Hossein hocus pocus
In an era when the world is making quantum leaps in science and
technology, we Iranians still spend a lot of our lives in the past
February 21, 2005
iranian.com
As I flip through Iranian satellite TV channels
I can't help stop and watch the Ashura processions offered by the
Islamic Republic. A big room full of hundreds
of bearded men, as well as some children, weeping and hitting themselves
on the head mourning the loss of a character named Hossein.
I am
angered and dumb founded as to how anyone can spend one minute
of their precious life mourning the loss of a man from another
era.
Religious superstition is like a virus that spread through Iran
when the Arabs invaded our country thousands of years ago. This
virus is an important barrier to our country's progress and
partly responsible for its demise.
At times I wonder what a Westerner
would say if he sees grown men cutting themselves with machetes
to mourn a figure from another origin. How comical
it would sound to the outside world when more than one hundred
days in the Iranian calendar is dedicated to mourning, crying and
wasting time
over foreign characters. Today it's Mohammad, tomorrow
Hossein and the next day Hassan.
Who where these people? How much
do we really know about them and as the English saying goes,Who
cares? Why do I have to care what Hossein did 1,300 years
ago in Iraq? If we want to celebrate someone's bravery,
why can't we celebrate the bravery of twelve year-olds who
defended our country by strapping grenades around their waist?
Were they any less brave than Hossein?
Do we really know much
about these religious figures other than stories that were written
about them and passed on from one generation to the next? What
would we Iranians say if every year Americans came to the
streets, beat themselves with chains screamed from the top of their
lungs in praise of a French leader. Wouldn't we say they are crazy?
In an era when the world is making quantum leaps in science and
technology, we Iranians still spend a lot of our lives in the past.
The regime has been successful in implanting the seeds of religious
superstition and fanaticism early on. During the war, young 12
and 13-year-olds where given golden keys of heaven and told
to expect a visit from a savior on a white horse. Their foreheads
literally a bulls eye for Iraqi snipers waiting patiently to take
their young lives away.
 It is difficult to change religious beliefs of a nation overnight.
But the work has to start somewhere. Young Iranian parents have
to start teaching their children about faith but not the superstition
and hocus pocus that has infected our culture. We should teach
them about the genius of Newton, the magic of Beethoven and the
bravery of thousands of Iranians who fought valiantly to save our
Persian culture and land from Arab invaders.
Religious superstition
has taken our country back to the dark ages. Unless we wake up
today and start changing our beliefs, our nation
will sunk in an abyss of misery forever.
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