The West needs to Support the Iranian People

[Amber]

The West needs to Support the Iranian People

Most Westerners know very little about the psyche of the Iranian population.  Those who think they do are usually nothing more than elitist leftists who are projecting what they want to believe about Iranians unto the Iranians.

I've gotten into many debates with leftist elitists who insist that the Iranian population is Muslim.  I was on the phone with a man (who sympathizes largely with communist theory), and I brought up Iran.  The first thing he said to me was, "They are muslim."  Although he asserted that they are Muslim, he in fact revealed the opposite.  The fact that as I brought up the Iranian people, he immediately defended the notion that they are Muslim proves that the issue is debatable.

Those insisting the Iranians are Muslim are leftist Islamic apologists who fundamentally need to believe that the entire rest of the world is Muslim.  They are of the naïve belief that people everywhere would just like a kinder, gentler version of Islam.  They are wrong.  Many people around the world, especially in Iran, are not Muslim and in fact hate it.

It's time to shed light on the secular psyche of the Iranians.  Ever since my work on Shirin Ebadi, I've been in contact with several Iranians from around the world - including phone contact with an Iranian living in Tehran.  Let me tell you what they have told me.

I'll tell you about my first phone conversation with my friend in Tehran.  I said to him at the end of the conversation, "I hope and pray that Iran is free someday so I can safely visit you."  He said to me, "Don't pray.  Praying gets us nowhere and got us into this mess."

It is true:  a healthy majority of Iranians will identify themselves as Muslim.  But most of these people are peasants.  The Iranians, since the day they were born, have been anti-American, pro-Muslim propaganda.  Many, naively, fall to it as is to be expected.  Regardless, most of these people consider themselves Iranian first and Muslim second.

But there is a rich tradition among the more enlightened Iranians - the ones who pass the great Iranian tradition of reason and enlightenment from one generation to the next.  These are the Iranians who uphold Iranian culture and, if the mullahs were driven out, would represent the people and mold Iran in their vision.

The battle between the Iranian people and their thug government has gone on for centuries.  Before the Islamic takeover, the Iranians were Zoroastrians.  Very few pockets of Zoroastrians exist now, but the religious battle between the Iranian people versus the Islamic thugs has always existed.  

If you want to see the secular psyche of Iranians, you really have to do little research on the internet to find it.  You will find many Iranians who are downright hostile to Islam itself, with its advocacy of decapitations and floggings; Iranians who openly say they see no compatibility between Islam and human rights; or even Muslim Iranians, like Ebadi, who call for an ending of such Koran-based laws like public stonings.  Among the Iranian people, you would be hard pressed to find someone who wants to keep the government as it exists.  They do not want a milder version of what exists (everyone except Ebadi that is).  They want a fundamental regime change.  And, I'd like to add - they would like a government minus Islam.

The Iranian government poses the biggest threat to the United States and the Iranian people hold the biggest potential for setting up a stable democracy in the Middle East.  It is where we should turn our attention to next.  We should be focused on empowering the Iranian people.  They need our moral and military support.  

The Iranian population is incredibly young.  This means they are willing to fight, but lack leadership.  The West needs to provide it.  The thugs working for the mullahs would turn their back on the government and support the people if only the people showed clearly that they will support them 100%.  However, many Iranians are still waiting for a Messiah.  This should stop.  They need to know fundamental regime change is in their hands and their hands alone.  The Iranian people need a whirlwind of support - a gusto - a fire under their wings to once and for all topple the Ayatollah.  It should be quick, devastating, and therefore - relatively painless.  

They are in dire need of Western support.  If most Western people understood the situation in Iran, there is little doubt in my mind that Westerners would support the Iranian people.  Regardless the Islamic apologist left or the theocracy-favoring right, the American people tend to support the Iranian people when they hear of their plight.  

The reason why America as a whole is hesitant to support others around the world is largely due to our corrupt intellectual leadership.  Our universities, media, etc. is filled with anti-capitalist, anti-American dirtbags.  I was in fact told by one leftist that we should be "cautious" about endorsing a free, capitalist society in the Middle East.  He said, "I think it would be fine if civil society controlled the middle east, but I'm afraid it would turn into another stifling petite bourgeoisie modeled after the West. "

I would like to take his concern to the Iranian people.  Let them choose:  a theocracy which hangs its women for committing adultery or - oh the horror - a system with a middle class.  

Leftists are reprehensible.  A large part of the reason they won't support Iranians is because it makes their complaints look petty.  Western intellectuals complain the capitalist system victimizes people - Americans simply can't turn down big macs at McDonald's or Hershey bars at the supermarket.  Meanwhile, in Iran, virginal women are raped before they are executed so they don't die virgins - because executing a virgin is against the Koran.  Regardless what political-economic system is ultimately set up in Iran or elsewhere, one thing is for sure:  it will be far better than what exists now.  

I am addressing this to you - a Western person, especially those on college campuses.  Tell everyone you know about their situation.  Write letters.  Send this article to your friends.  Get the word out.  I believe it is in the heart of every American to see people around the world enjoy the freedoms we do.

[Amber]

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[Amber]

http://www.faithfreedom.org/oped/KooroshAfshar31201.htm

Á terre in Iran...


By: Koorosh Afshar

After 25 years of living under an ochlocracy, we, the Iranian people, have quite
well learned the nature and the ways usual to the mullahs. Nowadays almost
everybody in Iran believes that the ruling clerics are terribly busy doing
something evil and nasty in the neighboring Iraq. In fact the mullahs have
clearly perceived that, with a free and prosperous Iraq, they would not have
any chances of prolonging their corrupted reign of terror and tyranny in Iran.
Although the two countries of Iran and Iraq were engaged in an eight-year war
against one another, which left hundreds of thousands killed, many more maimed
and amputated and some totally disappeared, these two nations have a long
history together rooted deep in the distant years of history. One can still
find people in both countries who have their relatives in the other one.

The difference between these two nations, generally, is the fact that - unlike
our Iraqi neighbors - the Iranians have had the experience of a short-term
semi-democracy in their country, and the process of modernization started in
Iran proportionately very early at the time of Reza Shah. The people of Iran
started their modern political life much earlier - nearly a century ago - in
the constitutional movement (I wouldn't use the term "revolution" here as it
only reminds me of destruction and loss which is far from the objectives of the
constitutional movement) when they raised against the traditional and
tyrannical government of the age, and achieved what they were seeking in the
end. Although these achievements were not that long lasting, they had a
tremendous effect on the mindset of the Iranians. What our noble fathers sought
and struggled for, if not fully achieved at the time, has left us with an
honorable and glorious legacy. Unfortunately, not many Iranians are familiar
with their own history.

Our people have a long history of nonviolent and democratic movements. They
have proven that they can make a change whenever they decide to do something.
But the same teacher - history - has taught us that, with blood thirst leaders
like Ayatollah Khomeini and his like minded henchmen, the next thing that could
happen after the desired change is only a big U-turn that can potentially take
us back even years before the starting points. I, as an Iranian university
student in Iran, fervently believe in these words of that British dramatist:
"The humble and meek are thirsting for blood." Our people are not. Not anymore.
A quarter of a century of blood shed, war and persecution is enough.

Ever since I had the chance to let the people of the world hear my voice, I have
had the opportunity to befriend many brave people from all the corners of the
globe. The message of freedom cried by the Iranian youth was so strong, it was
able to bind the hearts of the people of various countries and ethnic groups
together - Americans in particular. Only I would like to tell everyone, one
more time, that we are NOT worried whether or not the politicians of this
country or any other country say something in favor of our struggle, as, unlike
you, they might not know that your freedom and ours cannot be separated. What
we are concerned about is YOUR message of support. It is YOUR resolve that
warms our hearts and gives us more hope and stamina to move forward towards
that final free and secular Iran that all of us look forward to as the future
of our beloved homeland.

"How can we help?" a lot of you might ask. The answer is very simple: let the
others hear our message. Tell the others who might not know that the mullahs
and the ruling minority are a very small fraction of the more than 70,000,000
freedom-and-peace-loving-Iranians. Guide them to informative sources, which can
give them a vivid and true image of Iran's youths.

Throughout the whole period of these 25 years my nation has never been this much hopeful for her future, although we are standing with our clenched but bare
hands, à terre. But please, remember that every little thing helps.
I remember that once I read somewhere from Hartley Coleridge: "But what is
Freedom? Rightly understood, a universal license to be good."

We OUGHT TO be "good" together. That is the only path to a bright future for all
of us.

- Koorosh Afshar is a pseudonym for a student in Tehran. His name has been
changed for his protection.

[Amber]

Plz send this to any list serv you have access to, especially a college list serv with activists.

http://mensnewsdaily.com/archive/p/pawlik/03/pawlik120503.htm

http://www.faithfreedom.org/oped/AmberPawlik31205.htm