Islam Betrays Iran & Israel
A historical perspective

By David Yeagley
2005/12/12

The best deal Israel ever got from the world was from the Achaemenid emperors of ancient Persia. The most significant threat Israel has ever received is from modern Iran , the distant progeny of Persia. The ancient emperors ordered the prosperity of Israel, by law. The modern rulers of Iran vow to “wipe Israel from the face of the earth.”  What has brought about this change of heart?  

Islam, in a word. The Quran. At least that’s what most Muslim activists would have us believe. Animosity and fanatical hatred of Israel are evoked and encouraged by many statements in the Muslim text book. The present leadership of the Iranian Republic of Islam certainly advocates this hatred. Despite whatever Qur'anic texts indicate a contrary course, Ahmadinejad has taken the lead in denouncing the existence of Israel .  

I visited Astan Quds Razavi in Messhad (eastern Iran) in 1999.  I dined with an esteemed professor and cleric, and specifically asked about Israel . The professor emphasized the idea that Islam is against the state of Israel , not against the Jews, nor even Jews living in Palestine. Muslims are against the way in which the state was formed, and condemn the state of Israel as immoral.  

But this is a far cry from the original Persian idea. It fact, it is the antithesis. Cyrus the Great ordered Jews living in Babylon to return to Palestine and to rebuild their temple, the temple of the true God.  (Ezra 1: 1-11). This decree (538 BCE) including returning all the loot the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar had taken.  These returning exiles (42,360) carried back with them some $452,000 dollars (according to the international gold standard before 1933).  The first Persian emperor was clearly a Zionist.

Eighty years later, under Darius, another group of Jews decided to return from Babylon to Jerusalem. In 457 BCE, Ezra and about 1,500 pious men brought to Jerusalem some $4.4 million.  Darius, emperor at the time, declared that the Jews should not only be exempt from taxation by the satrapies (provinces governed by Persian imperial viceroys), but that such satrapies (specifically Syria, Palestine, Phoenicia, and Cyprus) should contribute from their royal, tax-funded treasuries, to the establishment of Jewish worship at Jerusalem.  

Cyrus II allowing Hebrew pilgrims to return to and rebuild Jerusalem Persecution of minorities (Baha'is) in Iran 19the Century

That’s beyond Zionism!  And Darius threatened to hang anyone who did not cooperate with the Jews in re-establishing their national, religious identity. It was imperial support of the Jewish religion.  

But Islam has changed this glorious Persian disposition into an intense and hideous hatred of the Jews, and a monstrous blasphemy in the very name of religion.  Such is one effect, anyway, of the Muslim religion in the world; intended or otherwise.  

How shall the religion of Islam be prevented from creating such an effect? How do we keep Muslims from hating Jews?  It isn’t just Arab Muslims who manifest this hatred.  It is also Asian Muslims, and African Muslims.  It is Islam, at least how Islam is taught, that creates in all people this seemingly inexorable and violent animosity toward Jewish people.

I see this as gigantic weakness. That the Islamic identity should be based on a visceral aversion to another people of which it is a seriously deformed imitation.  This is a shame and disgrace to any people with pride.  

As an American Indian, I feel no obligated to hate America. America is a wonderful nation.  I do not need to resent white people in order to feel Indian. (I think white nations are rather spectacular in their accomplishments. And I might add: I attribute their achievements to Judeo-Christian cultural values.)  

That a country with such noble history as Iran should indulge in a crippled approach to reality is indeed a sad commentary on the effect of Islam. More than any other country, Iran has revealed an egregious liability and abuse in the Quran itself.  Some Iranian writers believe that Islam has virtually ruined Iran, and made a catastrophe of a once great culture. Amil Imani says Islam is committing cultural genocide in Iran .  

Only a country in weak cultural condition would fall prey to the ravages of Islamicists. Iran has evolved too far from its roots, morphed and blinded by the recent centuries of Islam.    

The wonderful talents of Iranian/Persian people are evident the world over, despite the oppressions coerced upon them.  Perhaps soon a true and great mehdi (savor) will appear in Iran, one with historical objectivity, and not the Imam Mehdi, whose soon-expected appearance apparently serves only to strengthen the cruel chains of monolithic mania.  

Women in pre Islamic Iran. Aquarelle by Shapour Suren-Pahlav Circle of Ancient Iranian Studies (CAIS) www.cais-soas.com

Women after Islam