Jonathan's Retirement Blog

I find the happenings in Iran, if they are true to be remarkable. I am of the generation that saw the American's puppet Shah Mohammad Rezā Shāh Pahlavi removed from power in 1979 by a popular uprising that adopted as their leader, the exiled Ayatollah Khomeini , the American Embassey in Tehran overrun and and ransacked, diplomats held hostage while others were assisted by Canadian Ambassador Kemneth Taylor. There was the rescue attempt that got stymied by a sandstorm. I could not understand why people would want to give up freedoms and material things we take for granted in the west but I believed perhaps they were more enlightened and felt strict adherence to the principles put forward in the Koran offered a better life solution. Piety demonstrated by the Ayotollah and practised by the people if Iran made a persuasive counterbalance to the materialism and excesses of western culture. This appears to have been a fraud, the pious religious leaders were no better than what they replaced, they are just as dictatorial and opressive.

The original Ayatollah became the symbolic head of the worlds's Moslems, and from most crefible news sources I consulted, not without justification. By wholeheartedly supporting an obviously flawed election result the present Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, to my mind abdicated the leadership role he inherited from Ayatollah Khomeini.

I think the honeymoon that has seen "Moslems" treated almost with kid leather gloves in the past is over. To my mind they are no different than any other person that chooses to follow a religious persuasion, be it Buddhst, Christian, Jew, Hindu, Moslem or even atheist. With this the influence of Iran on the world stage has also diminished, which I am hoping will lead to a more reasonable and peaceful world.