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Thursday
July 26, 2001

All had high hopes

When do we learn to tolerate each other and engage in constructive dialogue even though we disagree with each other? This is in response to letters from people who seem to think if the Mojahedin fought against the Regime, the Hezbollah and other supporters of the Islamic Republic, they are "traitors".

This essay will not focus on the ideological weaknesses underlying Mojahedin's political cause. Nor does it defend their relocation to Iraq. I am not a supporter of any political group. However, after thousands of Iranians have lost their lives, certain things are worth mentioning.

The Mojahedin were and are still tortured by the mollas. Even though we do not agree with them, we cannot deny their genuine struggle against a backward laws and dictatorship of uneducated, and prejudice mollas. Thousands of them have been killed simply because the Regime did not accept sharing power with them.

Through the years, Mojaheds have struggled against Basijis, Pasdars, and other undemocratic forces, and fought against Khomeini's tyranny. Although they are Moslems they had to be annihilated because they were a threat to the power of the mollas. This lead to their escape to Iraq and caused them a great political defeat.

The Iranian government still identifies them as "monafeghs" and "traitors", due to the fact that they are constantly at war with the government forces. There is no doubt that the Mojahedin's version of Islam is as defective as the existing one ruling Iran, but the Regime's propaganda against them has been massive and unending.

We Iranians can learn a great lesson from the Mojahedin's plight; until there is an in depth belief in power sharing between the existing political groups such as Monarchists, Mojaheds, leftists, the National Front, and the student movements inside Iran, we will be doomed to witness more crimes against other Iranians. We Iranians can ask ourselves this question; what if instead of Mojaheds killed near Kermanshah ["Burning eyes"] it was the monarchists, or National front forces, or other opposition forces?

Let us remember that early in the Revolution all these so called political groups were working side by side for the good of our country. Mojahedin and the other leftist groups, Freedom Movement, Mr. Yazdi, Mr. Bani Sadr, Mr. Bazargan, Mr. Rajavi, Mr. Madani, were all running for different offices of Islamic Republic and their pictures were all over Tehran.

Only when power struggles did not end in their favor did they become the enemy of each other, and started calling each camp "traitors". They were reluctant to share power and they called one another "un-Islamic" , "reactionary" ," Hezbollahi" ,'"Monafegh", or "Anti-revolutionary" . Only then Mojaheds and other anti-government groups became "traitors", and "deserved" to be raped, tortured in prison and killed by Pasdars and Basijis.

All the martyrs who were murdered by the Regime near Kermanshah, in Evin and in other brutal operations around the country before and after July 1988 , all the monarchist fighters who were arrested and killed, the murders of numerous political prisoners, freedom fighters, writers, artists, students -- were they in vain? Were they traitors as well? When do we learn to show political tolerance and awareness about other groups and their issues?

The fact is, as much as we disagree with each other we must learn to tolerate. We can't pick and choose Iranians who fought for the freedom of our land, and separate them into "heroes" or "traitors". I can't say only those who agreed with my ideology were heroes and the rest were killed "in vain". They all had high hopes for Iran.

We might disagree with many of their leaders. Yes, the leaders are undesirable, opportunists, old fashioned and worse. Yet Iranians who lost their lives for Iran will forever be considered martyrs and it is time to acknowledge them all. What lessons do we learn from all the killings and tortures inflicted on our population the last 22 years? How can we heighten our cultural consciousness so that we don't have to physically fight for our beliefs? How do we learn to negotiate issues and stay away from pre-conceptions about each other?

More than twenty years of living in so-called democracies and we still accuse and curse each other, send issue death treats against each other, and can not face our opposition. We talk about human rights, gay and lesbian rights, feminism and women's equality, but there are basic concepts such as mediation, power-sharing and compromise that are still alien to us.

I believe we must acknowledge all our freedom fighters, regardless of their political ideologies. It is time to learn from our mistakes. Destruction of systems, beliefs, and human beings is easy, but higher values are found where construction begins. For that, one must try to be non-judgmental and learn to tolerate. These concepts do not apply only to other cultures. It is time to use them to make bridges for ourselves and accept each other for who we are, human beings and not political entities.

Amir Hedayat

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