Iran’s New Proxy: American Universities

Robert Williams, Gatestone Institute, 5/24

• “We are watching the demonstrations, and we like what we see, but it should not end with this…. These protestors are our people and will support Iran in an Iran-U.S. confrontation; Iran can repeat in the U.S. what it did in Lebanon but on a grander scale because the ‘Hizbullah -style’ groups in the U.S. are ‘much larger’ than in Lebanon…. America is the Great Satan and our enemy, but we have hope in these areas.” — Foad Izadi, Teheran University, who studied at University of Houston and Louisiana State University, Ofogh TV (Iran), April 26, 2024.
• [Hezbollah’s Deputy Secretary-General Sheikh Naim] Qassem – who appeared almost taken aback at the eagerness of students on US campuses to join Hamas in its call for the genocide of Jews – was hopeful about the ability of America’s students to help Hezbollah destroy Israel by turning the U.S. against its ally.
• “We found evidence that the government of Iran really controlled everything about the [Alavi] foundation,” Adam Kaufmann, investigations chief at the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, November 22, 2009.
• The Alavi Foundation, according to its website, has indeed funded many of the universities where protests were taking place. The universities include those of the Ivy league, such as Columbia, Harvard, Princeton, Rutgers, as well as UCLA and many others
• In 2016, Harvard employed Ali Akbar Alikhani – who had warned about “the Jewish threat” — from Tehran University’s Faculty of World Studies, which is reportedly closely tied to the Iranian ruling regime, as a visiting scholar at Harvard’s Center for Middle Eastern studies….
• Hooshang Amirahmadi, the founder of the American Iranian Council (AIC), has admitted that the lobbying organization was created by the Islamic Republic of Iran to work for its interests in the US. Amirahmadi has had and continues to enjoy a successful academic career at Rutgers University….
• Some faculty members at Rutgers recently called for the genocide of Jews.
• In addition, at least five US universities — Virginia Tech University, the University of Washington, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Clarkson University, and the University of Louisiana at Lafayette — have allegedly been cooperating with Iranian entities that are sanctioned by the US and the European Union, including the Iranian Aerospace Research Institute, Iran University of Science and Technology, and the Sharif University of Technology.
• Iran can only be rejoicing at the moral and educational collapse they have helped create on American university campuses, which are grooming America’s future teachers, judges and political leaders. Now, however, these campuses appear to be incubating America’s future terrorists and creating a national security threat.

“Iran, you make us proud” and “Yemen, Yemen make us proud, turn another ship around,” were among the chants by the pro-Hamas college students and the paid activists who organized them on U.S. campuses. They declared a “student intifada,” conducted a Hamas-inspired “Day of Rage,” bowed down to Allah and called for “Death to Israel” and “Death to America.”

Meanwhile, Iran and the mouthpieces of its Islamist regime were payingextremely close attention. According to Tehran University Professor Foad Izadi, who is American-educated and considered one of Iran’s main experts on the U.S. and a mouthpiece for the Iranian regime:

“…the demonstrations [on U.S. campuses] are important. What we in the Islamic Republic should do is… We are watching the demonstrations, and we like what we see, but it should not end with this…These protestors are our people and will support Iran in an Iran-U.S. confrontation; Iran can repeat in the U.S. what it did in Lebanon but on a grander scale because the ‘Hizbullah -style’ groups in the U.S. are ‘much larger’ than in Lebanon.”

Izadi was educated at the University of Houston and received his doctorate from Louisiana State University before returning to Iran. In the West, he falsely poses as a peace activist, as a board member of the radical organization World Beyond War which calls itself “a global movement to end all wars.”

Izadi urged the Iranian government to engage “on an operational level” with protesting students in the U.S. to try to “recruit connections and build networks” among them, adding

“Personally, I think that the potential to repeat in the U.S. what Iran did in Lebanon is much higher. Our Hizbullah-style groups in America are much larger than what we have in Lebanon. America is the Great Satan and our enemy, but we have hope in these areas.”

Hezbollah in Lebanon is also paying extremely close attention. In a May 3 interview, Hezbollah’s Deputy Secretary-General Sheikh Naim Qassem praisedthe pro-Hamas protests on American campuses.

“We appreciate and value this very much. Perhaps in the future, there will be cooperation among the youth of the world – in America, France, Britain, Germany, and all the activists. The [campus protests] are important, especially because they will have an impact on the U.S. elections. They will have an impact on the American position. Even if Biden says that he will not be influenced by this, he will whether he likes it or not. We will see him taking actions because of the protesters’ influence on him.”

Qassem – who appeared almost taken aback at the eagerness of students on US campuses to join Hamas in its call for the genocide of Jews – was hopeful about the ability of America’s students to help Hezbollah destroy Israel by turning the U.S. against its ally.

Continue Reading:

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20654/iran-proxy-us-universities