Posted on 11/29/2005 3:56:14 AM PST by F14 Pilot
The question one hears among Iranians these days is this: “If a group of second generation immigrants that had retuned to Iran staged an uprising and set cars and schools ablaze, how would they be dealt with?”
The answer is that each and every one of the participants would be immediately detained and crushed with full force. And if the “sacred” regime would not oblige with this suppression, the vigilantes would not stand by to allow some “rogues” put the cars that are more-precious-than-the-life-of-their-owners on fire in hundreds but would step in and respond.
So while the above question has a clear answer, the question that is heard among Europeans these days is not as fortunate. These days, the British, French and Dutch reproach themselves for failing to tame the Muslim immigrants in their communities. They ask themselves why is it that of two individuals born in Europe each with parents of different nationalities, the one whose parents are from Jamaica or Martinique, while being disgruntled with the French or the British, will take the heat with the hope that his off springs will one day fully settle in their new environment, even though it is a good idea to occasionally send a letter or an email back home, always knowing that once gone from home, there is no return, while the other, whose parents come from Morocco or Pakistan, is raised with the tarnished idea that not only are foreign infidels impure whose women are ignorant of purity, but that the Europeans will end up in hell because of their disobedience to the call of the creator and for remaining faithful to their religion, while their property which they have usurped belongs to the pious, according to God’s ruling.
Ernest Ronan said in a talk in 1882 in Sorbonne University that had the Europeans invented the canon by the seventh century, Western civilization would have stopped the advance of the Arab invaders and kept them in their Arabian peninsula. He called Islam the heaviest historic chain around mankind.
Seyed Jamalledin Assadabadi who was in Europe at the time Ronan was around, replied to Ronan through a letter that was published in a Parisian newspaper that Muslims, like Christians of the West, had strived to improve their lives and like other nations had been suppressed by despotic and corrupt rulers. The essence of Assadabadi’s reply, which put the nature of a phenomena outside the phenomena itself and which also expressed his torment, has been continuously repeated till today. But what distinguished him from other anti-despotic and anti-colonial figures, was that this was the first time that a Muslim from the East was responding to a prominent European thinker through a wide-circulating Parisian publication. Furthermore, there is no defense of Islam in Assadabadi’s argument. His message was that Muslims too had suffered, had struggled and had been suppressed by their despotic rulers, regardless of whatever their metaphysical beliefs were.
Fast forward one hundred and twenty years, and today we once again see discussions over the basic tenets of Islamic thoughts and the threat that it posses to Western civilization make headlines in foreign newspapers. After the events of September 2001, an article that brought plenty of clatter in the British daily Guardian was titled “Virgins, Which Virgins?” This article was of particular interest to many, and mostly because it’s author had by-lined it with a pen-name (Ibn Varragh), which prompted Western intellectual circles to refrain from openly researching to find and reveal his true identity [he is suspected of being an Iranian] because of a death threat that would have been automatically created.
While these stories were published because of the September 11 events, they were also a response to the words of a Hamas activist who in August 2001 who had said in an American television interview that the divine reward for those who died in martyr-seeking military operations was that they would meet 70 virgins in Heaven.
The author of the article reminded his readers that the exact number of God’s rewards to martyrs was 72. The author also responded to the conclusions of a study by a German scholar who had had researched the roots of the words “Hoor” and “Hoori”, which in the languages of Arami and Seriani meant white raisins, to argue that martyr-seekers were wasting their time expecting to receive a “Hoori” because God had promised white raisins only to those who had white bodies.
Another article that attained prominence was the one published in March 2002 in the New York Times under the title of “Modern Radical Views in Islam and their Roots in the Quran.” It stood out because while appearing on the front page of the newspaper, the newspaper refrained from publishing the responses that flowed in about the story, not even in its Letters to the Editor section. In the letters that appeared in other mass media, such as the Internet, scholars protested NYT’s biased policy and argued that publishing a theoretic or academic article in the front page of a newspaper was an unprecedented event. Furthermore, denying others the opportunity to publish their responses to an article that appeared to be important enough to appear on the front page of the newspaper was a deplorable act in a liberal society.
So while Westerners these days invite individuals such as Mohammad Khatami or Abdol-Karim Soroosh to come and present their thoughts to Western audiences, they are in fact not after discovering the central issues, as these have already been revealed centuries ago. For example, on his march to Egypt, Napoleon read the translated version of the Quran so as not to be taken aback by the Arab sheikhs he was soon going to see. But still, today Westerns are essentially trying to understand why is it that the very same Algerians who loudly call for “Visa, Visa” in unison in the middle of their town where Jacque Chirac gives them a pep talk, on their arrival in the land of infidels, turn around and not only dislike their new home but even work to destroy it.
Those in the West who have studied each and every word in the Quran in detail know what God’s message to those who do not take up the new faith is, and that the word Allah has been thrown at the people of Israel several times in a number of its verses. Therefore, they know very well that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s recent remarks about Israel are not in fact borrowed from ayatollah Khomeini, as is portrayed, but the words appear expressly in the Quran. These Westerners only look the other way and do not want to acknowledge this reality to the other side because doing so would only shut the door to communications and compromises. For centuries they have been telling the people in the colonies that, “We are all French, we are all English, and we are all Dutch, and we love working side by side.” But today while in fear, they watch their opponent openly tell them: “Don’t bother yourself the trouble of denying because I am aware that you know that I hate you, because this is the word of God.” And in comparison with the words of God, a visa or a residence permit for a European country is nothing but a worthless piece of paper.
Pakistan’s General Parviz Mosharaf bitterly complains that the West grants ample assistance to the tsunami victims in Indonesia because Westerners enjoy themselves on the island of Bali, while they do not provide the same help to deprived Kashmir. It is really strange to him that wealthy Westerners do not like Pakistan, its terrorist-breeding Islamic schools and its unreliable bureaucracy. Why can’t the human being recognize friend from foe?
Among countries that have Muslim populations, such as Indonesia and Malaysia, people have turned to a new religion. But through the propaganda of businessmen and not through Arab swords. In South East Asia, there is no trace of the type of suffering that was imposed by the Arab invasion and occupation of Mongol Iran and of others. But this is no reason for those who consider themselves to be the guardians of the divine tradition to leave these people to themselves, even if they are accepted as being among Muslim brethren.
The General’s plea is not out of tune. But he leaves out the point that Islamic terrorism targets those very places have turned the divine message into a commodity and provide it to the masses, in material installments: A 24-hour island, where the temperature stays at 30 degrees for 365 days a year and where a light fog crawls in from the sea so one can dream for a week in the garden of Eden, without the fear of being expelled because of awareness or doing anything sinful. Such a place must be destroyed because its rulers have not heeded to the divine call and because they sermonize that to benefit from the special services that are provided, all a person needs to do is type in his or her credit card number.
Sikhs, Jamaicans, Vietnamese, and Hindus all take advantage of the services that the Western host country provides them and try to learn something new while encouraging their children to made progress. The Muslim Arab, in contrast, counts the teeth of the gift horse and yells, “I hate you all because you abhor us and our God, but still, bring my share to my house.”
In the March of 1979, just one month prior to the establishment of the Islamic Republic in Iran, cleric Mohammad Moffatteh - who had a PhD and became the dean of the Theology College and apparently a member of Iran’s Revolutionary Council – said in a detailed interview with Ayandegan newspaper: “We reject some really stupid Iranian customs such as Chaharshanbe Souri (a traditional Persian celebration for thousands of years where on the last Tuesday of the Persian calendar, Iranians jump over bushes of fire to cleanse themselves). This is intellectual.”
Twenty six years later now, ayatollah Kashani echoes those words in a congregational Friday prayer in Tehran, by saying that Chaharshanbe Souri and Sizdeh Bedar (another thousand-year old and pre-Islamic Iranian tradition that is celebrated on the thirteenth day of the New Year – March 21st) are superstitious ideas.
With the current crises unfolding in Europe, Middle Eastern preachers are invited to enlighten Westerners as to what to do with the existing Arab immigrants, how to make them appreciative of what they have, give them a sense of attachment and belonging to the land and the community, and to respect the civilization of others. But if these could cure, then they would start with themselves. While Arab Muslims have been ruling and running Iran for some thousand and hundred years now but they still do not acknowledge or recognize the Iranian and consider his park picnic to be a crime and a religious sin. So how do the Europeans expect these people to simply accept the resorts of Bali, or the Parisian or London life-style, and forego the word of their God simply after living in Europe for a few ten years? Is that not naïve?
So how do these immigrants move to a land with different customs and different values and expect everything to remain the same? Is that not naïve?
ping!
"Islam - the heaviest historic chain around mankind."
Bears repeating.
The folks with the big intellects can takes this argument to a very high plane indeed.
What it boils down to is that Muslims dont wish to live like civilised people they wish to destroy anyone who isnt a Muslim so that they can continue with their murderous ways. They dont flee mistreatment they merely try to become the ones that dish it out. They flee from a place that is led by a harsh leader they cant overthrow , to a place that looks easier for them to overthrow. They take advantage of the meek.
From the article:
"...He called Islam the heaviest historic chain around mankind."
How interesting that what was said long ago applies today.
agreed!
Hi F14 Pilot, maybe it's the hour, but I really like this guy's writing. Has he written anything else and how did you find him?
The author should ask if any of those immigrants find the West's culture superior to their own indeginous in anyway. Its not just Islam and no amount of liberal dreaminess should defer us from asking the hard questions.
junta wrote: "The author should ask if any of those immigrants find the West's culture superior to their own indeginous in anyway. Its not just Islam and no amount of liberal dreaminess should defer us from asking the hard questions..."
Junta, I believe the author's point is that we have the answers to any questions even those we have not yet asked.
The history that the author highlighted is all anyone need understand. Nothing has changed. No better answer, no deep understanding will impact the Islamic zealot.
They will hate us bearing the gift of a safe homeland and they will hate us emanating tolerance and acceptance all because they believe that their God despises us.
Free Iran from theArab Imperialist yoke
BY ACCIDENT! ;-)
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