Destroy all Islamic arts

To the future secular regime of Iran:

Destroy all Islamic arts

Khomeini's shrine
Destroy this and build a sport stadium, a public park, or a library. 

All dictatorial regimes of the world have used art for the purpose of propaganda. It is known as “Totalitarian Art”.

Dictators use art in order to humanize their regimes, in turn minimizing the brutality of said regimes. In recent memory, totalitarian art has been used by Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, Fascist Italy, the People’s Republic of China, the Shah of Iran, Saddam Hussein of Iraq and others. Erecting statues of themselves have been very common art form that all dictators have utilized. However, these statues are almost always brought down after the dictator loses power. 

Mohammad Reza Shah, for example, has removed statues of his own father who was the founder of Pahlavi dynasty putting his own statues in its place. That was not just wrong but it was, “Bimareffatty”, a Persian term I used to use in my youth for people of character flawed, ungrateful, lowlife bastard.

One unusual statue switching by Mohammad Reza Shah that stuck in my mind is worth mentioning. When Reza Shah came to power Iran practically had no roads or railroad to speak of. With minimal income from the oil that the British were stealing from our country, which is a different story, Reza Shah who wanted to modernize the country, as Ataturk was doing for Turkey, entered into an elaborate commercial and technological agreement with Germany for two fundamental reasons:

1-    Germany was, technologically, the most advanced country in the world and was just rising from its World War I defeat and had cash flow problem and needed raw material for its industry that was devastated in the war. Hence they adapted an international barter based policy of exporting machinery equipment, technical and technological services for the value of raw materials in need. That was a gift from above for Iran with empty pocket. Iran could not sell even a drip of oil since the British had 100% control. But Iran had plenty of other raw materials such as; iron oar, copper, zinc, etc.

2-    Germany was not involved in the looting of Iran during Qajar dynasty as most other nations were.  

Mohammad Reza replaced his own statue with Reza Shah's statue in the main square of city of Shahi, were I was born. Reza Shah had built Shahi from scratch to connect the passengers of his beloved newly built railroad to the beach cities via automobile road. Mohammad Reza had done nothing for the city of Shahi to deserve a statue. People of Shahi, young and old, adored Reza Shah, because not just he built a brand new European-style little town by the hand of the  German civil engineers, but he also built several latest model German engineered factories, roads, schools, hospital, etc. that brought so much prosperity and wealth in the area that raised everybody's living standard by tenfold.

One morning people of Shahi woke up and witnessed that instead of Reza Shah's statue Mohammad Reza's statue was there. They replaced it in the middle of the night when everybody was sound asleep. Please read ;My Memoir: http://maziaraptin.blogspot.com/2012/04/reza-shah-vs-mohammad-reza-shah.html

However many other forms of art tend to survive the overthrown dictators, due to public appreciation of the artwork, like buildings, that usually do not directly carry on the dictators’ legacies

In Islam, because the use of sculpture is prohibited, most Islamic arts have gone into buildings, namely mosques. In contrast to the regular buildings the religious buildings, due to their unique style, do carry the legacy of that particular religion which works as a mean to propagate its line of belief.

Great works of art usually require large amounts of capital, which most artists do not posses. Yet artists are always eager to create art regardless of who pays the costs or what kind of propaganda it promotes.

Islam has ruled Iran for more than 1,300 years. At the beginning it was the edge of the sword followed by bribery in a form of “Ghanaim” (sacred religious looting), the empowerment of local warlords, the imposition of high taxes on ordinary citizens to keep them poor and obedient, ideological propagandas, and through art works by building elaborate mosques using Iranian architects and artists.
Note: For more information that how Islam was introduced to our ancestors, please read داستان ابوسلیم on this blog

http://maziaraptin.blogspot.com/2012/02/blog-post.html

Iranians have always been proud of the country’s art throughout its long glorious history. But during the Islamic occupation period all artists and architects have been forced into implementing Islamic symbolism into their artwork and  buildings so as to promote Islam for the ensuing centuries. This has proven to be the best type of propaganda since one can not argue with art.

Khomeini shrine-inside
Destroy this and build a sport stadium, a public park, or a library.

  In conclusion, the first few generations of our ancestors were forced by the edge of the sword to accept Islam until it became the way of life for the vast majority of people. Subsequently, the following generations were brainwashed into believing that Islam is a religion of peace, compassion, social justice, and brotherly love.

The last three decades that Islamic regime has taken over and replaced the western legal codes with the Islamic Shariat, the Iranian people have seen the real Islam first hand and in practice. They should no longer be fooled by propaganda  nor should they follow their parent’s footsteps that all Iranians are thought to do. One generation must do the proper research and break the link of slavery, 1,300 years is enough.

Should the goal of the future secular government of Iran be to restore Iran’s past prestigious position on the international stage, then emotional attachment should be set aside and all Islamic propaganda tools utilized for over 1,300 years, including and especially mosques, must be destroyed. Otherwise the stain of Islam will always be there as a reminder of the humiliating period of occupation by the barbaric tribes from the south

PS. It may make it easier to know that the great majority of large elaborate historical mosques in Iran, especially in Aspahaan (Isfahan) were not built by  Iranian architectures but by imported Lebanese mullahs and their children by Shah Ismail Safavi.
For example Shaykh Bahai was born in Lebanon and came to Iran with his mullah father when he was a child. 

In how Shiigary was forced upon the people of Iran, please read "What is Wrong with us the Iranians" on this blog. Click here:

http://maziaraptin.blogspot.com/2012/02/what-is-wrong-with-us-iranians.html

Maziar Aptin