The Persian Night: Iran under the Khomeinist Revolution

by Amir Taheri

Overview

Who really rules Iran today? Are the men in official positions merely puppets activated by hidden hands? How are decisions made in a system that appears so chaotic at first glance? Is the current political structure doomed to conflict? These are some of the questions that Amir Taheri addresses in this riveting and timely book.

An anatomy of one of the most secretive regimes in the contemporary world, The Persian Night traces the historical, religious, cultural, and political roots of the Khomeinist revolution and analyzes the way it has grown into a pseudo-religious ideology over the past three decades. Taheri dissects a regime that has hijacked a nation of seventy million people and mobilized its resources for global “holy war” against the United States and its allies. From Khomeini’s “divine mission” to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s messianic campaign in the name of the “Hidden Imam,” Iran is on a trajectory towards war.

The Persian Night looks into the actual links between the Islamic Republic and terrorist networks including al-Qaeda and Hezballah; the reality of the Iranian nuclear program; the Islamic Republic’s war-making capabilities and strategies; and the origins of the three Khomeinist phobias—women, Jews, and the United States.

But as Taheri demonstrates, Khomeinism is not Iran. Today there are two competing Irans: the one manifested in the negative Khomeinist energies that have dragged the nation into its dark night; the other drawing from the long and celebrated history of Persian culture while extending a friendly hand to the West.

Successive U.S. administrations, along with most European governments, have failed to understand the reality of the Khomeinist regime and at times have even aided its pursuit of weapons of mass destruction, including a nuclear arsenal. Taheri provides a set of imaginative suggestions for more effective ways of dealing with Iran.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781594034794
Publisher:	Encounter Books
Publication date:	10/19/2010
Pages:	424
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Amir Taheri was the executive editor in chief of the daily Kayhan, Iran’s largest newspaper, for more than six years before the mullahs seized power. He has been a syndicated columnist since 1980 and has contributed to many leading newspapers and magazines in the Middle East and Europe. In the United States, his articles have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Post, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and Commentary magazine, among other publications. He lives in Paris and London.

Table of Contents

Preface xi

1 The World's Number-One Power 3

2 The Haven of Jihad 10

3 The Focus of the Universe 15

4 The Triple Oxymoron 19

5 Democracy as Enemy 40

6 Iran and Anti-Iran 54

7 Unwelcome Faith 68

8 A Strange Beast 76

9 The Feeble Ones 106

10 The Prophet and Women 125

11 The Eternal Conspirator 130

12 Esther and the King 146

13 The Great Satan 161

14 Five Days in August 171

15 A Universal Ideology 188

16 Sunrise Power against Sunset Power 197

17 Crazy Eddie and Martyr Hussein 204

18 West Stricken, Arab Stricken 215

19 State or Revolution 224

20 Six Centers of Power 240

21 Six Rival Centers of Power 253

22 Power Points in a No-Man's Land 262

23 The "Nail" of the Imam 276

24 We Can! 287

25 A Case of National Schizophrenia 298

26 Pre-emptive War or Pre-emptive Surrender? 307

27 Conditions for Regime Change 318

28 Repression and Resistance 331

29 The Ethnic Time Bomb 346

30 A Heaving Volcano 358

Afterword to the Paperback Edition 369

Notes 373

Index 393

Editorial Reviews

At first listen, Robertson Dean may seem a surprising choice for this overview of Iranian religious politics, given his precise and clearly American accent. But given that the audience for this complicated text is largely non-Muslim and Western, Dean's sophisticated and well-enunciated narration provides a soothing background for the tense issues covered. These include the American hostage situation in Iran in the 1980s and the continual threat of a future conflict between the two nations. Dean covers the suspicious relationship between these two nations in a professional and objective tone. The intricacies of religious interpretation as well as the controversial statements of Iranian President Ahmadinejad make for a compelling read. M.R. © AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine

JUNE 2009 - AudioFile