UK. Every publication distributed at Dr. Shariati's funeral was related to the United's statements and publications. Who papered these demonstrations? Who got the permission for the demonstrations? When The London's members of association who collaborated and made their homes available to members from other countries' associations, was it an incidental cooperation? Before that was there no communication? If coordination is the same as relationship between the European United and the US, where is its joint statement? And many more questions. Now I don't know why the members of the United Kingdom do not like to know their associations as members of the United. But in their interviews and writings there is obvious pretense, and Mr. Ghasimpour has only used their interviews and has come to this conclusion.

What weaknesses do you find in Mr. Tabatabai's memoirs?

In his memoir, there are several issues that do not conform to the historical facts of the United. Here I will give an example on subject of fourteenth meeting. The 14th meeting of the United was held in October 1978 as the Imam Khomeini moved from Iraq to Paris. He either forget his memoir or is confused with something else and says that when they reported that Imam was coming to Paris we stopped the meeting and we all went to Paris and postponed the meeting until three months later.[9] that is not true at all. According to the documents and approvals of the United, the meeting continued until last day; only Mr. Tabatabai, Homayoun Yaghoutfam and Shapour Mohazab left the meeting and went to France, but the rest stayed and held the meeting until the end. The new board was elected, and the new board went to Paris to meet the Imam, and even Dr. Tabatabai introduced the new board to Imam, and Imam accepted them warmly. The new board members who were elected are now present and have memories of that day, the day that Imam Khomeini was announced as the new board member. The only case that was not decided about at the meeting, and postponed for three months, was the credentials of the former board which was probably Dr. Tabatabai's thought that the meeting was stopped and closed. The board had submitted its report last year, but nobody voted it , because the meeting was scheduled to last day and everyone wanted to finish the meeting and reach the Paris issue, and voting for the board last year resulted in another meeting three months later. It should be noted, however, that the 14th meeting would have ended more quickly, and if the Imam had not been in Paris for another day, the meeting which would have been continued another day. Because of Imam Khomeini's journey, most of the issues were quickly resolved to reach the Paris issue. I would like to point out here the weaknesses of this book became an excuse for Mohammad Jafari to magnify the contents of the books on the United's issues "Ten Years with the United in Germany" for proving his opinions.

How do you evaluate the book Imam and the United Islamic Students’ Associations in Europe?

I commented on the first part of this book. The next sections are the Imam's messages to the United and the messages of American and European associations to Imam, all of which are contained in the history book. The compiler did not have a number of documents that is why he has copied and used our book, including the United's report delivered to Imam by Mr. Sadegh Ghotbzadeh. He copied the report, which is mentioned on page 332 of the first volume of our book completely, but deleted the first page because it contained the name of Mr. Ghotbzadeh's. Let me note that we must keep in mind the time sapn in examining the history of the revolution. The time frame, which is what happened in the past, must be taken into account in its own time and in its place. In other words, what thoughts at that time were governed? What perceptions of the struggle and what intentions? If we look at the time frame, these misunderstandings that have become commonplace after the revolution will naturally go away. Regrettably, fewer people today consider this issue in dealing with past cases. Whatever Mr. Ghotbzadeh was a person with a personality should within his timeframe, not now. Let's analyze the events before the revolution.

The first part I mentioned is a carless work that Mr. Karim Khodapani has published my texts, I have given him, in his name. Here are some things to prove. First, the style and nature of wording is clear from Volume I to Volume Five. It may have progressed from Volume One to Fifth, but that style of writing has not changed and if you match volume one with those six sessions published in the book of the Imam and the United you will find it same. Secondly, in the draft that I presented to friends to comment on, I had converted some of the AD dates into solar one and some of the dates were incorrect, such as the date when converting to solar. He did not pay attention to these dates that are mistakes, but he also published that mistakes. Later, of course, I found software that converted of solar year into lunar and AD years and corrected them all. The next case, he changed and edited some sentences not to be same with our sentences, but nevertheless he was unable to change some sentences, they are same sentences with those I mentioned in the first volume. When you study, you will find similar sentences there. Finally, a book that is a copy of the others it can no longer be debated. The book published by the martyr Beheshti Publications Office is just a collection of messages and lectures by Dr. Beheshti about the United, and it is a valuable work, although most of the documents that martyr Beheshti Publications Office has published in its book have been published in the History Books series.

What books have been published outside the United of Islamic Associations abroad?

Apparently, articles and materials have been published abroad and some debates has been done about the United of Islamic Associations, both American and European one. But only Mr. Mohammad Jafari's writings have been published as a book. His first book is entitled "Paris and the Revolution Transformation from Freedom to Tyranny".[10] This book has 40 pages about the United that will be reviewed for later. Another book he published in summer of 1988 is "Ten Years with the United in Germany".[11] He was a second-generation member of the United in Germany and was one of the eighth members of the United's board of directors for a year and had a number of resources used in this book. Before discussing on these two books, I need to make a point.

I have no personal animosity with Mr. Mohammad Ja'fari, nor do I have any close friendship with him; In the process of writing 5 volumes of the history of the United, it was shown to me that we were taking a moderation and we were not depended with any group. Perhaps the reason for this conclusion was the criticisms we made to the history book, and we found that we chose the middle ground. Some people said that you have diminished the role of clergy in the book, and some said that you have not seen clergy in the United at all. Perhaps the reason for this conclusion was the criticisms we made on the history book, and we found that we chose a moderation. Some people said that you have diminished the role of clergy in the book, and some said that you have not seen clergy in the United at all. Some have said that you have paid attention to clergy, some have said that you have highlighted Mr. Beheshti, others have said that you have not seen Dr. Beheshti's role, and that you have also undermined the role of Beheshti, Bani Sadr and Ghotbzadeh in the United. These contradictory criticisms show that we have gone through the middle way; and everyone has looked at our books from their own perspective and look at other pars contrary to their own views.

Mohammad Jafari is undoubtedly one of Bani Sadr's intellectual affiliates. His personality was tied to Bani Sadr's personality and he himself cannot deny it. Sometimes he says that he criticizes Bani Sadr's ideas or criticize his writings, but these are superficial compliment. What is certain is that his close friends, whether in Krefeld or in Berlin, support this view. Some of the friends he sometimes mentioned: Mr. Habib Khatai, today Mr. Habib Khatai is living in Tehran and can talk to you about Mr. Jafari. Mr Habib has been living in Berlin with him, let him talk to you about Mohammad Jafari, how the group was affiliated with Bani-Sadr's thinking.

This spectrum of intellectual affiliation with Bani Sadr was present in 3 or 4 associations in the United: the Berlin Associations, which was attended by Muhammad Jafari himself, Cologne Associations, the Paris Associations, and the Vienna Associations. Of course, members of Vienna Associations, one of them was Mohammad Abed, were very fanatical about Bani Sadr. If you look at the writings of Mohammad Jafari on the United and the Revolution, he has attacked Yazdi, Ghotbzadeh, Habibi, Sadegh Tabatabai and Mehdi Navab, wherever he could. On the contrary, Mr. Yazdi has written his memoir in 3 volumes and nearly 2000 pages, but nowhere do you see that he has had the slightest disrespect for Bani Sadr or Ja'fari or his companions. However, they disagreed with them. See more pages of Mohammed Jafari's books attacking his opponents and Bani Sadr group. These individuals, who were in opposition to Bani Sadr's thinking before and after the revolution, had same behavior with those who opposed their views. Basically, Association that were followers of Bani Sadr's had not good relation with the United. The membership of the Cologne Association was canceled every other year. So was the Berlin Association. Because of this activity, supporters of Bani Sadr's thought sometimes formed two associations in Berlin: one became a member and one did not. They argued with each other again and their Association was suspended. All these arguments were initiated by the same supporters of Bani Sadr's intellectual type. The Paris Association had the same problems. Of course Vienna Association wasn’t encountered with such problems, although there were followers of Bani Sadr’s thought, but this did not happen in Vienna in this way, but there was a constant conflict in these three associations. Why didn't forty associations have these problem?

I want to say that there had been a fundamental problem with this Bani Sadr's thoughts. Mr. Ja'fari should remember that the members of the Untied said: "Do you know how Mr. Bani-Sadr wrote the book "The Creed of Personality?"[12] The answer was, "Bani-Sadr put the mirror in front of him and wrote this book." Isn't right? There had been no revolution yet and Imam had not come to Paris but it was a joke among the members, why? Where did this come from? Why was this joke common among the members? It was because of the authoritarianism of this thought. As a result, while I respect them as a longtime member of the United, I think these people opposed to laws and rules. Now they are making fun of us as people who believe in and law. Although Mr. Ja'fari may have been unjustly annoyed after the revolution, when he went abroad he again began the same old stories with new convulsions. To reconcile with the past events, he published material that was like a sin bigger than an excuse. Rather than trying to criticize our past in the right direction, he has relieved his feelings and pay back.I found nothing but dishonesty in these two books.

Neglected History (1)