Iranian cleric seeks apology from TV for insulting Arabs

Half of the four million population of Iran’s Khuzestan province is minority Arabs

An Iranian cleric said on Friday the state-sanctioned broadcaster owes an apology to the country’s Arab minority for insulting them in a recent programme.

Semi-official Tasnim news agency quoted Ayatollah Mohsen Haidari, prayer leader of the Khuzestan provincial capital Ahwaz, as telling worshippers that state TV Channel 2 should apologise.

Haidari was apparently referring to a children’s programme in March that showed figurines of various minorities in Iran’s provinces while ignoring Arabs. The majority of Iran’s population is Persian but nearly half the 4 million population of Khuzestan are Arab. Haidari called it a “denial of Arab identity”.

Since then, foreign-based media have reported protests in Khuzestan. Though Iranian media have remained silent, Iran’s police chief Gen. Hussain Ashtari said there were no casualties in the protests.

Ahvaz has been the scene of a series of deadly bombings and shoot-outs blamed on Arab separatists living in the region in recent decades. Unemployment is at nearly 15 per cent, higher than the country’s average 12.6 per cent.