Iran, why hath thou forsaken Thee?

Iran. Even for someone like me–someone who has a bunch of Iranian dissident friends, loves Persian food, and loathes generalizations–the word “Iran” seems like a dirty word. Is it in our DNA as Americans to hate that country? Or is it just another case of communicable ignorance?

Since 1979, the United States has viewed Iran as an evil country–part of the axis of evil, actually. It all started, so the story goes, with an incredible popular uprising that ousted the American-backed Shah, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi.

Radical students seized the American Embassy–the largest American embassy in the world at the time. Those radicals, spurred on by some of the more radical clergy, capturing 52 Americans and held them hostage for more than a year. That’s pretty much enough to hate Iran.

Of course, most Americans probably don’t realize that some Iranians at the time were still pretty ticked off about a certain episode in 1953 when the CIA and British intelligence officers fomented a coup to topple Iran’s only democratically elected prime minister who was in the process of nationalizing Iran’s oil companies while wresting power from the Shah, who was not by the way democratically elected and who was by all accounts a brutal dictator. That brutality, coupled with the Shah’s lackadaisical response to a crumbling economy, sent people into the streets in protest.

But, realistically, in today’s world, all that is ancient history. Today, even a majority of Iranians think very ill of the men who rule their country, the same men–many of them–who toppled the shah in 1979.

In Iran, the greatest power does not lie with president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Since the Iranian Revolution of 1978-79, a theocracy led by the Ayatollah, has been in charge, especially when it comes to foreign affairs. Ahmadinejad does nothing without the Ayatollah’s say so.

Yet, last year’s election and subsequent Green Movement show that Iran is not a monolith of radical Muslims. Far from it. Iran had always been a place of great history, culture, art, literature, poetry, music, academics, philosophy, and even a club culture hell bent on allowing people to smoke and drink themselves silly. More than 70 percent of Iranians were born after the revolution; they are growing nearly as tired of the current regime as many Iranians were of the Shah’s regime in the 1970s.

And it should be noted that the Iranian Revolution was not just a religious movement. Liberals, moderates, Jews, communists, nationalists, students, old ladies, workers, religious radicals. All of them participated in protests and national strikes. All of them had a dog in the fight and a reason to growl. It wasn’t until after the Shah was kicked out of the country that the radical religionists seized power that the other more moderate groups had wanted to claim for themselves.

And then, when the Ayatollah Khomenei returned from exile he welched on his promise of democratic reform, especially the idea that a circle of imams would play merely an advisory role in governance, just as an early 20th century Iranian Constitution had stipulated all along. That didn’t happen; Khomenei claimed power for himself. Iran became a theocracy. The reformers who had opposed the shah and the Ayatollah were either killed, exiled, or relegated to political purgatory.

Since then, Iranian’s political reformers have had little say in how Iran deals with the West, especially the United States. Though most U.S. politicians have had little reason or desire to make amends with Iran, the theocracy there has made it clear that they don’t want to repair relations either.

And for several years now we’ve had to deal with Ahmadinejad and the supreme leader Khamenei, both of whom are rather radical members of the Twelver Shi’a Islam sect who believe that the end of the world is not far off and the missing Twelfth Imam will soon set things right. (Sound familiar, Reverend Hagee?)

This, more than anything, is why I would not be at all surprised if Iran did something crazy, such as attack Israel. Because logic doesn’t have a great track record against apocalyptic thinking.

Most people in Iran’s government know how crazy something like an attack on Israel would be because the West, led by the U.S., would completely annihilate Iran. But crazy is the description of the hour in Iran’s highest leadership. The craziest of Iran’s crazies already feed money and arms to Israel’s enemies, including Hezbollah. It’s not so far-fetched to see how Iran will be involved in a shadow war against Israel even if Iran does not launch rockets against Israel.

Who knows. I’m just speculating. That last paragraph seems awfully far-fetched and kind of reeks of right-wing paranoia even though there have been reports that substantiate the fact that we ought to keep an eye on Iran’s crazy.

One thing is clear: Iranian leaders, including apparently the courts, are completely paranoid about Israel and the End of Days. In August, the Iranian government convicted seven innocent people of spying for Israel and crimes against Islam and sentenced them to twenty years each in prison. These people are Baha’is, members of a minority religion that was founded in Persia in the 19th century. What is the Baha’i Faith’s connection to Israel? The center of the faith is headquartered on Mt. Carmel in Haifa, Israel. It has a good relationship with the Israeli government–that is, Baha’is do what the Israeli government would want any law-abiding organization to do. Follow the laws of the land, don’t make a ruckus, be an upstanding part of the community. Oh, and bring in tourism dollars if you can. Check, check, check and CHECK. (Baha’i pilgrims flock to Haifa all year, every year.)

Ironically, the Baha’i world center wound up in Israel because that’s where Persian authorities exiled the Faith’s founder and His family in the 1850s. First they were exiled to Baghdad, then to Istanbul, then to Edirne, then to Acca, which is across the bay from Haifa. All this when the territory that became Israel was actually part of the Ottoman Empire. The Baha’is had no choice but set up shop in northern Israel. I mean, northern Palestine. Ever since the 1840s, Persian or Iranians leaders, including influential imams, have been trying to exterminate–yes, exterminate–the Baha’i Faith. They failed. There are millions of Baha’is in more than 230 countries. But some of Iran’s clergy, politicians, and military leaders still persecute the Baha’is.

But this logical history is actually beside the point. Baha’is have a very spiritual and mystical view of the Twelfth Imam and how “he” would return and, more to the point, how “he” did return. And therein lies the rub. Authorities in Iran consider the Baha’i Faith a heretical offshoot of Islam. Baha’is consider their faith a rightful offshoot of Islam, just as Christians consider their religion a rightful offshoot of Judaism. In fact, Baha’is consider themselves promoters of the Cause of God and that all humans are part of this cause–a cause for unity, justice, and peace–no matter what someone believes. Even if they don’t believe in God.

The authorities in Iran think they are on God’s side. They think Baha’is are heretics because their religion came after Islam. And Islam, according to the literalist’s view of the Quran, is supposed to be God’s final message to mankind.

Again. Literalism. When it comes to religion and spirituality and just about everything else, I dare say that literalism is the thorn in the side of wisdom and understanding.

The Baha’is stand for unity, forgiveness of their oppressors, and the oneness of spiritual truth–that is, labels don’t really matter; the fruits of a religion’s spiritual teachings matter most. The Iranians in charge stand for disunity, oppression, and a narrow interpretation of religious texts.

I don’t think it’s hard to see which side God is on.

I hope the people of Iran continue to see truth for its own sake. True Muslims, like true Christians, care about the fruit of a person’s life–her character, her actions, etc.

In time, justice will be done, and Baha’is will have the same rights as the most upstanding of Muslims in Iran. And when that day comes, and I believe it will, the sad and pathetic despots currently in charge will be relegated to the dustbin of history and Iran will return to its former glory as a jewel of intellectualism and spirituality.