Iranians-Better anti Arab nationalists

Submitted by Shishir (United Arab Emirates), Mar 20, 2010 at 16:55

Berbers seem to be a people who are only recently reasserting their ethnic identity.A consequence of European influence throughout the Middle East when ethnicity for a while seemed to be religious feeling as a mode of identity.Perhaps the zenith of this was in WWI when the Arabs threw off the Turkish yoke even though the Turkish sultan was the Caliph!

Even so ,their discovery of their roots is relatively recent and their identity ,geography, demography and economy is too interdependent on their neighboring Arabs for them to break out in any meaninful way.

Dr. Pipes referred to Spengler of Asia Times to hint at Irans demographic demise.Certainly living in Dubai with its large expatriate Iranian and Emiratized Iranian community, I have seen a lot of anecdotal evidence of what he speaks.For eg. Iranian hookers are ubiquitous ,they are giving stiff competiton to their Russian and Ethiopian counterparts who so far dominated the seedy bars and hotel lobbies.Also practically every Arab woman above the age of 25 walks around with a stroller but I hardly see any young Iranian woman with any baby paraphanelia! Compared to Arabs, a Farsi toddler is getting rarer by day. So I can see Spenglers point about the desperation of the Iranian regime to do something while they are still relevant.

At the same time as Dr. Pipes points out in the case of Eurabia, liner projections may not always be accurate.Also in Dubai, I have come across many Iranians, who secretly confess to me that they dont think much about Islam which they think is Arab construct. They yearn to return to Zoroastrianism(the pre Islamic state religion of Iran) ,some have even expressed an interest in Buddhism, Hinduism and Christianity. Even those who wish to remain Muslim ,mostly Shia, view Shiism as a more inclusive Iranian alternative to Islam. A faulty assumption since Shiism was introduced by Arabs to Iran and only stuck in the 17th century due to the Azerbaijani Safavid rule,but never mind that for now.

The Zorastrian symbol of winged bearded Ahura Mazda is ubiquitous in the Iranian shops in Dubai. And please note even the Revolutionary Guards dare not touch the pagan celebration of Novroz! The Iranian collapse of the old guard is imminent, even with Spenglers dire prediction for Iran ,they may be able to deal more effectively with Islamism due to memory of their religion(of whom the remaining adherents in India are very succesful) and their empire.

Berbers identity only came into being after contact with Arabs and therefore maybe dependent on them

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".