Where did you find that quote from Don Sherill? Orange City is our city and this is making me a little nervous. I didn’t realize there was this type of sentiment brewing under the surface.

Its pretty much accepted the 1400 years of Islamic history is a definitive and integral aspect of Iranian identity; the debate was so ’90s. Even the “liberals” now cautiously tout about the “Green Revolution”, which is “a reformation” rather than a counter-revolution.

Apparently as well Iranian economy is booming despite sanction so regime still has some life to it left. Going back to the original point of the thread and as someone who is non-Muslim but very involved in Muslim issues here in London the communities are mobilizing to make themselves known as assimilated members of the West and not part of some obscure fanatical tribe, which they are so often portrayed. The Ummah is under pressure but this is what perhaps sparks a Renaissance (my constant theme for the past decade)?

Also Alina alot of Arab friends praise Pakistan for having such a “liberal” culture vis. a vis the Arab world; its not as fierce or oppressive as the other states and freedom of speech, particularly the media is light years ahead. This is because no matter how Islamic Pakistan will ever be in appearance its base will always be our liberal Hindu desi culture (we had a debate on Razibs blog on that a couple of wks ago on that).

Lastly on Arab; the Ummah is theoretically a community of equals with no distinction for race or colour but the Arabs are first among equals. Its stupid to pretend otherwise; they learn the language of the Holy Book (or its modern variant) from birth and are more naturally attuned to it than Turks, Persians or Desis. This is a natural state of fact.

The Persians had their own proud cultural and political heritage and they looked upon Arabs with sheer contempt as uncouth and uncultured Bedouins. As soon as Abbasids captured power and Umayyads dethroned, many Persian wives slaughtered their Arab husbands.

http://indianmuslims.in/why-ummah-wahidah-remains-only-an-emotional-slogan/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed:+IndianMuslimsBlog+(Indian+Muslims)

the iranian nation conceives that its identity goes back to the achaemenians of the 6th century BC. its glory stretches to the parthians who defeated the romans at carrhae, and later the sassanians who nearly conquered constantinople. many iranians are also proud of the contributions that zoroastrianism made to the abrahamic religions, primarily, but not exclusively, through exilic judaism. after the arab conquest the iranians were also a people at the forefront of islamic cultural production, and many of the great muslim scientists and scholars (e.g., al beruni) were ethnic persians, not arabs. in some ways the iranians conquered the arabs during the abbassid period just as the greeks conquered the romans. iranian self-confidence and superiority, combined with shock at being conquered by arab barbarians, is evident in the shahnameh. when the turks ruled persia, as they did for almost the whole period between 1000 and 1900, except the mongol interruption, they stil patronized persian culture. persian was a court language in both the turkic dynasties of the ottomans and the mughals.

some of it is plain racism though. iranians perceive themselves as whiter than arabs. aryans.

anyway, it’s a pretty juvenile stance in my opinion. the norwegians have a much less grand history over the long term, but iranians emigrate to norway, not the other way around. but there is the fact of iranian length of history and cultural eminence. the arabs reply with the fact that they brought the last message of god to the world.

btw, i’ll see you liberals after the election. hope too many of you haven’t committed seppuku to preempt the pogrom getting to you

The same grounds any Indian or Pak would have with being presumed Arab, you donkey.

yup!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-PII2rSLVo