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Sun, Nov 28, 2010 | The Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center | Al-Arabiya

Iranian Association of Nazism Website Approved by Ministry of Islamic Guidance

For the past several months, the website www.irannazi.ir has been operating in Iran. It operates on behalf of an organization called the Iranian Association of Nazism and Adolf Hitler’s Supporters. The website’s homepage states that it operates in accordance with the laws of the Islamic republic and is monitored by the Ministry of Islamic Guidance. Its operators note that it is a website of “scientific and historic research”; in practice, however, the website encourages the spread of Nazi ideology and Adolf Hitler’s ideas.

According to the website statistics, it currently has nearly 300 registered users who have so far posted over 2,300 posts in 320 different threads. The website is divided into several forums dealing with various subjects. In each forum, the website users can post messages that pertain to the forum’s main topic.

One forum features contents dealing with memorandums and news about the activity of the Iranian Association of Nazism.

Another forum is called “The Third Reich” and is divided into several topics, including Nazism, which deals with Nazi ideology and principles; Adolf Hitler, which deals with the “personality, ideas, and speeches” of the leader of Nazi Germany; The Third Reich, which deals with the history of the Third Reich; and Third Reich Leaders, which deals with major historical figures in Nazi Germany.

The third forum is called “World War II” and is also divided into several topics: Events of World War II; Wehrmacht, which deals with the armed forces of Nazi Germany; and Holocaust and Zionism, which deals with “the struggle against Zionism” and “rumors about the Holocaust”.

The fourth forum is dedicated to various topics, including ancient Iran, sports, science, arts and culture, video games, songs and music, philosophy, and topics pertaining to army and weapons (mainly those used in Nazi Germany).

A fifth forum is titled “Germany” and features topics pertaining to German history, language, and culture, as well as modern-day Germany.

Last weekend, Tabnak, a website affiliated with the pragmatic conservative bloc, strongly criticized the Ministry of Islamic Guidance for allowing the Iranian Neo-Nazi website to operate. According to the website, despite the government’s strict control over various websites operating in Iran, it appears that the contents of that particular website are completely non-monitored. Tabnak wanted to know how the ministry had given the radical website an operation license, thus encouraging the distribution of its contents, instead of encouraging the distribution of contents that are compatible with Iran’s religious principles. The website noted that www.irannazi.ir had only been blocked once by the authorities, and that even then it was unblocked eventually, allegedly indicating that the radical group called the Iranian Association of Nazism operates under approval from the authorities (Tabnak, November 18).

The Neo-Nazi website itself notes that it was blocked by the authorities for the publication of offensive material against religious minorities, i.e., the Jews. According to the operators of the website, the Jews’ considerable influence allowed them to have the website temporarily blocked for over two weeks; eventually, however, the operators managed to resume the website’s activity. They asked the website visitors to refrain as much as possible from using the term “Jews” and to replace it with the term “Zionists” to avoid further restrictions on the website’s activity on grounds of offending the religious minorities in Iran.

In response to the publication in Tabnak, the Ministry of Islamic Guidance reported this week that it did not give the website an operation license and that the website was not monitored by the ministry (Tabnak, November 20).

The anti-Jewish and pro-Nazi website Irannazi.ir is still online (nov 28, 2010) and with new pictures on frontpage.

Iran lifts ban on pro-Nazi website

Monday, 22 November 2010

Iran’s Ministry of Culture and Islamic guidance lifted the block it had imposed on a pro-Nazi and anti-Jewish website, amid concerns by both conservatives and reformists.

While it blocks around five million political, cultural, religious, and “indecent” websites, the Iranian Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance permitted the operation of a website called irannazi.ir, also called the Center for Historical Studies on World War I and Nazism.” The website is run by a group called the Center for Nazi Iranian Studies.

The re-opening of the website was met with objections in Iranian political circles, which was shown in the reactions of both the pro-government website Tabnak and the pro-reformist Rooz Online.

Tabnak demanded that the Iranian government provides an explanation for allowing the website to operate while Rooz Online accused deputy minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance is Muhammad Ali Ramin of being behind lifting the ban on the website.

Rooz reported that Ramin had connections with neo-Nazis when he lived in Europe and that he is known for his support for Nazi ideas.

Ramin is also the founder of the Holocaust Institute in Tehran and was the president of a conference called Holocaust: A Global Perspective, which denied the extermination of Jews by the German Third Reich.

Iranian journalist Mohammad Reza Yazdanpanah argued that Ramin plays a major role in influencing the policies of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as far as denying the Holocaust is concerned.

“Right after the ministry unblocked it, the website attracted 300 new members and received more than 3,200 emails in support of the group,” said Yazdanpanah.

The website claims that its main purpose is to expose the lies propagated by Zionists about the persecution of Jews during the Second World War and its members describe themselves as the soldiers of Hitler who want to make the “lie of the holocaust” known to the whole world.

The website published a statement about the previous ban imposed on it after its administrators were accused of insulting religious minorities. After the re-launch, they called on visitors to use the word “Zionist” instead of “Jew.”

The website has several chat rooms that are categorized according to the topics users want to discuss like Third Reich, Second World War, principles of Nazism, and the ideas of Adolf Hitler.

Read more here.