A group of students from the Teheran University writes to the Nobel Prize winner Harold Printer

2005/11/05

Harold Pinter won the Nobel Prize for literature for this year (2005). In his speeches that he delivered at various places, including Turin University , he lashed out at the American foreign policy. He gave those speeches after he had undergone a major operation for cancer. If we do not take his speech as delirium of a sick man still under the influence of medications, then it should be considered as a show of human indecency and deceitfulness. Afraid of seeing the truth, Printer tries not to look at it. It seems that for some people, as long as their lives are cushy, the rest don’t matter.

Mr. Pinter blamed America for the London bombings of 7/7. He believes that the attacks were the consequence of American foreign policy. His argument is that if America had not attacked the Taleban, Al-Qaida would not have bombed London .

The crux of the speech of Mr. Pinter was: Why should we be concerned about the plight of people in other countries? Who cares if some thugs in other parts of the world slaughter other people? It is none of our business if a mad man like Saddam Hussein kills millions of his own people, invades his neighbours, gasses multiple villages, and massacres thousands of innocent children. What does it have to do with us if the Taleban maim the fingers of an eight year old girl for the crime of decorating them with dahlia flowers? Why should we give a damn if in 1986 thousands of political prisoners in Iran were executed during a single night? Should we do anything when the Iranian authors and artists are kidnapped in the streets and a few days later their mutilated corpses are found dumped in the outskirts of Tehran ? Why should the Europeans care if millions of Iranians leave behind their loved ones, risk their lives and escape the country to seek refuge in other countries because their lives are threatened? Why should it be important to us if the Islamic police (guards) rape underage girls before they execute them the next morning? It is probably their custom! The important issue here is that London should not be bombed.

Mr. Printer’s rationale is that if people are dissatisfied of their rulers; let them overthrow them [the tyrannical rulers]. No other nation has the right to intervene in the “internal affairs” of another “sovereign” nation.

Isn’t this statement hypocrisy when Mr. Printer knows that had it not been for the American intervention, Europeans could not have defeated Nazism on their own? He is well aware of the fact that Europeans owe their freedom to America . It was America who sacrificed her sons and daughters to liberate Europe from the Nazis. If Americans had to think like Mr. H. Pinter, Europe , most likely would have had a different destiny.

Today, we the people of Iran are under the yoke of a regime no less brutal than the Nazis. Just like the Nazis, the Islamists are motivated by an ideology of hate. They have destroyed our country that they conquered through terror. They are as ruthless as the Nazis. Can Mr. Printer tell us, how can we fight them back with our bare hands? They have shown that they have no qualm killing any number of us. They have already killed hundreds of thousands, they can kill millions more. How many more of us should die, Mr. Printer for your sense of humanity to awaken, assuming you have any?

These are a people who have divided the world between the “faithful” and the “infidel” and believe to have divine mandate to cleanse the Earth from the infidels. As far as they are concerned, we the infidels do not have even the right to live on the Earth that is given only to the faithful of Allah.

The British dramatist and the Noble prize winner for literature, who in his long-winded novels, can easily turn a worm into a dragon and is used to draw from his imagination rather from facts, ignores the fact that reality does not work always like fiction, and that there is no way for unarmed people to free themselves when there is a barrel of gun placed on their head. Revolutions work as long as the rulers are relatively benign. But when you face a brutal murderer who does not value your life any more than he values the life of a fly, there is no way to win in a revolution.

Mr. Pinter confuses respect for human rights with respect for nefarious ideologies, and instead of caring about our lives he talks about respect for some people’s beliefs. He thinks that only the people of Great Britain deserve democracy and good life! In his wicked mind, others do not matter and he is not concerned if they are sacrificed by millions. If this is not racism, what is?

Mr. Pinter is not moved by the misery of people who may not be as white as he is. He considers himself to be worthy of living freely and having a good life, but others do not matter. He thinks others have to fight for their freedom if they really want it badly. Did you fight for your freedom Mr. Printer or was it given to you in silver platter, courtesy of the very Americans that today you disregard. How ungrateful of you Sir!

Having abandoned his own humanity, Mr. Pinter is encouraging others to do the same. He stands shoulder to shoulder with the thugs who butcher innocent people to rule over them unlawfully.

Today, we remember Cyrus the Great and the Bible calls him a Messiah (saviour) because he did not say Jews should free themselves. He cared about other human beings who were not of his stock and he waged a war to set them free. As our poet Sa’di said, if thou dost not feel the pain of others, thou shalt not be called human.

Mr. Pinter is asking the British as well as the Americans to be indifferent and to abandon the people of Iran , Iraq and Afghanistan . His logic is that the range of Saddam’s rockets, at most reach Tehran . There was no danger to London so why should the Britons have bothered!

Saddam wages a war with Iran in which over a million people from both sides die. The war ends without a victory for either side. But this mad man’s appetite for war and blood does not end. He attacks Kuwait . The United Nations imposes an embargo on him but he does not stop killing, burning and poisoning. Meanwhile thousands rot in his dungeons. Only force can prevent this dictator form murdering people.

Mr. Pinter! Are you saying that the world should have stood by watching this psychopath murder people by thousands? What a shame! You seem to have lost your humanity. How could you live with your conscience? You have disgraced the Noble Prize and the world of literature.

As the oppressed people of a third world country, that will remain a third world as long as it is not liberated, we would like to thank the United States of America, the Great Britain and all other countries that helped to get rid of the blood thirsty dictators such as Saddam Hussein, Molla-Omar and the Taleban.

Our wretched neighbours who shared our destiny, in Afghanistan and Iraq , have shown, to the chagrin of Mr. Pinter, that they deserve living in a democracy. We are also grateful to the rest of the world who cares and knows that we too deserver to be free.

The future of our country will be built by us and our children. We get our inspiration from the constitution of the United States of America . We dream of the day that our flag will be hoisted next to the flags of other free nations and will dance in the wind proclaiming our freedom to the world. The oppressed people will be victorious and you and your ilk will be remembered as those who sided with their oppressors. Your name will be covered with shame.

A group of students from the Teheran University