How Americans Found Friends in Iran, of All Places (3 Letters)

This thread about the Iranian people (and how they are so thoroughly misunderstood by almost every American) is an example of the reason why I felt compelled to travel to Iran recently (May 28th-June 14th 2004).

I have captured a story (on video) of their friendship (overtly and passionatly friendly) towards Americans that cannot simply be dismissed in the way that has been represented by some ill-informed posts.

I hope to produce this into a documentary that will find it's way onto the national media channels.

You can find out why I felt I had to go by viewing the following video of a presentation about "Astronomy in Iran" that was given to the members of the Orange County Astronomers in May. It is the story of friendship that got my interest (rather than the Astronomy part).

View Look Up Tonight Episode 16

One does not even need to appreciate the finer points of Middle Eastern culture to realize that Arabs and Iranians are as different as Mexicans and Americans. Arabs and Persians speak a different language, have a different alphabet, look differently, have a completely different relationship with Islam, a different cultural history, etc. You'll also remember the Iranians and the Iraq Arabs were bitter enemies in the 80's, only now that America is next door do the dirty Persian mullahs feign loyalty to Iraq or any other Arab / Muslim nation. As long as Americans continue to take an "everyone outside of America is all the same to me" attitude, America will continue to have the reputation as a country that doesn't care. We will continue to have the reputation of a clumsy elephant that doesn't understand her own power, inadvertently smashing and destroying all that it comes into contact with because it "just doesn't understand" what is going on around it. Please, do us all a favor and read more than CNN before you stereotypically label anyone "moslem garbage" and please reconsider your posts (ala Newsweek) before you post them so that you don't do more harm than good.

The only thing the Iranians and Arabs have in common is their religion, but the Poles and the Mexicans also share a common religion. They aren't "all the same" to you, are they?

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