Reverend Canon John L. Peterson, Director
Center for Global Justice and Reconciliation
Cathedral College, 3510 Woodley Road, NW
Washington, DC 20016
Dear Reverend Peterson,
On behalf of the Constitutionalist Party of Iran, I would like to extend our sincere appreciation for your work as the director of Center for Global Justice and Reconciliation. We fully appreciate the importance of the goals set by the center. However we can not help but to express our deepest sorrow and profound dismay at the invitation you have extended to Mr. Khatami, the former president of Islamic Republic of Iran to come and speak at the National Cathedral!
As you are fully aware! Mr. Khatami has dedicated his entire life to the preservation and protection of the Islamic regime in Iran! The very regime that is the embodiment of everything that the Center for Global Justice and Reconciliation stands aginst! During his two-term presidency, Mr. Khatami through his intentional silence and indifference allowed the rights of countless innocent Iranians being violated by the Islamic regime in Iran! The very regime that he was the head of its government and its most fervent advocate and supporter!
Dear Rev. Peterson, we are certain that you are fully aware of the fact that countless Iranians of all religious backgrounds and political persuasion have been imprisoned, tortured, and executed by the most gruesome ways in the hands of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Thousands were not even of legal age! Many are still buried in unmarked mass graves all over the country. The most famous one of these mass graves is called Khavaran and is near Tehran.
Mr. Khatami is fully aware of the existence of these mass graves and has willingly and intentionally decided to not only remain silent about them but to protect and defend those who were directly involved in their creation and in such crimes against humanity! We are sorry to say that Mr. Khatami is a willing co-conspirator is these atrocities. It is very sad to see such a man standing, speaking and being honored at the National Cathedral while many of the families of the victims of the Islamic regime’s atrocities don’t even know where their loved ones are buried eighteen years after their execution!
Once again, Rev. Peterson, although we have no doubt of your good intentions, we can not help but to express our dismay and profound disappointment in your invitation of Mr. Khatami and in Mr. Khatami’s presence in the National Cathedral. We sincerely hope that you will bring up the subject of Islamic Regime’s crimes against humanity with him and demand explanation. After giving him a national podium to speak and spread his regime’s propaganda, we believe that this is the least you can do!
When one is faced with evil, silence should never be an option!
Sincerely yours
Shayan Arya
Constitutionalist Party of Iran
Foreign Relations Committee Coordinator in America
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