Rotten Gods

Dilemma of Iranian language

2011-08-17T03:35:00.002-04:00

Islam has gained territories through its sword and then manipulated conquered peoples by its imposed cult. Language of Islam which happens to be Arabic is one of the main yoke of its domination until our days. Iran was forced to speak Arabic during the two centuries of Muslim occupation. After the military occupation, Iranians could partly restore their language, however botched it into Islam, a mishmash called “Farsi”. Farsi remains until now a mixture of language of Islam with the ancient Persian or Parsi.

In the course of Iranian history, Iranian languages have been written with a number of different scripts. The last one was Avestan, which was banned along with the Persian language itself after the Islamic invasion in 642 AD. The Islamic conquerors imposed their language as the only allowed language on Iranians. The current language, Farsi, appeared during the 9th Century and is written in a version of the Arabic script. Because of its “divine” links with the language of the Koran and Islam, nobody has ever had the right to reform or modernise this script.

In this article, I open a debate over the factual adaptability of this “Farsi” language. The point is if the language is useful for a modern society and especially for our future generations. Such questions are raised up in a sensitive era of our history when our country is de facto occupied by a privileged caste of Muslims who call themselves Seyeds, Sheiks, or devotees of Shiite Islam who considered for many as a force of occupier. This odd era reminds many of our people of the early Muslim aggressors in 7th century when everything including our language was brutally smashed. No wonder, our already crippled Islamised Parsi or what we call it now “Farsi language” is now constitutionally forced to take further Arabo-Islamic allure, a project called “The Cultural Revolution”, planned since 1980 by the Mullahs’ regime. Mullahs believe it is effective to learn Arabic, what would give an edge over the Islamic language – this however has created the opposite so that most people exaggeratedly hate this language, furthermore, right-wing Iranians not only hate Arabic, but also blindly Arabs, labeled them as the mind patterns of “pro-Arab” Mullahs!

The long-term objective of The Cultural Revolution is to root out any aspect of non-Islamic identity from the society by introducing a greater portion of Arabo-islamisation in the language. It is to promote the existing “Farsi” into a more Arabo-Islamic language. The process aims a negation of the rest of pre-Islamic Iranian identity--the similar process of 7th.century when the early Muslims occupied the country and destroyed the advanced Persian civilisation.

The Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran considers educational institutions based on Islamic principles and norms. The constitution does not tolerate any other identity in faith and language. It has implied this wish by saying, “since the language of the Koran and Islamic texts and teachings is Arabic, and since Iranian literature of post-Islamic history is thoroughly permeated by this language, it must be taught after elementary level, in all classes of secondary school and in all areas of study. Therefore, lessons of Arabic language and reading of the Koran will gain more compulsory character despite dislike of an increasing majority of students to such Islamo-Arabic lessons.

It is highly predictable that after the collapse of the Islamic regime, Iranians will enthusiastically develop a popular trend of both de-Arabisation and de-Islamisation of whole Iranian space, including our language. The words, names, items, numbers, symbols, and all those which remind us of an era of invasion, subjugation, humiliation by Islam will be spontaneously replaced with non-Islamo-Arabic words. In my view, not only in Iran, but all over the Arabo-Islamic world, the inadequacies (or backwardness) of this Islamised language has been a debilitating factor in cross-cultural understanding of necessity for a culture of modernisation.

To avoid any linguistic chaos after the fall of the Islamic regime, we need appropriate reforms to free our language from the long Arabio-Islamic domination. A modernised language not only can fit our pre-Islamic civilised culture, but also can effectively push back the backward effects of Islamic influence among our grassroots. An adaptive language to our modern needs has psychological effects to stop people from creeping back into archaic way of thoughts, obscurantism, and backwardness.

While many languages around the world, including in some Islamic countries, can be permanently and adaptively reformed and modernised, our current language, Farsi, has been used since the invasion of Islam as a cloak for the safeguard of Islamic culture. Since the advent of Islam in Iran, not only Islam has been a launch pad to attack our past identity, but also has been practically crippled our normal attempts toward freedom, progress, gender equality, and modernisation.

No wonder, in a spirit of growing civil disobedience in Iran against the Islamic backward regime, a trend of language reform spontaneously grows among the Iranian youth. It challenges the unpopular Islamic influence in our language. As spontaneous reactions, the young generation in Iran chooses non-Islamic names for children, learns Western languages instead of the institutionalised Arabic, wears T-shirts with Latin writings on them, use a Latino-Persian writing called finglish on the internet. All these “renegades” show the trend for an adaptive language than the current Farsi or in fact an Islamised Parsi.

Once Iran is free from Mullahs’ clutches, a secular state will certainly pass legislative proposals to ensure the task that our current language will be reformed, modernised, and useful to our new society. On the other hand, modern-day methods of instantaneous communication and globalisation require fundamental need in a range of modern languages in order to create and maintain vibrant activities. Therefore, after the fall of the Islamic regime, parallel to restoration of Farsi, Parsi or whatever it will be called, a modern international language as the second language will be be highly promoted nationwide. It will be a solid support for advanced education, research, computer use and any use of modernisation in Iran. Both (Farsi / Parsi /Persian) and the international language open common doors of the continuing struggle for secularisation, democratisation and modernisation.

Let me emphasise, the reformed language has nothing to do with disregarding a part of our classic literature. In fact, no reformed language has taken away the worth of its classic literature. After modernisation of our language, our classic literature will be respected as a patrimony of our literature, but let me emphasise again that Islamic culture behind it has little chance to resist in a free and secular Iran. A modernised language finds effective ways to sustain its literature and heritage. This is not the problem. The problem is the religious influence which couple with our language. A trend I call “Pan Islamo-nationlism” wants to keep Islamic influence at any cost.

It is clear that some people with religious or traditional backgrounds will likely attempt to block or delay the process of language reforms. The 1400-year-domination of Arabo-Islamic language over our country has left its mental debris behind. Nevertheless, free people can no longer bow to the indoctrination of religious values with the aim of such a mental retardation. Thanks to the Islamic regime, our people require a complete revamping and can choose their way of life including their means of communication.

Those Iranians who speak modern languages know better that our current language, in its current stagnation, is scientifically poor. A scientific transformation must be mandatory for educational, industrial and business communities in a free Iran In many domains of modern sciences; it is not sufficiently expressive under “Farsi”. Developing a modern language in high levels of proficiency, particularly in higher education, will require significantly greater resources than are fortunately at hand. Our linguistic experts in a secular Iran can focus on the study of development of our modern languages. They may change or modify the words, proper names, verbs to the pre-Islamic synonyms or a simpler way of linguistic use.

In my opinion, for the use of scientific terms, it seems more practical and easier to use the most common international words and terms, what most languages do in advance or developing countries. In this perspective, the pivotal point is how to form a useful and productive language freed from the traditional burden and unnecessary complications. We have rich sources of pre-Islamic Persian and international common terms to reform the language, but in the field of science, we should not complicate the language by too much attaching to the past.

In fact, a language is not only a coding system of communication, but also a bridge between thought and action. In other words, the way we talk can in turn influence the way we think—psychological effects of language. A rich and modern language can considerably improve our cognitive faculties, memory, mental ability, emotional expressions, and behaviour.

In my view, language, before anything else, is a set of arbitrary symbols through which we communicate. The symbols appear and disappear with time and material conditions; they are not sacred and eternal. The culturally determined patterns and values of these symbols alongside with many languages and dialects will permanently appear and disappear during the course of social evolution. Since language is a medium of our thoughts, feelings, and especially ideas, it must be permanently adapted to our realities and immediate needs otherwise can easily be abused by the totalitarian regimes or a belief system like Islam. Nazi Germany also imposed its own racial terms in its short-12-year domination. Islam has down worse in a very longer period of its domination. Germany reformed the language after the fall of Nazism; we can do the same after the fall of Islamism.

All experiences show that the language we use because of its shortage gives way to Western languages. For example, the Iranian communities in the US or Europe can expect that only a small percentage of their children will be fluent in Persian. It is not however the case for Westerners living in Iran-- their children would speak their original language fluently. The reason is not only due to their own mother language but the fact that our language is not adapted to modern life. For example, we cannot use our script on the internet or for many other means of written communication which appear on the market. The goal of language reform is to introduce a language which should be modern, precise and easier to learn.

The alphabet we use is mainly Arabic; it does not cover all the sounds we pronounce. Apart from some regions in Khuzestan and Kurdistan, most Iranians cannot phonetically pronounce all letters of the alphabet-- this is also one of the main reasons we have so many different accents and dialects within Iran. Furthermore, apart from some ignored signs, we have no letters clearly representing some vowels. All of which turn the language more difficult and imprecise -- a great number of Iranian high school students cannot write and read correctly.

Regarding the various problems of today’s language, a reform in alphabet seems to be necessary, one which phonetically adjusts to the verbal language. The only solution is the introduction of an accessory alphabet for computer which is the language of sciences, researches and a spirit of modern and secular life. As mentioned, such a transformation is of course a long process; it might last one or several decades but should not be considered an overdue reform.

In my view, such reforms will necessarily require adoption of Latin type alphabets in order to facilitate and enhance the ease of cross-cultural communications. An accessory alphabet should be worked out so that it harmonises the phonetic part to the written part. That is to say, we need an alphabet which correctly relates sounds to the written words. The new alphabet must solve the problems of vowels and consonants which are not phonetically pronounceable because they have Arabic origins that cannot be pronounced by the majority of Iranians.

In essence, the new alphabet must be simple and avoid composed letters and irregularities which appear in the history of any language. It should consider two main elements:

• The modernisation and adaptation of the society to the modern needs.
• The purification of our language from too much influences of Islam.

During the period of transformation and maybe after that the old alphabet must be kept for those who need it.

In a free and secular Iran, our future democratic establishments should take care in rending language modern and attractive. Meanwhile, there should be little need for speakers or writers to waste time looking for words, terms, and expressions to mean objects or ideas. What is to be made of all of this? To ensure that a language remains the predominant way of communication, learning, and development we have to accept all necessary reforms. What I rather attribute to any language is its aspect of intercommunication which in turn affects our mental faculties and social efficiency. Therefore, morphology and semantics of language is more important for me than the historical part and only in this perspective a language must be permanently and adaptively reformed. This is the case of modern languages and only so they can be called "modern"--German language has been twice reformed since the fall of the Third Reich.

Apart from an expected resistance from some traditionalists, pan-post-Islamic Islamists, and those who love the classic literature more than the future of country, there are some relics of the Islamic regime who under any guise and trick will attempt to harm the process of such a language reform. Contrary to the first group, the second one has belief and interest to rescue Islam even after the collapse of their regime under any colour or nickname. For them a fundamental reform of our language remains synonymous to a sinful violation to the values of Islam, even if their argument opportunistically hides this point behind a fake nationalism.
Considering all the problems with the Islamic Republic of Iran and the reality of the origin and conditions under which Islam was imposed on the Iranian people, it is legitimate to raise the question: how do we best bring an end to Arabo-Islamic ills in Iran after the fall of its political regime? Here, the question is not only about political secularism, but about de-Arabo-Islamisation of Iranian culture.

This must be fulfilled through a democratic process. It should not only be a turn of leaf in our history, but open a whole new chapter in our evolution so that we can free ourselves from the long and pernicious influence of Islam. Only through democratic process would it not only signal a new beginning and bring forth a new era for Iran, but also signify a Renaissance for the Islamic world. Our fullest Renaissance will officially start when we get rid of the plague of the Mullahs’ regime.

However some seeds of the Renaissance have spontaneously budded. One of them deals with our or language. Since such a democratic state does not exist yet, as much as we can, we, Iranians with some sense of responsibility, should try to restore Persian / Parsi / modern Farsi in our writings and verbal conversations. We have engaged and responsible people who do their best to use and teach this. The conditions are at hand for Iranians, inside or outside, to start to introduce the demanded reforms into the realm of our language. Thanks to the vast internet communication, facebook, twitter and etc., we can help each other to modernise and secularise our language.

Islam disturbs Iranian evolution.

2011-05-19T10:08:00.003-04:00

Our human species evolves in long-term; our people in Iran could have continued evolving into their advanced culture if the process had not been inhibited by the Muslims’ invasion 1400 years ago. The protagonists of the invasion are today the current Islamic authorities who can never be in harmony with the evolution of moral and democratic views of today’s man.

This 1400-year old belief system was politically re-grafted on our society after the 1979 revolution. During the anti-Shah revolution, people were looking for a quick demise of the Shah’s dictatorship while were not aware of a totalitarian state which could flick out of Islam -- a bitter ignorance for which we are today paying a colossal price. The politicised Islam under the Mullahs’regime has since 1979 committed the most hideous crimes. On its black records, one routinely sees torture, rape before execution of many thousands political prisoners, application of Sharia by stoning, amputation, lashes, state terrorism (chained killings, kidnappings, mass killings in / out of the country). All these crimes are well-documented.

Of course some non-Semitic religions like Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucius, Baha’i or nature religions in some African tribes reflect their direct cultures and are the outcome of their daily lives, wishes, and ideals. For them, the faith is tending towards the emergence of their needs. They qualify their faith as a source of morality what consists in acting and living in such a way. They understand their human conditions because faith suggests a supreme being(s), a pathway to an ideal life here and after. All these aspects of these religions cannot objectively explain Iranians’ belief in Islam. We see the faith as a false patch imposed on our culture. The reason is that Islam has never been intellectually or morally discussed by any Iranian intelligentsia. From 1400 years ago on, the Muslim men of sword prohibited such contemplation.

The evolution cannot be accepted by Islam because it considers itself as the only and last valid religion to guide mankind for all time. The 1400-year-old imposed Islam demands omnipresent role in daily attitudes of Iranians whose ancestors were once forced to believe in it and today are forced or mesmerised to follow. Islam with its dictates-teachings on murder, rape, torture, enslavement, humiliation, misogyny is today the legacy of the Islamic regime. All these immoral commands of 1400-old- religion show deteriorations, but contain no impulse of evolution for any Muslim community. Little scientific progress in the Golden Age of Islamic Caliphates was not because of Islam, but despite of it. Indeed the Islamic rough credo constrained the scale of a normal evolution.

As an omnipresent, omniscient, Islam has continued to remain for many centuries as a pivot character formation, mindset and moral pattern of our mesmerised Muslims without being any impetus for their evolution. The entire evolution in programming causes and effects have strategies of temporal changes, what actually would be considered un-Islamic for the two following reasons:

1-feeling that a change is highly appropriate for each phenomenon, including people’s thoughts, feelings, morality and faith seem to discord major teaching of Islam as a totalitarian social order;

2-furthermore it opposes its anti-evolutionary behaviour.

Concretely, formation of institutionalised morality in a level of the international institutions like the Human Rights Organisation, Amnesty International, The Hague Court etc., step up worldwide moral evolution. Such a morality protects our national interests and sovereignty which are today jeopardised by the Islamic regime. Iran is not the only country with a crisis of totalitarian regimes, but the only one with a totalitarian regime which is also characterised as an occupying force. Iran needs more international support than other Arabic oppressed nations because Iranians do not fight against their totalitarian regime, but they want to free themselves from an Islamic occupier force.

We know that, unfortunately, a number of factors stand over humanitarian factors. Historically meant, the “civilised” world is not that civilised and so evolved to avoid sacrificing its humanitarian values for the lucrative interests, but our species could only survive if it is adaptive to the basic humanitarian values. However after all, in a clash with religion, the West created these humanitarian institutions. Their values trigger our integration into international community and make us more vigilant to protect ourselves. The more isolated we are, the more we can be trampled by aggressors of inside or outside of our country.

My issue is that Islam and evolution are like fire and water, two complete opposites. I do not mean that Islam can eternally stop the motion of evolution, but can disturb, slow down and charges it with huge human casualties. I am not evoking the clashes between creationism and evolutionism help Iranians, what another topic is. What seems to me important is the fact that all Semitic religions propagated their credo based on the mindset of people. These are more or less formed in a historical process by the interaction of people’s cultures and psychological needs, let alone the fact that none of them proves a source of divinity and all of them have been historically fooling masses.

Those old cultures which shaped up religions are not representative today, therefore all Semitic religions, expect Islam, had to be reformed and updated. Because of its multifaceted nature of a totalitarian social order, Islam cannot be reformed; otherwise it loses all its sense. It is incompatible to our today's criteria and the philosophy of life, especially for conscious Iranians who feel themselves today as the 1400-year-old hostages of their captor, Islam, what represents today the Islamic regime.

Islamic Iran praises martyrdom

2010-08-21T11:21:00.001-04:00

Following photo shows wrestler Tommy Rowlands of US, right, fights with his Iranian competitor Mohammad Hadi Pour Alijan on left in Iran, Aug 1, 2010. But I am not interested in the free style wrestling, well, not this one in particular. I am interested in the two posters on the right side.

Top right poster quoted Iranian supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei: "Martyrs are symbol of power in Iran". Top center poster quoted late revolutionary founder, Ayatollah Khomeini: "Martyrs are candle for circle of humanity".

In Islamic teachings, defending homeland or Islam is considered a sacred religious obligation for all Muslims. Throughout history of Islam, Muslims have been taught that they should sacrifice their lives for their religious believes or homeland and their sacrifice considered as the most generous act for Islam. The sacrifice called martyr and martyrs have been important figures throughout Islam.

In Islamic Iran, martyrdom regarded as the most worthy act that a Muslim can accomplish. Children has systematically taught the value of sacrificing their lives for religion and/or homeland. Children textbooks has been teaching the very fundamental value of "killing for defending your own belief" and media conveying the same values.

Islamic Iran has spent steadily on propaganda since the beginning of revolution in 1979. People have bombarded by the Islamic fundamental values since then, and when I saying this is Islamic fascism because I see with my eyes and I can identify key characteristics of fascism in society.

See also:
Basij: Iranian radical martyrs
Iranian Combatant Clergies register volunteers to fight Israel

Photo courtesy of daylife

Stone her to death !

2010-08-13T06:54:00.002-04:00

In an interview broadcasted on Iran's state Television, she confessed to adultery and involving to murder her husband. Authorities claimed, she is Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, the woman who sentenced to death by stoning.

I watched the interview in native language and there is at least 3 issues within this this televised confession:

1. Her face was obscured so we do not know who exactly the confessor was.

2. I noticed she reads the confession from a printed paper. Why there was a need to read the confession from a printed paper? Couldn't she confess to what she has done without double checking on paper?!

3. At the end she accused her lawyer Mohammad Mostafaei for publicizing her case and said "I sue Mostafaei for damaging my reputation". But the fact of the matter is, Sakine Mohammadi Ashtiani's children, Fasride and Sajjad have appealed to the world to save their mother's life and according to her children, she is very well aware of this.

4. Probably I had to put this above all mentioned items; the lady is already sentenced to death and its confirmed by the Islamic supreme court, why on earth did she come to confess on TV? It is not like that's going to make any difference in her fate. There is no reason on earth that would possibly justify this confession except torture, threats to her children's life or it may be a show confession filmed by someone else.

Islamic Iran is trying to justify its own medieval injustice system by this televised confession and I'm afraid they are going to execute Sakineh soon. After all, these bloody Rotten Gods need human sacrifices, executions and stonings.

Even Mohammad Mostafaei, Sakineh's lawyer had to run for his life and leave the country. In a country that a human rights lawyer is not safe to practice his job, how ordinary people would be able to defend themselves and fight for their right?

In case if you don't know what is stoning, take a look.

Guards commander wishes to eradicate immorality

2010-08-11T06:44:00.001-04:00

When a Quds force commander asked; what he would do if he ever become President? he replied: "I will eradicate immoral activities that have afflicted our young people with development of an Iron Brigade organization."

The mentality I see here is the mentality of Islamic fascism which is the mainstream ideology among IRGC members. For those who don't know, Quds force is a special unit of Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) responsible for extraterritorial operations.

Divine death sentences in Islamic Iran

2010-08-08T04:04:00.004-04:00

Following photo reads: "Do you know that General Prosecutor's Office and Islamic Revolution court has carried out the divine death sentences for 18 corrupted and criminal people in Ahvaz last year." This photo was taken in Ahvaz city in Iran in past two months.

Following photo announces two separate executions on different times and locations:

It reads:

"Execution Event
Execution of drug trafficker [s]
Date: Wednesday March 10, 2010 Time: 4 pm
Location: Ramadan alley

Execution of armed thief [or thieves] and enemy of God and His Prophet (Pbuh)
Date: Saturday March 13, 2010 Time: 4 pm
Location: Naseri sq"

In above announcements were not specified that they were going to execute one or more people.

Last photo courtesy of Haghighatnews

Protest against American imprisoned hikers

2010-08-03T04:22:00.002-04:00

I share your pain and I really hope Islamic Iran releases your kids and all other prisoners asap but it appears Iran wants to exchange them but I suspect Islamic Iran favours a visit from a high profile US official to secure release of the hikers, like the case of Bill Clinton visit to North Korea and meeting with North Korean leader.

A protest in front of IRI Mission in New York on July 30, 2010

On the right side of photo the placard reads "Shame on you Iran". I wish someone would have wrote "Islamic Iran" instead Iran. Also I know it doesn't make any difference for an American but it makes different for an Iranian.

Update: Iran wants to exchange American hikers with 11 imprisoned Iranians in the USA. In a website called BarackObama.ir asks "Will Obama make three American mothers happy by releasing 11 Iranian prisoners?"
Iran didn't take three hikers to court since they have been arrested so definitely they are trying to pursue American government to take one step towards Iran and meets Iranian government demands.

I covered the news of three american mothers visited hikers in Iran in two posts:
1. The mothers of three American hikers jailed in Iran
2. Islamic republic of double standard

Photo courtesy of daylife

Islamic outfit not fair for female athletes

2010-08-03T03:52:00.003-04:00

I wrote before that Islamic outfit is not fair for Muslim girls in sports, I am not even arguing how illogical it is. In following photo it is obvious that one with longer shirt would have less opportunity in the game.

The Iranian women's national rugby sevens team competed against Italy on July 30, 2010. Italy beat Iran 10 - 0.

Mullahs have opposed to participation of women in sport specially on international scenes. i.e. Back then during Beijing Olympics 2008, a mullah said: "Iranian women athletes presence is against Islamic values". So female athletes have not much of a choice here.

Photos courtesy of daylife: 1 & 2

Islamic republic of India

2010-08-03T02:41:00.002-04:00

Whenever I see a group Muslims protest like following pictures, it just reminds me of how radicals protests in Iran. I have never seen they protest like cool and easy, instead it is intense and they always struggle with one another and its full of emotional and physical force! i.e. Basij protest against British embassy.

The above photos are about Indian Shiite Muslims that held a protest against the economic, trade, scientific and military sanctions against Iran by U.S. and Israel, in New Delhi July 30, 2010.

India has a good business relationship with Iran and the sanctions will hurt Indian businesses too.

Photos courtesy of daylife 1, 2, 3

A member of revolutionary guards

2010-08-03T00:21:00.001-04:00

Someone said: "It is easy to become like them. You just pretend to be like them, you only need to put on a beard, pray and act like them!"

I added; then first you have to repress your own thoughts and feelings and then participate in oppressing people. If you would be able to do that then you might be a little dictator that you do not know it yourself.

Photo courtesy of daylife

Iranian reformist self propaganda

2010-07-31T03:21:00.002-04:00

Following picture was taken on June 17, 2009 five days after disputed presidential election. The picture reads that Ahmadinejad is worse than Nazism and Fascism but wait a minute, Ahmadinejad has been president only for 5 years, before him all these mullahs and reformists who happen to be opponent of Ahmadinejad nowadays, had the power, and we, Iranians situation if it wasn't worse than today, it wasn't better too.

Let's be honest, Ahmadinejad and revolutionary clans are epiphenomenon of Islamic republic of Iran. What Ahmadinejad, Basij militia and revolutionary guards are doing today has been done and said when Mousavi was then, the prime minister. One only needs to look at the archives of papers of those days.

I mentioned back then that there are two forces, one is people movement and the other one is green movement. Green movement is a fractions among political elites of Islamic republic of Iran and people movement has been around since the beginning of Islamic republic in Iran on 1979. While reformists trying only to portray Ahmadinejad as a bad guy in Islamic republic, people's movement has targeted whole Islamic republic. They know enough that the Islamic republic is a pernicious regime.

Mind you that I don't defend Ahmadinejad in anyway. In fact I have been criticizing his policies and atrocities for quite a long time but I am also fed up with reformists' hypocrisy and self propaganda.

Photo: Getty Images

Death threat against a blogger by radicals

2010-07-28T14:06:00.006-04:00

I talked to some Iranian bloggers and all told me to go public about these threats and write down some of them here. I removed all cursing and foul language out and I write down here some of the threats that you can make sense of what these fanatics are all about:

I cut your throat
I pray god to take off your eyes
I swear if I see you i will choke you with my bare hands
I know well your worst end, remember that remember that
Now I will kill you. Allah is great.
The death is coming to you soon soon.
You will die in bad wayyyyy and slowly and u will see inshallah
and so on.

I have laid low for quite long long time and I've had good reasons to do that, trust me on this. So make no mistake, this is not publicity stunt and I am not looking to attract attention of any sort, in fact I still did not want to go public about it although constant threats have brought my life to a standstill. In 2009, I stopped writing for couple of months but it didn't help either. Unfortunately during all these years these threats never stopped and went from bad to worse and it makes me to believe these threats have been organized and are systematic.

I have publicly criticized Iranian human rights violations, Islamic doctrine and practices, Iranian public policy and etc. I believe these systematic threats organized by government agencies, radical mullahs and some fanatics here and there. Some of the blogs I write for include the following:

I am pro-free speech and anti-censorship, so I can not stop defending the values of modern world. If I stop writing as I did in 2009, my life turns to a melancholy so as long as I am okay, there is no stopping here and that's a promise.

Freedom of speech may sound unpleasant and offensive to some but in fact it also secures everyone's right to discuss and bring reasonable arguments on the table. Freedom of speech is crucial for civil society and every individual's mind and thought, and in today's world no one has a right to avoid being offended but death threats is different story!

I deeply appreciate all the support that you have given to me, specially from Andrew Ford Lyons in Committee to Protect Bloggers that instantly published an article and condemned these threats, Alistair and couple of friends that I am not sure I can name them but I owe all of them a debt of gratitude.

The greatest threat to Islam

2010-07-24T11:49:00.001-04:00

Someone left a comment here, saying:

profanity should not be allowed in any type of media, it has a chilling effect on the expression of ideas and serves no benefit to any one. in writing about religion specially islam,90 out of 100 muslim have different interpretation of their understanding of islam, so it is not fair to generalize,also some people are very sensitive and may have a violent reaction when it comes to their deeply rooted believes,it is necessary to learn how to live with them peacefully, they may have a good side that can amaze you, once they realize that you are not disrespecting them.

I didn't see profanity in the video. Bear with me for a second and I would like to look at it from different angle. I think one of the greatest accomplishments of human civilization is the universal declaration of Human Rights and if any ideology would deny it while doesn't present anything better then that ideology is doomed to fail. That's not a bad thing, in fact the collapse of a corrupt ideology means progress and everyone should cherish progress. So instead of being defensive, look beyond some hateful emotional reaction of radicals. This change in the long run will help everyone, including those radicals that they blow themselves and their kids on every occasion.

I think the greatest threat to an ideology is the ideology itself. There is no need to say the fundamentally corrupt ideology would go down faster. The greatest threat to Islam is the Islamic ideology itself, so you don't need to look around and blame others, you only should examine Islam critically then you will have the answers.

Cartoon from Atheistnexus

While the commentator trying to raise some good points but unfortunately s/he made a fallacious argument. I do not stereotype people of any ideology. I just look into the ideology itself and write about the problems within it. The problem is when we talk about an ideology, all adherent of the ideology would go defensive because they have feelings for the ideology and it makes it complicated. Tolerance for backward ideologies is not something that I would recommend because world can not progress with backward ideologies.

Welcome to Islamic Republic of Sweden

2010-07-22T14:35:00.002-04:00

This article is published on All Voices on July 21, 2010.

I’ve been meaning to write about this for awhile now but there were too many things would come up but last night I thought I should sit down and write this piece. On 11 May 2010, Muslim protesters assaulted a Swedish artist Lars Vilks while he was giving a lecture about limits of artistic freedom in a university in Sweden. Muslims that knew Lars is going to lecture in Uppsala University had planned to stop his speech.

Once Lars presented drawing of a cartoon of the Islam’s prophet, Muhammad, angry Muslims attacked him and one of them managed to strike Lars with his head . Police had to use baton and paper spray to hold off angry Muslims.

Why these Muslims would want to attend to the lecture that they know they might get offended by the subject? and why they did want to stop Lars from giving lecture? The answer to these questions lies withing domination of Muslims and Islamic ideology to non-Muslim world which Islamists on this video pursue it.

In Islam generally people classified as either Muslim or non-believer, well seems Muhammad cut a little slack for other Abrahamic religions and called them people of the book. So from Islamic viewpoint followers of Abrahamic religions are believers but not as much as Muslims and they have to convert as soon as possible. In Islam non-believes don’t deserve a life, they are corrupting society and other Muslim minds. In Sharia law a retribution defined for murdering a Muslim but for murdering a non-believer there is nothing. Muslims have always gotten away with murdering non-believers.

Islam says its the last religion that god send to his slaves and Muhammad is the last prophet, so Islam is the superior religion. According to this ideology Muslims have to put all their efforts together to win through all other beliefs and thoughts and prevail Islam. In this ideology there is no place for a non-believer, and if a non-believer dare to find fault with Islam then he certainly should be crushed and that alone will set an example for the rest of non-believers.

Is this ideology alarming for you? If you do not find anything wrong with it, or if you don’t care to what happened to Lars on this video, trust me this is not going to stop there. One day you will wake and next thing you know, you do not have the right to speak about Islam. With higher Muslim birth rate in world, if the radical ideas would spread then there would impossible to stop it and this should concern you.

Basij: Iranian radical martyrs

2010-07-20T14:16:00.004-04:00

In past I have written about Basij militia and their way of thinking and also their actions in Iranian society. I have mentioned Basij members go through intensive Islamic indoctrination process but still there are many things left unsaid.

Although Basij is a volunteer paramilitary organization but there are systematic process in place to persuade children at school to register as a Basij and diligently participate in Basij special classes, everyday prayers and gatherings. It is easier to brainwash children than a full-grown person. By the time children grow up, it will become extremely difficult to bring back them to reality. This story might be difficult for you to grasp so let's watch following video that shows a group of Basij children in Iran-Iraq war and one of them speaks about his experience of war:

Basij organization founded by Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979 and Basij members extensively have participated in Iran-Iraq war (1980-1988). More than 1 million Iranians killed or maimed during this war which most of them consisted of untrained Basij members and Revolutionary Guards. During Iran-Iraq war there were constant campaigning to persuade people to join Basij and go to the war. People from different age groups joined to Basij and gone to war, many of them never made it home. They were under influence of brainwashing techniques with combination of Islamic doctrine but they never knew they have been brainwashed. During that time Iranian child soldiers have been used in suicide missions or propaganda projects in war.

Back then Basij members have idolized Ayatollah Khomeini and now they have been taught to idolize the supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Back then Basij organization has participated in war and propaganda and nowadays, they are active in propaganda, repression of civil society and crackdown on dissent and opposition movements (check out reports of the protests over presidential election in June and July 2009). One might consider Basij as a positive force back then but I do have many reasons to argue against this notion.

Unfortunately the vicious cycle of brainwashing children and children enrolling in Basij organization would never stop anytime soon. A close examination of everyday textbooks of school children proves this. For example, the "Islamic Culture and Religious Studies" textbook for eighth-grade says:

“Defensive jihad is incumbent upon every one. The young and the old, men and women, everyone, absolutely everyone, must take part in this sacred battle, fight to the best of his or her abilities or assist our fighters…If colonialists outside the borders of the country interfere in the affairs of Islamic countries through their agents inside the country, the religion of Islam does not permit Muslims to remain silent and watch the foreigners pillage and plunder but orders them to rise up and strive with all their might to defeat the enemy and liberate their country. This too is a defensive jihad and is incumbent upon everyone.” [1]

On the seventh-grade of "Islamic Culture and Religious Studies" textbook says:

“By taking note of the guidance and instructions provided by Islam, every Muslim youth must strike fear in the hearts of the enemies of God and their people through combat-readiness and skillful target shooting. He must always be ready to defend his country, honor, and faith and use all his capabilities and power in this endeavor. After the victory of the Revolution, His Holiness Imam Khomeini, the deceased leader of the Islamic Revolution, issued an order for the establishment of the basij (paramilitary group) for the Oppressed.” [2]

Or on the concept of sacrifice and self-sacrifice, on second-grade 'Heavenly Gifts' religious studies textbook says:

“Heaven has eight doors through which those who are destined for heaven enter. One gate is dedicated to the prophets and those who are honest; another is for martyrs and pious people, and the remaining gates are for other groups.” [3]

And this should be very alarming for all Iranians because Iran's future will belong to today's children and this children will be leaders one day and with this upbringing, I do not see how they are not going to fail Iran. I do not think so open-minded person would want to see a legion of Iranian radical martyrs in future.

Reference:
1, 2 and 3: Discrimination and Intolerance in Iran's Textbooks

Response to Islamists reaction

2010-07-18T22:33:00.005-04:00

It seems couple of posts on this blog haven't sit well with Islamists and they took it personally, and we all know what happens then. I guess I have to clarify my position once again. I do not restrain myself because you think my thoughts are disrespectful to your religion, faith or whatever you believe in. I think the only valuable things that we, humans have are our free thoughts and reason and I will not let you take away that too.

For instance I wrote a post almost 3 years ago that I am still receiving threats and curses for expressing my opinion about an Islamic ceremony. I've deleted the most disgusting comments but still some of them are there. One of the angry commentators wrote in capital letters:

"we get the courage to grab your neck and break it in a shot !! we shine the swords on the chest and bones of enemies ... we are the real winners of the battle of karbala ... we are not supposed to mentioned our names here as we all have a common identity shia e ali a.s., lovers of ahlulbayt a.s., at this platform we all are one in hand to hand ........... do what ever you could do .... but one day this will last finally ... with the sword of our supreme leader mahdi a.s." [it comes with dictation errors]

The other ones cursed me with death, hell fire and so on. From their point of view I do not worth a life because I do not like some ridiculous ceremonies. In fact some of them are outright disgusting, inhuman and plain absurd. I have not found anything interesting in them so I can not say otherwise. This is not mean, only being honest about my opinion.

This poem is relevant to the topic and remember that "you can kill a man but you can't kill an idea":

Thoughts are free, who can guess them?
They flee by like nocturnal shadows.
No man can know them, no hunter can shoot them,
with powder and lead: Thoughts are free!

I think what I want, and what delights me,
still always reticent, and as it is suitable.
My wish and desire, no one can deny me
and so it will always be: Thoughts are free!

And if I am thrown into the darkest dungeon,
all this would be futile work,
because my thoughts tear all gates
and walls apart. Thoughts are free!

So I will renounce my sorrows forever,
and never again will torture myself with some fancy ideas.
In one's heart, one can always laugh and joke
and think at the same time: Thoughts are free!

I love wine, and my girl even more,
Only I like her best of all.
I'm not alone with my glass of wine,
my girl is with me: Thoughts are free!

That's about it.

Shiite supremacist vs. Sunni fundamentalist

2010-07-18T09:15:00.002-04:00

These photos belong to suicide bombers of Jundallah group and taken before they carried out their terrorist act in Baluchistan in Iran on July 16, 2010. Now Jundallah calls them martyr and proudly showcase their photos on web. Both Iranian government and Jundallah rely on Quran and Islamic religious texts and both call the other one "Enemy of Allah"! and it's not irony at all.

Abdulbaset Rigi, one of suicide bombers

working on explosive material

Abdulbaset and Muhammad Rigi, the two suicide bombers

Islamic Iran recently executed Abdulmalek Rigi, leader of Jundallah and his brother, Abdulhamid Rigi. Right then Jundallah announced they chose a new leader and they will take revenge and that's what the did.

Jundallah is a fundamentalist Sunni group and Islamic Iran is a Shiite supremacist, as I wrote before if Iran doesn't change its policies towards Sunni minorities, situation will get uglier. At least that's what it looks like for now. Islamic Iran has to change the barbaric mentality that they can execute dissenters and they can discriminate minorities forever. Jundallah wrote in a weblog that they had enough already.

Photos courtesy of Taftan weblog

Hat tip: Zaminegerd

Oath of judges in Iran and USA

2010-07-18T04:30:00.003-04:00

Each judge should take an oath before performing duties in office. The difference between oaths of judges in Iran and let's say the United States is striking. I do not draw conclusion about their judicial systems based on differences of oaths but I think by comparing oaths we can get a glimpse of what is the real mandate of judges. Perhaps we can find something there to explain to us about horrific public executions:

Let's compare oath of judges in Iran and the United States and see the difference:

Oath of judges in Iran:

In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate

Oath letter

I, as a judge, in the presence of the Holy Qur'an and before Iranian nation, swear to Almighty God to follow the Prophet of Islam and the sacred Imams, peace be upon them, and seeking help of the spirits of the martyrs of Islam, guard justice and righteous, and undertake upon my human dignity to be diligent in seeking the truth and justice, administer Islamic justice to demand from oppressor and restore it to its owner and with sustained effort in Judicial position fulfill my obligation to Islamic republic with strengthening the foundations of the Islamic republic and supporting The Leader.

Name and surname

Signature

Oath of judges in the United States:

“I, XXX XXX, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will administer justice without respect to persons, and do equal right to the poor and to the rich, and that I will faithfully and impartially discharge and perform all the duties incumbent upon me as XXX under the Constitution and laws of the United States. So help me God.”

The simplicity of oath says it all. In first oath you wouldn't know what the judge stands for! In order of importance it would be Islamic republic, Supreme leader and at the end, maybe "Islamic" justice. But on the second oath, the judge takes oath to administer justice and that's a judge is there for and that's the kind of judge I prefer to see if I am convicted of something!

I quoted "Islamic" justice because the Islamic part of our justice is the reason for high rate of executions, limb amputations and systematic torture in Iran.

Suicide bombings in Iran's Baluchistan

2010-07-17T04:52:00.004-04:00

I strongly condemn terrorism of any kind; grouped or state terrorism. In my opinion, any act to create terror and endanger safety of unarmed civilians, is just unacceptable. But that's my point of view.

This terrorist act carried out by Jundallah , a Sunni militant group on July 16, 2010 in Baluchistan in south-eastern Iran. This is terrible but it is going to be worse if Islamic Iran doesn't change its policies towards Sunni Muslims in Iran. The Shitte ruling class have harshly crushed any little dissent or even complain in Sunni areas in Iran and they have made sure to keep the Sunni regions of Iran underdeveloped and very poor that Sunnies wouldn't have enough resources and means to look for independence. That's worrisome for Iran.

But authorities have gone too far, the constant discriminating against Sunnis, punishing Sunni activists with death penalty and destroying Sunni mosques and seminary schools (I put video above), all together, have only festered hate and turned Balouchi resistance to a militant group backed up by Wahhabi fundamentalist. Don't get me wrong, I am not in favor of mosques of any kind but this is only my observation from politics of the region.

In 2008, I reported about execution of an Iranian blogger, Yaghoob Mehrnehad which he was a balouch ethnic from Baluchistan. Later on, anonymous sources mentioned that Yaghoob Mehrnehad was dead from excessive torture that he was gone through. Mehrnehad 's brother started to report on his brother so authorities in order to shut him down, imprisoned him. I think he is still in prison. Baluch people believe, they live in "forgotten land".

I have traveled through Iran, in North, South, East and West and I have met Sunnis of any ethnic. Islamic Shiite authorities tormented Sunni people on every corner of this country but I found them friendly and generous. They might not have much but they are proud and living their simple lives, they want to have a say in Iranian politics, a little participation, if you will and I am sure as long as Iranian authorities look at Sunni minorities like an outsider, this problem will last longer.

Stop Stoning to Death

2010-07-16T03:06:00.002-04:00

In stoning to death, victims will be buried up to their chest in a hole and covered with soil, then rocks will be thrown at their heads until they die in pain and their blood. This is very barbaric punishment.

Let's put an stop on this horrifying form of punishment once for all. Sign the petition.

I was checking out the Sharia law and I came across to this article related to stoning: "The stoning of an adulterer or adulteress shall be carried out while each is placed in a hole and covered with soil, he up to his waist and she up to a line above her breasts." This is Article 102 of The Islamic Penal code of Iran that you can find in Book 2: Punishments specified in Shari’a (Haads) of Iran's Penal code or here. You can find Persian version over here.

Back then I wrote about stoning to death in "What is really execution by stoning?".

Hat tips: stop torturing us

Ayatollah Paul the octopus

2010-07-12T04:05:00.000-04:00

Paul the octopus had eight correct predictions in 2010 FIFA World Cup so if there is anyone or anything deserve to be called Ayatollah, it is the octopus.

Someone came with this great idea.

A good ayatollah is a dead ayatollah

2010-07-10T05:53:00.001-04:00

"A good ayatollah is a dead ayatollah" is an old saying among Iranians. The older version is something like "a good mullah is a dead mullah". These two phrases basically mean the same thing and mean mullahs, ayatollahs, clerics are good when they are dead, otherwise they are up to no good. These phrases derived from historical interaction of people and clerics.

Ayatollah is a high ranking title given to a Islamic Shia mullah (cleric). Ayatollahs have followers and followers comply with anything that following ayatollah wishes them to do. These followers usually pay cash or whatever they would be able to do to satisfy ayatollahs. Merchants (Bazari people) used to financially support ayatollahs all the way and equally, ayatollahs would issue a decree in favour of a specific product or brand to benefit their merchant followers or simply ask their followers to shop from those merchants. Or whenever merchants get on the wrong side of the law, ayatollah would intervene on their behalf.

Since Khamenei became Supreme Leader in Iran, he has fed ayatollahs and seminary schools with money and by doing so he basically changed the traditional relationship between ayatollahs and their followers, and specially merchants to a great extent. I do not want to go off topic so let me get back to the point that I started.

Recently, an ayatollah died in Lebanon, couple of months ago another one in Qom, Iran. If you happen to have seen any of the ceremonies that thousands of their followers gather and mourn, you might have get this impression that "wow! what a pity, he definitely have been good to people". This is the kind of impression usually every average clueless person might make. If you have been one of these people, change and think again!

By the way I am not a pessimist.

Iran badmouth Denmark prime minster

2010-06-29T06:58:00.002-04:00

This video aired on Iran's state-own TV on June 20, 2010. Mohammad Javad Ardashir Larijani, Secretary General of Iran's High Council for Human Rights on this video said:

English subtitle

"Look at anti-Islam movement. Anti-Islamic movement is a disgraceful feature of western society. Just recently, stupid Prime Minister of Denmark came into power, that by his look you can say how idiot and stupid he is, in his first speech, he said: "I have problem with Islam." of course, he is very small drib in front of Islam. Islam is a huge rock. Since past 14 centuries, many people battered their heads on this rock (Islam) and only their heads have destroyed. what I want to say is that they are very disgraceful. Why did he (danish Prime Minister) say these stuff? Because based on their own statistics, probably on 2025, Copenhagen will be the first European city that most of it's citizens will become Muslim."

In Iran we do not have Human Rights, we only have Islamic limitations so if anyone dares to speak up, criticize Islam and Islamic laws, as Secretary General of Iran's High Council for Human Rights put it, will be destroyed. In fact I have heard this expression over and over from different people, whenever I criticized Islam, they warned me by saying: "if anyone took a fight with Islam, will be destroyed". I think Mullahs propagated this expression among Iranians.

I have two points to raise on this video. First, since Islamic republic of Iran and in general Islamic countries have different understanding of Human Rights then they have to use another term instead of messing around with principal of Human Rights. I think they should use "Islamic limitations", as you might know, when you surrender yourself to Islam then you have no rights.

Second, if we had a little freedom and there were no death threats for leaving Islam, I can say at least 30 to 40 percent of Iranians would leave Islam in no time. Even now that it is very risky to criticize Islam, anytime people feel comfortable enough, they will ridicule Islam, Islamic laws and specially mullahs. Without a slightest doubt, mullahs definitely are the most hated group in Iran.

If Larijani and like minded people are so sure of themselves and their religion, Islam, then let's change the laws and give people freedom to choose then we will see who is right. Under current conditions, leaving Islam is equal to death.

A reformist mullah caught lying

2010-06-23T13:26:00.002-04:00

Please watch this short video:

You might remember during last year protests due to presidential election result dispute, people took the lead and they chanted their very own original slogans. One of the slogans was "No Gaza, No Lebanon, I die for Iran" which was hard thing to swallow for reformists, let alone for conservatives. Mousavi, Khatami and Karroubi did not like the slogan and they expressed their dissatisfaction publicly but people carried on again and again, even in defiance of reformists too. Mousavi had to remind people about his belief in Islamic revolutionary values and Islamic establishment and so he does not approve these kind of slogans

Probably you know the rest of story but in case you do not know, take a look at Rotten Gods archive. Let's get to the point, the other day, a reformist mullah, Kadivar on an interview with VOA lied about this famous slogan. He said

People have shouted 'Either Gaza, also Lebanon, I die for Iran' on the streets in Iran.

which it simply was not the case.

P.S. In fact I should extend my gratitude to VOA that they invited Mr. Kadivar and showed all, that there is no difference between so-called reformist mullahs and other mullahs. They are all mullahs with same mentality. The only thing I would expected to see was a sharp savvy interviewer to ask proper questions!

Iranian blogger in court

2010-06-23T12:39:00.001-04:00

I heard today that Hossein Derakhshan had his first court appearance after 21 months imprisonment. I am not sure I should feel happy for him that he finally appeared in a court or I should be worry about the court sentence and his future.

You know, as an Iranian blogger I wish him well and I do not want to see any blogger in prison only because they express their thoughts and opinions in weblogs. Mr. Derakhshan as a blogger had ups and downs, like everyone else but at the end, he turned out to be leaning towards Islamic republic. He slowly became outright defender of Islamic revolution's doctrine, and acted like a true apologist. His change of mood didn't quite fit well in Iranian blogosphere.

He eventually became way too extreme that even he supported Iran's policy on executions and Iran's corrupted judicial system. e.g. Yaghoob Mehrnehad was an Iranian blogger who later executed on July 2008. Back then Derakhshan supported that execution sentence too, because he considered Yaghoob Mehrnehad as a separatist. Derakhshan held abhorrent views about Human rights and Iranian dissidents.

He has been detained without due process in prison for a long time now so I hope he changed for good but nevertheless, I defend his rights and freedom although I detest what he said and stood for.

Hat tips: farsnews