Protest targets Oberlin College professor who was UN diplomat during 1988 Iran executions

OBERLIN — A protest calling for the firing of Oberlin College religion professor Mohammad Jafar Mahallati is planned for Nov. 2. The families of political prisoners executed by Iran's government in 1988 will join with Oberlin College students, alumni and human rights activists to demonstrate from noon to 2 p.m. in front of the Cox Administration Building on West Lorain Street. They believe Mahallati, who served as Iran's ambassador to the United Nations at the time of the mass killings, is guilty of crimes against humanity. As evidence, they point to a 2018 report by Amnesty International, which alleges Mahallati was among the senior officials and diplomats "actively involved in denying the mass killings in media interviews and exchanges with the U.N. to shield those responsible from accountability." An unknown number of prisoners allegedly were given sham trials in front of "death commissions" and summarily put to death in the summer of 1988 at the order of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Estimates range from 2,800 to 30,000 were killed and buried in secret mass graves. Lawdan Bazargan's brother, Bijan, was among the victims. "If Mr. Mahallati had collaborated with the United Nations and had said the truth, instead of concealing it and denying it, my brother and 1,000 other people may have been alive today," she said. Khatereh Moini's brother Hebat Moini and brother-in-law Kasra Akbari Kurdestani also were executed, according to statements from the group called Oberlin Committee for Justice for Mahallati's Victims. Moini lost 12 family members to the Khomeini regime in the 1980s. "Mr. Mahallati, one of the perpetrators of this crime against humanity, played an active and decisive role, and I, as a plaintiff and witness to these crimes, urge the authorities and the president of Oberlin College to revoke Mahallati's permission to interact with the students," she said. "He is not fit to teach and must be fired." In October 2020, a letter signed by 626 people was sent to Oberlin College President Carmen Twillie Ambar calling for Mahallati to be terminated. In the past year, they have continued to make allegations against the professor, including that he engaged in anti-Semitic behavior and called for the destruction of Israel. "Oberlin College has been completely nonresponsive to the demands of hundreds of survivors and families of the 1988 massacre," said Kaveh Shahrooz, whose uncle was killed. "They refuse to explain why they have granted tenure to a man who misled the world on crimes against humanity. This protest is to bring attention to Mahallati's role in the cover-up of a mass killing, and Oberlin's complicity." Oberlin College Director of Media Relations Scott Wargo declined to comment on the planned protest. However, he responded to a request for information about its investigation into the accusations against Mahallati. "Oberlin deeply empathizes with the pain and suffering caused by the executions in Iran," he said in a statement said. "After becoming aware of the allegations against Professor Mahallati, Oberlin initiated its own process to determine their validity. After consulting a number of sources, and evaluating the public record, the college could find no evidence to corroborate the allegations against professor Mahallati, including that he had specific knowledge of the murders taking place in Iran." Mahallati joined the Oberlin faculty in 2007 and has been granted tenure. The college said he has gained a reputation for espousing religious tolerance and seeking peace and understanding between all people. "His record at Oberlin includes no instances of the anti-Semitic or anti-Israel behavior of which he has been accused," the statement said. But the Oberlin Committee for Justice for Mahallati's Victims is not satisfied, saying the private college did not publish a report on the investigation, did not engage with families and is allowing the professor to continue teaching students. "By allowing Mahallati to taint students' minds and to remain on the institutional payroll, Oberlin College has demonstrated its low ethical standards and its lack of a moral compass," said Melissa Landa, a 1986 graduate of the college who stands with the victims' families. According to the college, Mahallati studied Islamic theology at Khan Seminary and has earned degrees in economics, civil engineering, political economy and Islamic studies. He is involved with various courses in Islamic, peace and friendship studies at Oberlin, and founded the Oberlin Friendship Festival, which celebrates the commonalities shared by people of different religious and cultural backgrounds. In a 2019 interview conducted by the college, he talked about his time at the United Nations and the Iran-Iraq War that precipitated the execution of political prisoners. "The Iran-Iraq War was a full-fledged fratricide with no real victor and no measurable gain for either side, especially Iraq — which began the war — presenting a very complex case for just-war theories," Mahallati said. "As an Iranian diplomat, I worked with the Office of the Secretary General of the United Nations, under Javier Perez de Cuellar, to spend its conflict-resolution expertise on bilateral and multilateral negotiations with the goal of limiting the scope of the Iran-Iraq War and searching for avenues of peace between the two neighboring nations." He said his teachings deal with moral arguments that can result in ceasefire or prevent conflicts, deal with the ethics of "apology and forgiveness to remove collective hatred and resentments" and then shift international relations between former enemies toward the positive. Calls to Mahallati's college phone number were not answered Friday, and the voicemail system was not enabled. Contact Jason Hawk at (440) 329-7122 or news@lcnewspapers.com.