Koorosh Afshar's latest is on the miraculous awarding of the Nobel peace prize to Iranian activist Dr. Shireen Ebadi. A few tones of Jeffersonian secularism in this one:
It was a good tiding for us that a woman from amongst our compatriots, Dr.Shireen Ebadi, won the Noble peace prize. We sincerely hope that this will bolster secularization of our mindset and bring about meaningful and substratal change in our country. And it will have to, after all, for there is no other way for the future of our nation. Let us not forget that talk about reforms so long as the militant Islamists are in power, is simply futile. The first and foremost task for a person like Dr. Ebadi is to help represent the Iranian nationalist psyche and identity in the world. In that regard, her religion (whether compatible or at odds with the basic human rights) is quite impertinent as religion is merely a private matter and it must not and will not have any place in the future political system of Iran.Historians know full well that whenever a state gets subjugated under a particular religion, the very first that occurs is the violation of human rights. You can not speak of individuality as, at the same time, the state takes side with one specific celestial ideology; the product of such a system will soon be a branding where citizens as categorized as either insiders or outsiders. Those peers of mine who poured into the streets of Tehran having nothing but clenched fists and slogans, had completely given up on "reform" and do not aspire to produce a milder version of the current ochlocracy. A fundamental change is what we are seeking.
...We are not so much for the freedom of religion as we are for the religion of freedom.
The few Shiites in Iraq who in thrall to extremist clerics - and blindly protest for a nation as nightmarish as Saddam Hussein's old rule because of it - would do well to understand the experiences of people who have lived in a theocratic society all their lives - and want to reject it. Koorosh quotes Thomas Paine and, as is to be expected, Paine is right: religious oppression is just another face of evil.