Letters
July 19-23, 1999 / Tir 28-1 Mordad, 1378
Today
* Arabs:
- Stereo-typing
Previous
* Religion:
- Religion prevents unity
- Moderate, practicing Muslim
* The Iranian:
- Admirable
* Protests:
- Their turn
- Amazing American politicians
- The way it was
- Twin demons
- Amazing American politicians
- The way it was
- Twin demons
- Khatami only hope
- Last desperate stab
- Worse than a dog
email us
Friday,
July 23, 1999
* Stereo-typing
Allow me to express my utmost disappointment in the unfortunate remarks
cointained in the poem "History
of Iran"which clearly crosses the logical and moral (if not legal)
borders of discrimination and negative stereo-typing.
Iranians, one of the primary victims of the same type of prejudice in
the west, should choose to become the new flag bearers of equality and
the forerunners of an end to such practices. Although it is very common
within our culture to abuse and stereo-type other nationalities and cultures,
one expects that our intellectuals and media such as the new electronic
form of it (The Iranian), stay away from the kind of conduct that
in the short and long term will be harmful to our own community.
After all, if we start stereo-typing other cultures and races ("Cuz
when Arabs invaded, not too many fought. They handed our country to men
who were no wizards. For fine dining experience, they mostly ate lizards.")
then we are opening the doors and in fact approving stereo-typing of ourselves
by those who consider us "no wizards" or "violent"
or "terrorist" or ...
Pedram Moallemian
Director (CIRCLE)
Canadian Iranian Centre for Liberty & Equality\
Suite #105 120 Sheppard Ave.
East Toronto, ON M2N 3A4
Tel (416) 218-0552
Fax (416) 218-0556
Email: circle@canada.com
Go to top
Thursday
July 22, 1999
* Their turn
As a member of the Iranian diasporic community I am thrilled as to the
recent events that have gone on in Iran. Although I personally feel that
Khatami himself is first and foremost still a Muslim cleric, he is probably
the country's only hope.
I am waiting for the day when there will be no Islamic state in Iran.
A day when we can actually rid ourselves of the Arab influence in our country.
Islam invaded Iran, and although we mostly contribute imperialism to the
English, Islam has it's own imperialism and Iran is a perfect example of
that.
The clerical government would like to see an end to Noruz celebrations
as well, because it is not an Islamic holiday.
I urge all members of the diasporic Iranian/Persian community to do
whatever they can to show their support for the people of Iran who want
change; the clerical government has run Iran into the ground and the same
people that were chanting "Down with the Shah" have realized
that they have implemented monsters in his place.
Salmar
Go to top
* Religion prevents unity
In response to the moderate, practicing Muslim I
must say I disagree on the fact that we can't teach culture without religion.
Religion is one of the many things that keeps Iranians from being united,
and that is one of the biggest problems in Iranian society today.
I have no problem with religion and do not seek to detract from it.
But if Iranian culture is to be preserved, we must look to other aspects
of our society as well. As an Iranian agnostic, I am fiercely proud of
my culture and the accomplishments and history of our country and people.
I was not raised to believe in Allah, or Ahura Mazda, or Baha U'ollah.
Rather, instead of being a servant of Islam or what have you, I listened
to the stories of our founding forefathers like Cyrus and Darius, in addition
to our heroes, from Rostam to Ferdowsi to Takhti.
If anything, we need to start teaching the more unbiased parts of our
culture, that don't focus on a specific religion or belief. We need to
put our prejudices aside and simply be proud of being Iranian.
Q tip
Go to top
Wednesday
July 21, 1999
* Moderate, practicing Muslim
I enjoyed reading "After
all, I am Iranian" and found it refreshing that people my age
are learning about Iranian culture and traditions. However, if I may add
my own opinion, being Iranian does not only center around one's customs,
traditions, or even language.
I have great respect for those Iranians who are Jewish and Christian.
They have kept their respective faiths. I have had a chance to attended
to Iranian-Jewish celebrations and learn more about the Jewish faith. They
are proud of who they are and are happy to share their religion to others
who want to be educated.
As a moderate, practicing Muslim, I find it utterly shameful that we
Iranian Muslims cannot be proud of our faith. We don't need to be extremist
or even yield to one dogma. As a moderate Muslim, I wear my hijab in the
masjid, AND THAT''S IT. I am like a typical American girl outside and enjoy
the freedoms of being the first born Iranian-American in this great country.
Yet, I feel that as a Iranian-American, we have become too shallow,
only observing our culture and forgetting about religion. There are many
Iranian-Americans Muslims that don't know a thing about their faith and
believe themselves to be Christian or even agnostic. It is sad when one
comes across these individuals.
That is why I stress that it is important for Iranians, whether Jewish,
Christian, Zorastrian or Muslim to teach their children about religion
and culture together. For example, Iranians gave the Islamic world many
great scientific, artistic, and cultural traditions that have helped shape
our traditions. You cannot teach culture without religion.
In closing, I want to thank Ms. Jalalipour for her essay. Your a smart,
intelligent young lady that has a great future ahead of you.
Sanaz
Go to top
* Admirable
CONGRATULATIONS!
Soma's reports from Tehran are great and being special the The Iranian
Times is excellent. Putting out the "Extra"s are very timely
and the stance of The Iranian Times in relation to recent events
has been clear and admirable. Your role, nowadays, is more important than
ever and I'm glad for you and my favorite publication.
Abbas
Go to top
Tuesday
July 20, 1999
* Amazing American politicians
I agree with Ramin Abhari (The Iranian Times,
July 19). We should support Khatami. In its issue of July 8, the Washington
Post saw it fit to stage yet another attack on Khatami ('More Mullah
than Moderate' by 'a former CIA specialist'). I wrote a letter of protest
to the editor which was not published.
There seems to be a confluence of interests among some right-wing politicians
in the congress, the Israeli government (although that might be changing),
the MKO and hard-liners in Iran to put an end to Khatami's courageous initiatives.
It is truly amazing that, in the U.S., the MKO can manage to present
itself as a serious alternative to the exisitng Iranian regime and claim
the backing of more than a hundred American congreessmen.
I know American politicians are not the shrewdest people on earth when
it come to foreign policy and history. But they wield enormous power. So
do such mainstream media players sucb as the Washington Post.
Do we want the future of our homeland be dictated by the most vociferous,
once again? Have we learned anything from history? I don't know what to
do or how to do it. But at least we can devote some time and effort to
thinking about it.
Afshin Afshari
San Jose, California
Go to top
* The way it was
I think it is about time that Iranians stood up against oppression and
unjust laws. Although, I think that what happened was not enough. I was
born in Tehran and now live in Virginia.
I would like to see the day when Iran returns to the way it was under
the Shah, so that there will be peace, and that maybe, just maybe, we could
all go back and relive our lost lives.
Yashar Basseri
Go to top
* Twin demons
I have spent enough time in Iran recently to grasp the following: The
twin demons affecting this very interesting country are the 4% per annum
population growth from early in the Islamic Republic's tenure and the lack
of water resources.
These two impediments to growth are, of course, intertwined. The Iranian
dovernment must effectively deal with them - and stop looking for external
scapegoats.
Raoul Tschebull
Go to top
Monday
July 19, 1999
* Khatami only hope
I can't help thinking that another opportunity for forwarding the cause
of liberalization in Iran was lost last week ["Now
what?"]. The roughing of peaceful student protestors and trashing
of their dormatories, was a big embarassment for the hard-line establishment.
It could have had led to a major purge, having followed the assassination
of writers few months earlier.
Now with the rioting and Mojahedeen Khalq's statements of support, it
would be masterful if Khatami could prevent this from becoming a major
setback. Why doesn't the opposition realize that they have no leadership
and that Khatami is the only hope for Iran out of this darkness?
Ramin Abhari
Go to top
* Last desperate stab
Political science data advisable for democratization in Eastern Europe
and South America strongly suggest that the success of a democratic transition
is linked to the involvement of soft-liners (Mohammad Khatami) in the authoritarian
regime.
Lynn Karl and Phillippe Schmitter (1991) found that when authoritarian
regimes conducted their own democratization they were much more likely
to succeed. However, even when the regime itself is conducting the democratization
it can be subject to internal coups. Hard-liners often take one last desperate
stab at reasserting themselves (e.g. USSR--Genady Yeniev vs. Mikhail Gorbachev).
However, if Khatami's power base is stable, it is already too late for
a hard-liner coup to succeed. It seems that the real threat to Iran's democratization
process are the students and Iran's neighbors. The Karl and Schmitter (1991)
data suggests that if the protesters take over the reform process a future
Iranian democratic regime's actual chances for success will be diminished.
As for Iran's neighbors, Mark Gasiorowski (1995) ["Now
what?"] found a direct link between the number of democratic neighbors
a democratizing regime has and its chances of success. Iran is in real
trouble in this regard! Talk about an island in a sea of dictatorships.
Roy Casagranda
Go to top
* Worse than a dog
You guys are worse than a dog. Long live the Islamic revolution.
Salah Jafar
Go to top
Copyright © Abadan Publishing Co. All Rights Reserved.
May not be duplicated or distributed in any form
