Kamangir (Archer)

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Addicted to Allah

Kamangir | August 23, 2006 | Category Iran

Just imagine how much addicted to religion a political system can be, then multiply it by two, it would become the Islamic Republic. There is a maneuver going on in southern Iran. It carries a religious name and began with a religious code. Then, as an important stage of the drill, army tried new plans for fast deployment of troops.

Army motorists enter the drill, passing beneath Quran,symbolically asking for blessing. Yet, the man on the red bike does not very much to be under the influence of the holy book.

A soldier puffs Espand to a tank. Espand, which is probably called Rue in English, is a plant whose smoke is traditionally-religiously assumed to help send Satan away (roughly speaking).

Quran and Espand together. See more pictures here (see).

Reader's Comments

Lesly | August 23rd, 2006 at 10:47 am
Did you want to have fun with this update? Iran is crazy because secularism bows to sectarianism, just as Turkey is crazy because sectarianism bows to militant secularism. Neither country has figured out how to let both aspects exist peacefully independently of each other. This scene by itself is, to me, no more alarming than Jewish priests (rabbis?) wearing tallit and tefellin between tanks reciting the Torah with earplugs to protect their hearing, in or near the Lebanese border.
kamangir | August 23rd, 2006 at 11:53 am
I agree with you. And about the fun, it is not funny. Rather I say it is frustratingly innocent and primitive and Hippocratic, for different sides at the same time.
Lesly | August 23rd, 2006 at 1:30 pm
Rather I say it is frustratingly innocent and primitive and Hippocratic, for different sides at the same time.

Ah, I think that is your inner atheist speaking. As they say, there is no atheist in the fox hole.

Primitive? Maybe. Men have been killing each other with sophistication since a monkey used a leg bone to brain another monkey in the dawn of Time. But innocent? Never. Men will strive for something higher than themselves, something reassuring when they engage instruments that deal death on a mass scale. From the moment they board fighter jets, tanks, and other vehicles of war they incrementally commit themselves to murder. Having to resort to ever more sophisticated weapons they realize the enemy can deal death like themselves, and suddenly these men see their own mortality and shrink from themselves.
kamangir | August 23rd, 2006 at 1:44 pm
I see your point but things are not always this clear. I am sure you have also done things which you have then found out have been very wrong or even immoral. Don’t you think less sophisticated people in more tense situations can do things for their entire life without ever getting to know the essence of what they have been doing?
And about the fox hole and atheism I do not think I got it…
Lesly | August 23rd, 2006 at 2:38 pm
The fox hole saying means that, when agnostic/atheist military members become curious about the afterlife during war, and theyâ€™re less likely to laugh at the idea of an invisible man in the sky.

Donâ€™t you think less sophisticated people in more tense situations can do things for their entire life without ever getting to know the essence of what they have been doing?

Well, education is important but I think even sophisticated people in a very tense situation are capable of great harm. The U.S. is a smart nation by todayâ€™s standards, but Bush couldnâ€™t have gotten public support for Iraqâ€™s invasion without stove-piping the â€œintelligenceâ€ to fit the Administrationâ€™s plans and preying on peopleâ€™s distress with the illusion of an imminent threat from Iraq.

I think the military is part of society, and very much a product of its society, but the military also stands apart from its society. Iâ€™m a former Marine. I donâ€™t see Iranian or IDF soldiers as good or evil, smart or dumb. To me modern militaries are bureaucratic enclaves of professional killers. You donâ€™t have to necessarily personalize a conflict to kill the enemy, but you can internalize your own mortality and the act of killing another human being. Religion helps us â€œmake senseâ€ of it all, and like the soldiers doing the killing, religion canâ€™t explain trajedy by themselves.

Cuban-Americans say Cubans still on the island wear two faces (dos caras); one for the public square and one for trusted family members. I think thatâ€™s true for citizens living under any regime where fair and open elections donâ€™t occur frequently regardless of how educated the population is.
Lesly | August 23rd, 2006 at 2:40 pm
Meh, sorry for the typos.
Vasu | August 24th, 2006 at 2:02 am
That esfand puffing to the tanks was a classic…I think you can say to drive away the evil eye.
anar | August 24th, 2006 at 2:03 am
that esfand puffing was painful to see…I think you can say to drive away the evil eye.
Lafcadio! | August 24th, 2006 at 3:16 am
salaam Arash!
Do you know me? ;)
jane | August 24th, 2006 at 4:04 am
I am an iranian/english girl

religion has been used for many different things through the centuries.

a way to be accepted

something to belong to (a support group rather)

a system to blame your actions on

in short , never for what it was intended.

……………..

i couldn’t see your e-mail adress!!
kamangir | August 24th, 2006 at 5:40 pm
Lesly,
So, you mean everyone should select one side of this problem and fight for it?
kamangir | August 24th, 2006 at 5:41 pm
Vasu and Anar,
Thanks for the translation. You are both right. I translated it in a hurry.
kamangir | August 24th, 2006 at 5:42 pm
Jane,
Nice to meet you. My email is in the right column.
kamangir | August 24th, 2006 at 5:46 pm
Lafcadio,
Of course I do. Chakerim.