Being out about being an atheist can put you on the outs with a lot of theocratic-minded authoritarian types. We received reports this weekend that the outspoken and occasionally controversial blogger Fariborz Shamshiri, who blogs at Rotten Gods, has received threats on his life. Fariborz has a long online career in standing up for human rights including work with Amnesty International Blogs and Freedom House.

One electronic threat was that someone would “cut his throat.” In another message they wrote “the death is coming to you soon soon.” He says he still doesn’t know who send these messages (they’re all anonymous), but he suspects — based on past experience — range from Basij militia, Revolutionary Guards Corps Cyber Affairs Division and/or some mullahs or students of seminary schools.

Fariborz said: “this is not the first time I am receiving this kind of threats but this is getting out of hand.” He keeps multiple blogs in English and Persian language. “I have been writing for many years, it seems I made more enemies in radical camp both inside and outside of Iran.”

His first blog, called “Can we think” started in 2004 and used the Farsi-language Persionblog CMS. Later he moved the blog to another Farsi-language blogging system, Blogfa. Government authorities blocked both incarnations and  they were taken offline.

“I wasn’t surprised because basically I was passed all red lines by criticizing clergies, their politics, human rights violations, religion and the whole shebang thing,” Fariborz wrote later. “I stopped blogging for awhile but later I decided to move on and write in Blogger.com that no one might delete my blog for it’s contents.”

Those contacting The Committee about the threats said “He is very dear close friend of us and we should do something about it.” One said, “I have to say that I do not agree with all his opinions, no, we do have big differences, but I am afraid if we don’t do anything now, something will happen to him and I’ll regret for the rest of my life. I think if we publicize this there would be less room for idiots who send death threats.”

“In order to shut me down, they have targeted me with malicious death threat campaign for sometime,” Fariborz wrote in one post.  Later, he said, after examining the IP addresses of the senders, “I think threats to my life comes from Iran’s intelligence agents; it is organized and systematic.”

“I chose “Rotten Gods” for this blog because Gods are rotten and only imaginary fantasies that some humans came with it but as you might know, this didn’t sit well with Islamic Iran authorities so they have blocked it since the early days of this blog. So my fellow Iranian audience use proxy softwares and other tools in order to reach out to this blog and other blocked blogs.” — Fariborz

A Persian-English forum launched by Freedom House defined Rotten Gods blog as: “This blog focuses on discussing human rights, covering everything from public stonings and floggings to women’s rights in sports.”

In December 2007, he founded Stop Torturing Us, a blog to watch the situation of torturing in Iran. In April 2008 he founded the online directory Iranians’ Blogs, a clearinghouse of English blogs written by Iranians inside and outside of Iran. He has also written in Mideast Youth and Amnesty International blogs about Human Rights violation in Iran.

In May 2008 Fariborz founded Iranian Atheist, but it wasn’t active until recently. Later that year he started Persian Atheist, a Farsi-language blog, geared toward the use of science and reason to counter religious ideology. Fariborz has written a detailed article about Apostasy in Iran and its deadly punishments.

The Committee hopes that any threats against Fariborz will come to an immediate halt, as the directory Iranians’ Blogs shows that his opinions are widely held by a number of Persian bloggers who all deserve the right to express themselves and cannot be silenced. We do also echo Fariborz’ caution to other bloggers. While we encourage all to express their views, people must assess their own individual situations and ability to take on certain risks.

We encourage those who plan to express ideas that could put themselves in danger to consider covering their online tracks through proxy servers, email addresses not tied to their real identities, the use of false names and personal descriptions and anything else that may help their safety.

Followers of this blog may remember last year when Omid Reza Misayafi died in prison in Iran. Omid was sentenced to two and a half years for “insulting” Iranian religious leaders.

NOTE: This post was written by the listed author along with substantial parts by friends of Fariborz Shamshiri.