From: arash@sunee.waterloo.edu (Arash Jahangir)
Subject: Re: PROMINENT IRANIAN BAHA'I EXECUTED
Organization: University of Waterloo
Date: Fri, 17 Apr 1992 01:24:15 GMT

In article <1992Apr16.184712.7419@cco.caltech.edu> bes@cco.caltech.edu (Behnam Sadeghi) writes:
>In article <1992Apr14.222450.13460@cbfsb.cb.att.com> hillel@cbnewsf.cb.att.com (hillel.e.markowitz) writes:
>
>>When I spoke with a number of the refugees from Iran who settled in
>>Baltimore I found that this was not true.  This included people who
>>had to smuggle themselves and their children across the desert,
>>people whose parents were not allowed to communicate with them, and
>>people whose parents were not allowed to send them any money (or
>>help with tuition) because they went to Rabbinical College.

Hhmmmmm.  I don't remember to have read this article.  Could it be that the
originator, knowingly or otherwise placed some kind of distribution limit on
the article?  My default distribution is "world" instead of "usa" or my own
provinces.  Still sometimes when I do a fallow up the distribution changes.
May I request that everyone makes sure that their distribution is "world"
for all their postings in sci.

>
>A lot of Iranian Muslims also left the country illegally.   The reason
         						     ^^^^^^^^^^
>is that they didn't want to serve in the military (as every Iranian male
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>has to do for two years).  You know, the Iran-Iraq war was going on
				       ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>and the was a certain risk associated with serving in the military.
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>Behnam Sadeghi
>

Gee!  First you guys destroy the country, then you call anyone who could not
endure you any longer a coward.  How very convinient for you pretend that a
large portion of Iranians are cowards and that their exit from the country 
had nothing to do with the inhumane conditions that you guys forced upon
Iranians.  Keep up the good job guys!  Keep showing the world how much respect
for Iranians (or human life for that matter) you people have.  And don't worry
about taking any responsibility for the sorry state that has been prevailing 
on Iran and Iranians.  I wonder how people would react if an Iraqi had implied
what you just said?  Why should you be treated any better just because your 
name is Iranian and you were born in Iran?

For your information Mr. Sadeghi, Iranians are not among migrating nations.
They hold their country and their families very dear, and do not leave them
just for sake of war.  If you want I can tell you about several Iranian 
university students that I personally met in Pakistan who as soon as the war
started they went to Iranian embessy and volunteered for military service.
Two of them were even Baha'i.  They all however have no intention of living
in Iran with you guys.  Myself, not only fought with Iraqies with next to 
nothing in Abadan (thanks to you guys who were too busy killing the pilots
and fighting over key official positions) after comming to Tehran, I 
volunteered for Basij.  I was refused at the time because I was considered too
younge.  I am not boasting.  What I did was my duty and I expect no rewards
for it.  It is just that I fall among those "gutless" people that you 
described in your post above.  And that bothers me.  So tell me, how is it 
that even people like I who volunteered for the war ended up leaving the
country illegally?

I'll tell you how.  Because we realized that the greatest enemy that our 
nation has ever faced has already siezed control of our country and 
are not strong enough to defeat him, nor can we continue to see our nation
destroyed, our people killed with their arms tied, our mothers and sisters
treated like subhuman creatures, our language systematically destroyed,
our mosques turned into supermarkets, our nights filled with horror, 
our neighbours tortured to report on us, and every ounce of honor stripped
from us.  That's why we left.  Not because we were afraid of war, or death,
or even the monstrous regime in Iran.  For your information, our action was
in strickt accordence with the words of God in Qur'an (if you believe in that)
where it says that in the judgement day some people complain that they were
treated under cruel rulers with pain, and the angles ask them "was the Lord's
Earth not wide enough for you to move elsewhere?".


 Arash

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If you want to destroy something, do not attack it.  Rather defend it badly.
							Dr. Ali Shari'aty

I maintain that the current regime in Iran has done an astonishingly good job
in "badly" defending Iran and Islam.

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