**forwarded email**
Parvin Darabi-A Comment on Reza Pahlavi's Speech on Theocracy
Nov 21, 2002
Dear friends,
I have problem with this paragraph in Reza Pahlavi's speech [URL of speech
attached at the end]:
"Using Islam to usurp power is to abuse it and ultimately discredit it. This is precisely what the clerical regime has done since its inception. The ruling theocrats have today overwhelmingly lost the trust and support of the Iranian people. In simple terms, religion has been hijacked, by a few, in order to provide a false pretense of legitimacy for a theocratic order that denies the most basic human rights to its citizens."
What is he talking about discrediting Islam? I wonder if he has ever read the
Koran and knows what he is talking about? Why is he, if he wants to be the
leader of Iranians, so much defending Islam? What does he mean by religion was
hijacked? The Iranian democratic revolution of 1978 was hijacked by the religion
and theocracy with the help of America.
Why are we Iranians so afraid of declaring the illegitimacy of Islam in our
homeland? This is not the religion of our ancestors. Islam is the religion of
our Arab conquerors. We are a nation under the Islamic occupation. When are we
going to get out from under this Islamic oppression and return to our glory days
of being Persians rather than Muslims?
Parvin Darabi
P.S. Reza Pahlavi's Speech:
http://www.rezapahlavi.org/speeches/harvard112002.html