by Jerome du Bois
The natural world is . . . the scum of creation.
--Ayatollah Khomeini, 1980
Like many ordinary Americans who follow both the blogs and the news media, I am witnessing the unraveling of Qana, Hezbollah's latest heartless, soulless attempt to manipulate Western compassion by using the dead as mere props. For several days before Qana I had been thinking about writing a semi-satirical post on the Sunni-Shia schism of Islam, using as my starting point the worst-ever episode of the original "Star Trek." It was called "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield," and starred Frank Gorshin and Lou Antonio as mortal enemies. Each was half-white and half-black, divided down the middle. But there was a "crucial" difference between the two, which anyone could see.
To me, because I had done little research on the history of the Sunni-Shia split, their enmity seemed as superficial as that photo. But I was wrong. Though I still believe that Islam itself is anti-human because of its essential misogyny --because, for its continued existence as a religion, women must be subjugated-- the modern Shia expression of Islam, as developed by the Ayatollah Khomeini, is anti-life. And it just took about two clicks of the mouse to travel from the silliness of "Star Trek" to the worst people on earth.
I'm referring to the Basiji, who we don't hear much about in the news, but who dominate it: who invented suicide bombing in 1982; who shaped Hezbollah and inspired Sunni Hamas and the 9/11 murderers; who elected Ahmadinejad (a Basiji); who formed a million-man army (some busloads of them heading to Lebanon as I write); who monitor and repress Westernization in Iran (Taliban-style); and who are now being trained in Iranian nuclear laboratories. They would not hesitate to invite the vaporization of millions of Iranians (and anyone else) if it meant the destruction of Israel. In fact, they would welcome such "martyrdom," even their own. Especially their own. They learned this thinking from the examples of the children of the minefields.
From Matthias Küntzel's stunning and comprehensive article, "Ahmadinejad's World," first published in April in the New Republic, and which should be read in its entirety:
In pondering the behavior of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, I cannot help but think of the 500,000 plastic keys that Iran imported from Taiwan during the Iran-Iraq War of 1980-88. At the time, an Iranian law laid down that children as young as 12 could be used to clear mine fields, even against the objections of their parents. Before every mission, a small plastic key would be hung around each of the children’s necks. It was supposed to open for them the gates to paradise.
“In the past,” wrote the semi-official Iranian daily Ettela’at, “we had child-volunteers: 14-, 15-, and 16-year-olds. They went into the mine fields. Their eyes saw nothing. Their ears heard nothing. And then, a few moments later, one saw clouds of dust. When the dust had settled again, there was nothing more to be seen of them. Somewhere, widely scattered in the landscape, there lay scraps of burnt flesh and pieces of bone.” Such scenes could henceforth be avoided, Ettela’at assured its readers. “Before entering the mine fields, the children [now] wrap themselves in blankets and they roll on the ground, so that their body parts stay together after the explosion of the mines and one can carry them to the graves.”
The children who thus rolled to their deaths formed part of the mass “Basij” movement that was called into being by the Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979. The Basij Mostazafan –-the “mobilization of the oppressed”–- consisted of short-term volunteer militias. Most of the Basij members were not yet 18. They went enthusiastically and by the thousands to their own destruction. “The young men cleared the mines with their own bodies,” a veteran of the Iran-Iraq War has recalled, “It was sometimes like a race. Even without the commander’s orders, everyone wanted to be first.”
The western media showed little interest for the Basiji –- perhaps because journalists could not be present during the hostilities or perhaps because they did not believe the reports. Such disinterest has persisted to this day. The 5000 dead of Saddam Hussein’s poison gas attack on the Kurds of Halabja have remained in our memory. History has forgotten the children of the minefields.
And yet they are all around us, in the minds and actions of those --all of them Muslims-- who strap on the bomb belts and drive the bomb cars; who build hospitals and schools on top of ammunition bunkers; who, without a heartbeat's hesitation, ensure that innocent civilians get killed before they do; and who parade the dead --whether intact or dismembered-- like prizes before complicit photographers.
They hate life itself, which makes them the scum of creation.
Posted by Jerome at August 1, 2006 09:17 PM | TrackBack