bahmani

Man's inhumanity to Man (via God)

You are absolutely right in your dissections of the real Iran. Torn by the temptations of reality (the modern western world) and shamed by the possibility that an afterlife may very well be in the cards. All the more reason that this shows a huge lack of self reliance, and more evidence of just how badbakhtly manipulated they truly are. Such a shame that the push and pull of all this irrelevance (Godless westernism, and over-Godded Islam)has sacrificed the individual in favor of who they think they ought to be, at the time. Good comment, thanks.

which one is better

like in Canada hanging metals, rings, luck, Chane... in all over the body and on pussy , tattoos or.....and hashish in Puckett, heroine,,,, when he or she need to get in washroom, just do... in corner of street or shop's .....smelling so bad all over the city, living here like animals, day looks nice by the night city going to change,,,,gangs drug dealers....visit us in night times in Vancouver or Victoria , then you understand Iran is not bad place for living and why government of Iran give so much hard times on freedom,

La ikra fi deen

God does not impose his will on man. We are not the angels to be void of free will. I would disagree with Mesbah Yazdi's viewpoint that the purpose of an Islamic government is to "push people into heaven". I think the majority of Islamic scholars would disagree with him. The point is not to create a uniform robotic society that worships God. For worshipping God by force has no meaning and loses all its value.

The purpose is that someone who wants to become pious, can walk out of his house and not be exposed to all the corruptions and vices (the way individual freedom exposes man in a liberal democracy). The point of the Islamic government is that people who wish to live their sinful life, can do so in the PRIVACY of their own homes (alcohol, drugs, porn, fornication) but that they shouldn't bring it in the public.

We shouldn't be judging modernity with these lifestyle changes. It actually doesn't correlate.

You know why?

Two Reasons:

1) Arab countries that are going through the Islamic radicalization that Iran went through in the 1970's, are going to mosque more often and becoming more angry at American foreign policy and becoming more devout. Yet they are still sipping their Starbucks and dressing like Americans on TV.

Even if you go to a mosque in America, you will find a whole range of different kinds of Muslims. You will find your typical traditional Muslim (clean clothes, good manners, and typical beard) and you will find the extreme Iranian Muslim teenager who loves Imam Hussein and Islam (even prays 5 times a day) and has a tattoo on his arm and wears really tight clothes and even brings his girlfriend to the mosque.

I could even show you a whole crew of these characters in Irvine (California), who have their hair stuck up, earrings, tattoos, and all they talk about is their love of Imam Khomeini. It is ironic and very disturbing, but it shows you cannot correlate the two.

2) I have videos I can share with you of teenagers in Iran, who in one day are drinking alcohol and kissing their girlfriends, then when the month of Muharram comes, they beat their chests and cry for Imam Hussein. This isn't hypocricy, it is a country torn between love of Islam and an inferiority complex of wanting to imitate everything Western.

If you ask these people who drink alcohol and play rock and roll in Iran if they hate Islam, they would get offended.

In Iran recently, I talked to a few youth who had never put their feet in a mosque, drank alcohol and drove around getting phone numbers from the opposite sex in the streets to date. I asked them what their views of Imam Ali and Imam Hussein were, and they expressed their utmost love (and this wasn't out of fear, because they were relatives of mine, they could care less....they express their harsh disagreements with the government, but they love Islam and the Prophet and the Imams).

It is that reality that you diaspora have not come to terms yet with.

Yes, good or bad, Tatoos are a sign of "Sly Back door Modernity"

Notwithstanding your comment on the more formal and granted desirable steps toward true institutional modernity, and as much as you seem to want me to, however, that is not what I am noting. Sly Back door modernity is what I am referring to and yes, it is sad to see the youth wasting their gift on seemingly petty desires. But I doubt that it is just the teens who are rebelling. And it certainly isn't against "parents morality and way of life". Fashion trends are popular and adopted for a reason. It's not because they are necessarily bad for you. But, please drift away with me from the moronically obvious for a moment, and notice the larger view of this. That apparently even God on the side of the one true religion cannot stop a determined young person from getting a tattoo and wanting to look like Johnny Depp. Not with everlasting life and glory, not with all the gifts of heaven, and not even with the threat of hell on earth. And I love that defiance. I think deep down, you do too.

tattoos are now test for modernity?

economic progress, political progress is not a benchmark of modernity anymore? it is now what haircut and tattoo one puts on that shows how much these people want modernity?

a teenager always rebels against his parents morality and way of life. it just shows the people of iran are children if they think that getting tattoos (and damaging their look permanently) and applying more gel in their hair than they put gasoline in their car is a sign of modernity.

no, it is a sign of westernization, an affect of globalization. It is not a reaction to the mullahs (for how come these trends did not appear in the early 80s and 90s) but a result of an exposure to superficial western lifestyles on satellite and internet.

no, none of us in the US live in Friends, Seinfeld, Bay Watch, and 90210. And those that actually do, are of the minority of the minority. Too bad the children of Iran think the US is a goldmine and that goldmine is about not working and being lazy like all the characters of US tv shows.