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Real threat?
Photo: AP

Iranian threat exaggerated

Nuke threat overestimated; support for Ahmadinejad insignificant

Reading the daily headlines, warnings and emotional slogans uttered by some of our political leaders dealing with the Iranian threat, I want to correct the impression, which is propagated by the Israeli and Western media, that Iran and the Iranians are our worst enemy.

 

The normal people of Iran do not hate us, nor do they want war with us. They do not want to destroy us, and in actual fact, they do not know us, and could not care less what happens outside their own locality.

 

I have worked in Iran for five beautiful and fascinating years, and was advised to leave when the Shah's regime fell and Khomeini took over the reign of Iran.

 

Those last days in Iran are now revealing the feelings of the real Persians. Of course, I am not talking about the fanatic Shiite clergymen, who used the students to establish the first Islamic Republic, governing by cruel medieval Islamic laws. I am referring to the Iranian people, who where liberated from a greedy and nasty autocratic regime, governing without popular support in the name of the Shah, by the savior Khomeini.

 

In order to better understand why and how all this happened, I need to give a short description of the Persians and their history.

 

Some history

The ancient regime of the Persian Empire is known to us all, and can be considered of one of the historic pillars of civilization. Following the conquest of Alexander the Great, the Persians suffered many additional defeats and occupations by foreign powers, all leaving their marks on the local population.

 

The Persian religion before Islam was Zoroastrianism, the oldest of the revealed monotheistic religions, which had probably more influence on mankind than any other single faith. Some of its leading doctrines were adopted by Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

 

Central to Zoroastrianism is the emphasis on moral choice, responsibility and duty in the mortal world, with emphasis on concepts such as Equality, Environmentalism, Hard Work and Loyalty to family, tribe and country.

 

The Islamic conquest 1,300 years ago did not manage to erase the basic Zoroastrian principles (mainly because Islam is conducted solely in the Arab language, a foreign language to the average Iranian).

 

This caused an actual split in the Iranian society, a - religious leaders (clergymen) and b -followers, participating in the hocus pocus of the Shiite Islamic religion, but actually disinterested in what happens in the outside world.

 

Talking to a Persian villager (with help of an interpreter, as he will not talk to you directly), you will comprehend immediately that he dislikes all foreigners, Arabs, Jews, Westerners, etc., not because their religious beliefs, but because they are different. To the average Iranian, Persian Jews are more acceptable than Arabs.

 

They don't like the police and other government representatives, as they are from outside their clan, but they are extremely loyal subjects to anyone ruling in power.

 

The Shah before his fall was considered the representative of God in Iran and his picture was hanging in all living rooms of the empire, until the day when somebody told them to change the picture to one of Khomeini.

 

In favor of the Shah

Some words about the Shah, who was in my opinion a great person, who tried to utilize the new found petrol money by elevating the country from the primitive middle ages in a short period of 30 years to a modern nation, but failed because his clique (the upper middle class) was small and greedy and corrupted all efforts in improving the plight of the average Iranian.

 

Iran before the Shah did not have a middle class (besides the small Jewish clan), only rulers and servants. Education was limited to the upper class and the primary education was provided by the clergy, by teaching quotes from the Quran in Arabic, which was learned by heart, without comprehension.

 

Dangerous fanatic dictators

The Iranian revolution threw the Iranian civilization back to primitivism, without possibility of building up a new generation of well educated people, capable for taking over.

 

Ahmadinejad, the enlightened president of Iran today, represents a small group of dangerous fanatic dictators and a group of followers (most probably, relatively small) which will demonstrate on the streets of Tehran, supporting every slogan their leader happens to declare.

 

In my opinion, al-Qaeda and other radical Islamic movements have no supporters in Iran, as the people could not care less what happens elsewhere, provided they get their daily Juje kebab.

 

Ahmadinejad, to me, is only a small fry, irrelevant even in the eyes of the Iranian press, which enjoys the attention he gets from the West, and in my opinion, the Iranian nuclear threat is only a tool used by the ruling Ayatollahs in order to unite the Iranians against the threat of the West.

 

Iran is a beautiful country with wonderful people, and I hope that in our lifetime we will be able to return there and enjoy their hospitability.

 


פרסום ראשון: 10.26.06, 18:10
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