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October 1-4, 2001 * Mass murder Dear editor, Please post this article and ask your readers to act quickly by responding to it. Only an overwhelming response will deter such ideas to become mainstream. Let's not allow the day when The New York Times will publish this as a regular op-ed column. This article appeared (10/2/01) as an advertisement in The New York Times on page A20. It is an outragous call for mass murder in Iran and for adopting a policy of total exploitation of Mideast resourses by force. Beacuse the author believes that: "Americans, properly, were motivated by the selfish desire to achieve personal happiness in a rich, secular, individualist society." And for him, this is the essence of Decleration of Independence and thus the U.S. has the right to commit any acts of atrocity to preserve its interests: "The choice today is mass death in the United States or mass death in the terrorist nations." Besides its total ignorance of contemporary Iranian history, the author displays a shameful anti-Iranian attitude that is most dangerous. It is a complete outrage that NYT would publish such a hateful article under the cover of advertisement. PLEASE DO NOT BE SILENT, do not let such lunetics get away with their attempts to exploit tragedy and try to influence the public opinion towards accepting mass murder so their oil will stay cheap. Please write a brief note to the NYT (letters@nytimes.com)expressing outrage at accepting this ad. Also write to the author and abhor him for his ignorance (just look at the first quote on oil nationalization!) and that it is him who is truely the rightful descedent of the Nazis, not the Iranians. Here are some outragous quotes from the article followed by the full article: * "Fifty years ago, Truman and Eisenhower surrendered the West's property rights in oil, although that oil rightfully belonged to those in the West whose science, technology, and capital made its discovery and use possible. The first country to nationalize Western oil, in 1951, was Iran. The rest, observing our frightened silence, hurried to grab their piece of the newly available loot." * "A proper war in self-defense is one fought without self-crippling restrictions placed on our commanders in the field. It must be fought with the most effective weapons we possess (a few weeks ago, Rumsfeld refused, correctly, to rule out nuclear weapons). And it must be fought in a manner that secures victory as quickly as possible and with the fewest U.S. casualties, regardless of the countless innocents caught in the line of fire. These innocents suffer and die because of the action of their own government in sponsoring the initiation of force against America. Their fate, therefore, is their government's moral responsibility. There is no way for our bullets to be aimed only at evil men." * "If one were under a Nazi aerial bombardment, it would be senseless to restrict oneself to combatting Nazi satellites while ignoring Germany and the ideological plague it was working to spread. What Germany was to Nazism in the 1940s, Iran is to terrorism today. Whatever else it does, therefore, the U.S. can put an end to the Jihad-mongers only by taking out Iran. Eliminating Iran's terrorist sanctuaries and military capability is not enough. We must do the equivalent of de-Nazifying the country, by expelling every official and bringing down every branch of its government. This goal cannot be achieved painlessly, by weaponry alone. It requires invasion by ground troops, who will be at serious risk, and perhaps a period of occupation. But nothing less will 'end the state' that most cries out to be ended." * "The choice today is mass death in the United States or mass death in the terrorist nations. " * The difference We always do this, don't we -- compare apples to oranges in the hope of making a spurious argument stronger. These days, in our all-out defense of Islam (an admirable religion famously based on peace, compassion, goodwill, and the respect of individuals -- particularly of women) we are constantly trotting out Timothy McVeigh (see Behrad Mahdi's "Identity, meaning"). I would guess that comparing this situation with others of the same nature if not the same scope also helps us alleviate the guilt by association that we feel or are made to feel in the wake of the horror of three weeks ago. What we want to demonstrate by comparing the Oklahoma City bombing to the September 11 attack is: a) It's not only in the name of Islam that bad things happen [true]; b) Americans are just as capable of heinous crimes as anybody else [true]; c) madmen can belong to any creed and any nationality [true]. Then we spoil the argument by asking, "Why do people call the September 11 hijackers Islamic terrorists and don't call Timothy McVeigh a Christian terrorist?" The obvious answer is that McVeigh didn't commit his murderous act in the name of any particular faith whereas the sick-and-proud-of-it vermin that destroyed the WTC, the Pentagon, and the four planes did -- very much so. * Vaakonesh In response to criticisms to "Hadafe majaazi":
* Standing for their ideals I tried hard and failed to understand why Mr. Nafisi continually bashed the Iranian government and leaders in "Decisions, decisions". Firstly, what crisis? Who's crisis? This is far from a crisis for Iran. Economically Iran is no worse situation than a month ago. I hardly think Middle East is in any more danger of heading into chaos. Everyone is behind the U.S.'s efforts to misdirect the whole world of their intentions. The few voices stating the facts are silenced very efficiently by broadcast networks in favor of news coverage and raising their ratings. This is a crisis only because of the media. Khatami and Khamenei are both well educated. They haven't been educated in the Western world, but since when is a Western education prerequisite to being a statesman? Why must they deliver scripted speeches? So that they look as fake as Bush? Who is a statesman? Was Gandhi a statesman? Did he deliver scripted speeches? I also don't see how serving contradictory speeches is an issue. Things like that happen everyday on the U.S. senate floor. They may not have made decisions that served the rest of the world, but then would you if you were in charge? People of Iran overwhelmingly (98%) voted for the Islamic Republic of Iran and the constitution that has locked the Fagheeh at the top with virtually no chance of toppling him. Sure, it's not a presidency. It's not a republic. It's a monarchy. The people of Iran traded one monarchy for another one, but choice may I add. Obviously the people in charge in Iran don't hate the U.S. for the sake of hating the U.S. Their animosity has deep roots based on U.S. foreign policy in the middle east --the whole world for that matter-- and it's non-conditional support of Israel. And their hate for Israel is due to the whole process of creation of Israel and taking land from the Arabs in the name of Zionism. They don't care whether the U.S. is the economic power of the world and their loss of trade with U.S. is not something they will grieve over. Just because they offered their condolences they will not be shaking hands with the U.S. They don't care about benefiting from the present situation. They are standing for their ideals. * Reality check I've been reading a lot of rhetoric lately on the Iranian.com website, and feel that most of the people posting their commentaries are a bit out of touch with reality. First allow me to clarify that I am an Iranian Shiite Moslem. I was raised a Moslem, and will die one. I do not practice my religion to the letter, but I do believe in God, and try to live my life with as clear a conscience as possible. For those of you who will choose to criticize and challenge this point I refer you to the Holy Quran, The Cow (2.256), "La Ekraha Fe-Din", there is no compulsion in religion. I believe there is a matter of historic fact that has given way to rhetoric and often times unfounded passions. Never in the history of the 20th century has the country of Palestine existed. In fact the closest it has come to statehood with an indigenous ruling body, is with the formation of the Palestinian Authority in 1993. You may site that the majority of the Jews living in Israel are of the Ashkenazi sect and hence of European decent. That is true, and they were mostly immigrants that landed on the shores of this British colony at the beginning of the 20th century and around the second world war. In fact they were instrumental in expelling the British from that land and declared a state in 1948. Until this point the Arabs living in that area were quite content with the colonialists, and in fact at times collaborated with the British in suppressing the Jewish uprisings. This is historic fact. The struggle for Palestinian Autonomy came more or less at the same time Israel declared statehood and independence. With the overthrow of King Faruq of Egypt in 1952, and the coming to power of Nasser in 1954 the dynamics of the conflict change. Nasser was a socialist with visions of Pan-Arabism, and sought to unite the Arab World vis a vis the situation in Israel. So he engaged Israel and lost the 1967 war. This was followed by a series of other unsuccessful campaigns which to this date have bore no fruit and have only served to compound the feelings of resentment felt by both sides. Other countries have also tried to intervene only resulting in expanding the conflict, and costing more lives. For example Hafez Assad had a go at it in 1967 and lost the Golan Heights. Jordan too was not immune from this and after annexing the West Bank in 1948 Arab-Israeli War lost it back in 1967. Egypt lost the Sinai, and Gaza in 1967 as well. Another matter of historic yet often ignored fact is that in 1947 the United Nations with Resolution 181 declared the West Bank, Gaza as an independent Arab State with Jerusalem being an international zone. This was not acceptable to Nasser and after encouraging Jordan, Syria and even Iraq they planned an attack on Israel to as he said, "Drive the Zionists infidels to the sea." It kind of reminds me of Khomeini's chant of marching on to Jerusalem when he could not even fend off Saddam Hussein from Khorramshahr. Needless to say his plan was foiled through intelligence work, and a preemptive strike was made on Egypt. When Syria and Jordan came to Nasser's aid, they too lost land. That is a very brief background on some aspects of the conflict. The other notable point is that almost every country that accepts refugees after a period of time integrates those people in to the population. In any Arab country that you go, the Palestinians still maintain refugee status. They are not given local passports. They have refugee traveling documents or "amended" passports. Would Saudi Arabia or even Egypt issue a passport to a Palestinian that has lived there for say 20 years? No, they will not. Would they be able to take an oath of citizenship and participate in any way in the governments of those countries? No, they are not. The last point I wanted to raise is that with groups such as HAMAS, and The Islamic Jihad for the Liberation of Palestine, or even the good old Islamic Republic of Iran, that have sworn that they will pursue Israel to the end, and will stop at nothing to destroy Israel, would you as an Israeli want a Palestinian State? Would you agree to return the Golan Heights to Syria, just so they can place their tanks and missiles in a more strategic location? Would you allow the unconditional repatriation of over 8,000,000 refugees and their families to the declared Palestinian state, doubling its population? Would you give these groups the sovereignty of a nation to bring their forces closer to you, knowing their final aim is your annihilation? The problem with the Palestinian people is that they are not a united people. There are factions all with different ideals and goals. There is no unified Palestinian Authority. That is a myth. Arafat does not speak for the majority of the PLO let alone the Palestinian people. The first order of business for the Palestinians is to first ask everyone to stay out of their business. Throughout history anyone with either the intention or claim to help has made matters worse for them. Second they need to collectively decide what their goals are and elect people that will voice those desires. These are measures they have been able to take, and have so far not chosen to. The Palestinian people have an obligation to themselves to set realistic goals, and eliminate internal conflicts that jeopardize attaining those goals. HAMAS is not a friend to the Palestinian people. Murder is no way to further a cause, but it is a sure way to damn it. Israel has blood on its hands, that is true. But Israel does not claim to carry out God's wishes, and has not declared Holy war on Islam or any Moslem country for that matter. There are no chants of Death to Iran, Iraq, or any Moslem country. There are no Israeli planted car bombs in places of public gathering, nor are there any suicide missions. There have never been any Israelis that have successfully carried out the kidnapping of a Moslem country's Olympic team, and then massacre them. I support the declaration of statehood, by a legitimate Palestinian authority, that bears no ill will. I do not particularly enjoy seeing children die. But unfortunately so long as entities such as HAMAS and Islamic Jihad for the Liberation of Palestine exist, there will be no resolution to the conflict. I do not support terms that will jeopardize the security of Israel. Not because you may think I am anti-Arab or Anti-Palestinian, or whatever else you want to label me as. But because in the long run we as Americans will pay more for it. An Israel in danger whether we like it or nor, will mean engaging the US military. That translates in to escalating the conflict, not resolving it. I'm bracing myself for the barrage of hate mail I will be hit with. Just try to keep things in perspective, and be realistic in your response. * Politics of misogyny Dear Ms. Sabety: Although we have disagreed in the past, I whole-heartedly support your courage against the politics of misogyny ["We are the victims"]. I have written in the past condemning Mr. Agha's views and his support for gender discrimination. What is most troubling for me is his comparison of feminist movement for equality with that of Taliban genocidal policies ["Soft Talibanism"]. I fail to see how any descent human being would not be outraged by Mr. Agha's views. I think he owes you an apology for comparing you to the Taliban who have proved to be the despicable people in human history. As a person who believes in human dignity and equal rights of women, I am so disgusted by Mr. Agha's analysis. He has proven to be ignorant of women's campaign for equality and the repression of Taliban. Sincerely, * Living under Hamas Thank you Ms. Sabeti for a well-written article ["We are the victims"] . My opinion of you has profoundly been changed by this article. Indeed we are all victims, a victim of a cruel barbaric hoax of a back ward cult called Islam. You are absloutley right when you say "you will take life under Sharon any time over life under hamas" who wouldn't? It appears all those people who attack you for writing this article would not live under Hamas, Hezbolah and other animals like that themselves! Otherwise they will be basking in the sun in the Islamic paradise.... * Moji Frank I did not want to read Moji Agha's "I am tired" because the lead paragraph was not very appealing to me. This morning I started it and it sounded like the Diary of Anne Frank as I had guessed and I was hesitant to start my day in a dark room in Amsterdam. I read on and found an older version of Anne Frank in some dark apartment in Tucson, Arizona. I said older because God knows how wise Anne would have turned out to be. Perhaps as wise and kind as Moji Agha. Moji, I hope you keep writing that diary. I hope you also take some pictures to go along with it because Anne Frank didn't get a chance. At least we still have that possibility, before they tell us we can't record them when they are infringing in our rights. Make sure to snap some photos of those red necks with their confederate flags waving in back of their trucks too. Some day, I hope the horrors we are going through is exhibited somewhere, so the resurgence of Mc Carthyism--this time the House UN-American Committee against Mohammedism show the faces of fascism with star-spangled headbands hiding behind the Statue of Liberty. When I read your situation in your community, there were many times that I wish I could be there, standing by you because you were in such a terrible fix. But, nonetheless, count on me all the way in Miami, Florida. Moji, I will stand for you because I am so proud of what I see in your article. For instance, you have not merely seasoned your piece with a dash of cinnamon, a pinch of saffron, and a touch of understanding. Humanity was not your seasoning as I see in so many articles, but a main ingredient and in every spoon. Afareen. It's OK to be gentle as you have addressed it, but frankly I prefer some of the letters that snap back at the bigotries. Remember Woody Allen? He discovered that hiding away from the scandal does not solve his problem, so he started attacking back the public, saying he is not going to make a movie for them anymore because they have been unappreciative of all the fun he has poured into their lives. If I were to use Berthold Bresht's style: I prefer people A over people B, because people B are subdued but people A are subversive. If you let them get away with it in a mild tone, they will get more aggressive. We should know that a mistake not confronted, becomes a reality. I only wished that the publisher or the author of these articles forward the article to local papers because we need to get out of this closed circuit TV thing and speak outward. What you have done will become part of the History X. I wish we had more resources to do NEWS analysis. For instance, I am not sure whether that clips of Palestinian dancing in the street was a live show or taped many years ago. The problem is even if you discover it was an old footage, it has done the damage already--they are one ahead. We cannot afford to sit and wait for the blow and then try to address them. If showing Palestinians dancing in the street turns people against Palestine, tomorrow the ABC--owned, you know by who, will play a music for Molla Mohamed, the leader of Taliban, by Pooran, a Persian female singer who's been allowed to sing after so many years: "Bia ke berim be Mazar Molla Mammad Jon," and make American furious about Iran's stance. I like History X , but unfortunately in America, NEWS is more appealing since folks are more into what they should do rather than what their great ancestors have accomplished. I thank you for recording this segment of nazism, and hope we do not need to draw the curtains shut. I liked the piece, because I could hear the boots marching outside and the red and blue lights flashing around the corner. * Asset Moji Agha, people like you are assets for the Iranian community in particular and to other peace seeking people , in general. Through your numerous articles , you have shown , how several elements can be combined in one place ; logic, compassion, love for your own country , and love all human beings , in general. Your amazing style of educating all of us and other people who are interested in cross cultural interaction, deserves a greet deal of admiration. YOU ARE AN ASSET FOR IRANIANS AND AN AMBASSADOR OF PEACE. * Most unislamic This is in response to the comments made in "You are a kaafer". I am positive that the person, who has written this letter, is not an Iranian. It is truly shocking to encounter people in this day and age who would label the whole Iranian nation as kofaar and pass judgement on them in this illogical manner. This person seems to hold grave personal grievances, which have developed from some disturbing complexes within her, against Iran and Iranians. Furthermore, being a student of Islamic shariah myself, I am in the position to remark that her comments regarding Setareh Sabety's sentiments ["We are the victims"] were most unislamic, sinful and vile. What this person fails to realise is that the article hardly criticises Islam, but the regimes that rule under its holy name. * Personal attacks The letters, "Where do YOU stand?" and "Interrogational", reminded me about one of my personal emails. It monitored and resulted in a big trouble in my job place. It made me very sick for two years. My email was completely logical and nobody had been offended by it. It didn't happen in Iran, or Nazism Germany, it happened right in here in the U.S. I enjoy and learn from Moji Agha and Mrs. Setareh Sabety 's articles. I don't want their personal emails or the different between the degree of their emotions interfere me while I am reading theirs wonderful articles. Why should I know that who sends a personal emails to whom and said this and that? Or the real email was this but not that? Why should Iranian.com post these letters? * My heart will always be in Iran The last time that I saw Abadan, my favourite city, was in September 1978. Reading Zal Bameri's ["Remembring our own"] brought tears to my eyes. I wish to echo the same sentiments and also wish him all the best. I may live in Europe now, but my heart will always be in Iran. Paayandeh va jaaveed baad Iran. Sarfaraaz baad farzandaane Iranzameen. * Educated opinions I just wanted to say that I enjoy reading the letters in this forum. I get the impression that a lot of the people here are Iranian-Americans, but I hope with all my heart that the people in Iran feel the same as the opinions shared here. As an American, we are only shown the hatred of the Muslim nations toward the US. It is great to see debate and educated opinions on all the issues from an Iranian perspective. I have a couple of Iranian-American friends and enjoy my conversations with them. I would love to see Iran become a democracy soon. Maybe Iran can set the example for all Muslim nations on how to remove the tyrannies that seem like the only fate for these countries. Before you get upset about US involvment with the tyrannical countries in the Middle East, you may want to ask yourself if there is even a chance that these nations could become democracies if the US tried to help them. Palestinians seem stubborn to avoid any resolution in the conflict there. They are as much to blame for their position as the Israelis who take advantage of their aggression. Maybe the Palestinians need to read up on Ghandi instead of learning how to tape explosives to their children, it may get them further. There is little compassion in the West for people who martyr terrorists. Again, I love the debates here, keep them up. And let the women speak! It is the soft voice of reason with which women can temper irrational thought. David Palmer * I feel no hate After reading all of your comments I have a better understanding of your government and Afganistan. I knew very little about your countries before all of this happened. Myself, like many Americans do not want war, we pray for peace and for the refugees of Afganistan. My heart goes out to the children and to the people who have treated been treated so cruelly. It's very difficult to understand how the Talibon was allowed to become so powerful, to abuse its people. I am a woman and I can not imagine living in a country where women are treated so poorly. So much of their money goes to plotting terrorism in order to destroy the US when they could be rebuilding their own city or buying food for they're people. These people are so full of hate. We have turned our saddness and anger into a positive strength. I feel no hate, only saddness for the people who suffer most. * Why should we put up with these people? It is a great pity that the people who show so much sympathy towards the one child, Shayan Bedraie, should waste their pity on once case ["Shayan"]. I think you would do so much better to focus on the cruelty towards women and children in Middle Eastern and African countries of which there are millions of cases. Need one go into the details? The web is full of detail about how women are treated in places like Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Palestine. Shayan Bedraie prospered well when he was removed from his father but became sick again when reunited. I think this situation is clearly one where the father is terrorising his child and is blaming it on the detention centre conditions. Four Corners is a sensationalist program and does not give the entire picture of what goes on behind scenes. Australia has an excellent record in regard to dealing with genuine refugees. We have looked well after the Kosovars for instance. What did that lot do? Steal from our shops. They complained just about everything and then, after all of that, they did not want to go back to their country. We never want to see another one of them ever again. The Kurds who came here as refugees were treated very sympathetically. What did they do? They did $A2,000,000 worth of damage to Sydney during a demonstration for their cause. We no longer care about their cause. Since when do people destroy the property of their host country? So-called refugees from the Middle East, or, illegals, have burnt down detention centres and have hurt the staff attending them, some of them seriously. Such criminals are not wanted in Australia. The Australian people are heartily sick and tired of Middle Eastern refugees who expect to be waited on hand and foot and expect everything for nothing when they come to Australia. Australian Islamic websites call the bulk of the Australian population the kufr or 'filth'. Such vile names and the material they put on their website denigrating the way Australian women dress and behave is something we abhor. Why should we put up with people who insult us and our religions? Indeed, there have been 70 gang rapes by Middle Eastern youth in Sydney alone on young girls just because they happened to be Australian girls. Such crimes were rare events here before. When they did occur they were usually done by people of low intelligence or bad backgrounds. These people have come from so-called good Moslem backgrounds. We are sick and tired of such people and do not want any more to come to Australia. They have taken away the money from the taxpayer which should be going into hospitals, schools, roads and institutions for our elderly people. Instead it has been wasted on them. They have clogged up our legal system with their crimes and are responsible for much of the drug scene here. We are disgusted with such people and no longer want to offer them anything. * Community School
Said Nowrasteh * What the hell?! Oh my gawd!!!!! What the hell was that?!!! The horoscope?!!!! I'm so amused...
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