The fruit of the Iranian Revolution

Submitted by Dr. Laina Farhat-Holzman (United States), Apr 30, 2002

I have been a long admirer of yours (and your father before you) ever since I read your hilarious "The Rushdie Affair."

My specialty is also the Middle East, and I recently had a paper published in the Comparative Civilizations Review (Fall, 2001) called "Janus Blindsided: The Islamic Revolution." I revisited the Iranian Revolution and showed how it was not inevitable--but was the result of all sorts of flukes and accidents out of which history is really made. For example, if the US had had a different president, or if the Shah had not been trying to hide his cancer, or had his much more gutsy friend and Prime Minister Amin Ala not died that year, the revolution might not have succeeded.

I see so much mischief loosed on the world as a result of that revolution. I see the current suicide cult a direct adoption of Shiite tactics and attitudes. They are the ultimate Cult of Resentment, and the Sunni world has picked it up.

Dreadful stuff.
Laina

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