[mjolnir]

It seems to me that whether a country is democratic hardly has anything to do with the native intelligence of its people... Historically, democracy is the exception, not the rule. Anyone who has contact with students of Iranian heritage knows EEDUDE is correct-- they find American primary and secondary schools easy compared to their own. Their culture prizes learning; Persia was a center of such before centuries Islam rolled though it.

Besides, if President Carter hadn't undermined the Shah, it's not unimaginable, if not likely, that Iran would have been a democratic republic by now.

Thanks, Jimmy!

[Kenny Bunk]

Many Persians agree with you. Islam lowered the IQ of the place quite efficiently, compared to Christianity, which flourished there, and Zoroastrianism, a creed friendly to rational thought.