Every Tuesday the program ‘See You at Book Club’ organized by ‘See You in Iran Cultural House,’ based in Tehran, is held to review and critically appraise books.
See You in Iran Cultural House is a physical, online and globally-oriented institute producing socio-cultural contents and organizing events through which foreigners and Iranians connect.
The meetings are more like friendly round tables where no one in particular has the last word. The meeting on Tuesday 6 will be a journey into the heart of terror.
‘My Journey Into the Heart of Terror: Ten Days in the Islamic State’ is an alarming firsthand account of what transpired under the tyranny of the so-called IS (aka Daesh, ISIS and ISIL) terrorist group. It is written by German author and journalist Jurgen Todenhofer.
Originally published in 2015, the book sheds chilling light on the medieval Salafi/Wahhabi violent group that came to prominence in 2014 in western Iraq. The terrorist outfit beheads civilians, soldiers and journalists. And yet one reporter, Todenhofer, was invited to visit its fighters in Mosul, Iraq, after months of negotiations.
Accompanied by his son, Frederic, who photographed the journey, Jurgen asked the IS members to explain their beliefs, motivations and goals. The book, the most in-depth research conducted on the terror group so far, is the result of those conversations, says its blurb.
The Tuesday meeting will take place at the premises of See You in Iran Cultural House located at No. 2, Vahdati-Manesh (3rd) dead-end, South Kheradmand Street, Karim Khan Avenue, Seeyouiniran.org wrote.
‘My Journey into the Heart of Terror’ shows how the organization grew from its al-Qaeda roots and the role the West played in its formation and expansion. Along the way, Todenhofer offers startling an insight into how the IS thinks, what it wants - and how it can be defeated. Only by understanding our enemies, Todenhofer says, can we combat the IS’s radical, un-Islamic vision and the terror and destruction it spreads.
By organizing and hosting a wide range of events such as workshops, talks, movie nights and art exhibitions, See You in Iran Cultural House strives to move beyond the reductionist and obsessive representation of Iran.
A Permanent Vigil
Todenhofer studied law and graduated as a doctor of law in 1969 and worked as a judge from 1972.
He became a member of the Christian Democratic Union of Germany in 1970 and was a member of the Bundestag from 1972 to 1990 for five election periods where he represented the city of Tübingen. He acted as party spokesman for development policy and arms control. He was vice chairman of the executive board of German media company Hubert Burda Media until 2008. In 1980, he visited Soviet-occupied Afghanistan and started to raise money for refugees. Todenhofer is one of the prominent German critics of the US-led wars in Afghanistan and Iraq in 2001 and 2003, respectively.
He says during the war in Iraq the Bush administration was deceiving US public opinion and that the US war in the Arab country killed several hundred thousand civilians. He visited Iraq several times for research for his book ‘Why do you kill, Zaid?’
Following the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant against the Sudanese dictator Omar al-Bashir, he sent an open letter to the Prosecutor General of the ICC, Luis Moreno-Ocampo. He asked for the reasons which led the prosecutor to indict the Sudanese dictator but not the former US war president George W. Bush or the former British war prime minister Tony Blair – both men are infamous as the architects of the bloody wars in the Middle East that have devastated entire economies and torn their social fabric apart.
The German judge recognizes that neither Sudan nor the US recognize the International Criminal Court.
