Bahman Aghai Diba
Iranians are not Arabs. The people of Iran do not care what is happening in Palestine. Even if they do, their feeling is in the same level as they care for the “Chechens in Russia”. Arabs look at Iran as another Israel. They do not see Iranians as Muslims.
If these things are shocking for almost all of the people in the Western countries, then it means that the Iranians have not done their share of struggle to demonstrate to the people of the world that Iran has a civilization and culture different from Arabs and although Iranians are mostly Muslim, they do not have much respect for the mediums of the Islam, i.e. the ancient nomadic Arabs who invaded Iran. It is an important mission for the Iranians to make this distinction known.
The treacherous Islamic regime of the Islamic Republic Iran, which doest not represent the people of Iran and at the same time, it is ideologically hostage to Arab line of thinking, has been trying for the last quarter of century to spread Arabization in Iran. This is a mission and a duty for all Iranians, especially those who live in the other countries and enjoy the fruits of the freedom of expression, to show that Iran is a country different from Arabs from all points of view.
This is not a mission aimed against the Arab people or countries. It is defense of the separate identity of Iranians. The Arabs have been doing the same thing since the advent of Islam among the ancient nomadic Arabs in the present day Saudi Arabia. They have been praised for conquering the Great Empire of Iran and trying to impose their culture over the people of Iran. The identity of Iranians was so important that unlike all other countries conquered and culturally devastated by Arabs (like Egypt, which received the recycled religion of the ancient Egyptians through Islam), Iran never given up its cultural identity and even Iranians have invented the Shiite sect of Islam as a defense against the main stream Sunni Islam. The Arabs have been criticizing Iranians since then for the invention of Shiitism.
The modern day Arabs do not trust Iran too. Even when the regime of Iran speaks against Israel or in defense of the Palestinians, the Arabs feel that an outsider is interfering in the affairs of their “Arab brothers”. Among the Arab countries, Syria has made itself closer to the regime of Iran due to:Getting cheap oil from the Islamic Republic of Iran, Thousands of Iranians go to Syria each year to spend money, and Syria gets all kinds of weapons from Iran (or Iran pays the cost) and they give them to the Palestinians groups that follow the Syrian line.
However, even the Syria has never supported the rights of Iran in any occasion. The Syrians along with all other Arab countries, especially the members of the Gulf Cooperation Council [the Iranian regime always puts a “Persian” before the name of the “GCC” to give the impression that Arabs have acknowledged the historical name of the Persian Gulf, while in fact the name of “GCC” is another example of the violation of the Iranian rights by the Arabs] have been condemning Iran for occupying the three islands claimed by the United Arab Emirate (UAE). However, they have intentionally forgotten that Iran played the most important role in creation of the UAE. There was no UAE at the time that Iran took back some of its islands and failed to get others in order to pave way for independence of the UAE. Almost in every occasion, including the GCC’s meetings at all levels and the sessions of the Arab League, at least once and sometimes repeatedly, the Arab countries support the baseless claims of the UAE against Iran.
It is the duty of every Iranian to reciprocate this heart felt feeling. The people of Iran, unlike the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran, do not feel any obligation to support the nationalistic and Arab oriented policies of any Arab group.
Here are some of the practical ways for defending the cultural identity of Iran, as a separate culture from the Arabs:
1- Take out Arabic words from your language as much as possible.
2- Do not listen to any speaker who uses too many Arabic words, especially the Mullahs.
3- Try to explain for as many as possible people around you, starting from the family members, and extending to the people you meet at work place, neighborhood and so on and take any occasion to explain that Iranians are not Arabs.
4- Explain your Iranian sentiments about the ancient nomadic Arabs who invaded Iran in every occasion.
5- Do not let the issues about Islam, as a religion, which is like any other, block your view about the barbaric Arabs who plundered Iran and changed the fate of a civilized nation to the course of ancient nomadic Arabs.
6- Find new ways to do this task and let others know them.
