To Be Iranian in the United States Today – Racist Slandering a People to Prepare for War (Again): with Ibrahim Kazerooni and Rob Prince. KGNU – Hemispheres, Middle East Dialogues hosted by Jim Nelson. July 23, 2019 @ 6 pm Mountain Time

December 19, 1980 Afshin Shariati, right, and defense attorney Walter Gerash talk to members of the press Saturday shortly after the Denver Iranian resident was acquitted on all charges in the fatal shooting of a Denver teenager and the wounding of two others.

“To Be Iranian in the United States Today – Racist Slandering a People to Prepare for War (Again)” – with Ibrahim Kazerooni and Rob Prince. KGNU – Hemispheres, Middle East Dialogues hosted by Jim Nelson. July 23, 2019 @ 6 pm Mountain Time. 1390 AM, 88.5 FM or available by streaming at www.kgnu.org. 

Special Guest: Kevin Amirehsani. Kevin Amirehsani, analyzes the politics and economics of Iran for the Economist Intelligence Unit. He is also the head of the Colorado chapter of the National Iranian American Council (NIAC) and a member of the board of the Abrahamic Initiative.

In this program we are going to look at the tenuous situation of Iranians living in the United States, often victims of discrimination and hate both because of their Iranian origins and the fact that they are Middle Eastern immigrants to the United States.

In a manner very similar to how the Iraq government was slandered and vilified in the period leading up to the 2003 U.S. led invasion of Iraq, as a part of the build up for military action against Iran – which appears more and more likely – Iran is being vilified by both the Trump Administration and a willing media.

There is nothing new about this tactic which entails half truths and lies about the Islamic Republic, distortions about the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, and an increasingly hostile view of Iranians living in the United States.

Call-ins welcome. 303-442-4242

All that and more!!

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Photo – As an example of the wave of anti-Iranian racist hysteria that exploded nationwide… in the aftermath of the overthrow of the Shah of Iran in early 1979, followed by the seizure of the U.S. Embassy in Teheran by Iranian students and the holding of the embassy staff as hostages, a wave of anti-Iranian racism – unprecedented until them – broke out throughout the United States. It was common to see graffiti all over the country “Nuke Iran.” In that charged environment, made only worse by national media, a group of teenagers, many of them inebriated on beer, went around the neighborhood near what was then Loretto Heights College in Southwest Denver, looking for Iranian names on mailboxes. Seeing what they they thought was an Iranian name on garden apartment mailbox, three young men proceeded to smash to Garden Apartment living room window in of Afshin Shariati and his wife with baseball bats. His home and life threatened, Shariati picked up a rifle he had and shot the intruders, two of which were wounded, one of which was killed. For defending himself, Shariati was indicted on murder charges. Defended in court by legendary (no exaggeration) Denver lawyer Walter Gerash (pictured above with Shariati), Shariate was found not guilty of all charges. The jury deliberated for seven hours to come to that conclusion