Regarding Dr. Noorial’s last article on this site, about Mr. Akbar Ganji, I like to bring about another point which seems to me was quite forgotten in his long-winded article. Let us for a while forget about Mr.Ganji’s controversial past and his dubious ties with IRI’s factions, and forget his role as an official of the IRI during the first bloody decade of 80s and focus on the point is missed in the article, but is a major issue in Iran. The point is Islam and its role in both political and social life for Iranian new generations, which according to your article, happens to be always Mr.Ganji’s vital concern.
You may know that an increasing majority of people of Iran, who experienced an Islam-based ruling system, is not concerned about one or another personality of the regime, nor have people hope in an alternative within this regime. By contrast to Mr. Ganji and other IRI’s apologists, lobbyists, and some foreign key powers, most Iranians wish to get rid of the whole regime. Most people do not mind which interpretation of Islam is better and reject it entirely as a tool of their long plight. People raise doubts on the legitimacy of any Islam-based ideology, no matter if it is represented by Khomeini line or Montazari’s followers like Mr. Ganji. People now went on to finally break a long taboo by rising questions on the authenticity, legitimacy, and mainly, the divinity behind Islam as a religion.
A little, but active, number of Iranians in the West, even those who do not claim being Muslim, supports IRI’s survival. This is simply because of their personal, ideological, or political interests which are today better guaranteed within this regime’s existence. These pro-IRI entities are not concerned about the real plight of Iranians. For them people like Ganji is an ideal alternative within the system when, say, Ahmadinejad’s back is seriously pushed against the wall. Apologists and opportunists along with their alternatives and solutions exist under any totalitarian regime. But it is too late; the regime is more criminal, more corrupt, and more detested than being replaced by one of its outside alternatives.
People are more curious to find out why became Muslim and are forced to be. I do not bring up the past history of Islamic invasion in Iran; leave it for the moment alone. I am also curious like many Iranians about the following alleged properties of Islam: legitimacy, authenticity, and divinity of Islam, and if Islam is a divine phenomenon and Muhammad is a God’s hand-picked prophet or, on the contrary, is a self-appointed prophet?
No honest historian and scholar can deny the fact that Muhammad robbed caravans, looted other tribes, let massacred males while enslaving their women and children. He raped (added to his harem) the women who were captured in such wars. He let kill his opponents and those who refused Islam, he overruled his own “divine” laws so that he could have more wives, more wealth, and more power … And of course he did all on behalf of Allah.
The venomous hatred, crimes, intolerance for “infidels, non-Muslims, Mulheds, Monafegh…” is quite a legacy of that time which now is reproduced under a barbaric rule of Mullahs in Iran. The question is if Mr. Ganji and his likes can prove that there is another objective, human, moral, and fair visage of Islam. Can he prove that Muhammad was not dedicated to his lust–at the today’s level, to his sexual pervert–, was he not committed caravan robbery for which he would cut off the hand of robbers, was he not a war criminal, a mass murderer who did all on behalf of Allah?.
In Mr.Ganji’s conscious views, can such a religion be a moral pattern for a modern society? Is such a religion really above the vice of primitive people of that clan society from whom originated the creed? Is Mr. Ganji and his likes sure that Allah made a divine compromise with this “Messenger”? I know Mr. Ganji experienced some 6 years of Islamic prison; he is an intellectual with good knowledge for a wide board of subjects. My question is: if after all, his belief in Islam which is an all-out solution is really based on his awareness or rather a DNA-based belief or, worse, a new political agenda?
Dear Dr. Noorial, instead of criticising his view about the lack of an effective opposition abroad, which I agree with him and which is also his wish, please ask him and his likes if he can prove the legitimacy, authenticity, and divinity of Islam before that he proposes rightful solutions within this elixir for any problem.
