Global Voices Online

In south Iran, an explosion at a mosque in the city Shiraz killed at least 12 people and wounded about 200 people on April 12. Fars, a semi-official government news website reported that the blast was caused by a bomb. Later, several Iranian officials insisted the blast was the result of an accident. The mosque’s Imam believes it was a bomb attack by unidentified militants, and has called the victims “martyrs”.

Iranian bloggers have covered this story and shared their ideas on this bloody event and the rumors surrounding it.

Necas says [Fa]:

For me as an Iranian, the censorship of this news in Iranian media is very significant. Until 2am in the morning there was no news about this explosion on Iranian TV. The same station would cover hostage-taking in schools or supermarkets in the USA and start to speculate. Then would say that the USA imposes censorship on its media. In Iran, 12 hours after the explosion, the news is broadcast, and they say the blast was not caused by bomb. They don't call the victims martyrs, but simply dead people.

The video of this explosion has been visited more than 60,000 times on YouTube. A few moments after explosion on the video, a voice asks people to evacuate, and also says, “To become a martyr is our wish…”:

Parcham criticises [Fa] Iranian TV for not mentioning the news regarding explosion. The blogger say you would think Arabs must be the real owners of Iran, since news about Iraq and Palestine are covered immediately, but not ours.

The religious center focused its teaching on Bahi Faith and Wahabism.

Bacheyeh khat writes [Fa] about the Rahpouyan Vesal religious center. The blogger says a young cleric who was wounded in the Iran-Iraq war named Mohmmad Anjavinejad was the founder. Although most of the audience is said to be young people between the ages of 15 and 20, some consider his teaching is outdated, and joke that his followers sleep in empty tombs in graveyards. The blogger adds that members of the religious group ran for office in municipal elections but won only one seat out of 11 on the City Council.