Dr Ali Shariati

Ali Shariati, was born in Sabzevar/Iran in November 1933. His father was the founder of an Islamic center in Mashhad/Iran and was heavily involved with the Iranian National Front movement for the Nationalization of Iran's Oil industry. That probably laid the cornerstone of Ali Shariati's political activism, he became a teacher in the early 50's and experienced his first arrest in 1953 for joining the National Front and taking part in a demonstration objecting to the overthrow of Dr Mossadegh. He graduated in 1955 and moved to France, where he studied Sociology at the University of Paris. Dr Ali Shariati was by all definitions, a political activist and judging from his biography, a humanist with strong "Shia" Islamic tendencies. His unprejudiced approach towards different, distinguished philosophical directions, combined with his social and cultural background gave him an explicit view of how Iran could be, should the people of his country decide to live up to their own beliefs. Dr Shariati's activities were not overseen in Iran by "SAVAK" Irans CIA trained secret service. Shariati was arrested in 1964 upon his return to Iran, but was released after a while, and moved to Mashhad/Iran to teach at the University of Mashhad. Dr Shariati's social star began to rise after moving to Tehran and working at the "Ershad Mosque Institute". He began lecturing there, and his ideas where so simple and familiar, so eloquent and compatible to the ears and intellects of his audiences, that his name began to echo even in the underground opposition circles of the time. Dr Shariati was arrested again in late 1973 and imprisoned till 1975. He was put under house arrest where his health indefinably deteriorated, to the extend that he was allowed to go to Britain, where he unexpectedly died in 1977 in a Southampton hospital. Judging from his works and his ideology, it is plausible to suggest, he was assassinated by "SAVAK".

Dr Ali Shariati,was undoubtedly the theoretician of the Islamic revolution, his idea of "Red Shia" was decisive in resurrecting the political Shia and introducing it to the educated and middle class of Iran, very much in contrast to the "Black Shia" where the Saints and heroes of the Shia faith are only mourned and celebrated. He often propagated a famous sentence, "every day is Ashura & every place is Karbala". implying that either live with grace and honor or die getting there. His idea of the modern Iranian society was preparedness to embrace martyrdom in order to achieve social justice and the establishment of a moral and religious society. To clarify his ideas,(considering the prejudicial western tabloid's anti Iranian bla bla) we must add the element of moderation to the above mentioned ideology, and had he lived to experience the Iranian Islamic revolution,which he craved and fought for almost all his life, history would have been written differently.

Hypothetically speaking,had he been alive in 1979,he would probably have become the first Iranian president, and judging from his almost 30 books, he would never have allowed and tolerated the fanatic revenge sprees that took over the Iranian post revolutionary society.Dr Shariati would never have allowed the estrangement of other more leftist political oppositions, Dr Shariati, would never have allowed the US embassy take over, which subsequently urged the Carter administration to encourage "Saddam Hussain" to invade Iran hoping to destabilize the Iranian regime and hundreds of thousands of people could still be alive. All this events , having not have happened, could have contributed in lowering the depth of Iran's distrust towards the west and would have kept it at levels acceptable to endure the occasional twists. Instead of Dr Shariati with all his background, an obscure wimp called "Bani-Sadr" became the President, whose pathological incompetence led to hardliners like "Rajai" and the latter's assassination changed the course of the Iranian revolution, and subsequently Iran.... had Dr Shariati only not been assassinated....