{"id":123,"date":"2008-11-21T00:17:54","date_gmt":"2008-11-21T00:17:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/cityofbrass\/2008\/11\/blogger-hossein-derakshan-arre.html"},"modified":"2008-11-21T00:17:54","modified_gmt":"2008-11-21T00:17:54","slug":"blogger-hossein-derakshan-arre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2008\/11\/blogger-hossein-derakshan-arre.html","title":{"rendered":"Blogger Hossein Derakshan arrested in Iran"},"content":{"rendered":"

Celebrated blogger Hossein Derakshan<\/a> is literally the godfather of the Iranian blogsphere<\/a>. Iran is one of those countries where speaking out requires courage, and where speech is anything but free. He has been living in Canada recently, but returned to Iran just a few weeks ago – and now has been arrested, rather ironically, on charges of spying for Israel<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\"hossein_derakshan.jpg\"<\/span>Travelling on a Canadian passport, he made a highly publicised trip to Israel
\nin 2006 on a mission to show his “20,000 daily Iranian readers what Israel
\nreally looks like and how people live there”. He also wanted to “humanise”
\nIranians for Israelis.
\n
…<\/p>\n

\nMr Derakhshan was acutely aware that his efforts to foster understanding
\nbetween the two countries that are bitter enemies could jeopardise any
\nreturn to Iran. … Commentators in Israel, however, noted Mr Derakhshan recently had become
\n“vehemently anti-Israel in his blog”.\n<\/p>\n

\nThe 33-year-old techno-wizard has had a controversial and often turbulent
\ncareer. Bitterly disillusioned with the Iranian reformist leaders that he
\nonce championed, he recently became a grudging admirer of Iran’s hardline
\nPresident, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. … Mr Derakhshan has defended Iran’s right to nuclear weapons for defensive
\npurposes, and announced that he would return to defend his homeland if
\nAmerica ever attacked. “I can’t let myself to sit down for a moment and
\nwatch make a Baghdad out of Tehran,” he wrote. <\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

Yet Iran’s thin-skinned regime apparently remained deeply suspicious.
\nAccording to Jahan News, a conservative website reputedly close to Tehran’s
\nintelligence community, Mr Derakhshan is under interrogation and during
\ninitial questioning “admitted” to spying for Israel — a grave offence if
\ncharges are pressed. The report, citing “credible sources”, claimed that Mr
\nDerakhshan’s alleged confession included several “intricate points”.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Derakshan’s views, as the article<\/a> describes, are complex and informed as much by his genuine nationalism and pride in his country as they are in his principles and ideals. Reading his English-language weblog also shows that he’s passionate about what he believes, about right and wrong, and shares the same basic values as we do when it comes to freedom and justice. I don’t know what we in the blogsphere can do to try and help him, apart from spreading the word as widely as we can. So please do. <\/p>\n

(via Talk Islam<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Celebrated blogger Hossein Derakshan is literally the godfather of the Iranian blogsphere. Iran is one of those countries where speaking out requires courage, and where speech is anything but free. 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The name City of Brass refers to the Story of the City of Brass in the Thousand and One Nights, and the poem by Rudyard Kipling of the same name: Here was a people whom, after their works, thou shalt see wept over for their lost dominion; And in this palace is the last information respecting lords collected in the dust. -- Thousand and One Nights, Story of the City of Brass IN A land that the sand overlays, the ways to her gates are untrod, A multitude ended their days whose fates were made splendid by God, Till they grew drunk and were smitten with madness and went to their fall, And of these is a story written: but Allah Alone knoweth all! -- Rudyard Kipling, The City of Brass (1909)"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/165"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}