Letter to America

Dozens of Iranian scholars and intellectuals have written an open letter to American scholars and intellectuals, criticizing Bush administration's "War on Terror", and their simplistic and hypocritical attitude towards the world.

Here is the English translation of the letter:

Open Letter from Iranian Intellectuals to American Intellectuals on the Occasion of
the 3rd anniversary of the September 11 terror attacks

Lack of Democracy Breeds Terror

11 September 2004

September 11, 2004 marks the third anniversary of the inhumane terrorist attacks on the United States, which were condemned by members of the international community, including the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Following the attacks in 2001, Iranians spontaneously carried out memorial
ceremonies and joined in mourning for the innocent victims of those abominable
crimes. This took place notwithstanding American support for Iraq in the eight year
war between Iran and Iraq (1980-1988) and the still vivid memory of the US-initiated
military coup that toppled Iran's popularly elected Prime Minister Mohammad
Mossadegh in 1953. Unfortunately, what followed was the labeling of Iran as part of
an "Axis of Evil" along with North Korea and Iraq.

Equally unfortunate is that today, the policies of the White House have deepened the
gap between East and West as well as between Christianity and Islam. The White House
has used the hysteria arising from the attacks both at home and overseas to achieve
their own ideological goals based on unilateralism and a "black and white" world
view.

We believe the policies currently pursued by Washington are against the aspirations
of the Founding Fathers of the United States, who sought to establish a free and
advanced society. It is this American aspiration that Iranians respect and forms a
common bond between us and the people of America. This historical understanding of
the American vision for the future was reflected in an interview by Iranian
President Mohammad Khatami with CNN in 1998. In that interview, he sent a message of
peace and friendship on behalf of the Iranians to the people of America in the
spirit of a dialogue of civilizations.

To Iranians and many other Middle Eastern nations, the Bush administration's drastic
shift in foreign policy vis-a-vis the world marked the beginning of a new America.
The attacks on Afghanistan, the occupation of Iraq, the scandals over the status of
prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay and the torture of Iraqis at the Abu Ghoraib prison
were the consequences of a new American world view that is based on concepts such as
"good and evil" and "them and us". Designating three nations as an "Axis of Evil" or
remarks such as "you are either with us or against us" bear credence to the
assumption that leadership in Washington sees the world from a very limited
perspective.

Clearly distinguishing between the policies of the Bush administration and that of
the American nation or even the previous US administration, we realize the
importance of communication with the "other" America, the one which unlike Bush does
not depict war in the Persian Gulf as a necessity.

We Iranian intellectuals condemn the Bush doctrine of "you are either with us, or
against us" and deeply sympathize with those Americans who never consider war as the
prime option and demand an end to all the current occupations.

We also express our dismay over the failure of a political discourse between our
president Khatami and his American counterpart in 1998 which could have led to the
overall easing of tensions not only between West and East, but also Christianity and
Islam. We believe that dialogue and peaceful interaction among nations could have
tightened the rein over many forms of state or non-state terrorism and could perhaps
even have prevented war.

The crimes in Istanbul, Riyadh, Baghdad, and elsewhere could have been prevented
only if a humane and comprehensive policy had been adopted in the aftermath of the
September 11 attacks. Unfortunately, the unilateralists in the White House destroyed
the historic opportunities that could have led to detente and peace in the region.

The consequence of the Bush administration's Middle East policies has severely
distorted the image of America in this region. Today's America is offering us
interrogation instead of interaction, monologue instead of dialogue, arrogance
instead of communication and techniques of torture instead of democracy. Many
Iranians ask themselves whether the America whose secretary of state once voiced
apologies for the 1953 coup and the one waging war in the Middle East are one and
the same. We cannot answer this question in the affirmative.

Today, the US ambition to implement a "greater Middle East plan" is bringing pain
and agony to this region. Hence, we are calling on all peace and democracy loving
Americans not to allow this region to fall victim to the ambiguous ambitions of
rulers in the White House who do not represent the ideals of the Founding Fathers
and the American nation. The aftermath of the invasion of Iraq show that democracy
and peace are not what the Bush administration is seeking in this region.

The failure of dialogue has also been destructive to the development of democracy in
Iran. Today, the reform movement in Iran is threatened by authoritarianism,
totalitarianism and narrow-mindedness. US foreign policy has facilitated the
militarization of the political scene in Iran which serves as a setback to Iran's
democratic movement.

These totalitarians benefit from the failure of democracy and from millitary interventions. The authoritarians are using the security threat-both real and
perceived-created by the Bush doctrine to undermine the free press and free
elections in Iran. One of the repercussions of the Bush doctrine in Iran has been the vast disqualification of democratic candidates in the parliamentary elections last February. US threats played into the hands of those who eventually managed to
monopolize power. Still, Iranians will never allow the wicked dreams of
authoritarians to come true.

Hereby we declare that actions that undermine the reform movement of Iran or that
violate the right to self-determination for Iraqis, Afghans and Palestinians, or any
effort to undermine the struggle for freedom throughout the world will support
terrorists, war mongers and dictators. This is true both in the region and globally.
Any move against reforms in the Middle East will damage democratic movements and
undermine regional peace.

We believe that as long as the peace-seeking American nation fails to take their
country back from the war mongers in the White House, our country and sovereignty
will also continue to be threatened. It is only through the support of indigenous
reform movements in the Middle East-and not through war-that democracy, freedom of
the press and open elections can be achieved.

Sincerely,

Shirin Ebadi, Mohsen Kadivar, Seyyed Mohammad Reza Khatami, Ibrahim Yazdi, Said
Hajjarian, Hamid Reza Jalaii-Pour, Fatemeh Haghighat-Joo; Seyyed Ja'far
Abbas-Zadegan; Ali Alizadeh Na'eini; Ali Reza Alavi-Tabaar; Mohammad Azadi; Davood
Asgari; Hassan Arab-Zadeh; Feyzollah Arab-Sorkhi; Hamid Asefi; Zohreh Aghajari;
Nasser Amoli Moghaddam; Hamid Ahrari; Mohammad Ali Ahmadi; Ne'mat Ahmadi; Bahaoddin
Adab; Hassan Arbabi; Karim Arghandehpour; Yadollah Eslami; Hamid Esmaiili; Morteza
Ettefagh; Mohammad Ali Akbari; Mohammad Javad Akbarin; Ali Akrami; Asadollah
Amini; Hossein Ansari-Rad; Mohammad Ali Ayazi; Abolfazl Bazargan; Abdolali Bazargan;
Fereshteh Bazargan; Mohammad Navid Barzargan; Kamaloddin Bazargani; Hossein Bastani;
Parvin Bkhtiar-Nezhad; Seyyed Akbar Badi'e-Zadegan; Rahmatollah Borhani; Mohammad
Bastehnegar; Mohammad Hossein Bani Asadi; Mohammad Behzadi; Safa Bitaraf; Seyyed
Mohammad Ali Dadkhah; Mohammad Dadfar; Rasool Dadmehr; Hasel Daseh; Fariba Dafvodi
Mohajer; Mostafa Daraii; Mostafa Dardkeshan; Said Doroodi; Mohammad Hossein
Doroodian; Mosayyeb Davvani; Mostafa Eizadi; Mohammad Ja'far Emadi; Mahmood Emrani;
Majid Farahani; Ali Asghar Gharavi; Ali Reza Gharavi; Said Ghaffar Zadeh; Masood
Ghaffari; Mehdi Ghani; Ahmad Ghabel; Hadi Ghabel; Rahman Gholi Gholizadeh;
Hojjatollah Ghiasi; Mohammad Ghoochani; Ja'far Golabi; Bijan Golafra; Fatemeh
Govaraii; Al Haj-Ketabi; Hossein Hariri; Ali Hekmat; Abolfazl Hakimi; Abdolkarim
Hakimi; Majid Hakimi; Nasser Hashemi; Seyyed Hashem Hedayati; Nasser Hadian; Ali
Asghar Hadizadeh; Hadi Hadizadeh Yazdi; Ali reza Hendi; Ehsan Hooshmand; Jalal
Jalali-Zadeh; Farideh Jamshidi; Mohammad Sadegh Javadi Hesar; Faraj Kamijani; Majid
Karshenas; Rahman Kargosha; Morteza Kazemian; Ja'far Kamboozia;Amir Khorram;
Homayoon Khosravi; Mohammad Hossein Khalili Ardakani; Ismail Khosh-Mohammadi; Masood
Kordpoor; Elahe Koolaii; Mohammad Kianoosh-Rad; Masood Lezzati; Hossein Loghmanian;
Hossein Mojahed; Mohsen Mohagheghi; Mohammad Mohammadi Ardahali; Narges Mohammadi;
Said Madani; Marzieeh Mortazi Langeroodi; Rajabali Mazrooii; Mostafa Meskin; Reza
Masmooii; Leyala Mostafavi; Mostafa Mostafavi; Abbas Moslehi; Mohammad Javad
Mozaffar; Ali Akbar Moeinfar; Mofidi, Badrossadat; Moghaddam, Morteza; Mellati,
Fahimeh; Montazeri, Ahmad; Mansoorian, Khosro; Molaaii, Yousef; Momeni, Mahmood;
Mirkhani, Amir; Mirzadeh, Vahid; Mirzaii, Allahkaram; Mirshams Shahshahani,
Abolfazl; Nabavi, Seyyed Ahmad;' Naraghi, Hossein; Na'eim Poor, Mahmood; Nekoorooh,
Mahmood; Nekoofar, Mohammad Taghi; Nohi, Seyyed Ahmad; Noorbakhsh, Manoochehr;
Noori, Kasra; Paya, Hossein; Paya, Ali; Pedram, Masood; Poor-Azizi, Said; Piran,
Parviz; Pishin, Mahmood; Peyman, Habibollah; Peyman, Majid; Rais-Toosi, Reza;
Rabbani, Mohammad Sadegh; Rajaiian, Mohammad Javad; Rajaii, Alireza; Rasooli,
Mohammad Sadegh; Rezaii, Ahad; Reza Khani, Bahman; Razavi Faghih, Said; Rafiei,
Hossein; Sarijani, Ali Reza; Sa'ei, Ahmad; Sepehr, Masood; Sajjadi, Darioosh;
Sahabi, Ezzatollah; Sahabi, Fereydoon; Sahar-Khiz, Eisa; Sa'adaii, Mohammad Ali;
Sar-Chami, Mohammad; Soltani, Abdolfattah; Soleymani, Behyar; Samati, Hadi;
Seyyed-Abadi, Ali Asghar; Seyf-Zadeh, Seyyed Mohammad; Sinaii, Vahid; Shakeri,
Ibrahim; Shaneh-chi, Mohammad; Shah-Hosseini, Hossein; Shari'ati, Said; Sharif,
Mohammad; Shokri, Kazem; Shamsolva'ezin, Masha'allah; Shirzad, Ahmad; Seddighi,
Nader; Saber, Firoozi; Saleh Jalali, Reza; Sabbaghian, Hashem; Sadr, Reza; Sadr-e
Haj Seyyed Javadi, Ahmad, Salavati, Fazlollah; Samimi, Keyvan; Tajernia, Ali;
Tajzadeh, Seyyed Mostafa; Tajik, Abdolreza; Takaffoli, Gholamhossein; Tanha,
Mostafa; Tehrani, Reza; Tavassoli, Gholamabbas; Tavassoli, Mohammad; Tavassoli,
Mohammad Reza; Tavkkoli, Khaled; Tavallaii, Majid; Taleghani, A'zam; Taleghani,
Tahereh; Taleghani, Hesam; Taleghani, Narges; Taheri, Akbar; Taheri, Mohammad;
Teyrani, Amir; Vali-Beyg, Bagher; Vali-Beyg, Jalil; Va'ez Abaaii, Mehdi; Varbaii,
Rasool; Yahyaii, Ali Farid; Yeganegi, Nasser; Yoosefian, Reza; Zahed, Fayyaz;
Zereh-Saz, Jamal; Zaman, Hossein; Zamani, Mohammad Ibrahim; Zandi-Nia, Parviz;
Zohdi, Mohammad Reza; Zeid-Abadi, Ahmad; Zarghami, Ali Ashraf; Zarghami, Ferydoon;