On Nov. 8, 1971, a band called Led Zeppelin released a song named Stairway to heaven. But, I don’t think it crossed the Led Zeppelin’s mind that someone would take the song literally. The Iranian leadership did. During the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s, the Iranian leadership sent hundreds of thousands of very young boys as human bombs against the Iraqis and thousands of them died in the process. Each young boy was given a key and would put it around his neck and was told that these keys are blessed and would take him to heaven when he dies as a martyr. So, the Iranians really believed there were stairs to heaven. At that time we understood how desperate they were in their war with Iraq. But, the question is, if the Iranian religious mullahs and government officials believed that these keys can actually take you through a stairway to heaven, then why no government official or religious mullahs ever sent his young son to the war front to be a martyr and take the stairways to heaven? Why only boys from poor villages?
Now, we are in the second millennium and it is the Internet age, so we thought this nonsense kind of mentality was over. Well, we were wrong. The Iranians did it again. Just two weeks ago, the head of the Iranian cultural heritage and tourism organization Hassan Mousavi told the world that he is suspicious about the drought in southern Iran and he thinks the Western (American) technology was behind it. He added, the West does have the ability to control the weather with some kind of secret technology. And the sad thing is that he wasn’t the only Iranian official who believed in this kind of science. Last year, Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinajad accused the West for the drought in Iran. Now... I only have some questions for the Iranians... Do the Iranian government officials really get paid monthly salaries to hold official posts or they are just volunteers and can’t be held accountable for their actions? And if the Americans have this kind of technology in weather control, then why doesn’t the American National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) control the hurricanes and tornados in the United States rather than causing draught in Iran?
To be frank, the Iranian people are very hard working people, have many intelligent minds and have one of the richest cultures in the world. Iran could have been one of the leading countries in the area with plenty of natural resources. Iran is a leading country in oil and gas reserve with many other natural resources. I have written articles about Iran both in Arabic and English and I had many close friends from Iran when I was in college in New York and they were very nice and compassionate, but they are led by the wrong government. Before the Iranian revolution, Iran was ahead of the Southeast Asian countries including India and China. They Iranian oil was an advantage over India and China. After the revolution, many top educated military generals and industrial entrepreneurs were executed, they were accused of being enemies of God. And Iran lost hundreds of thousands of lives in outside conflicts and inside struggles.
The Iranian revolution didn’t only hurt the Iranians. The revolution extended its revolutionary ideology to places like Lebanon and turned it from a modern country with very high tolerance for all segments of the society to a country ruled by gangs such as Hezbollah which dragged Lebanon into chaos. And, then had very strong influence on Syria’s politics and isolated Syria from the rest of the world.
The Arab Gulf states saw their share of Iranian interferences on many occasions and for many years. Iranians tried to stir up trouble in Bahrain and continue to declare that Bahrain is part of Iran. Bahrain was and still is the most tolerant country in the Middle East with democratic Parliament. But, Iran for known and unknown reasons wants to see chaos in Bahrain.
From the day the Iranian mullahs held power, they have been trying to drag Saudi Arabia into conflicts. They have tried to attack Saudi Arabia by air in 1984 and the Saudis shot down 2 of their fighter jets. In 1987, they have tried to disrupt the Haj in Makkah and failed. Recently, about two years ago, Saudi Arabia was engaged in small- scale war with the Houthis from Yemen who are trained and financed by Iran and the Saudis won without any difficulties. And last month, there were minor clashes in the eastern part of Saudi Arabia between some security forces and young Shiite men and it was the latest in Iran’s effort to stir trouble in the region, even though the Shiites are living in harmony in the Kingdom. The Shiite minority in Saudi Arabia enjoys much better life than the Iranians in Iran. I have very close friends who are Shiite and they are holding very top positions both in the government and the private sectors. Many of my Shiite friends from childhood held positions in the military. Some of them were one star generals and one star admiral of the Saudi armed services. Many of the top executives in Saudi Aramco and other big companies are Shiite. The medical staffs in many government and private hospitals are Shiite. There are thousands of Shiite students who are on full scholarship in the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques program and are enrolled in the best colleges in the US and many other countries. In the past we never heard the words Sunni or Shiite in Saudi Arabia, we are Saudi citizens only, but things has changed at 09:33 a.m. on Feb. 1, 1979... This was the time and date when an Air France Boeing 747 landed at Tehran’s airport. The plane was carrying Ayatollah Khomeini and the Islamic Revolution in Iran became a reality... And we all know the rest of the story.

- This article is exclusive to Arab News
Email: almulhimnavy@hotmail.com