Agreeing to sharply disagree
Exchanging sharp views on Islam and tolerance

August 1, 2007
iranian.com

An email exchange between Nema Milaninia and Amil Imani, the author of "Moderate Islam is no Islam":

Nema Milaninia writes: After his disparaging article on Iranian.com, concerning the problems faced by Muslims, I emailed Amil Imani about his views about Islam. I asked him in a very straight-forward manner: “do you believe that Islam is a generally evil religion.” Instead of answering my straightforward question, Mr. Imani referred me to the following website: FaithFreedom.org, which interestingly starts off with the following: “Faith Freedom International is a grassroots are to (a) unmask Islam and show that it is an imperialistic ideology akin to Nazism but disguised as religion and (b) to help Muslims leave it, end this culture of hate caused by their 'us' vs. 'them' ethos and embrace the human race in amity.”

In other words, Mr. Imani, in referencing his own opinions, cited a website which aspires to demonstrate that the entire religion of Islam is barbaric and evil and whose worshippers are somehow brainwashed and need to be cleansed. The unfortunate aspect of both Mr. Imani’s article and point of view is how somehow this point of view seems vindicated. Yet, it is blatantly the same ridiculous enmity, ignorance, and outward belligerence toward a religion that Adolf Hilter himself possessed.

Prior to WWII, Hitler claimed that Jews were the enemy of the Aryan race. In the same fashion Mr. Imani claims that Muslims and Islam is the enemy of the world. Hitler also blamed Jews for Austria’s crisis. In, again, the same fashion Mr. Imani blames Islam for destroying Iran, both historically and modernly. Hitler also collapsed his own political enemies with anti-Semitism by claiming that the Communists and Jews were in cahoots with one another.

Mr. Imani seems to also collapse his political hatred for the Iranian government with anti-Islamism, presuming that the two are not mutually exclusive. In his entire article Mr. Imani attacks Ahmadinejad for resembling Hitler. Ironically, in his distate for Ahmadinejad and Hitler, Mr. Imani has done nothing more than demonstrate that he is more similar to them than they could possibly be with each other. At least Ahmadinejad never called Judiasm an evil religion. It’s never a good thing when a dictator appears more tolerant than you are.

***

Amil Imani's reply: Mr. Nema, Not so fast...

I politely asked you to delve into my webpage for your answers. I simply do not have the time to respond to hundreds of e-mails I receive daily. That is why I created the page. I believe I have said enough about the subject and many of the same articles have also been graciously posted in Iranian.com, by Mr. Jahanshah Javid. Then I referred you to the most valuable site of EX-Muslims available on the Internet, FaithFreedom.org in case you did not find your answers among my articles.

Let me repeat this for you: my writings aim to help people decide if they want to rank with the Islamists or do they want to truly live as free men. The truth shall set you free, it is said, but first it will shatter the cozy, sweet world you live in. I never thought that it would be easy to reason with Islamists such as you. You and your Muslim brothers have been infected by an Islamic virus for so long. I do not expect you to give up your lust for 72 virgins in a snap of a finger.

Are you ready for your lessons now? OK, here we go... Mr. Nema, God has bestowed upon humans many different senses, including "intelligence" (use it) so that we use them for a better life. The senses he has given us should lead us to enlightenment and prosperity, not the other way around. Do you think it is possible that the almighty has given these treasures to only a few people and abandoned the rest of his creatures in bewilderment? Go figure!

Intelligence is discerning between true and false or the real and illusory. Islam ultimately defines the real nature of intelligence as coming to realize the absolute nature of Allah and the relativity of all else that is other than He. The Qur'an calls those who have gone astray from religion as those who cannot think, 'la ya'quilun', those who cannot use their intelligence correctly.

It is true that all religions are founded on fear. Fear of the unknown. Fear of death. However, throughout the years, many of the world religions were able to find ways to reform themselves, but NOT Islam. Islam prides itself on having remained unchanged. The Islamic Revolution in Iran presents a clear image of Islam. We do not need to go back to 1400 years ago and see what the prophet of Islam did. We can see a total replica in the words of his disciples, Ayatollah Khomeini, and the new selected president of Iran -Mr. Ahmadinejad. That is how Islam advanced rapidly around the world, with terror and fear.

Many Islamic scholars (if there is such thing) vow that Islam is a religion of logic, wisdom, moderation and peace. They vow that Islam invites people towards insight and knowledge and uplifts the position of women in society. This is far from the truth. Islam cannot stand what is logical and it does not invite people towards insight, but entraps humans with a deadly poison. Once one becomes Muslim, there is no way out.

Islam is about forcing women to wear the "hejab" the symbol of backwardness, stupidity and fanaticism. Women are second class citizens in the Muslim world. The prophet Muhammad takes his 9 year old wife to bed. What kind of man, not to mention a prophet of God, would commit such horrible act of pedophilia? The Quran says women are to be beaten by their husbands. Quran says four wives are allowed but Muhammad had at least 20 or even more. They say, in paradise, women are chained in different areas for men's pleasure. That is Islam for you.

Today, Iran is under the occupation of the most savage form of the Islamic butchers. These are the descendants of the same Islamic butchers who conquered Persia 1400 years ago with the sword of Islam. These are the same creatures that plundered and burned Iran and took Iranian women as slaves to the desert of Arabia. Even now the Islamic Republic is selling the Iranian women in Dubai and other Persian Gulf Sheikhdoms.

We have been witnessing the exact brutalities, savageries and barbarism for the past twenty-eight years by the Arab-Islamofascists upon Iran as our forefathers saw 1400 years ago. There are thousands upon thousands of our countrymen spending their youth in the Arab-Islamic dungeons. People's rights are being violated on a daily basis in the name of the same Islamic barbarism of 1400 years ago.

I am telling you this story, partly because it is timely, partly because it is good to know the lessons that history teaches us. Iran did not have to turn out as it did. Truth and provocative ideas ought to be welcomed in our society. Yet, with provocative ideas and opinions one must be ready to embrace death. As we have witnessed, the Islamic zealots do not tolerate opinions contrary to their own. "A slave is he who cannot speak his thoughts".

However, death is the last thing on my mind. Actions are needed to correct the past mistakes and that starts with you. Iranians must know what is happening in their country and what has led us to where we are today. We cannot allow the same ruthless Islamic zealots who went on their roofs calling upon an Arab God, "Allah-o Akbar," to impose an Islamic revolution on our society, to control and interpret our history. Also, we cannot allow the guardians of the status quo to define and control our future.

You must adhere to the wisdom of Zartushtra, who was a messenger of peace and life, eternal love and wisdom. He was also a messenger of "Good Thoughts, Good Words and Good Deeds".

The founder of Islam was not such a holy man. It is due to Muhammad's way of life that Muslims act barbaric and run amuck and burn cars and Embassies each time someone draws a picture of the Allah's prophet. Behaviorally, the prophet of Allah hallmarks a cult. In other words, we cannot compare Islam to other religions because due to the prophet's narcissistic manners, Islam falls in the category of a cult, not a religion. Yes, Islam is a cult founded by an Arab man from Mecca in Arabia, by the name of Mohammad, who lived from 570-632 A.D. A huge problem is that cults are incredibly difficult to dismantle intellectually. The brainwashing is grandiose.

The prophet of Islam motivated his rapidly growing body of followers to rally around him by proclaiming: if they are victorious they will have the treasures of the infidels as well as their women and children as slaves to hold or sell; if the faithful kill the infidels in doing the work of Allah, further reward awaits them in paradise; and, in the unlikely event that they are killed, they find themselves in Allah's glorious paradise for eternal life of joy and bliss.

Others lost their identity and heritage and embraced the ways of their new rulers. It is this band of savages, an oppressive tyrannical minority, which is presently ruling Iran. Yet even under the rule of Islamofascism, the overwhelming majority of Iranians of various ethnicity and religions remain faithful to their ancient creed ˆ a creed that was given to the world by Zoroaster.

Islam, as it is officially practiced in Iran today, is a stultifying, iron cowl. After 1400 years, militant Islam is again the greatest threat to existence of the free world. The very same evil force that set out to destroy the Iranian civilization partially succeeded in ancient times, and still strives hard to deliver the coup de grace to the Iranian people. The modern manifestation of the Islamic Caliphate has reincarnated into the "Islamic Republic" of Iran, which has been holding the majority of Iranians hostage for the past 28 years. Islamofascists ruling the country hope to realize their expansionist master-plan after defeating the people of Iran first, and ultimately unleashing their reign of Islamic terror on the rest of the world in succession. Hence, the importance of people of the world support for the Iranian people cannot be overemphasized.

Let us remember that the Arabs who sallied out of the deserts did not fan out to the outside world with the Quran in one hand and flowers in the other, preaching love and peace from street corner to street corner, aiming to capture the hearts and minds of the people. Islam was forced on every culture it encountered at the point of the sword. The kinder, gentler alternative was the imposition of the backbreaking jizyah (poll tax) levied on those who were spared the sword and allowed to retain their religious beliefs as "infidels." In spite of paying the heavy jizyah, non-Muslims were consistently treated, at best, as second class citizens in their own homelands all across the Middle East.

The overwhelming majority of Iranians of today stand shoulder to shoulder with the civilized free people of the world to defeat Islamofascism. The Iranians have not forgotten their heritage; they take pride in their ancient creed of light -- that of Zoroaster; they see themselves as inheritors of a great culture and tradition -- that of Cyrus the Great, the exemplary just king; and are determined to pay any price to put an end, once and for all, to the virulent disease of Islamofascism.

I challenge all Muslims to abandon the demonic cult of Muhammad and join forces of liberty and justice of free people with no turbaned masters or masters of any kind.

It is a crime to remain silent in the face of evil, it is said. Thus, I am speaking up and urging others to raise their resonant voices and act while they can before they are brutally silenced and annihilated by the ever-creeping Islamofascism.

Good-luck in your search for the TRUTH.

***

Nema Milaninia replies: Your wrong, militant Islam is not the greatest threat the world faces. The greatest threat is intolerance. The same type of intolerance you just showed toward Muslims and also toward Arabs. “The Islamic Revolution of Iran presents a clear picture of Islam.” How does that even make any sense? Where in Islam does it allow you to torture political dissidents, rape women, slaughter political ideologues, and suffocate freedom of speech? It doesn’t.

I don’t know why you have such a grudge against Muslims. It seems inconsistent with you being a Zoroastrian to hate so much. “I challenge all Muslims to abandon the demonic cult of Muhammad.” Way to go Hitler. I challenge you to take Islamic Appreciation classes and grow some tolerance. By the way, think about everything you just said and replace it with another prophet and see how backwards your thinking is. You’re using precisely the same hate speech that you attack your enemies for.

Once again, you are no different than anti-Semitics and other racists around the world. You are precisely the same. The same as white supremacists in the US who believe that blacks are inferior, the same as neo-Nazis who believe that the Jewish faith is also a cult, the same as Islamic fundamentalists in Afghanistan and Christian fundamentalists in Uganda who do not tolerate other cultures and religions and also classify them as social diseases, and the same intolerance that has initiated so many civil wars and genocides.

You have your own version of history and of cultures and religions and that’s fine. But don’t think for a moment that you are any less of a fanatic as those who you demonize. Nor do you deserve any more respect than a fanatic.

***

Amil Imani's reply: Mr. Nema,

I do not see any difference between you and the Islamists in Iran who are raping, killing, torturing, purging Iranian people and its culture. I see you as an enemy of my country, an Arab lover and an anti-Iranian goon. Look, there is only one Mohammad, one Islam, and one Quran. I did not create or write your book of hell, your prophet did. If you have any problems with that, just before your go to bed tonight ask Allah why he helped his "Rasool", with the book. It is the scripture, dummy!

Islam is an example of a belief system that perpetuates both force and fraud, sanctioned and prescribed within its scripture. It has a perfect legacy of bloody conquest and stands as an example of one of the few religions of mankind that mandates violent human death and destruction as a modus operandi (shared with Aztec and Mayan religions).

Islam's founder waged dozens of bloody wars of aggression and spouted ugly and damning diatribes against unbelievers, Christians and Jews in particular. He used his authority to order the "hits" of detractors, even poets and women who knew that Muhammad was Satanic. Today, the most devout and knowledgeable Muslims are all Jihadists. And the other than communist nations, the least free and most impoverished societies, and the places in which there is the most difference between rich and poor are all Muslim nations.

The only major religion that still sanctions slavery, the beating of women by men, and forced female circumcision is Islam. And the Quran specifically encourages bloody, violent, eternal Jihad against unbelievers and requires all devout Muslims to lie, and wait in readiness to attack with terrorism (sleeper cells are prescribed in the Quran).

Islam is therefore per se, in total, universally, and innately evil. It actively encourages some of the most debased, inhumane treatment of people known to man, regardless of which dogma you compare it to (religious or secular).

Its reputation for doing evil, Islam has earned on its own, without and before Hitler ever took center stage. Ultimately, however we need to avoid getting sucked into a pointless fracas about "who's the better Hitler". This comparison deflects proper criticism of the most ruthless and inhumane spiritual dogma ever conceived in the dark corners of the heart of man: Islam.

But before we set aside the emotionally-exciting notion of Hitler, let's compare which doctrine is the more instructive to violence and oppression, Nazi-ism or Islam. And in conducting a rational inspection, what we find is not whether Islam should be compared to Hitler, but whether or not in fact Hitler played in the single-A ball parks, whereas Islam is truly a major League... all-star team of depravity.

Here's Jihad's legacy since the very early days of Medina, when the brutal thug, Muhammad went on an eternal rampage of bloodlust throughout the world, and based his religion on the utter destruction of every other belief system through force and fraud:

Hitler: 3 million Jews, and a global war in which perhaps 20 million died, and in which fascism (a form of socialism) was ultimately defeated.

Muhammad: 400 million dead and 1 billion people currently living under its oppressive military rule. In both absolute terms and relative proportions of the population, Hitler was an effeminate school boy compared to Muhammad's raving, lunatic ugly, maniacal, hell-raising, disgusting offspring! There's simply no comparison.

Yet isn't it worth comprehending where Hitler got his ideas for human genocide? Just where did the idea for the abject darkness of Hitler's mass murder of civilians arise? Was there a precedent against a particular people, who just happen to be mentioned all over the Quran as being the focal point of Allah's wrath and hate?...oh, yes the Jews, reviled and disparaged by Muhammad, set up by Islam to be the demons of the world.

Your anti-intellectual detractor is so ignorant of history that you refuse to accept or convey the reality that it was the Ottoman Turks, after slaughtering the Kurds and Armenians down to the last man, woman and child, who gave little Adolph his "final solution". Apparently Hitler was not nearly as creative or effective as Muhammad's satanic minions.

"Hitler maintained a strong relationship with the founder of contemporary militant Islamic thinking, the Grand Mufti Haj Amin el-Husseini, revered throughout the Muslim world as one of their finest heroes, the man who hand selected Yassir Arafat as PLO leader.

'Once in Berlin, the Mufti received an enthusiastic reception by the 'Islamische Zentralinstitut' and the whole Islamic community of Germany, which welcomed him as the 'Führer of the Arabic world.' In an introductory speech, he called the Jews the 'most fierce enemies of the Muslims', and an 'ever corruptive element' in the world. Husseini soon became an honored guest of the Nazi leadership and met on several occasions with Hitler. He personally lobbied the Führer against the plan to let Jews leave Hungary, fearing they would immigrate to Palestine. He also strongly intervened when Adolf Eichman tried to cut a deal with the British government to exchange German POWs for 5000 Jewish children who also could have fled to Palestine.'

'The Mufti's protests with the SS were successful, as the children were sent to death camps in Poland instead. One German officer noted in his journals that the Mufti would like to have seen the Jews 'preferably all killed.' On a visit to Auschwitz, he reportedly admonished the guards running the gas chambers to work more diligently. Throughout the war, he appeared regularly on German radio broadcasts to the Middle East, preaching his pro-Nazi, anti-Semitic message to the Arab masses back home."

Hitler's SS found great inspiration and usefulness in Muslim Jihadists. "To show gratitude towards his hosts, in 1943 the Mufti traveled several times to Bosnia, where on orders of the SS he recruited the notorious "Hanjar troopers," a special Bosnian Waffen SS company which slaughtered 90% of Bosnia's Jews and burned countless Serbian churches and villages. These Bosnian Muslim recruits rapidly found favor with SS chief Heinrich Himmler, who established a special Mullah Military school in Dresden."

Hitler's ideas about genocide were taken directly from the Islamic Ottoman Turks. On August 22, 1939, Hitler remarked after discussing his plans to invade Poland, in which he planned to exterminate men, women, and children. When some on his staff worried about world opinion and the German legacy, Hitler said: "Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?" He was emboldened by the fact that the world ignored Islamic atrocities, even back then, and he admired their ruthless efficiency at eliminating innocent civilians! Let's not repeat this mistake in our defense against the true evil that is Jihad."

***

Nema Milaninia replies: Amil,

I don’t feel the need to explain the rest of what you wrote, its like trying to explain why blacks are equal to a white supremacist. But I will make one note. You are absolute right that I am an Arab lover. Just as much as I love Iranians, Chinese, Jews, Americans, and all other races, religions, nationalities, and sexes. Isn’t one of the major modern tents of Zoroastrianism equality for all, irrespective of gender, race, or religion? It’s good to know that you’re not only a bigot and a racist but a hypocrite as well.

Oh, one last thing. Can you please sign this petition to end the death penalty in Iran. Thanks! Also forward it to your friends.

***

Amil Imani's reply: Nema,

There is a big difference between loving people and worshiping those who conquered Iran and killed millions of Iranians. When I say you are an Arab lover, it means you love those who conquered Iran. That means you are a Muslim. A muslim is a lover of Arab terrorists. That means you worship the terrorists who terrorized Iran. I have absolutely nothing against the people, any people. Be it Arabs, Jews or whomever. I have a problem when Iranians are forced to bow towards an Arab land and worship the Arabs every single day and thank them for destroying and raping Iran.

60% of Iranian people will change their religion once this regime falls. This is a fact.

The Arabs were not satisfied with the spoils of the war when they conquered Persia. They wanted an Islamic Persia. They had come to convert the Persians by hook or crook. "La ilah ilallah, Mohammed ur Rasulallah" (There is no God but Allah and Mohammed is his Prophet). Those who resisted uttering those words were faced with death or burdened with heavy taxes and other unjust punishments.

It is the belief in the same "Allah" that brought upon the Iranian people the greatest catastrophe of the Islamic revolution. This is also the same belief that brought the twin towers down in the United States of America. This belief in this "Allah" will not stop until the entire world bows to its will.

History had taught the Arabs to plunder anybody anywhere. They burned one of the greatest libraries that ever existed at that period. With that, they destroyed not only the collections of previous Persian cultures, but other collections as well. It made no difference whose belongings they were. And now, with their newly found ideology, it made all their crimes more justifiable. The same can be said about today's Islamic rulers.

The struggle for liberation from the Arab fanatics never stopped Iranians. There were numerous Iranian uprisings against the Islamic Caliphs. Abu-Moslem Khorasani's revolution almost freed Iran from the Arabs. It created a strong drive throughout Iran and revived the Persian sense of pride and dignity. People like you who do not know history, are doing disservice to other Iranians.

All these liberation movements, from Abu Moslem Khorasani in Khorasan, to Sinbad from Nayshabor, who followed the path of Abu Moslem Khorasani to Babak Khoramdin from Azerpaigan, who fought against the Arab army very fiercely, until he was betrayed by another Iranian, Afshin and was decapitated by the Arab Caliph, to Maziar, who led freedom fighters in the North against the Arab Army and envisioned of reviving the Iranian tradition; to Mardaviz-e-Zeyari, from Daylaman revolutionary leader and a Persian renaissance, to the Great Yaghoob-e Leith-e Saffari and Astadhsis, carried out five basic virtues: wisdom, bravery, courage, justice and a never ending struggle for an independent Iran. The spirits of these Persian heroes will live on and so does the Iranian struggle. This is something you must pursue.

With the first invasion of Arab-Islamic values, history has shown that the Arabs had not come to Persia merely for its vast spoils, but rather, they wanted an Islamic Arab Persia. They succeeded in making Iranians Islamic by the sword, but they miscalculated and gravely failed to inject the Arabic way of life into a very sophisticated and highly elevated Persian culture and tradition. They never accomplished their goal of taking away the Iranian identity as they did with Egypt, Libya, Morocco and other ancient African countries.

As we have witnessed again 1400 years later, the third invasion of Arab-Islamic values of 1979, directed by its extremely brutal satanic Islamic revolutionary man, the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, also has gravely failed to convert a highly complicated and sophisticated Persian culture, tradition and identity, into an Islamic way of life. History has shown time and again that the crown of Islamic Arab values simply does not fit the Persians. It never has and it never will.

During the next two centuries, a silence rolled over the once dynamic land. The heroic efforts by the Persian national heroes never allowed the Arab occupiers to live at peace. The Arabs keep fighting the rebellions constantly and at the same time emptying out the wealth of Persia. Iran was under the rule of the Caliphs, from Medina and later from Baghdad. These Caliphs were determined to obliterate all vestiges of Zoroastrianism and the great Sassanid dynasty.

Anywhere the Arabs would find a Zoroastrian temple, they would burn it down. Any Persian books were obliterated and those who wrote or spoke in Persian were faced with death. Their mission was very similar to the third invasion of Arab-Islamic values of 1979. Each invasion diverted from its original goals. Each went after Persian culture and identity and each gravely have failed.

Even though 2500 years has passed since Cyrus the Great declared the first Charters of human rights, at the down of the new millennium, Iranians are still struggling for their simple and basic human rights. What went wrong? I tell you what went wrong; it is because of people like you that Iran is still suffering. You can't give up your cult of death, Islam.

I hope by now you have a clear idea what went wrong and why after two millenniums of supremacy by the Persian Empires over the vast land of the known world, Iranians are at the bottom of the civilized world today.

Our nation for centuries has struggled valiantly to survive. The history of our nation is all about struggle. Our nation, once again is struggling for its independence from the most vicious and barbaric system known to the history of man. It is one of the most tyrannical and oppressive regimes in the modern time. What makes this era the most sensitive era of the Persian history, is the fact that the Islamic Republic is playing games with people's life, by creating the most devastating bombs, (the nuclear bomb) and opening the doors from outside with a full fledge war on Iran.

The current rulers in Iran are simply vicious, malicious, and dangerous. They are doing everything in their power to make sure there won't be a new generation, and if there is going to be an Iran, they want to make sure that you become one of them. That means an Islamic terrorist. Being part of party of the Islamic terrorism is prerequisite part of the selection process of being accepted in the Islamic government.

History is filled with ironies. What the Arabs had come to Persia to eradicate, it made Ferdowsi to recreate. Hakim Abol-Ghasem Ferdowsi Toosi is one of the greatest heroes of Iran and father of the "Book of Kings," the Tales of Ancient Persia. He is known in Iran as the father of the Persian language. For more than thirty years, Ferdowsi spent his valuable life to revive, not only the Persian language, but a nation.

Namiram keh az in pass man zendeh'am,
Keh tokhm-e sokhan raa paraa-kardeham
(I am deathless, I am eternal Lord
For I have spread the seed of the Word)

Ferdowsi is dead. But, his spirit lives in the hearts and minds of all freedom-loving Iranians.

Good-luck.

***

Nema Milaninia replies: That’s nice Amil, but you’re wrong. By the way, as I read your emails I’m visualizing a ragged old man with a grey beard holding a sign in front of the white house stating “the end of the world is coming.” But with you the sign would read “love everyone... except Arabs, Muslims and those who tolerate them.” Jahanshah jaan, sorry for the mass emails. Hopefully you’re being entertained ;-)

***

Amil Imani's reply: I have nothing else to tell you.

Good-luck kid

***

Nema Milaninia replies: Alhamduallah.

Comment