The Iranian

 

email us

Alefba

Farshchian

Sehaty Foreign Exchange

    Letters

Thursday
March 15, 2001

Fossilized issues

As a response to the elaborate discussion on "Shah or president?" I can only say that I am shocked that we even spend time and energy discussing such fossilized issues. Just because the present government seems to be insistently directing itself as if we still live in the era of Mohammad does not give us a right to indulge nostalgically in what is gone and will never be recovered.

The Shah's regime was also a filthy and corrupt, although it did not even come close to the barbarism and inhumanity of the present one.

All I can say is that living in the past seems to be a particularly Iranian (or shall I say "Old World") issue. Similarly I must say that I also have a problem with the West's obsession with the future, a pattern that stems from a need to never resolve deep conflicts and just ignore historical facts.

But, as Iranians we have a responsibility to start to pick up the wreckage of today because 22 years after the revolution it must be clear that not only will the monarchy never come back to Iran but I believe neither will Islam after the eventual downfall of the present government.

Let's not forget you can not fight religion. It is, for now, an integral part of some (majority?) of Iranians. What we must do is to forever make politics and religion separate. Europe did this eons ago. Perhaps we can concentrate on making a start now. Perhaps the Taliban will follow in a 100 years.

Maziar Taleshi

Links


 MIS Internet Services

Web Site Design by
Multimedia Internet Services, Inc

 GPG Internet server

Internet server by
Global Publishing Group.