-- Amil Imani

Our beliefs and ideas make us human, and their quality determines the kind of human we are. We shield and fiercely defend our beliefs and ideas for good reason: without their integrity and internal harmony, the mind becomes disorganized and even dysfunctional. While our inborn immune system fights off viruses and bacteria that aim to kill us, another immune system, the mental immune system—MIS—gradually formed after birth, protects the mind and takes every measure to keep the mind’s ideas and beliefs on the same page. Humans are living information machines, receiving input from both external sources as well as the body, processing it in some fashion, and producing output: our thoughts and behavior. From the moment of birth, parents, siblings, and others play pivotal parts in supplying the input and influencing how it is processed.

Looking past the narrow prism of the mainstream media, one is struck by a seemingly serious anomaly in the Islamic Republic of Iran. The Mullahs presently ruling the country are in a fight for their life on two fronts. The external battle is with the United States—the Great Satan and its adopted child Israel, or the Zionist Entity, as the Mullahs prefer to call it. The other front that we don’t hear much about is the infighting among the Mullahs themselves that presents even greater threat for de-frocking of the in power cleric conmen. Why is it that the Mullahs of Iran are battling each other instead of fighting the Great Satan? It is the nature of the beast. The Shiite sect of Islam, as is the case with all other Islamic offshoots, is a conglomerate of many feuding factions. Even before the last spade of dirt covered Muhammad’s grave, jockeying for power began in earnest among his chief disciples. Muhammad’s son-in-law cousin Ali felt that as the boss’s kin he should take over the family business. Other more powerful and cunning contenders elbowed Ali out of the way and Ali got to run the business after three others in succession held the office. Ali’s turn was very short, since some of the believers who had been angry at him for allowing himself to be kicked around by the ones who preceded him—the usurpers of the mantle of Islam, as they saw it—daggered the man to death while he was on his way to pray at a mosque.

Mid-term elections are just around the corner. Polls show that many Americans are unhappy with the Republicans and are likely to vote for Democrats. Fine and dandy. This is America where the voter is king. And when one is king, he needs to be a wise king. The foremost topic on the mind of the voter is the Iraq mess. Republicans, particularly the person of George W. Bush, are blamed for making the mess and not being able to clean it. So, the Democrats may be the answer, some think. The Democrats can indeed be the answer. Unfortunately, their answer most likely will be disastrous. Faced with a ruthless enemy bent on your destruction, you either stand and fight or cut and run hoping that the enemy will not pursue you to your grave. Once again it is decision time. We do well to recognize that short-sighted people with short memories are prone to make terrible choices, even when they have the best of intentions.

Islam has expired, according to Muhammad himself. “How long your faith shall endure?” Muhammad was asked. “En salahat ummati fa laha yom. Va en fasadat fa laha nesfe yom. Val yomo ende rabbeka alfe sanaton men ma taedoon”—if my Ummeh becomes righteous, it shall last one day; if corrupted, it shall last half a day. “And a day of your lord is equivalent of a thousand years of your accounting,” he replied. This account is as recorded by a contemporary chronicler of Muhammad. So, even if his Ummeh had lived up to his standards of righteousness, one thousand years have come and gone.

The dictionary defines religion as, “The expression of man’s belief and reverence for a superhuman power recognized as the creator and governor of the universe.” By this definition Islam qualifies as religion, so do numberless others. A definition this broad is ambiguous and must be further defined with the specific tenets and practices of the belief. Simply because someone or some people say that they believe in a superhuman deity and revere him, is the belief accorded the privileged status of religion? It is generally assumed that religion addresses issues of importance to daily life as well as matters that transcend it. Religion is thought to exercise a civilizing influence by ordering the social life, promoting spirituality, as well as advancing an array of human virtues. Zoroaster, for instance, based his faith on the triad of goodly thoughts, goodly speech and goodly deeds: Moses framed the fundamentals of his faith in the Ten Commandments; and Jesus placed love at the core of his religion. 

Nearly 1400 years ago, a group of nomads from across the scorching Arabian Desert conquered Iran (Persia), the greatest empire known to the history of man. With that, they almost destroyed one of the most benevolent and beautiful religions of all humanity, Zoroastrianism, often called the mother of all revealed religions. Due to its antiquity and subsequent influences on later Judaic beliefs, Judaism as we know it has endearingly been dubbed by some scholars as "Moses through Zoroastrian eyes." It is no coincidence that the Old Testament was put into written form during the height of Persian predominance, when Zoroastrian ideas, such as the triumph of Good over Evil, and concepts related to an after-life, such as Heaven, Hell, Resurrection, and Paradise (itself a Persian word) found their way into ancient Judaism, especially in the post-exilic period. Dr. W.Y. Evans-Wentz, an Oxford professor who was one of the world's leading authorities on Eastern mysticism and religion, was quoted in the book, "In Search of the Birth of Jesus: