Letters August 2006 August 7 I hate Hezbollah too, but...In response to Rosa Golish's "How about 'Israel tragedy' for a change?": As an Iranian who has denounced Islam as well as all other organized mind poisoning religions lets say i'm not a fan of fanatism amongst any creed, including but not limited to overzelous Moslems, also considering we Iranians historicly have had our share of problems with our neighboring arab nations you can say i'm not too crazy about them either, and with all that said thou allow me to be amongst the many who will rightfuly tell you that you're a hateful bitch! Sorry but someone had to inform you of that sooner or later... Just answer this question: How many innocent people are killed by Israeli forces for every innocent life taken by Arabs? What do you think that ratio is? 5? 10? 20? Per CNN's report as of today (August 4th 2006) 675 are reported dead in Lebanon, 73 in Israel, roughly a 9:1 ratio and we're only talking about this particular limited crisis and not the historical conflict amongst the semite cousins... Now ask yourself this, is the Jewish life worth more than the non-Jewish life? If your answer is yes then you and Hitler share the same ideology, he believed the German life was worth more, you think the Jewish life is, funny how you've turned into your worst enemy. Hezbollah is using innocent civilians as shieldsIn response to Deev's "I hate Hezbollah too, but...": I would appreciate good manners if you are going be writing to me first of all. I am not a hateful bitch and I demand an apology from you. You don't know me therefore you don't get to judge me and degrade me. To answer your question why the ratio is 9:1 is because Hezbollah is using innocent civilians as shields. They hide in the residential areas and even in Mosques. They are dressed in civilian's clothes so they can blend in with the ordinary civilians. This is a real war; you don't hide in the most populated residential areas to fight. They do that so they get Media's attention and they love seeing Israel getting blamed for the number of casualties. They have no regards for their follow Muslims and human life. They are in fact the Hitler here for massacring innocent Lebanese. Israel warns the areas before they hit so people have a chance to go to a bomb shelter. Israel does the same thing to Israeli people also, gives them a 2 second (imagine, 2 seconds) warning to find a shelter. The difference is that the Israelis are educated in what to do during crises and the Lebanese are not. Israel is in a constant war with the Palestinians from Gaza every day of their lives so of course they are much better prepared to deal with these types of things. Don't you get it? Hezbollah wants all these casualties to happen to our Muslim brothers and sisters to create this anti-Israel feeling among all Arab nations so they fight Israel together. Did you notice how at first some of the Arab countries were defending Israel that Israel has the right to defend itself and defeat these fanatic terrorists called Hezbollah. But they are changing their views on Israel because of the number of casualties in Lebanon. The same Rockets that are going to Lebanon, twice the numbers are being fired back at Israel. Why doesn't the Lebanese Government disarm the Hezbollah and return the hostages back to their families? Wouldn't that be just then end of it all? Who's the terrorist?In response to Rosa Golish's "How about 'Israel tragedy' for a change & Sima Nahan's "Lebanon tragedy": I see you have passion for this issue, but you refuse to deal with the root cause. You have no right to defend a government's heinous acts of terror against people who's lives you obviously don't value as highly as those of Israelis,the people Israel displaced, murdered, jailed, etc., when they have no other way of defending themselves but desperately take matters into their own hands. Why don't Israelis work to end the illegal occupation and strangling of these people? They don't (very few do). That's complicity. I don't go to China because I don't want to support a country that strangles Tibet. I dissent in America for peace. It is tragic that anybody has to die in any conflict, but let's put this in perspective: Israel is the imperialistic oppressive occupier and if you don't believe me go to Israel, Palestine and Lebanon yourself and see what Israel has done in the name of "freedom and democracy" to the Arabs. The Arabs are the oppressed. This situation is a lot like global warming, a feedback loop that must be stopped at the source of the issue to get anything done. As we put more and more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, the earth warms more...the more tundra and ice caps melt the more greenhouse gases (water vapor and other ice-stored greenhouse gases) go into the atmosphere. We can't stop the tundra in Siberia from melting by encapsulating the area with freezers. Freezers require greenhouse gas emitting energy sources to function. If we want to save ourselves from a global environmental catastrophe, as with a global war, developed countries must immediately stop pointing fingers at everyone else and lead the charge in fixing the root cause of the problem. ALL our lives depend on it. You can't ask the ice to stop melting when we're the ones causing it to melt. You also can't ask an oppressed refugee who has lost everything to stop seething either. Israel can keep saying they're not the bad guy and keep trying to take over the Near East as even their own people suffer at the cost of their US and UK backed actions. Israel can keep on killing, but that killing will keep on multiplying. With one death there are scores of mourners... This is not simple mathematics... You cannot assume that if you kill a "terrorist" that you have eliminated a "terrorist"... You only create more. Israel, with the backing of the US and UK, is creating "terrorists" through state-sponsored terror, since the creation of Israel. And why are "terrorists" created to begin with? Do you think someone just wakes up one day with the wish to blow themselves up and countless other people? Yes, there certainly is an Israel tragedy, but it unfortunately is caused by the government of Israel. Please direct your anger where it will actually make a difference. We need to start asking ourselves why the US, Israel, and UK governments are doing this. The US did not have to treat Native Americans as savages and kill them. The US, or England rather, made that choice. Israel unfortunately did that within the past century, and continues to do so as we speak. You buy into their argument. If you lived in America hundreds of years ago, would you have felt that Native Americans are savages that deserve to die? Do they want to gas or burn us or send us to concentration camps?How long more do I have to hear the new reporters, news commentators and politician referring to Muslim as savages, terrorist and barbaric? I was watching CNN news last night when the reporter named Anderson had the Israeli ambassador on the show and referred to Muslims as fascists. It came to the point that the Israeli ambassador said that the European countries should do something about Muslims. What the hell did he mean with the latter comment? Do they want to gas or burn us or send us to concentration camps? Is that not enough that they continuously are insulting us on TV? Why are none of your organizations doing anything? Take your share of the responsibility alreadyIn response to Hanan's "Thank you USA, Israel": Sadly, as far as killing and threatening Jews you were all complacently Hezbollah before the war. I do not see why you think your life should be pleasant when your country and members of your government kill, bomb, kidnap and constantly threaten and generally fuck up the life of your neighbours. Hezbollah, Iran and Syria bomb us from your country, spy on us, threaten us, send bombs and arms to Hamas, missile us, kill us etc. It is not the "insecurity of Israel" - it is our life! This happened in your country for six years, and you did nothing. At best you are all responsible for closing your eyes. Lets face it, as long as Lebanon was prospering you did not care if the Hezbollah was killing Israelis, some "regular" Lebanese were even a little proud about it. I am truly sorry about your wedding and about the Innocent killed on both sides. I do not agree with everything my country has done and even when Israelis are murdered (which happens often) I do not think that "we are all the extreme-right". But had your people took responsibility over their own fate and country this whole bloody war would have never happened. But Arabs are never responsible are they? they are always powerless to act and it is always the fault of someone else. It high time you - as a people - grew up and shed the infantile self image imposed on you by European (not Jewish or American) colonization. Take your share of the responsibility already. Yes, your wedding was delayed because Israel is a traumatized country under constant threat of annihilation and it tends to react accordingly, but it was also delayed because Lebanon did nothing as far as the life of Israelis was concerned, because Iran is crazy, because Syria is tyrannical and because people in the South of Lebanon spent the last six year helping the Hezbollah build a missile war machine aimed at nothing but killing the civilians of a country Lebanon had no real conflict with. Truly sorry for you pain, I hope for better times on both sides on the border. Very different pictureIn response to link to pictures of Mazandaran by Nader Honarkhah: Thank you for making a link from Iranian.com to Mt. Siyalan Page (Shahsavar area pictures). Most people (including some Iranians) think of Iran as a vast desert. The mountains (that cover much of the country) paint a very different picture. Thanks for helping me publicize the beauty of the area. 1900 clicks in only 48 hours! Get together with anyone and everyone who is sympatheticIn response to "Wake up call" by Abbas Edalat, Foaad Khoshmood, Shahram Mostarshed, Daniel M Pourkesali, Rostam Pourzal, Nader Sadeghi, Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich, Massy Homayouni: I went on the demo yesterday (5 August 06) in London calling for a ceasefire in Lebanon. I carried a placard saying 'THE ONLY SOLUTION IS A SINGLE STATE of PALESTINE': an egalitarian multiracial coexistence within a Single State for Jews and Arabs‚ and this led to some interesting discussions along the way. One of the best was with an Iranian man who gave me a copy of this article, "Wake up call". I am an English woman and an atheist, and if Iranians are worried -- understandably! -- about their country being 'next'‚ and a prime target in Bush's war, they/you need to get together with anyone and everyone who is sympathetic. My own take‚ on this is, of course, horror at what is going on in the name of a phoney democracy and war on terror, but also indignation at the Johnny-come-lately nation-state of USA having the cheek to boss around countries and peoples whose cultures have been around for millennia. American complicityIn response to the New Yorker interview with Steve Coll regarding Iran's nuclear policy and ambitions: Perhaps one ought to remind Mr. Coll about the American complicity in providing Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and his hencmen with blue prints, fissionable material, data, and even a small nuclear power plant (18 megawatts as I recall) back in the seventies. Doing so, Americans hoped, would one day enable a nuclear armed Iran to carry out their treacherous foreign policy and fallacious thinking of world domination... To make Iran do all their dirty work for them. Israel is a terrorist state, periodIn response to Kaveh L. Afrasiabi's "Anti-Dershowitz: Israel's continuum of barbarianism": Tens of thousands of civilians remain in villages south of the Litani River, despite IDF warnings to leave. Some have chosen to stay, but the vast majority is unable to flee due to destroyed roads, a lack of gasoline, high taxi fares, sick relatives, or ongoing Israeli attacks. The sick and poor are those who mostly remain behind. The attack took place around 1:00 a.m. today, when Israeli warplanes fired missiles at the village of Qana. Among the homes struck was a three-story building in which 63 members of two extended families, the Shalhoub and Hashim families, had sought shelter. The civilians had taken refuge there because it was one of the larger buildings in the area and had a reinforced basement, according to the deputy mayor of the town, Dr. Issam Matuni. Prime Minister Olmert, on August 6 in reference to EU criticism of civilian casualties resulting from IDF activity in Lebanon: "Where do they [European Countries] get the right to preach to Israel? European countries attacked Kosovo and killed ten thousand civilians. Ten thousand! And none of these countries had to suffer before that from a single rocket. I'm not saying it was wrong to intervene in Kosovo. But please: Don't preach to us about the treatment of civilians." A zebra will never lose stripesIn response to Jahanshah Rashidian's "Imam Ganji": Well presented Mr. Rashidian. Baby killers!In response to Rosa Golish's "How about 'Israel tragedy' for a change?": What terrorist? You stole their land and they want it back! Isn't that how the whole state of Israel was created by terrorism? And continues terrorizing the world. Baby killers! Islamic Republic's apologistIn response to Kaveh L. Afrasiabi's "Anti-Dershowitz: Israel's continuum of barbarianism": Reading the rage-ridden rhetoric of Kaveh Afrasiabi against the Harvard law professor, Alan Dershowitz, I couldn't help thinking: Look who is talking! Labelling others as apologists for Israel by Afrasiabi is akin to being a called a terrorist by Sheikh Hassan Nasrollah of the Lebanese Hizbullah! In the league table of the Islamic Republic's apologists who are regularly featured on Iranian.com, Mr Afrasiabi has religiously retained his position among the top five contenders -- don't ask me who the other four are as the competition is so intense that my apologist-o-meter can't cope with the continuously varying ranks of the contestents. This is why Kaveh Afrasiabi's protesting to Professor Dershowitz for his support for Israel's right to defend itself against Hizbullah's aggressions and calling him an apologist is really laughable. Mr Afrasiabi may not have had the chance of becoming a full professor but he comfortably enjoys a tenure-track position among the top ranking IRI apologists on this site. Defend innocent Iranians in prisonIn response to Kaveh L. Afrasiabi's "Anti-Dershowitz: Israel's continuum of barbarianism": Kaveh, You are always ready to get your pen in defence of the Mullah regime and attacking Israel and Jews. How about once, just once, you defend the innocent Iranians who are languishing in prison or dying like Akbar Mohammedi or Iranians who are persecuted because they're not Persian or Muslim. Lament rather than blameIranian.com certainly is open to differing points of view. I've read fiery articles in iranian.com blaming Israel, blaming Hezbollah, blaming Lebanon, blaming Iran and blaming the U.S. for the horrors we are now witnessing in the Middle East. There is a lot of blame to go around: perhaps Lebanon should have moved more agressively to integrate the Hezbollah militia (the last of Lebanon's many militias) into the Lebanese army; perhaps Israel should have attempted diplomatic initiatives before embarking on a campaign that is destroying the Lebanese infrastructure. I have traveled extensively in the Middle East, and I lament rather than blame. I especially lament the lost opportunity for freedom in Iran that existed from 1997 until February 2004. In 1997, the Iranian people overwhelmingly voted into office a reformist parliament and elected a supposedly reformist (he turned out to be a wimp) president; in the next few years, the Guardian Council blocked all reforms. In September 2001, the Iranian people took to the streets in masse to express sympathy for America; President Bush responded by labeling Iran a member of the "axis of evil". What if America and the world community had reached out to the Iranian parliament before the Guardian Council disqualified all reformist candidates for the 2004 election? At that point, a weakening of the Guardian Council and a strengthening of the parliament could have caused the whole rotten theocratic system to unravel. What will happen when the August 31 deadline for Iran to cease uranium enrichment expires? Will the fat cat looters in power in Iran back down to preserve their privileges? Or will fanatical zealots who believe in the Mahdi defy the ultimatum and bring about a devastating aerial bombardment of Iran that will change the course of history and possibly lead to the use of battlefield nuclear weapons? Either way, freedom won't come to Iran. If a Messiah does come to Iran (I'm allowed to dream, aren't I?), then I hope the Messiah will be Zoroastrian. Eric Jerpe Why do we hate Jews so much?!Please be honest. No one can hear your thoughts. As an Iranian Muslim, why do you hate Jews and/or the state of Israel? Do you know any facts about Israel, the Middle East as we know it now, how it was created, who created it, why was it carved up the way it was etc etc? How many books have you read about these subjects? I guarantee you that as a typical Iranian, you have not read squat about any of the above. Majority of your opinions were formed during your childhood, as you heared your parents, grandparent, aunts and uncles say disparaging remarks about Jews; like Jews are cheap, Jews will screw their own mother for money, Jews don't take showers etc etc. For God's sake, read at least one book. Form your own opinions based on facts not stomach gas. A few good books to read are: 1) Cradle & Crucible: History and Faith in the Middle East There are tons of other books and articles available. In my humble opinion, Jews are not at fault. The problem was created by the British, French, Russians and Americans because of how they divided the Middle East. Read some books and tell me whats your opinion. Took away some of my respect for youIn response to Alidad Vassigh's "Pakistani priorities": Dear Mr. Alidad Vassigh, I enjoyed your article regarding Pakistan and her leaders. Your passion comes through loud and clear and I like that. What takes away from your straight forward commentary is your reference to the 'Jewish carpet seller'. It was unnecessary and took away some of my respect for you. I look forward to reading more commentaries from you minus the Jewish dig. Amsterdam observationsIn response to Jahanshah Javid's "Ali's treat": August 3 How about "Israel tragedy" for a change?In response to Sima Nahan's "Lebanon tragedy": How about a web site for Israel and all the innocent people that have been killed in suicide bombings for years after years? How about those people that were traveling to and from work and never made it home because some piece of shit terrorist decided to blow his worthless body in the bus and taking innocent mothers, children, fathers and grandparents with him? How about all the children that became orphans because they were sitting in café having pizza and another worthless jackass blow himself up in the name of Allah? Let me tell you Sima, you should be ashamed of yourself for promoting and supporting terrorism. If the Lebanese people are sick of what is going on there, tell them to tell Hezbollah to get the -F- out of their country and return the 2 Israeli Hostages back to their families. But obviously they are not sick of it yet and they want Israel to do it for them. So I hope Israel teaches them a lesson for once and all. I wish this coward Hezbollah terrorists would come to your house and hid themselves behind you and your mother and your sister like they are in Lebanon. And when you take the bullet for these cowards, I hope you and your family lay in the hospital thinking about what you are supporting. You are supporting worthless piece of craps. Do you think that Allah is looking down on you or these terrorists and smiling????? Think again. I hope Allah wipes all these terrorists, you and your worthless friend from face of this earth. Why don’t you and all these Arabs and Iran, spend the money form their oil to build their country, and educate the children rather than teaching them hatred. Why can’t Arabs and us Iranians leave Israel alone and focus on ourselves for a change to become better human beings, more educated and have more love instead of hate for Israel? I want to see you promoting a web site for Israeli soldiers that our fighting for all of us in the world to fight terrorism so that we don’t have another September 11th. Can you do that Sima? Can you find it in your heart to do a worthy cause like that and educate people to support you in the same thing? Was not Mr. Mahammadi in a more critical situation than Mr. Moussavi Khoeini?In response to Sayeh Hassan's "Akbar Mohammadi: Murdered in prison": As we know, none of these prisoners have been mentioned by Ganji’s recent compaign. Instead Ganji mentioned some detainees, like his ex-colleague Mr.Moussavi Khoein, a former architect of Islamic repressions in Iran. Was not Mr. Mahammadi in a more critical situation than Mr. Moussavi Khoeini? Why Mr. Ganji does not mention any name who is in a critical situatiion? I think this latter victim of the IRI's atrocities was not unknown but ignored by Ganji because he did not belong to IRI’s former insiders. Just as Ganji was campaigning for his friend, Mr. Moussavi Khoeini, who was like Ganji involved in the repressive organgs of the IRI, Mr. Mohammadi was under torture of the same regime. Ganji knew that Mr. Moussavi Khoeini, as a detainee and an ex-regime’s insider, would be eventually released soon, he knew also about the danger waiting for many prisoners who are not all former insiders and therefore are not supposed to be released soon. Ganji knew that they suffer from inhuman conditions in IRI’s political prisoners and some of them wait for the same destiny of Akbar Mohammadi. Does this latter crime remids reluctant Ganji many thousand IRI's crimes when he was a regime's insider? War against humanityIn response to Sima Nahan's "Lebanon tragedy": Dear Ms. Nahan, I appreciate your acknowledgment of the fact that we could reduce our anxieties about the current war by being in contact with people experiencing it at a much closer range and by being active at at least trying our best to stop it. I intend to check out your suggested blogs especially written by the Lebanese. Thank you. This is another war against humanity, not just Lebanon's Hezbollah. And as long as the military industrial complexes and war presidents are benefitting, deaths are inevitable. And just to get this point out of my chest, since you've allowed me the comfort, I'm tired/bored/sick of those people who still believe that Israel is laways doing the dirty work for the US so we can live free and liberated all over the world, happily ever after. Do they think all people are stupid?In response to Hanan's "Thank you USA, Israel": Dear Hanan, I read your article (Thank you USA, Israel) on the <//Iranian.com>Iranian.com which saddened me even further about the horrific events in Lebanon. It is criminal how Israel's army in the name of freeing two soldiers, which were captured during a "military operation" by the Hezbollah, feels free to destroy a country and in the process kill many civilians. If I remember correctly while Israelis withdrew from most of Southern Lebanon they still occupy an area of Lebanon which in my book makes them occupiers and gives the Lebanese the right to drive the occupier out. If the occupied, in this case Hezbollah, direct their attacks against the occupying army and not it's civilians then they can not be called terrorists and their actions are legitimate by any standards. I do not recall Hezbollah firing rockets into Israel before the crisis began without Israelis having done a similar act first. Kidnapping and capturing has been an integral part of the Israeli army's tactic in the area. How come it is wrong for Hezbollah or the Palestinians to kidnap Israeli soldiers during military operations but it is right if the Israeli walk into some one Else's home and country and kidnap mainly ordinary civilians and take them back to be tortured by Mosad under god knows what inhuman conditions and then be held in prisons for many years without trial? Are they blind? Can't they see that most people of the world know about these? Do they think all people are stupid? This was just a fabricated excuse for Israel and it's backer to try to destroy Hezbollah. I do not know when they are going to learn that you can not destroy an ideology using guns, force and barbaric means. Killing defenceless children, women and elderly is not going to remove the threat of Hezbollah. As you said yourself now a christian Lebanese claims he is Hezbollah, so they are just achieving the opposite to what they hoped to achieve. What is it the Israelis are trying to do that they do not want any outsider to be around witnessing it? I am referring to the deliberate bombing of a UN observation post which resulted in the death of four UN peace-keepers. The bombing had gone on for many hours and despite many messages by the UN forces to the Israelis that they are hitting the observation post and should stop it, the Israelis went ahead and destroyed it. The post had been in place for almost 15 years and the Israelis knew exactly where it was so they can not claim for this to have been a "mistake". Israelis probably want to make sure that that area remains uninhabitable for many years to come. They are probably deliberately destroying every single home and farmland. Do not get me wrong, I do not like Hezbollah and what it represents but then again I do not like Israel for what it does to other people in that region every day. I think Israelis should live in peace and free of fear. But the peace Israel is looking for virtually means for the others in the region to accept being and having nothing. It is not a just peace and as a result it would not be a lasting one. Is Peace and security for the Israelis so important that in the process a country and a great number of it's people can be destroyed? This latest episode will only add resentment from a people who are already bitter about situation. It is also criminal how the Israeli "precision" bombing is destroying blocks upon blocks of residential areas with devastating results on their inhabitants. They seem to hit every thing but legitimate military targets. Do they consider themselves as brave by attacking an almost defenceless nation with the latest weapons and technology? I know my words will not solve any of your problems. As a father I feel for all the mothers and fathers who see their loved ones get killed, maimed and buried alive but I am sure for a people with such long history you will survive this horrific episode as well and once again build you country. Our thoughts are with you and every single one of us should try to help in order to make the suffering a bit less for the Lebanese people. Please keep writing and let us know how you are managing. May your god bless you and be with your people in time of suffering. Mertsi Deep seated anti-Semitic, anti-Jewish feelingsIn response to Kaveh L. Afrasiabi's "Anti-Dershowitz: Israel's continuum of barbarianism" and Sima Nahan's "Lebanon tragedy": You forgot to thank HezbollahIn response to Hanan's "Thank you USA, Israel": Hi Hanan, Sorry, but the solution is very easyIn response to Hanan's "Thank you USA, Israel": Dear Hanan, I am so sorry about your wedding plans. It must feel horrible for you and your family. The solution is very easy. Tell Lebanon/Hizbollah to release the 2 Israeli hostages and not to mess with Israel again. May be they should let Israel live a normal life too for a change. Also tell that beautiful country of yours to remember RESOLUTION 1559 (2004) Adopted by the Security Council at its 5028th meeting, on 2 September 2004. And then may be you can start planning your wedding. Middle East 101#1 Israel is not a democracy -- ask any Arab who lives in Israel; it is a democracy if you are a Jew. Israel 101 #2 You and I never know what Zionism has in store for the whole world. With all due respect I was a simple hearted person as you. The reality is you are dealing with SOBs. Need backboneIn response to Pedram Moallemian's "Down to Coke or Diet Coke": Senator Lieberman has been supporting some of the President's views especially the war on terror, I don't particularly approve of him neither some "Hezb-e bad" Republicans like Chuck Hagel, these guys try to please both sides by playing both sides... They need to develop backbones. Respect for people even your enemiesIn response to Ben Madadi's "Terribly wrong": Dear Mr. Madadi, I am not surprised to see yet another dear Iranian fellow without opening his grade-school's history books is talking about some historical events that experts for decades were speculating on. Let me see if I got your points right. You mentioned Iranian Empire was diminished by Arabs, and Barbarians (?) defeated the Roman Empire. Therefore we should come to the point that Arabs are Barbarians. On the other hand Lebanese are Arabs consequently we should believe Israel and US are the current Empires. Now we get to this very interesting point that you did not mention but intended to deliver through the reader's thinking dynamics that, we should learn our lessons from history and we have to prevent the history from happening again... So, let's kill Arabs! For your information, Empires commit suicide. Iranians gave in to the Islam's new hope, true or not true, of justice against the inequality of their corrupted leaders at the time. Roman Empire died from internal bleeding of corruption. Empires die when their leaders corrupt. They die when their kings and queens see everything black and white and they are full of themselves. They see the world as simple as a place for good and evil. I suggest you to have a respect for people even your enemies. Berceuse being respectful to your enemy is not just for being polite but to take your enemy's capabilities seriously regardless of their look, height, race, color, gender, nationality and age. Not to mention if you are smart enough to see the facts it is most likely you are not going to go to war at all. So it is better to suggest to people to be realistic and accepting to the facts as come up. Because failing to accept every single fact is going to be another cut on the body of the Empire. Not perfectIn response to Massoud Noghrekar's "Fatvaaye khoon o jonoon": Dear Massoud, As usual, you wrote a long and perfect article with facts and presentation of culprits of one of the most terrified mass murder of our history. However, about the culprits, you tried somehow to white wash Akbar Ganji! How can you so surely classify him in a range of those who was not culprit or at least collaborator of that collective crime ordered by his "Imam"? Isn't it time for Israel to respect international laws?In response to Morib's "Did iran over-play its hand?": I, like many other people, have been trying to figure out the reasons behind the tragic events of the past 2 weeks in the middle east... Praying to holy MariaIn response to Hanan's "Thank you USA, Israel": I just read your letter to Iranian.com and I couldn’t help it not to cry! Dear Hanan, please do not forget that we are all in this together, the whole world I have to say, everybody like you and I, no matter where they come from or what nationality they have! Beirut and Lebanon represents the whole world who is gathered in it during ages and decades to celebrate humanity and the world heritage of what is called civilization. Hanan, believe me, I have been asking around myself in the village where I live, here in the Netherlands where the most indifferent people of the whole world do live, about what they do feel about Lebanon and what is going on there, believe me even the Dutch are disappointed, everybody is now telling the same, United Nations and their office is just doing nothing but spoiling our money and taxes which are supposed to be paid by our governments so they can stop deliberate killings of states like Israel but nobody does listen! Those on top of the power, are all playing false, they don’t mean what they say! They only think of their great palaces and holidays and that’s it! The European government does not care about what is happening to the poverty among its own residents, illegal immigration, sexual abuse of children, drug-traffic you name it, let alone paying attention to what is happening to the habitants of Lebanon! Why? Because as long as it is not harming their own house or bank-account, nothing else does matter. They don’t care about us, why should they care about you? And on the top of all that, they are all doing exactly what their financiers and banks are telling them to do, who are off course the leaders of the world and among the strongest countries of this planet. They don’t care about Global Warming or Global Dimming which is already taking lives and damaging the planet, why should they care about you or me? We are all helpless, we are all forgotten and we are all in this together. I am crying now and writing you this letter as I exactly understand where are you going through at the moment…so sad, so unfair, so really unfair! You had all these dreams of getting married in (in my eyes) the most beautiful city of the world, in Beirut, which I haven’t seen and so much want to see and breath its air, smell the flavours and see the Lebanese living happily ever after together in the most historic part of the world and now, you have to sit at home, at least safe and all-right, but cancelling your wedding and crying, asking yourself why this had to happen?! I feel really sorry for you and believe me, I am with you, my heart is with you, with all the Lebanese and all those who are suffering and have lost their loved-ones or even worse, had to abandon their own homes in their own country and feel their villages and now realising they may never return as Israel is going to level even those still standing houses or buildings. They have no money, no shelter, no one who can help and no one who can reach out for them to hear their voice! >>> Full text Charlotte J. Najafi Use Persian words to the extent possibleIn response to Guive Mirfendereski's "Purging Persian": I always enjoy Guive's articles; however, I respectfully am not in total agreement with this article since he is very briefly touching on a very important subject without deeply exploring it. Why using RACIST instead of "nejad parast"? there were using English words all over that i never heard when i left Iran 30 years ago! I realized that knowing English helped me to understand today's tehrani Persian, and if i didn't, i would have some difficulty following them, as would my parents' generation! Those of us in Iran (and abroad) can master other languages without losing our own, as we have in the past! We say MOTESHAKKERAM which is Arabic, but also we can say SEPAASGOZARAM which is Persian, And there is nothing wrong with that (or may be there is)! We can advance while preserving our language, as the French have for centuries and that didn't stop them from progressing! Then, why should it stop us? Agha, can't you read?In response to Hossein Hajiagha's cartoons: Thank you for wonderful and informative website. Agha I don't know how fluent you are in Farsi and if you can read what this person called "Hajiagha" the cartoonist writes. But if you don't read Farsi (which I assume you don't, because of the context of his cartoon and very strong conotations), please take an action and stop this guy from writing these craps. I don't know him and I hope you do not take this ackward for asking you to do this. I am asking you this merely to help for improvment of our website. Pure reflection of a LOOSERIn response to Hossein Hajiagha's cartoons: I just want to let this guy know that he is a bitter, angry, defeated and a hopeless guy. His so called cartoons are a pure reflection of a LOOSER. Point the finger at yourself and get rid of that big fucking chip on your shoulder. I am not very optimisticIn response to Ali M. Aliabadi's "Neither expansionism nor extremism": I agree with you and I think the honesty and courage are the most important quality of any journalist, which is of course a rare reality. What concerns your article, I expect more secularism in your writing to complete your analysis. As you mentioned, the main problem of the Islamic world is the lack of democracy and secularism, which of course can only work together--separating one from another shows the miscarried experience of ex-Soviet Republics with a present risk of return to Islam. Your articl and its likes will certainly spread such a debate in the Iranian.com. Meanwhile, you will be certainly realising that a great majority of Iranian Intellectuals, even Muslims, are secular and wish a secular state in Iran. I am have never proposed a forced atheist system of thought. Personally, neither can I prove atheism, as a provable school, nor can I naively accept an alleged divinity behind any religion. God or its similar entity is not an issue of ideology, but rather an issue of philosophy in natural sciences. Perhaps in future, we can better judge about the philosophy of being, an eventual universal intelligence, random or rules of the universe, but I do not believe that ideology can explain it, nor believe I in an absolutism of nature. We can refer to Quantum mechanics as a source of many related phenomena and of a transcedent reality of being. It is up to natural sciences to explain the laws of nature. Nor am I for a mechanical de-islamisationam, it brought no fruit in Turkey or ex- Soviet Rublics. We need a democratic and secular political system to push religion back n the domain of its privacy. It successfully happened in the history of Europe. Separation of church (mosque) from state is a preconditional necessity of our release from backwardness. We vitally need an iranian Renaissance. Thanks to the IRI, many people in Iran now are aware of secularism. The ordinary people or,less, educated may emotionally resist, but will certainly accept the fruits of it. contrary to some consevative or traditionalists, I think the situation in Iran is historically at the best to secularise the society. About the ongoing war in Lebanon, I agrre with you that an immediate ceasefire must be unconditionally carried out between israel and Hezbollah, the toothless NU must show a little authrity. The international community must condemn the aggressors and their atrocities. I think this war is a planned war with more ultimate fronts--probably until Iran. It must be stopped before spreading in the whole region. War against Iran can be a dream of some Monarchists or Mojaheds who have nothing left to hope. There is a bigger pictureAs the world peace situation gets darker by day, the truth gets buried under the dust of time. There is a bigger picture as it has always been and the masses are kept in the dark. What’s behind it all is yet to metabolize. This is a worthwhile videos to get out: -- //video.google.ca (1) Pass on a flicker and there shall be light. GreatIn response to Kaveh L. Afrasiabi's "Anti-Dershowitz: Israel's continuum of barbarianism": Ba salam, A great article. Please keep up the good work. Thousands of us enjoying reading your articles. I wish you the best, Eradatmand, You missed the opportunity to speak outOn Persis Karim's "Don't shoot the messenger(s)": A while ago I wrote to tell Persis Karim and 3 other women who were on KQED radio that they should be ashamed for not answering the question about Mortazavi and his presence in the Iranian human rights group. I was dissapointed that all 4 women skirted the issue. Since then several people have written back extensively... about the book . Talk about skirting the issue! Did I ever talk about the book? As a matter of fact I will read the book and will judge it on it's own merits. Guess what: no matter how much you want to pretend otherwise, you missed the opportunity to speak out about a man who has murdered Zahra Kazemi, a "journalist and a woman in diaspora", and there is no skirting around that, no matter how many of your friends try to help you out. Ruined by Golestan!On Jahanshah Javid's "Quiet elegance": Nice collection of photos with the exception of some ruined by containing the unshapely and balding figure of Golestan! Reportage from AmsterdamOn Jahanshah Javid's reports from Amsterdam, "Highs & lows", "Meet Farah Karimi", "Moments to remember" and "Quiet elegance": Followed your reportage from Amsterdam. Enjoyed how you kept us abreast of your activities and your success. Wish the radio all the luck and could not have been represented by a better online magazine. MG Stories on picturesOn Jahanshah Javid's reports from Amsterdam, "Highs & lows", "Meet Farah Karimi", "Moments to remember" and "Quiet elegance": What a great idea to interview famous people or experience the daily life by making pictures of some precious moments and put it on the website, with a text regarding the whole story which did occure during that moment. I personally do love this way of journalism and this original way of talking to all of us, well, at least those Iranians like me here in Europe who are interested in what is happening outside Europe in North America and Iran among Iranians and their societies. And by the way, I just read your father was the head of the public relations of NIOC in Abadan, well, I am also from Khuzestan, Ahwaz actually, and my father was supervisor in both Abadan and Ahwaz. (unfortunately I do not know what he was doing exactly, he passed away many years ago with pain in his heart of what Hezbollah did to his country and with the earnings by our Oil!) What I do know, is that he mentioned some names and some colleagues and friends sometime and what I do remember that he might have known your father, Mr. Javid back then in beautiful Abadan and from Bashgah-e Naft! It is good to see that you were in Amsterdam and did enjoy your trip to my country. Well, I was born in Ahwaz, but I am living here for many years and the Netherlands is kind of my home now. Next time you and Mr. Golestan are in Holland, I would love to show him and you around. I did notice that Mr. Golestan and you were enjoying the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and especially the paintings of Rembrandt, next time you visit the Netherlands, please do not forget to visit “Mauritshuis” in the Hague, where Rembrandt did use to live and the city of Delft which is full of Dutch heritage and history and home to many kings and queens. Off course, there is nothing better than bringing a visit to Esfahan, Shiraz and many more historic sites of our own country, Iran and hope you and Mr. Golestan soon can be there in a free Iran. Charlotte J. Najafi ps: My greetings to Mr. Golestan whom I didn’t know before and know him well now thanks to your efforts and messages. Lovely.
>>> More letters in August 2006 Part 1 -- Part 2 -- Part 3 |