I had no idea you were so close to Iranian intricacies. You and I should have talked more.
You are right to blame the Mullahs and the Iranian Majlis. Islam is a faceless default for many. It's a religion. It's basic teachings actually glorifies the American experience. The ironic thing is that even though our enemy today is largely a Sunni base (Saud family allegiance), it is the original Sunni base (Rightfully Guided Caliphs) that prescribe democracy while the Shia base (Iran) prescribes monarchy.
The bigger the confusion civilians and Washington has, as to who and what the enemy is, the harder it is for the average military grunt in the field facing them has to coming to a solid personal goal. This has become my secondary job. Not yet have I heard one single politician or media whore produce truth. Even Bush, with his absolute dimwittedness, had enough knowledge to preach that "Islam is not our enemy" in his speeches about terrorism.
Also, most Americans have no idea what bitter enemies the Sunnis and Shias are. The Iran-Iraq war, that ended up killing so many millions, was fought just as much over religious lines as secular ones too, although Saddam's designs on Kharg Island, and it's strategic location, did have much to do with it too. But religion did play a part in the indoctrination on both sides.
And, actually, the Shia branch of Islam is divided into 3 sub branches. An analogy here is the Christian Church, which is divided into Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant, with protestants further divided into sub branches. The politics is quite complicated, but stems from Shias renouncing the first 3 Caliphs after Muhammad, on the basis that Muhammad's son, Ali, is the only rightful successor to Mohammad. And you are right about the monarchy angle. Shias believe that the Caliphs are given kinglike power because they are all descended from Muhammad, which essentially makes them prophets with the power to rule over all. These differences betwen Sunnis and Shias may sound trivial to most Americans, but have ignited many wars that have resulted in many millions of deaths. There is some real hate here. Something similar happened in the Christian church, and was called the Inquisition, but somehow, Christians got past their schism, but it seems that the hatred between these 2 Islamic sects is just as strong today as it was when they first split apart more than a millennium ago.
And the intolerance is much worse among the Shias, who are still in the "Salem Witchcraft Trials" stage of their development. My former boss and friend is Kamal Khanjani. His brother was part of the Iranian national Baha'i' leadership. His name is Jamal Khanjani. His crime was Insulting Islam. He was originally charged with blowing up a mosque in Iran, killing scores of people in the process, but to have done that would have meant going against everything he believes in, which he would never do. You can witness that he holds fast to his beliefs because, during his trial, he refused to renounce his religion. He was looking at a death sentence at one point, but because of pressure by the State Department, and the world community in general, he only got 20 years. He will die in prison, though. As for the mosque that was bombed, it turns out that someone in the Iranian army did it, and many people speculate that the Mullahs ordered it done so that they could pin it in Jamal and the others. That way, they could be executed without that much backlash. The Mullahs really are that evil.
As for Kamal, he managed to come to the United States in the late 1980's, and escaped the persecution that many Baha'i's in Iran endure. He owned a factory there. That, his home, and everything else he owned, was confiscated by the Iranian government. He arrived with only the clothes on his back. He worked hard, starting the company that I have worked at for the last 17 years, became a US citizen, did things that should make America proud, but to this very day he is still told to go home to Iran, is still called a sand nigger quite frequently, and one time a police officer threatened to beat him up and put him in jail, because he did not turn a corner fast enough. He was waiting for other cars to clear the intersection, otherwise he would have gotten into an accident, and people would have been hurt. The officer had his siren on, and was going to the scene of a crime, but stopped Kamal for driving too slow when he was making his turn. He called Kamal a rag head, and then threatened him. I personally filed a report with the FBI office here in Houston. I was never told what happened after that, but I am sure that the officer had hell to pay for what he did.
Now I think you understand why this kind of hatred is such an issue with me, and why I am quite emotional about it, especially in light of what happened last week to Kamal's brother. Like I said earlier in the thread, I have seen this kind of hatred with my own eyes, and as an American citizen, it is my duty to fight against it, and uphold what the Constitution stands for, even if it is something as mundane as posting in a political internet forum. After all, if this kind of treatment can happen to Muslims in America, then it could, at one time or another, happen to any of us. Supporting the rights of these Muslims is not supporting terrorists, but supporting America, and everything she stands for.
Thanx for listening, and thanx for talking.