I’m not sure if it’s relevant to your comment, but I wrote about “blad skizo” in another, more political context here.

Objectively speaking , Iranians hate Arabs and are a bit jealous of them. In Iran they use Arabic Alphabet and so many of them blame Arabs for bringing them Islam- while they forget that their Perisan civilsation is a mere cut and paste from Iraqi one. the greatest persian temple for example , the pride of Iran is built on babylonian style………

It must get frustrating when even in the well-meaning articles about Iran, the author finds it necessary to start by deconstructing the image of “glowering ayatollahs, book-burning mobs, fatwas of death and the black chador.” Not to mention “Islamic scientists” who are even more scary!

I can’t help noticing this line in the article: “Iran is our natural ally in the Middle East, a European civilisation trapped by history and geography in the midst of Arabia. It does not belong there, culturally or religiously.” I think this statement will play right into the hands of our friend Amre, who feels that Iranians hate Arabs, resent having them as neighbors, and will do everything they can to prevent an Arab renaissance.

My own feeling is that Hitchens is looking at the Middle East from a perspective of European cultural superiority. Seeing a culture that “wants to be like us,” he rushes to embrace it, implying in the process that other cultures in the region are NOT “natural allies” of the West because they are too stubborn or backward to “want to be like us.” I have no idea whether Iranians view Arabs as “less European” than them and therefore inferior. But I’m suspicious of the Eurocentric lens Hitchens is using, which embraces Iran for “wanting to be like us” and subtly brings Iran under the tent of Western hegemony.

We have really got to do away with the idea that Western culture equals progress, tolerance, enlightement and modernity, while everything outside the West (like “Islamic scientists”) is somehow dark and Satanic. Indeed, the idea itself is neither progressive, tolerant, enlightened nor modern, if you see what I mean. It shows that whatever the West may say about other cultures, it hasn’t fully outgrown the Middle Ages itself, with its need to divide the world into dark and light.

That said, I appreciate that Hitchens visited the poorer, more conservative parts of Tehran to show that even there, support for the regime is failing. In Morocco the situation is reversed—the Westernizing elites are in control, so the conservative poor are more opposed to the regime than are the trendy, café-going upper class. But I think that in both societies, the government hasn’t really delivered on its promises, at least not in a way that gives the majority a sense of optimism. So young people regardless of class or ideology are united on one thing—a government that answers to the people is the only way forward.

I also appreciate Hitchens’ central point—that Western hostility to Iran (and lack of understanding of what is really happening there) is only pushing the people closer to a government they don’t really like. Too often, incompetent leaders are able to distract their people by rallying them against a “common enemy.” This is as true in the West (the “war on terror”) as it is in Iran (the “Great Satan”) or the Arab world (Israel and Iran). This looks to me like a three-way mindf**k, and who benefits but the leaders themselves? I wish we could do away with nation states altogether (a 19th and 20th century model), and work together as citizens to build a global democracy without borders.

I totally agree with your point about Arab regimes being called vampires..

However, that comparison can be very misleading!

The Arab governments pursue certain foreign (and internal) policies that dont seem to conform to the best interests of Arabia, Egypt, Morocco, Syria…..etc or even the mass opinions of the cattle Arab people corrupted by their stagnat uninnovative regimes!

As Arab nations or countries we share common, language culture, historical congruencies and the same sort of porblems .

Therefore an Egyptian nationalist like myself realizes very well that a pan Arab framework and vision is matter of vital necessity for the welfare of that region extending from Morocco to Iraq. Leave aside the metaphysical, emotional feelings, for instance if Morocco quarrels with Spain , whether i want it or not, i cant help but sympthesing with Morocco.

that why saudi people, Egyptians, Jordanians………etc feel very sympathetic and wounded just like the beloved Iraq.

In case of Iran, it the the other way round! Iranian governmet is putting up an anti-imperial facade and pseudo supporting Palestinians, in order to pursue PERSIAN national interests.

However, Iranians people are different, their dislike of Arabs is very obvious (it is a part of their culture) they have no problems with Israel whatsoever, on the contrary, they consider Arabs to be their historical complex. Just run over Israeli Iranian relations in 20th century.Or even for that matter, the ancient one(Cyrus the Persian liberated hebrews, Nabuchtanasser the Iraqi enslaved Israelians and so did the Ramses of Egypt)

Policies of both Arab and Irani govenrmet are not sustaniable basically because they go against their “nature”. Therefore there is no way whatsoever to compare a genuine poular symapthy with Iraq with Iranian popular feelings that regard Iraq the same way Arabs do Israel

Dearabising Iraq is in the best interest of Iran….. While in our case it is a disaster because it definetly entails a drastic reduction in strategic weight of all Arab countries and the level of their future prospects.

Again I have to say I’m deeply impressed by your dynamic creative blog and postings. Especially the conversation you had with a freind of yours about the comparison between Egyptian and morrocan oppostion.

I dont know if you like football or not, but Aziz Bo Derballah is my idol!

eatbees, I had added a link in my answer to your comment on my blog. here it is, although the obsession with nose job is rather annoying!

Thank you for coming here and taking the time to comment. I’m planning to read your blog so I can better understand your thinking. I notice you’ve invited people to put their own words on your blog, which means you are open to an exchange of views. Let’s help each other to build a new reality, a reality based on communication and not division…!

1) What Cho Seung-Hui did is, unfortunately, “normal” in the U.S. and a product of American culture, an internal problem; but what is happening in Iraq wouldn’t be happening if the U.S. hadn’t invaded, which makes it far from “normal” even though it happens every day.

2) Americans see the world in a self-centered way; they think it is only about them, and usually don’t see anything unless they are part of the story. Worse, they project this attitude onto the rest of the world and force the world to live with the consequences of this self-centered behavior which defines everything in terms of “American interests.” Of course (the final irony) these are really the interests of a few powerful industries, not of the American people.

My conclusion is that the U.S. has been taken over by evil forces, and is doing more harm than good through its behavior. Even under Bill Clinton we were imperialists, but at least we were gentle imperialists. By contrast, the Bush administration is almost completely destructive in its behavior. The American people have a moral responsibility before the world to take back their government and redirect the policy to humanistic ends. And you are absolutely right that we should get over our self-centrism that causes Americans to think it is “all about us.”

It Iran who is responsible for this. Americans committed a crime for sure by destroying Iraq but that is not an excuse for overlooking the Iranian terrorism. It was Iranians that resisted American secularization plans and infuriated sectarian strife by pushing back into Iraq traitors, Persianised Arabs and Arabic speaking demagogic Rasputin-like Mullahs who have brain washed the simple religious Shiites in the south of Iraq. Thus t incurring a string of Sunni-shiite strikes and counter strikes