I R A N: An American's first trip to Iran

My pal Sian Gowan, who I used to work with, is in Iran. She's a representative of a new non-profit called CultureKicks. She's begun a cultural mission of understanding between our cultures, and is recording her thoughts in a blog. I miss her terribly, and admire her for doing what we should be trying to do on a national level, which is seeing if she lessen the fear and hate between our two nations by working to understand one another through culture and opening a dialog. Here's an excerpt:

(Sian) Q: What is your opinion of the current situation between U.S. and Iran?

(Rouhani Agha Ansari) A: The levels of uranium being enriched are only a small percentage of what is needed to create a nuclear bomb. The U.S. knows that Iranian bombs cannot reach the states, therefore they are using Iran's minimal nuclear involvement to create fear so they can change our way of life with force.

The age of force has left us. Force is from the middle-ages when we had slaves. We now must use logic and intellect, not weapons of war. No country will go on with force as their agent.

The current U.S. leaders aren't able to see this logic. Our goal as clerics is to bring more intellectuals and academics to the table so we can work on our communication with the U.S. and other countries. It's your job to go back to the U.S. and tell of our intentions for discussion and peace.
*************

Watching his unassuming body language and hearing his logic, I felt guilty for having that earlier prejudicial opinion of mullahs. I'm sure it takes all kinds, and mullahs are no exception, but I wish I could've found a way to tell him in Farsi that because of him I was enlightened.

As the conversation wrapped up, he announced his email as ...@yahoo.com Stunned at the sound of his voice, I thought I'd better savor the moment - an Islamic cleric speaking in capitalist terms!

Our guide interrupted the laughter explaining that "Yahoo!" is actually a way that Suffi mystics call on God. Maybe there is an existing link between our two cultures after all.

Well, Yahoo!

http://iran-culturekicks.blogspot.com/

Ya Hu, but it's pronounced the same way. "Hu" is THAT which may be described as the Word in John 1:1-"in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."
"Ya" means "oh". FYI, there is a yearly Ya Hu camp in Texas for leaders of the Dances of Universal Peace, a practice that originated with American Sufis.

You're welcome to come do Dance or zkr anytime. You'll probably use the term "Ya Hu" there.

:thumbsup: