Taylor Johnson
Comjour 333
October 10, 2013
Abbas Milani discusses potential for better U.S. -
Iran relations at Washington State University.
Milani is a Stanford
professor spoke who at Washington State University Thursday.
Washington
State University was honored to have been able to host Abba Miliani Thursday at
The Foley Institution. According to Hoover.org, his expertise is in Iran/ US
relations and Iranian cultural, political and security issues. Miliani was a
student researcher at the Iranian Center for Social Research from 1977-1978 and
an assistant professor at the National University or Iran from 1975 to 1977. He
is also an author, and his last publication was The Shah in 2012.
Milani spoke
about the relations between the U.S and Iran started what the most complicated
issues are, and what happened yesterday which was an important day to remember.
U.S/ Iran relations began in 1850.
“Iran’s first interaction was with the
American’s were the missionaries, and the missionaries began to arrive unmasked
and they virtually could not convert a single person.” Said Milani
This was a time where
it was looked down upon if you were born Muslim. If someone wanted to
convert out of it, they were executed. If you were not Muslim, and you didn’t
have a religion and you wanted to be a Muslim that was completely understood.
Converting to another religion was slim to none. Thankfully, times have changed
since then and now there are thousands of people who have crossed over to
Christianity.
The missionaries decided to stay in Iran, and they
have become the best education schools in Iran such as the first girl’s school,
and nursing school. All of these things that the American missionaries have
created a huge impact on the U.S. From 1850- 1953 the image that the U.S
portrayed to the Iranian was a powerful, but far away country. This was
important because this helped Iran understand that the U.S might actually be
worth something. The U.S proved to Iran by trying to get the Soviet Union out
of WWII.
“Someone even wrote a book saying that 9/11 was payback
for the August 53, I mean it’s a free country and people can say whatever the
hell they want, but to say that September 11th with 19 Arabs are
involved and most of them have never heard that name Mosaddegh.” Milani said.
He described that you can’t blame Arabs for one
act that occurred against America. Most people still do categorize them all
together, and that also changed their relationship between Iran and the U.S.
As a result from all these tensions, Iran now
can’t have access to their oil, or their money that they do get from selling
the oil that they have. Iran has now no place to go, and that caused the
sanctions to shut down. Iran is at a point now, where in the next couple months
they are going to start making deals, because they have to if they want to
succeed.
Sahar Vahabzadeh, a student here at Washington
State University spoke about her connections to the Iranians. She expressed her
thoughts and her feelings that she had on this subject, and talked about the
two she use to live in had been damaged due to all the drugs, medicine, and
weapons that were there.
“I don’t see how people can get a hold of that
many medicines and I think the sanctions are hurting the people of Iran, and
the town I once knew.” Vahabzadeh expressed.
The first thing we need to do to stop this from occurring
is to take initiative and actually look at the legitimate concerns.
I could also use pictures of the speaker, and a
website of some of the points he mentioned.
Sources: Abbas Milani (650) 721-4052
Sahar Vahabzadeh: sahar.vahabzadeh@email.wsu.edu
Taylor
Johnson
Comjour
333
October
10, 2013
An
announcement was made by Abbas Milani, a professor from Stanford university, on
Thursday at Washington State University. He announced the potential for a
better relationship between the United States and Iran.
Milani
is a professor and well-known author, which has taught him throughout the years
how important the relationship between the two countries is.
Miliani
was a student researcher at the Iranian Center for Social Research from
1977-1978 and an assistant professor at the National University or Iran from
1975 to 1977. He is also an author, and his last publication was The Shah in
2012
“ Iran’s first interaction was with the Americans [was] the
missionaries, and the missionaries began to arrive unmasked and they virtually
counld not convert a single person.” Said Milani.
This was a time where it was looked down upon if you were not born
Muslim. If someone wanted to convert out of it, they were
executed. If you wanted to convert to Islam, it was completely understood. Converting
another religion was quite rare. Times have changed since then and now
thousands of people have crossed over to Christianity.
People have associated 9/11 to Iran. Milani expressed that the 19 Arabs involved
should not be blamed, despite what many people think.
A
WSU student, Sahar Vahabzadeh, spoke about her connections to the Iranians.
“
I don’t see how people can get a hold of that many medicines and I think the
sanctions are hurting the people of Iran, and the town I once knew.” Said Vahabzadeh.
The
first think we need to do is take initiative and look at how we can be
proactive in building and fostering a constructive relationship between the two
countries.
Sources:
Abbas Milani (650) 721-4052
Sahar
Vahabzadeh: sahar.vahabzadeh@email.wsu.edu
