Iranian exprience
Reader comment on item: God and Mammon: Does Poverty Cause Militant Islam?

Submitted by Shahin Shadmer (United States), Jul 17, 2003 at 23:23

I am a big fan of your thoughts and writings. As far as the issue of poverty linked to militant Islam goes, there is no connection. In 1979, the people that supported the revolution in Iran were mostly educated in the West. For example, Bazargun who formed a phony political party supported Khomeini and his cronies. Bazargun was the first person to put the label "Imam" next to Khomeini's name, in which Khomeini was not an Imam or knew anything about his religion Islam. The people like Bazargun, Yazdi and many other traitors were educated in Europe or the United States. These people knew exactly how to deceive the public, and how to get power. All of them were rich and lived in prosperous homes.

Today the Iranians acknowledge that Islam and Islamic thoughts have failed them. I am in shock how come they have noticed this 1400 years ago. In conclusion, until the day there is no audience to listen to Khomeinis, and Bin Ladens of the world, we will have terrorism in this world.

P.S I have masters in middle-eastern historical studies

---

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened for relevance, substance, and tone, and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome, but comments are rejected if scurrilous, off-topic, vulgar, ad hominem, or otherwise viewed as inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the Guidelines for Comments. For informational purposes, we identify countries from which comments are sent.