[ExI] Religions and violence

[Fred C. Moulton]

On Fri, 2010-07-30 at 11:12 -0700, Adrian Tymes wrote:

> Compare, for instance, life under Iran's
> shah - a tinpot dictator installed as a byproduct of the
> Cold War, but one who was modernizing the country - to what
> the current regime has accomplished in its roughly 30 years
> of rule.

Going off on this tangent of trying to link a religion (in this case
Islam) to a particular country (in this case Iran) without considering
all of the other factors such as history, sanctions and the rest is just
ludicrous.  Certainly the current rulers in Iran are repressive.  And
we have all heard the reports of the Revolutionary Guard of Iran taking
over a large part of the Iranian economy.  But one needs to ask oneself
why the Revolutionary Guard came into power.  And why the opposition the
Shah was centered in the mosques which lead to the religious leaders
being perceived as the forces fighting against the tyranny of the Shah.
And remember that the government of the USA was involved in putting the
Shah in place and overthrowing Mosaddegh.  Mosaddegh a Muslim who was
educated in Europe and who appears to have been a relative moderate in
religion.  Iran might not be a perfect place right now but at least we
need to understand the history and background and avoid making erroneous
comparisons.

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright is reported to have made the
following statement in March 2000: "The Eisenhower administration
believed its actions were justified for strategic reasons. But the coup
was clearly a setback for Iran's political development and it is easy to
see now why many Iranians continue to resent this intervention by
America."

Iran serves not so much as a negative example concerning Islam instead
the situation in Iran serves as yet an example of the government of the
USA running around finding ever more situations in which to meddle and
usually make worse.  From Central America to Viet Nam to Iran to Iraq
and other places too numerous to list here we see a trail of
destruction, greed, arrogance and mendacity by the government of the
USA.

Fred