May.09.2008 Relationship between Strange Visit of Mr. Khatami from Book Exhibition and Harsh Attacks   Last Friday when I went to book exhibition, many publishers said that they wish Mr. Khatami would visit the exhibition. I told Mr. Khatami. Apparently he had already decided to go there. He just said that: we have arranged to be there only for three hours and during this time, we cannot see the exhibition thoroughly. It was exactly the day that 70 MPs wanted to give a warning to the Minister of Intelligence against Mr. Khatami. They were the ones who were the chiefs or in a way involved in martyrdom-seeking groups and wanted to perform martyrdom-seeking operations in some parts of the world and all the world brought them as example for terrorist approach of Iran . Keyhan as usual writes daily articles against Khatami. We, who now that Mr. Khatami has not made his final decision for taking part in the election as candidate, are really surprised that why such harsh attacks have started so soon. When Mr. Khatami had gone to the exhibition, the order of some halls was so much disturbed and people had rushed to welcome and see him in a way that the whole system was disordered. He could visit only some booths. People attacked to see him so much that a glass was broken. Mr. Khatami felt that he could not stay any longer. He visited the exhibition only for half an hour. All those who saw this unprecedented support made from Khatami understood the reason behind the unprecedented attacks made by different conservative parties against Khatami. That is why Khatami says these oppositions and propagandas against him are like jokes. It is possible to imagine a more promising future after the presidential election.  permalink 2

	May.07.2008 Political messages (Messages sent via cell phones)   Some months ago I was in an international conference. Some of Egyptian intellectuals had also taken part. The issue of cell phone messages was raised. They told me strange stories about political cell phone messages in Egypt . They said that making jokes and pulling legs in political affairs through SMS is so much popular in Egypt especially on the issue of Mr. Mobarak. Usually everyone based on his speech or measures sends short message to others. For example one of them mentioned Ghorban (Sacrifice) ceremony. The mostly used statement on such ceremonies is Eid Mobarak‌ (Eid refers to the particular ceremony and Mobarak is equivalent to Happy in English like Happy New Year and the word Moabrak also sounds the same as the name of president of Egypt). So he said during Sacrifice ceremony, the mostly used SMS was: congratulate us the occasion in any way you want but for God sake do not use the word Moabark! Apparently in the countries with little media freedom, SMS has substituted the dangerous methods used before. In Iran also, this tool is being used for exchanging jokes and family news as well as political issues. After presidential electron, Mr. Ahmadinejad became one of the main topics of cell phone messages. The son of Mr. Ahmadinejad has written in his weblog last week that he reads cell phone messages exchanged about his father. Mr. Ahmadinejad himself also pointed out once in an interview that he reads some of the cell phone messages about him. The cell phone messages about Mr. Ahmadinejad can be categorized in three groups: some of them carry no message and unfortunately are insulting and saying impolite swears which is improper action toward anybody it addresses let alone a person who has the title of president of Iran . I wish we were mature enough no insult and swear even in our jokes. Next group are cell phone messages about funny points which usually arise from the speech or behavior of president like aura or brining oil revenue to houses and tens of other stories. The other cell phone messages are about criticisms and objections made in funny or serious language and they really object to a decisions or speech. Apparently development of new media is a widespread problem which has involved all the world.   permalink 2

	May.06.2008 Exporting Revolution by the Use of Weapons and Mr. Khatami   The issue of exporting revolution has been one of the most discussion-provoking issues after revolution. At the beginning of the revolution a unit called freedom-giving movement was formed in the army under the supervision of Seyyed Mehdi Hashemi. When it was decided to stand against him, as Mr. Rey Shahri says in his book, many weapons were discovered in his center which were supposed to be used for sending soldiers and explosives to other countries in order to export the revolution. In the same book, there are some correspondences between Mr. ReyShahri and Ayatollah Montazeri when he is objecting to Mehdi Hashemi for sending explosives to Saudi Arabia by non-relevant agents the year before that. This shows that other agents had also the same thought and opinion. This understanding of the concept of exporting revolution which probably continued to some extent after Mehdi Hashemi was neither practical nor useful. Since what happened in practice was that the whole world got frightened and they stood against us. The other understanding was that Islamic revolution is a thought and concept and it has the capacity to attract hearts naturally and be exported in this way. Mr. Khatami in a gathering with the students of Gilan has made a statement referring to these two kinds of approaches to exporting of revolution and points out that exporting revolution is exporting the model not going to other countries by weapons and explosives. Then he emphasizes that if we cannot behave inside Iran in a way that we become model, we practically cannot export this opinion. Sometimes, some statements unintentionally coincide with some global events and find special meaning. Like the time that all the world were asking America what the use of nuclear weapon for Iran is so that Iran follows its and Mr. Ahmadinejad said on the same time that we want to eradicate Israel and this statement solved the problem of propaganda for America when they stated that the regime which wants to remove another county from the world should surely make use of nuclear weapon. The statement of Mr. Khatami which was completely irrelevant to the present situation of Iraq , was abused by some media in the world and they introduced it as relevant to the claim of Iran s military presence in Iraq . The staff of Keyhan in a funny way called this true statement of Khatami as national betrayal but they are still praising the glory that the mistake of Ahmadinejad caused.   permalink 2

	May.03.2008 Memories from Short Politicians   In the parties where famous people take part, naturally they should talk about politics and similar issues but sometimes no one feels like talking about politics. Therefore, they suddenly raise a common issue. Once in a session it was said that Imam Ali described short people as smart ones. Since a topic leads to another topic, all started saying memories from people who are short. Since I am also short, I said the first memory: after impeachment of Mr. Nouri, when Mr. Khatami selected Mr. Mousavi Lari, I made a joke saying that I am the next minister of interior since I am as short as the two former. Mr. Khatami said that: no, the next will be Mr. Rastgoo. Mr. Rastgoo is my neighbor who recently takes part in a popular TV show for children as the religious figure. Mr. Rastgoo and I have said this memory several times and we have laughed on that. Mr. Mousavi Lari also said a memory. He said that Mr. Khalkhali was very short. Once in a meeting he was standing and was giving a speech. Mr. Hashemi Rafsanjani seemed to be willing to pull his leg. He was continuously saying that: Mr. Khalkhali please stand and give your speech. We cannot see you when you are sitting. Mr. Sadoughi also said that once in Yazd I was in a religious ceremony in the mosque and I was standing. Mr. Nouri was the minister of interior and he was standing beside me. After the ceremony, Ms. Sadoughi had said that one of the ladies in the ladies section had been angry that why Mr. Nouri does not respect Mr. Sadoughi and is sitting while Mr. Sadoughi is standing (and performing the religious sermons). She had not noticed that Mr. Nouri was standing. It is not bad to tell a story about myself as well. In the Islamic Conference in Qatar, once Mr. Khatami and Kharazi were coming to the ground floor by an elevator made of glass. I was waiting for them in the ground floor. When they arrived, Mr. Kharazi was laughing. He said that when we saw you in the elevator, there was an Arab man with us who said something about you. I asked Mr. Khatami what he said. He said that the Arab man had said it is not easy to understand if the head of your bureau who is fat and short is walking or is rolling forward. I think this statement was made by Mr. Khatami himself and he had not translated that since the Arab man I saw did not seem to have such good taste to make this statement. Theses jokes are about those of us who are physically short. If I write about the people who are intellectually or politically short, then that would not be so sweet.   permalink 2

	Apr.30.2008 My Teacher in the First Grade and Rest of Story   Our teacher in the first grade, contrary to the teacher of Mr. Ahmadinejad, was a very tall and broad-shouldered man. He did not exercise corporal punishment on me but the students of the fifth grade, who seemed to be very grown up to us at that time, said that he beat badly specially by slapping on the face. By such characteristics, he was not only the teacher but also the assistant superintendent of a newly-established religious school. There were two popular folk songs on those days that people used to sing. All the students were religious. One day suddenly he asked students if anyone can sing these two songs. Two misfortunate students, one of them in the fourth grade and the other fifth grade, raised their hands and came in front of the queue to sing the songs. He slapped them on the face for memorizing songs since songs were religiously forbidden to him. We, who were in the first grade, were horrified. He believed that he is developing Islam robustly. Having a father who was a religious figure and after 45 years, I still have this bitter memory in mind let alone others. I wish many learn from this story. The memories of childhood are indeed determining. Tomorrow is Teacher's day. Teachers have such great role. Care should be given to their special role. Unfortunately it is years that teachers are not satisfied with their situation. Last year some of them were arrested. They have a lot of problems in their lives. Several ministers have changed. Strict prejudice is prescribed to them from higher levels of the related ministry. These are very dangerous for the future of our country which will be built by today's students and tomorrow's men and women. I congratulate this great day to teachers.   permalink 2

	Apr.27.2008 Iran Cannot Be Removed, But...   Ms. Hillary Clinton, the candidate of Democratic Party for presidential election of America , has made a statement in her propaganda implying that if Iran attacks Israel , she will remove Iran from the map of the world. Apparently Ms. Clinton does not know where Iran is and what history it has and who are its people and that throughout its history many of its enemies have tried to disappear Iran and Iranian culture and they have failed to do so and they have been eradicated themselves. Maybe the first lesson that politicians this time should learn is that no country can be removed from the map of the world. The point that Ms. Clinton considers this insulting statement as a part of her propaganda for collecting more votes shows a bitter fact and that is Americans have a humiliating approach toward the great nation of Iran and that is why Ms. Clinton thinks such improper statement can prepare the ground for more votes for the American presidential candidate. The officials of any country before anything should bring honor for their country & their people and should not make statements which humiliate their people in the public opinion of the world. If Ms Clinton or any politician studies the history of Iran , she/he notices that the people of this country are the most united people when they are against the enemy which targets the identity and territory of their country Iran .   permalink 2

	Apr.26.2008 I am now a grandpa!   Do you believe if I say I did not notice at all that yesterday was election and today the result was announced? Among all these political discussions, today I became a grandpa! I enjoyed it so much that I was involved in a family issue and after a long time I heard a good piece of news. The feeling of growing up, the feeling of seeing a little baby. The feeling of a family member joining us and the feeling of seeing my daughter’s smile who is now a mother. I cordially congratulate my dear daughter Faezeh who is now a mother and dear Saleh who is now a father. I should remind that Faezehe was my only assistance in my weblog! Now I should prepare myself for being a grandpa. I hope that he does not grow up soon since I do not know stories to tell my dear grandson. It is regretful if I involve next generations with the stories I know. permalink 2

	Apr.21.2008 Photos of Saddam Hossein; Symbol of Hazardous Extremism   At the beginning of the last week, a seminar under the title of "Al-Osatiyeh" was held in Tripoli , Lebanon. "O'sat" means moderation. Although it was supposed that discussions would be mode on the concept of moderation in all issues, but the main focus was on moderation in the field of religion. Some months ago near Tripoli a bloody battle with An-Sar-Al Hossein had occurred. The root was seemingly religion. The people of Tripoli who are mostly Sunni and rather biased, were very upset about these religious violence. This seminar might have been held for alleviating such worries. I had also participated. The title of my article was: "Religious Moderation among Calls to Blasphemy and Abuse of Religion". My speech was delivered in the inauguration ceremony. The main concern which was very important was that all the borders will be collapsed within the framework of supporting or opposing religion. For example in the two main parts of the Tripoli, in the name of supporting Sunni's resistance and to oppose America, with a religious intention in a way, big photos of Saddam was stuck on the walls calling him the martyr of Eid-al-Fetr. It was indeed regretful that for the purpose of opposing America one of the greatest contemporary brutal dictators was glorified as a martyr. This was a practical example of extremism.  As in West, insulting caricatures or islamophobia or fear from other religions are examples of irreligious extremism. That is why religious moderation can be the need of human's present societies. The success of the seminar was also due to this reason. The issue of moderation was dealt with in the seminar in the domains of religious, social, economic, political and civilized dialogue areas. This seminar was an excuse by which this need was reminded to the world of Islam. General capacity of Iranians is supporting moderation. Religious extremists of Iran try to push Iranian society toward extremism. This is an unforgivable betrayal to the religious history of Iran and in case of its expansion, we should wait for a lot of consequences in the future.   permalink 2

	Apr.20.2008 A Girl with 7 Husbands and Running the World    I was surfing the net when I came across with the stories written by an employee of UN quoted in Entekhab website. It was written that some of the Afghanis need to have an Iranian wife, married based on Iranian marriage religious ceremonies) in order to be allowed to live in Iran and get permission for their residence. Iranian poor people sell their daughters to these Afghanis. This employee of UN had said that an Iranian 19-year-old girl living in Mashhad was sold to a person called Gholam Sakhi but since he did not have the money he had to pay to the father of the girl, he shared 6 other Afghanis and this 19-year-old girl had 7 husbands. The lady who was too upset went back to his father's home where she was rejected because the father did not have the money to give back to Gholam Sakhi. It was very painful. The officials of the country Surely read such stories and maybe they do believe that more than anything else they are responsible for the people's earning of living  and saving them from poverty is their main responsibility not running the world.   permalink 2

Leader Calls Every Year with a Particular Name

At the beginning of every New Year, the leader of revolution selects a name for that year. Such selection by the most high-ranking authority of the country mean that all the organizations which claim to be following the leader should use it as a criterion and do their best to put it into practice and at the end of the year they present the statistics for their success or failure along its reasons. Last year was named as National Unity and Islamic Harmony. The organizations of the country did not make attempts in this respect. In many cases especially at the election time National Unity was threatened by some organizations. Islamic Harmony was not formed in the world. Political and diplomatic organizations active in international arena were not successful either. Iraq and Lebanon are its examples. If the system running the county indeed considers the statements of the leader as the axis of their agenda, they should prove it in practice. In the last years thousands of advertisements were made about National Unity and Islamic Harmony and this slogan was repeated by the media for thousands of times. I wish the authorities had presented statistics about the level of success or failure. This year in these few days passed from the New Year, the municipality has published thousands of advertisements about Innovation and Flourishing. The success or failure of this slogan can fortunately be evaluated with statistics. The organizations of the country should do their best to be able to give explanation about their performance on Innovation and Flourishing. Although I do not believe it would be the case.