Dear Abba,
I read your article on Iranian.com which describes the events after the elections. I am not a Monarchist, but may I suggest that you read a couple of books on him… Mike Evan’s Carter and “The Shah” recently written by Mr. Afkhami might give you a different perspective. I was a university student at the time of the shah. During his 30 year reign 765 political prisoners were held in jail.. the number of killed, tortured, raped, flogged and hanged during mullahs 30 years does not make it a fair comparison by any standard. During the last days of the Shah, some military officers urged him to allow them come down heavy on the demonstrators…but he refused and said if the people do not want me, I will not impose myself on them and left peacefully…compared to now, those were the Golden Years of Iran. When people ask for their votes they get beaten up and killed…what kind of Revolutionary ideals are you talking about?
The Shah made some mistakes admittedly …but it was not his mistakes that did him in…it was his good deeds. ….when he took the land from the mullahs and distributed it among the peasants that angered the mullahs. Ideally mullahs should have been happy when he did the land reform if they were really on the side of the poor, but it showed that they never cared for the poor, they were after their own interests and Shah was made a scapegoat.
The Shah was too naiive to deal with their deceptive ways. They burned a movie theatre to the ground with peoplel in it and blamed the Shah for it. At the time it was a horrible act ascribed to Shah’s secret service, but now it is proven that Khamenei himself oversaw it and phoned and gave the good news to Khomeini after 200 plus people were burned in the Cinema Rex incident. Just Google it and you shall find out. Talk about some Revolution!
You might want to read about the revolution and the how Khomeini lied to Iranians to gain their trust and support. He promised them free electricity, homes, equality of sexes …etc. But it is now clear that he lied and did so intentionally to deceive the people to further the cause of Islam. He did not care for Iranians he had Islam in mind. Have you read any of his books? He talks about making love to a sheep and fondling little babies and says both are Ok and approves of a girl being married at the age of 9….now you tell me what kind of charismatic and visionary leader was he?
Sincerely,
Arash Irandoost
