- By Bahram Maskanian - March 14, 2004

On Thursday March 12th, 2004, a day after the horrible explosions shook Madrid, Spain, where 200 ordinary people just like you and I, were killed and 1200 injured, the public gathered by millions for vigils by candlelight singing and praying for peace and against the horrifying terrorist act and in opposition to all terrorist activities.

What is terribly sad, aside from the loss of innocent lives and many injured, is the lack of understanding on the part of many people who survived or never were in harms way who will soon forget that what happened in Madrid will escalate and will happen again and again and again...

The only way to stop terrorist activities is to be active and vigilant at all times, not only when disaster strikes. All of us, the people who are the targets, should be united actively all the time, involved in political and economical decision-making, and in anything else that concerns our planet, environment and safety.

The price of freedom and safety is never-ending vigilance. Therefore, we the living people must care for our safety and freedom. We must wake up and get to work!

The acts of vigil, prayer, and one-minute silence, never solved any of our problems nor brought us any divine solution down from the imaginary heaven above to solve our earthly problems. These are brief short-lived remedies with sedating functions to calm the public down temporarily and helping them to forget. Nothing more.

Precious time is wasted for prayer when it could be used to actually do something about so many levels of man-made corruptions and pollution in our little home, Planet Earth.

When I heard the news about the ten (10) simultaneous explosions in Madrid, I was having tea at six o’clock in the morning, New York time. BBC World News dedicated its entire newscast to the reporting of this heinous Islamic terrorist act.

It brought tears to my eyes and made me cry, relating to the suffering and needless massacre of innocent people that I never met or knew. It reminded me of 9/11 in New York City. It reminded me of the ruling ruthless fundamentalist mullahs' in Iran and their generous funding, help and support of fundamentalists ruthless terrorists comrades and their terrorist activities, against all people including Iranian / Persian people, particularly young hopeful student activists in a pursuit of democratic changes that are being massacred in Iran.

My mind began wandering in this awful endless path of killing and destruction to gain control, money, and power through terrorist activities, to prove a point that, - My theology is better than yours and gives me the right to kill as many as I can to prove it. -

As a Persian-American man I see myself as a citizen of our tiny Planet Earth. The pain and suffering of everyone affects me regardless of the geographical location. I see all of us as one big dysfunctional family living together on this planet.

We must recognize a simple fact, that no matter what form of theology you choose to blindly practice and follow, and no matter what type of ridiculous costume you wear to pray, you are not any better than anybody else and you cannot allow such terrorist activities to continue. You cannot and must not turn a blind eye because you may find yourself in the state of being associated or sympathetic to the cause of any religion.

Religion is and always has been a dreadful fairy tale, a deadly form of control and domination, polarizing people and setting them up against one another. Religion is not going to solve our poverty, hunger, and terrorist problems resulting from the desperation caused by poverty and hunger, nor the near complete meltdown of our planet's environment we are experiencing at the moment, you and I, the public. Religion is not going to give you and I pollution-free, clean water and air to sustain your life.

History is dynamic and continuum. History will never be gone, nor will ever pass and be forgotten. History bridges our past, present and the future. Our future is determined by the actions we have taken yesterday and today.

Each new day’s events are the direct result of our daily activities. We cannot hope to receive a divine intervention and help from any source, other than ourselves to solve our problems rising from our own actions. Our problems are man-made and can only be solved by man.

Everything in life has a purpose; living life without purpose is a failure to benefit from time and life. When we learn the meaning of life and pass the tests for which we have come to live on Earth, we shall then graduate and will be allowed to shed our Earthly protective shell, our body, the temple of our soul and move on to the next class of life.

My dear and beloved fellow Persians / Iranians, we cannot and must not hope and wait for Europeans and Americans to understand the nature of mullahs to attempt to help us remove them, they already know!

Twenty-five years is more than enough for the people of the world to understand who mullahs are, their fundamentalist terrorist nature, mindset and bloody terrorist occupation. We the Iranians / Persians must unite and take out the trash, remove terrorist mullahs from our country, the ancient cradle of civilization of the world.

Regardless of your religion and political ambitions, we must realize that we cannot continue arguing our differences and points of views on the soil of Europe or the United States where they refer to us on a daily basis, our country and people as a rogue, terrorist nation and an axis of evil, due to the ruthless actions of a handful of terrorist mullahs.

We must unite now and remove the well-known evils! With or without the help of others!

Focus on achieving our ultimate goal, which is and should be the removal of criminal mullahs, theocracy and tyrannical rule of mullah terrorists forever.

There will be plenty of time after we accomplished our ultimate objective, to talk and argue about our differences democratically, and reach desired conclusions.

I must emphasize again, that nobody is going to help us clean up our country but ourselves. American and European people would have helped if they were in charge of their own destiny and countries. Their governments are in bed with those who are partners with the criminal mullah regime in Tehran, thus having difficulties even protecting their own citizens. They will wake up when we are on the march and organized.

We must rise to the occasion and clean the house, once and for all. You don't have to like my approach, opinions and ideas. You don't have to like other crowds that you may disagree with.

WHAT YOU MUST LIKE IS THE PERSIAN UNITY AND THE POWER, WHICH LIES WITHIN IT.

Regardless of what your philosophy of any kind may be, the ultimate decision is and will be in the hands of Persian / Iranian people. One man, one vote!

Do not give up, there may be individuals amongst your ranks who are a constant source of discouragement and always disagree with the idea of forming a united front against the terrorist mullahs. They are obviously not really on your team.

So let us unite and focus on the main, vital concern: which is to organize, organize, organize, and then galvanize, mobilize to take our homeland back from the terrorist mullahs.

Now to those of you Iranians / Persians who have helped or still are helping mullahs, these fundamentalist parasites of humanity, for whatever the reasons. Stop, stop and join your fellow citizens. There is nothing to fear but fear itself! Let's join our forces to build a peaceful, joyous and celebrated democratic society and country.

I am truly full of pride and love for every single one of you, my fellow Iranians / Persians, wherever you are, for suffering in the hands of mullahs, working in the trenches and hanging in there for such a long time. I am proud of all Persians / Iranians and I am sure when the time comes they will make the right decision, which is a democratic path for a glorious future.

Freedom and happiness are not derivatives of any religion, faith, or philosophy, neither are they parts of one's destiny. Our destiny is determined by our own actions every day. Freedom is a right, which needs constant safeguarding from the opposing elements. Happiness is a method of life and state of mind of a free society and public.