• Q ,) Lub r . ... . A
Terror and death in Kh meini's Iran &Y j
shattered the small remaining reason than dOes any other forniof.”
h'ope of many well-wishers of the By RoyB. Mottahedeh Islam or do most otherreligions:ht
Iranian revolution who kept say-. /1 if Lji the world. Then why the irOn '?- ,
ing, as I did: “Wait, give it time.” ; . ‘I l v ... . Why do the current rulers of Iran i-
Six men and 10 women, includ : . j' .. so desperately distrust reason?, .
ing three teen-age girls, without , _ ,I I I . j Do they trust coercion more
publicly announced charges or 1 I I i. K because they have secretly admit- .-
public trial, were hanged, appar- ted to themselves that they are;
ently for the mere crime of adher- I unable to change anyone's opin1on ::
ence to a religion. As the Islamic f , through reasoned discussion?
judge explained to the newspapers: . Or, do they really believe .thkt-
“It is absolutely certain that in the reason — or, for that matter, aiiy ;
Islamic Republic of Iran there is no . form Of persuasion that can win ,
place whatsoever for Bahais and I I ' .1 meaningfu' assent to religious
Bahaism.”. - -. . . truth — operates only on people-
It is becoming increasingly un- who live In the shadow of the
clear for whom there is a place in hangman's noose?
Iran. .. . . The Islamic Republic of Iran—
It was possible to understand .. • ... how neatly and thoroughly it haq;
why the Iranian government felt ., . come to belie every part Of it e.
that there was no place for the ‘ name
radical left which advocated ‘ It Is hardly Iranian if it finds it
armed struggle against the existing ‘ necessary to bang 16 Bahais — in
government addition to the scotes It has killed
It was harder — but Just POSS1 in recent years — merely for the
ble given the deep differences But no room for the Iranian crime of professing a religion
between peoples about ideas of Bahais' .1 . that believes Iran to be a sacred,
propriety — to understand why No room for 300 000 Iranians i land
there was no place for women who who specifically repudiate rebel it i hardly a republic A sta te
went out in public without their lion against any duly constituted 7 - that So terrifies and coerces
hair covered government including the current ‘ — people is a republic in only sonib
It was even harder to under government of Iran' for their genocidal fantasies pre- contorted sense of the word ‘
stand why there was no place for* No room for the only people ‘ r F r ‘ cisely because this government It Is hardly Islamic In the Spirip
the Iranian Communist Party who besides the Zoroastrians con ru ted by the tampering of men 9 wi hes to make clear that it wants of the Koramc verse (10-99k II it
which repeatedly and slavishly had sider Iran a sacred land and revere Well wishers of the revolution nothing to do with early hopes for had been your Lord S will, they 1
declared itself to be in total sup- the Persian language as a language waited and gave it tune — and for from a severe shortage of qualified a government religious in morality would all have believed all who
port of the Ayatollah Ruhollah of fEvelation ' w at' teachers and technical experts' and democratic in method, Hang a are on earth' Will you then compel
Khomeini For the only religion in Iran To see the promise of parliamen To see proud courageous Ira few teen age girls and everyone mankind against their will o
______________________________ besides Islam that however much ta y democracy blasted by an nian soldiers lay down their lives in will get the point The rulers of be ve
. - . . it may look to a prophet subse- intolerance of. any political party human-wave attacks in the stale-: Iran do not need to consult the It Is. in fact, hardly religIous—
Roy P Mottahedeh professor of quent to Mohammed accepts the that meekly disagrees with the mated war against Iraq a country a Iranian people because they know it is difficult to imagine any
Islamic histoiy and Persian and Arabic belief of Moslems that the Koran is go vernment? third the size of Iran in population what s best for Iran whether Irani tradition motivated by the spirit qf
literature at Princeton University is an infallible revelation from God in iTo find the universities still and wealth' ans like it or not — and by the true religion that would not cry
writing a book on Sh,ite education in a text that unlike the Old and New latgely shut four years after the Perhaps todays Iranian authori same token., they do not want a Shame on these cowardly killer
modem Iran Testaments has never been cor refrolution while Iramans suffer ties find the Bahais a good focus freely given moral consensus be- of defenseless people' a
‘ . : jj i_' :: h. - .. . .. . . I .; ,:.. .
BP000548
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