PAAIA

Sent to info@paaia.org ... Now let's see if there is a response

1. A lengthy record has been amassed and presented to us that this site, Iranian.com, is run as a mechanism for spreading defamatory propaganda against Iranians through selective inclusion of biased content while heavily censoring dissenting voices. You can see a portion of the complaints by clicking this link. We have received hundreds of complaints from Iranians living the United States, Canada, and Europe. The site owners and administrators refuse to address those points (we have invited them to a sit down interview). And we are sending this to you by email as well.

2.  It has been suggested, and with some basis, that the defamatory stereotypes consistently presented against Iranians on this website are one (1) of the catalysts for engendering further discrimination against Iranians living abroad.   

3.  You appear exceedingly late in being heard on the subject of the Apple discrimination; Can you be counted on to monitor for biased and degrading online and media content against the Iranian community or to explore the sources of that type of material?  Again, this is being sent to PAAI by email; a lack of awareness of the story is not a consideration this time around.   We would be curious to see what your reaction is to the content indicated in the link, and to see if you are able to provide a timely response in relation to your mission statement.  

PAAIA's Hypocritical Stance on Apple's Discrimination

On Friday, almost 5 days after numerous media reports came out describing how Iranian-Americans were discriminated by Apple, PAAIA issued this "public statement" where it asked "Does Apple Discriminate Against Iranian Americans?"  In that statement, PAAIA made the following comments:

- "As is our policy, PAAIA refrained from making any public statements until we investigated certain facts regarding the incident."

-  "[W]e believe that Apple did not engage in a deliberate act of

discrimination, the application of the policy, the incident was

interpreted as discriminatory by the customer and, thereupon, by the

general public and media."

Now, today, PAAIA comes out with a statement on this website where it states "Today, [PAAIA] received a statement from M. Khurram Baig, the attorney for Ms. Sahar Sabet, that contrary to other reports, an incident of discrimination did take place at the Apple Store in Georgia on June 14, 2012. Given this new information, PAAIA strongly and unequivocally calls on Apple to take immediate steps to cease any instances where members of the Iranian American public are inappropriately targeted for discrimination based on their language or national heritage."

Dear PAAIA, people aren't stupid.  First, you claim you investigated the issue and determined there was no discrimation.  Well, clearly you didn't investigate the issue because you didn't speak to the Iranian-American who got discriminated and whose lawyer probably called you up, angrily, to tell you that you were wrong. Second, you just pulled a 180.  AT LEAST ACKNOWLEDGE THAT YOUR PRIOR STATEMENT WAS WRONG!  Had you had acknowledged that you were wrong, this author wouldn't have to do so.  Third, for godsake, acknowledge the efforts of other organizations by name.  NIAC has been issuing letters and informing people about this from Day 1.  You did nothing for 5 days, got it completely wrong, and then (without apologizing) finally admit there was discrimination: something every news organization and Iranian-American has been yelling about for the past week.

I've been saying this for weeks now on this website.  PAAIA is completely ineffective.  We need to hold these organizations accountable for their failures.  We demand more.

I like your "multi-pronged approach" approach!

Everything is sacred

What a bunch of hypocrites

You just issued this statement where you just defended Apple and now, over one week later after this was reported, you want to jump in?  Incompetent organization.