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| Axis of Evil |
| Pourzand paraded on state TV allegedly 'confessing' |
| 2002-07-26 |
| The Iranian State Broadcaster, IRIB, showed TV images of liberal dissident Siamak Pourzand on Thursday apparently 'confessing' to promoting western culture, violating Islamic principles, as well as cooperating with the CIA, other Western Intelligence Agencies and Reza Pahlavi's office. The 71 year old's own words weren't actually broadcast, and he was merely quoted by a voice over. He was alleged to have made the comments in an interview with state news agencies including IRNA (The Iranian News Agency) and ISNA (The Student News Agency). He was quoted as having confessed to working with Western Intelligence Agencies and Monarchists before and after the revolution. The voice over said that Pourzand confessed to "promoting western values" against the Islamic Republic through "a chain of publications and cultural centers" with these "activities leading to some successes." To authoritarian theocrats, this looked like a really good idea. I suspect it doesn't to a large percentage of Persians. In Iran today, the people have the right to be devout Muslims and to support the government, or at least the conservative theocrat side of it. Under the repressive regime of the shah, Iranians had the right to be devout Muslims, Ba'hais, Zoroastrians, Christians, Jews, or nothin' special. The right to support the government, while pretty strictly enforced by western lights, wasn't as strictly enforced as it is today. Persians as a group aren't stupid, and even though many of them have been born into the current system, they're still seeing peeks at the rest of the world. They also read their own history, even though distorted through the Islamic lens. From its inception, from the time of Cyrus, Persia was tolerant of other religions and cultures — it had to be because it absorbed so many of them. A year from now, or five years from now, or even ten, Persians will look back on this and try and figure how the hell they got stuck with such a nasty regime. Meanwhile, today, the ayatollahs are standing in front of the teleprompter, scratching their turbans as they prepare to address the nation, asking each other, "What the hell does mene mene tekel upharsin mean?" |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |