EnglishSpeakers of the Iran Conference "Business As Usual", Berlin 2008
Miro Aliyar
representative of the Democratic Party of Kurdistan-Iran from Vienna. He has written the appeal „Why are the German media silent towards the Iranian terror?", his speech (German) on the occasion of the exposure of the memorial for the victims of the Berlin Mykonos assassinations and a text (German) „about the situation of the Kurds in Iran" have been published in the Newsletter Kurdistan Circular.
Menashe Amir
former director of the persian speaking department of the radio station Kol Israel (Voice of Israel). Amir began his journalistic career at the age of 17 in Iran. Today he ranks among Israel's senior journalists and is editor-in-chief of the Persian website of the Israeli State Department. Amir's expertise on Iran has found the international recognition of government and research establishments. He frequently appears on the radio and TV. In interviews he has spoken of, among other things, the effectiveness of sanctions against the Iranian nuclear program and about protests (German) against the Iranian president Ahmadinejad.
Nasrin Amirsedghi
Iranian publicist in exile, orientalist and cultural scientist from Mainz, foundress of the association for culture and migration „Germany from the inside and outside" (DIA), authoress of „The seven dimensions - aesthetic education as means for integration" (DIA publishing house 2007). „From the desire of workers power to Ayatollah power. Notes about the collaboration of Iranian leftists with Islam" has been published In the anthology "Iran: analysis of an Islamic dictatorship and its European promoters" (Studienverlag 2008). In an interview (German) she spoke recently about Iran and about the German politics of Appeasement.
Javad Asadian
is political scientist, writer, and poet. He is a long-time member of the Iranian Writers Associantion and the former president and member of the Iranian Pen Club in exile. He regularly publishes on literary and political issues. Please find here a selection of his articles in Farsi. Furthermore he has dealt with the role of anti Americanism in the Iranian Left.
Henryk Broder
journalist and book author from Berlin, writes for the weekly DER SPIEGEL, the daily Tagesspiegel, and other journals. Books: „No war, nowhere. The Germans and terror" (Berlin Verlag 2002) and „Hurray, we capitulate! About the desire to give in (wjs 2006). Wrote the foreword to "Iran - analysis of an Islamic dictatorship and its European promoters" (Studienverlag 2008). He maintains his own website
Paulo Casaca
Partido Socialista Portugal, MEP, member of the social-democratic parliamentary group in the European parliament and the European Friends of Israel, Co-author of an open letter against the Iranian nuclear weapon program signed by over 130 members of the European parliament.
Patrick Clawson
deputy director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy; numerous contributions for The New Republic, New York Times, Wall Street journal and Washington Post. Author of scientific articles in Foreign Affairs, Washington Quarterly, International journal of Middle East Studies and Middle East Journal; Publisher of „Iran's Strategic Intention and Capabilities" (University Press of the Pacific 2004), author of „Eternal Iran: Continuity and chaos" (Palgrave 2005, together with Michael Rubin).
Jeffrey Herf
professor for history at the University of Maryland, USA; Author of „Reactionary Modernism: Technology, Culture, and Politics in Weimar and the Third Reich" (Cambridge University Press 1986), „Two different memories. The Nazi past in divided Germany" (Propylaeen 1998) and „The Jewish Enemy. Nazi propaganda during World War II and the Holocaust" (Harvard University Press 2006). Writes for the journals The New Republic, DIE ZEIT, Die Welt and others. In view of the Iranian threat he raised the question of "the whereabouts of the anti-fascists" and urged to take the threats of the Islamists seriously (German). In a speech he recently stressed that "coming to terms with the Nazi-past" today also means stopping the Iranian nuclear bomb.
Kayvan Kaboli
Central Council member and speaker of the Green Party of Iran from Los Angeles, USA. Has been active politically in the last 30 years with emphasis on environmental and peace policy. He pleads for the establishment of an international alliance of democratic and secular forces against „the religious fascism" of the Iranian regime.
Matthias Kuentzel
journalist and political scientist from Hamburg, member of the executive committee of Scholars for Peace in the Middle East; Author of „Jihad and Jew-Hatred: Islamism, Nazism and the Roots of 9/11" (Telos 2007) and „Islamic Antisemitism and German policy" (Lit 2007, German), Co-author of „Iran – analysis of an Islamic dictatorship and its European promoters" (Studienverlag 2008, German). Numerous texts about Iran, Islamism and Antisemitism can be found on his website.
Yossi Melman
journalist for the Israeli daily Haaretz, Author of „The Nuclear Sphinx of Tehran - Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the State of Iran" (Caroll&Graf 2007, together with Meir Javedanfar). He is the author of the essay „From the nuclear ambitions of the Schah to the Islamic bomb. About the history of the Iranian atomic program and the role of the IAEO" for the anthology "Iran - analysis of an Islamic dictatorship and its European promoters" (Studienverlag 2008, German). Regular contributions for the PostGlobal portal of the Washington Post.
Benny Morris
professor for history of the Middle and the Near East at the Ben-Gurion University in Beer Sheva, Israel; Author of „Righteous Victims: A History of the Zionist Arab conflict, 1881-2001" (Vintage 2001), „The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee problem Revisited" (Cambridge University press 2004), „1948: A History of the First Arab-Israeli war" (Yale University Press 2008) and Co-author of „Iran – analysis of an Islamic dictatorship and its European promoters" (Studienverlag 2008, German). In an essay he warned of the danger of a second Holocaust in view of the Iranian nuclear weapon program.
Alexander Ritzmann
Senior Fellow of the European Foundation for Democracy in Brussels; his work concentrates on the transatlantic aspects of the "war on terrorism", the radicalization of Muslims in Europe and the USA as well as Hizb Allah and Hamas structures and activities in Europe. He advises delegates of the German Bundestag, the U.S. Congress and the European parliament, is a columnist for the daily DIE WELT and operates a website with his own texts.
Bruno Schirra
journalist from Berlin; writes among other things for DIE ZEIT, Die Welt and Cicero; Author of „Iran – explosive for Europe" (Econ 2007, German) and „You love life, we love death. Humans in the heart of Islamism" (Herder 2008, German). In the 3Sat-Show Kulturzeit he presented (German video) his investigations of amongst other things the Iranian President Ahmadinejad and the Iranian nuclear program.
Saul Singer
comment editor and columnist of the Israeli daily paper Jerusalem Post; Author of the book „Confronting Jihad: Israel's Struggle and the World after 9/11" (Open Road Publishing 2003). He has regularly commented critically on the German and European policy towards Iran again and again, the last time after the visit of the German chancellor Angela Merkel in Israel.
Thomas von der Osten-Sacken
co-founder of the NGO WADI e.V., which is active particularly in northern Iraq; Co-editor of „Saddams last battle? The long way to the Third Gulf War" (konkret 2002, German) and „America. The ‚war on terror' and the rebellion of the old world" (ça ira 2003, German), Co-author of „Iran – analysis of an Islamic dictatorship and its European promoters" (Studienverlag 2008, German).