Monthly archive : "April, 2014"

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The Importance of Love Is at the Center of Iranian Spirituality

The Importance of Love Is at the Center of Iranian Spirituality

Kourosh Ziabari: A prominent Canadian Iranologist says that Iranian people have historically attached high importance to love and beauty, which have existed at the center of their spirituality and subtle culture. Responding to a question on why some American people do not know too much about Iran and the Iranian culture and civilization, Prof. Richars Foltz said, “According to studies I’ve seen, most Americans cannot even locate America on a world map. The United States is a very insular society; it is a large and relatively uniform country culturally speaking, which means that it is easy for Americans to believe that what they know is the general standard.” “Unfortunately, the wide admiration for American popular culture...

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The United States is becoming a police state: Marjorie Cohn

The United States is becoming a police state: Marjorie Cohn

Kourosh Ziabari: Prominent American lawyer and legal expert Marjorie Cohn says that the United States is moving in the direction of becoming a police state that adheres to no legal principle and eavesdrops on its own citizens furtively. According to Cohn, the US government is suppressing such whistleblowers as Bradley Manning and Edward Snowden to prevent the American citizens from being aware of what is not usually told them by the mass media. “The United States is moving in the direction of becoming a police state with indefinite detention of people without charging them with a crime; conducting massive surveillance without probable cause or individualized suspicion; and targeted killing with drones off the battlefield based on vague...

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America Presides over a World Ruptured by Economic Inequality

America Presides over a World Ruptured by Economic Inequality

Kourosh Ziabari: Paul Buchheit, a progressive American writer and activist, says that economic inequality is growing in the United States on a daily basis while the U.S. government continues to spend enormous amounts of money on military expeditions across the world. “The US ranks high in macroeconomic indicators, technology, higher education, and numerous other areas that highlight its global economic dominance. But within our nation the situation is quite different. Our wealth gap is worse than that of the third world. Out of all developed and undeveloped countries with at least a quarter-million adults, the US has the 4th-highest degree of wealth inequality in the world, trailing only Russia, Ukraine, and Lebanon,” Buchheit...

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Interview with Dr. Ingrid Schindlbeck about the Nowruz Festival

Interview with Dr. Ingrid Schindlbeck about the Nowruz Festival

Kourosh Ziabari: Iranians across the world have just celebrated the arrival of the Persian New Year, the beginning of spring and the ancient Nowruz festival. Many of the Central and West Asia and Middle East nations as well as people from different countries and cultures have joined the Iranians in observing the Nowruz, an ancient festival that marks the commencement of the solar year. The German citizens had the opportunity this year to attend a Nowruz festival organized by the Ethnologisches Museum of Berlin with the cooperation of the embassies of 11 countries celebrating Nowruz, including Iran. Dr. Ingrid Schidlbeck, the curator and organizer of the Nowruz ceremonies in Berlin says that this ancient festival is respected because of...

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Iran, West Resolved to Conclude a Comprehensive Agreement

Iran, West Resolved to Conclude a Comprehensive Agreement

Kourosh Ziabari - Iran Review: In the recent years, the history of Iran’s relations with the Western powers, and especially the United States, has been full of ups and downs, points of confrontation, dispute and also sporadic breakthroughs. Different issues have contributed to the deterioration of bilateral and multilateral relations, and indubitably the controversy surrounding Iran’s nuclear program was the most important issue. The United States and its European allies have been accusing Iran of trying to use its nuclear program as a cover for producing atomic bombs, while Iran has persistently denied the claims, citing the numerous IAEA reports showing that its nuclear activities have never deviated toward weaponization but were...

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Being convinced that America has become a police state

Being convinced that America has become a police state

Kourosh Ziabari - Tehran Times: In the far past, I used to look skeptically at those who believed and maintained that the United States is moving in the direction of becoming a rogue, police state. After all, nearly every single American media outlet propagates this belief that the United States is a “beacon of freedom”, and many people around the globe tend to accept it. Moreover, every year, thousands of people from different parts of the world immigrate to the States in search of a better and more prosperous life, having believed in the hidden power of this beacon of freedom in revolutionizing their lives. But now, I’ve come to the understanding that this is not the whole story, and even those who wishfully move to America to...

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My interview with former IAEA Director General Hans Blix

My interview with former IAEA Director General Hans Blix

Kourosh Ziabari - Tehran Times: Although there are many hawkish politicians across the world who find a peaceful settlement of the dispute over Iran’s nuclear program a blow to their interests, one can find many influential voices that have always advocated a viable diplomatic engagement with Iran with the aim of bringing to an end the decade-long nuclear controversy in a constructive manner. The former Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency Dr. Hans Blix is one of these people. As Iran and the six world powers approach the final stages of drafting a final agreement over Tehran’s nuclear program, Blix says that he understands the Iranian people’s desire for mastering the nuclear technology for peaceful...

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“Human rights” as an instrument of coercion

“Human rights” as an instrument of coercion

Kourosh Ziabari - Tehran Times: Only a few weeks after the UN Human Rights Council endorsed a resolution in condemning the alleged violations of human rights in Iran on March 28, the European Parliament also took action to do its share of attacking the Islamic Republic for its “human rights violations” in what was introduced as the “European Parliament resolution on the EU strategy towards Iran.” The two U.S.-allied bodies, in line with their customary and conventional policies of interfering in the internal affairs of other countries and sowing the seeds of discord and strife across the globe, expressed serious concern over the “alarming level” of rights violation in Iran and called on the Iranian government to respect...

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My exclusive interview with the former Archbishop of Washington

My exclusive interview with the former Archbishop of Washington

Kourosh Ziabari: The former Archbishop of Washington Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick says that none of the divine religions permits and discounts the humiliation of the followers and sacraments of other religions and scoffing at what millions of people hold to be sacred and holy is not allowed or commended by any religion. “There has to be respect for what other people believe. It is almost like you slap somebody on face if you attack what they hold to be sacred, and it is really an attack on the respect that other people deserve. If we believe that we are all brothers and sisters in God’s family, then we must love all brothers and sisters and not treat them as fools, and not attack what they hold to be holy and sacred,” said...

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