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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Iranian Patriot's Labor of Love, April 28, 2007
The nuclear ambitions of the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and its growing influence amongst certain Shi'a factions in Iraq is attracting media attention to a degree not seen since the late 1970s. Nevertheless, since 1979 the IRI has remained consistent in its determination to become the dominant political/ideological force in the Middle East and Persian Gulf. The clerics sitting in Tehran and their golden boy, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, repeatedly make clear to the world that they will not abandon the Ayatollah Khomeini's vision of an Islamic world state. Millions of Iranians have been sacrificed for this vision, and the mullahs who rule them will not hesitate to sacrifice a million more. Iran is notorious for taking hostages. Ironically, however, the largest group being held hostage there are the Iranian people themselves.
"Iran Zamin" is a pen name chosen most wisely and appropriately by the author of this book, ROMANTICISM and REVIVALISM Of PURE DIVINE MOTHERLAND Of IRAN. "Iran Zamin" is a term often used in recalling the ancient and noble glory of the pre-Islamic empires of "Greater Iran." And this book's author is undoubtedly a true Iranian patriot, who not only passionately loves his country, but is one who deeply cares for its people. Iran Zamin writes not only to preserve his Persian heritage and culture but also to shout a WAKE UP! call to his long-suffering fellow Iranians. He writes to remind them that before there was the Arab Muhammed and his religion of Islam, there was the Iran of the Sassanids, and before that, of the Achaemenids. Zoroaster, Cyrus and Darius are their true forefathers, men recognized by history as some of the greatest influences upon world civilization. Such men were not only considered builders and innovators, but more importantly were men who championed righteousness and compassion. Zamin is one of the few Iranian writers who have the honest courage to say that the Persian legacy means nothing to the mullahs ruling Iran. Indeed, he cleverly points out that the family origins of the father of the Islamic Republic, the Ayatollah Khomeini himself, are not Iranian but Indian! As Zamin notes, the IRI seeks world power not for any nationalist interests, but instead uses Iran merely as base from which it plans to spread forth a truly Shi'a world state.
The ancient and noble origins of Iran aren't the only major themes of Zamin's book. Rather it is primarily concerned with the present and looks toward the future. Thus the writer devotes much time to the disgraceful treatment done to the legacy of Shah Reza Muhammad I Pahlavi.
Portrayed as a slavish puppet of American foreign policy on the one hand, and as a selfish and cruel despot on the the other, the Shah, Zamin points out, has to be the most misunderstood and slandered figure of late 20th Century history. He shows us that this was the man who worked hardest to bring social and economic progress to Iran, turning that nation into one of the strongest and most advanced in the Middle East. It was the Shah's "White Revolution" (distinguished from the "red" of the Communists, and the "black" of the clerics) that brought land reform, religious freedom, widespread free education, and women's suffrage and social equality. All of which, by the way, were vehemently despised and vigorously opposed by the Muslim clerical establishment. In truth, Zamin isn't the only one who noticed the Shah's reluctance to brutality, nor is he alone in holding the western media and former American president Jimmy Carter directly responsible for the Shah of Iran's downfall.
Another important aspect of the Shah of Iran's reign was his vital role as a peacekeeper in the Persian Gulf. Zamin compares the relative stability of the region during Pahlavi rule with the chaotic mess it has become after the Shah was overthrown. He makes it plain that Saddam Hussein was intimidated by the efficiency and strength of Imperial Iran's military - especially its crack air force (for more on the Shah of Iran read "Ahmad Kasvravi Tabrizi's" The OTHER SIDE Of The STORY).
Iran Zamin finishes this book by discussing the Iranian theocracy's clerical elite, considering them to be the most corrupt and venal bureaucrats and politicos existing today. He concentrates mostly on the notorious former president of the IRI, Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the mullah once listed by Forbes Magazine to be one of the richest men in the world. In Zamin's eyes Rafsanjani epitomizes the hypocritical and parasitical cleric growing ever fatter off Iran's wealth, while the people face skyrocketing inflation and unemployment, and have to suffer to see sons addicted and daughters forced through desperation to sell their kidneys as well as their sex.
Beyond his well-known Hezbollah connections and the embarrassing criminal charges being held against him by Argentine authorities for his involvement in the 1994 bombing of a Buenos Aires Jewish community center, Zamin also exposes Rafsanjani's financial dealings in Canada, specifically his investments in Toronto's toll Highway 407. It enrages Zamin (as it should all of us) that this convicted terrorist, wanted man, and stereotypical fatcat is making profits here in North America, just over our border.
Iran Zamin's book not only informs and educates, it also emotionally involves you into the sad and desperate situation of one of the oldest and greatest nations on this earth.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Treasure to have, March 8, 2007
This is book about political CORRUPTION and how Shah was modernizing Iran.
A good job and well done research.
Bravo
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