Iran has Resisted The World's Most Powerful Forces For Three Decades: American Pastor Dr. Randy Short
Interview by Kourosh Ziabari
03 September, 2013
Countercurrents.org
American pastor, historian and human rights activist Dr. Randy Short believes that the military expeditions of the United States and other imperial powers in the world have a common ultimate goal, that is, to exploit the vast energy resources of the oil-rich Middle East countries and bring independent nations such as Iran under their dominance and control. He, however, says that Iran and other independent nations are successfully withstanding the pressures being imposed upon them by the U.S. and its allies.
“The war on people whose nation state is oil-rich dates back to the early 1900s. The British, French, and Germans understood the strategic importance of petroleum as early as 1909. A historic example of this was the discovery of the first major Middle Eastern oil field near Abadan Iran in 1908 by the Burmah Oil Company owned by William Knox D'Arcy. The British built the world's largest oil refinery in Abadan, and, in 1913, Winston Churchill, First Lord of the Admiralty tried to modernize the British naval by converting the fuel source of his navy from coal to petroleum. Petroleum became the key resource for controlling the sea lanes. Naval might was critical to all global powers, and, oil, therefore, became the life-blood of all modern militaries,” said Dr. Randy Short in an exclusive interview with Fars News Agency.
Dr. Randy Short is an American pastor, political commentator, human rights activist and freelance writer. Short is the President and National Spokesman for the Anti-Depo Provera Clergy Coalition and International Emissary of the African Orthodox Church. He has also worked as the board member of the International Human Rights Association for American Minorities (IHRAAM) and served as an associate professor of History and Religion at Bowie University and Lane College. His writings about the U.S. foreign policy, women rights, religious diversity and imperialism have appeared on several newspapers, magazines and websites across the world.
What follows is the text of FNA's interview with Dr. Randy Short.
Q: A number of political commentators and scholars have openly admitted that the U.S. project of War on Terror was actually a war on Islam, aimed at bringing to its knees the Muslim nations such as Iran that has withstood all kinds of foreign economic and political pressures in the past 3 decades. They invaded Afghanistan and Iraq under the pretext of 9/11 attacks and got closer to an all-out military invasion of Iran. What's your take on that?
A: The war on people whose nation state is oil-rich dates back to the early 1900s. The British, French, and Germans understood the strategic importance of petroleum as early as 1909. A historic example of this was the discovery of the first major Middle Eastern oil field near Abadan Iran in 1908 by the Burmah Oil Company owned by William Knox D'Arcy. The British built the world's largest oil refinery in Abadan, and, in 1913, Winston Churchill, First Lord of the Admiralty tried to modernize the British naval by converting the fuel source of his navy from coal to petroleum. Petroleum became the key resource for controlling the sea lanes. Naval might was critical to all global powers, and, oil, therefore, became the life-blood of all modern militaries.
Thereafter, the British and French conspired to devour oil rich provinces of the dying Ottoman Empire during the First World War. The British war objectives from 1914 to 1917 culminating in the capture of Jerusalem by Field Marshal Allenby was to create a fictive patchwork of states that could be denuded of their mineral resources. The fraud and cynicism, of the British and French imperialists against the Muslim freedom fighters who trusted them as allies and liberators, is evidenced by the Sykes-Picot Agreement made between these two powers. Sykes-Picot divided the non-Arabian Provinces of the Ottoman Empire into British and French spheres of influence. Both the Balfour Declaration and the Sykes Picot treaties relate to France and Britain seeking to secure control of the mineral wealth of the Fertile Crescent. The Muslim men that fought alongside the famed homosexual MI6 spy T.E. Lawrence wanted one large unified Islamic Caliphate, and this chafed against the European imperialism interest in creating fictive confessional failed states easily controlled and more rebellious nationalist leaders putsched out of power. The petroleum expeditionary forays of the Americans oilmen into the newly established kingdom of Saudi Arabia in the early 1930s established the troika of anti-Islamist powers (France, the United Kingdom and the United States).
The 1930s was the decisive decade for both major oil discoveries and the culmination of expansionist fascists/militarist movements gaining power or engaging in foreign aggression. For historical purposes, the first major oil field found in the oil-rich Middle East was in Iran in 1908 by the Burmah Oil Company created by William Knox D'Arcy. From 1913 the oil refinery of Abadan was the largest in the world. Winston Churchill First Lord of the Admiralty sought to modernize the British naval by converting their ships from coal-powered to petroleum fueled. The year 1932 can be seen as the starting point of global wars for oil in as German's Reich Chancellor and Fuhrer seized power in Germany, a highly industrialized nation lacking mineral wealth that was stripped of its resource-rich colonies in Africa, and in September 1931, the Empire of Japan, another industrialized nation bereft of raw materials that resented being denied colonial prizes in the aftermath of World War I, invaded China's province of Manchuria renamed it Munchukuo and quit the League of Nations rather than surrender the rich land. Another historic event occurred in 1932 was the founding of Saudi Arabia by Abdul-Aziz bin Saud, and in 1936 vast oil reserves were found by Aramco in the Dammam area of the Al-Hasa region in eastern Arabia. The following year, the US-British owned Kuwait Oil Company discovered oil in 1937 in Burgan field.
Oil was central to the development of what came to be called World War II. Germany's primary war thrust was to secure the oilfields of Southern Soviet Union and Japan's imperial objective depended on seizing the oil reserves on the Dutch East Indies Island of Sumatra. In summation, once the Japanese lost control of Indonesia's oilfields and as Germany failed to secure the petroleum in the Caucasus, the collapse of their war machines was inevitable. The mechanization of warfare steadily evolved from the First World War to the present and made petroleum the essential resource for any major power a country could possess.
The discovery of oil in the Middle East in the early 1900s made it essential for the British to keep the region under their control and rationalized the creation of Israel, in part to defend oilfields and trade route for the flow of oil and gas to Europe. The anti-colonial movements in Africa, Latin America, Asia, and Oceania that gained strength in the shadow of ruined Europe left only the United States mostly unscathed by the Second World War to be the global European slave-driver to maintain the unjust capitalistic imperial order.
During the 1950s, the British tried to destroy Iran, which was then led by Prime Minister Mohammed Mossaddeq, who nationalized Iran's oil reserves in the 1950s. This was when the British MI6 and CIA took action to stage a coup against Iran's government in the so-called Operations Ajax.
Q: What do you think about the growing wave of anti-Islamic and Islamophobic sentiments in the United States and Europe? We frequently hear of the production and screening of blasphemous movies and publication of sacrilegious cartoons which denigrate Prophet Muhammad and other Islamic sanctities. The politicians in these countries also adopt measures that put serious limitations on the civil liberties of the Muslims, especially the Muslim women, who are not allowed to wear Islamic dressing and Hijab because of political reasons. What do you think about it?
A: Anti-Muslim images and stereotypes made by European Anglo-American people and attacks on Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) are as old as Islam itself. The brazen hatred of Islam is really an effort by various sectors of Western society that are racist and intolerant of Muslims abroad and those within their midst due to a Zionist-controlled media and also a Catholic Church that sees Islam as a competitor for the loyalty of peoples' souls. Historically, European people remember being defeated by the Muslims in the Crusades, civilized by the Moors who occupied Portugal, Spain, Sardinia and Sicily for hundreds of years, and the Ottoman Turks that seized Constantinople in the 1450s and ruled much of Southern Europe into the early 20 th century. Muslims are economic, cultural, and political competitors with Europeans, and they only attained superior weaponry enabling them to conquer Muslim societies in the 19 th century. Islam civilized Europe and this cannot be dismissed, but the European people are notorious for loving the gifts of non-Europeans while wholly hating the givers.
Christianity teaches true Christians to love other people and respect other faiths. We must remember the Christianity of the European constituted a part and parcel of the genocide of Jews, Africans, Native Americans, Australian Aboriginals, and the purveyor of slavery, capitalism, and racism. The Europeans sees Jesus as a divine White!
Q: Some European societies fear that the growth of Muslim population is a threat to their security and their secular values. Maybe one of the most important reasons that have impeded Turkey's accession to EU is its Muslim majority population. However, their fear and hostility toward the Muslim population runs counter to their claims that they care for religious and cultural diversity. Would you please share your perspective on that with us?
A: If European people found living among Muslim people in their own lands intolerable (i.e. Palestine and Algeria) to the point of engaging in genocide and ethnic cleansing, why is it surprising that the same people do not want Turkey to be a part of the European Union? Let's be honest; many of the ruling elites of Turkey are Donmehs who are covert Zionists who identify with Europe and not the Muslim world. Mustafa Kemal and Kemalism was a movement to distance Turkey from Islam and Afro-Asiatic world. Ironically, the white nationalism of Europeans does not accept imitations so the Turks are not wanted nor are assimilated Arabs and Africans who were born and raised in Europe.
Q: What do you think about Pope Benedict XVI's approach toward Islam and his viewpoint on the interfaith dialogue? On September 12, 2006, he delivered a controversial speech at the University of Regensburg and offended many Muslims around the world by implying that Prophet Muhammad had preached violence and terror. What's your viewpoint about Pope now that he has stepped down?
A: In my view, Pope Benedict had no moral grounds to pass judgment on prophet Mohammed (PBUH), because this man helped cover up the mass molestation of children by homosexual-pedophile priest all over the world. How does a person with a past like his as a former Hitler Youth think he can dismiss others when his own homeland and his people have for over a century shed the blood of tens of millions of victims in Africa, Asia, and Europe? Is there another group people as notorious for killing others as the ultra-nationalistic Germans? Is the former Pope going to admit his relationship to the Ustache neo-Nazi Catholics in Croatia, or can he explain Germany's recent role of genocide in the Balkans? This Pope has worked to cover the genocide role of the Catholic Church in Rwanda and Congo. Over 7 million Africans have died in the wars there since the mid-1990s, and Benedict did nothing substantial to stop the genocide. It must be said that the Germans pioneered getting the Hutus and Tutsis to hate each other on the basis of proto-Nazi pseudo-scientific hokum. He showed no concern for the Palestinian Catholics, and he never impressed me.
Furthermore, the Catholic Church does practically nothing for Blacks and Indians in Latin America or Africa. He stepped down from his exalted post because he probably has moral lapses possibly greater than all of those whose sins he cloaked to advance his career. There is sufficient information about the financial corruption of the Vatican. Why has the Catholic Church never atoned for the African Holocaust and the Amerindian Holocaust? The Catholic Church itself has more than enough self-searching to do before attacking other faiths. It is shameful that persons call themselves men of God and they lack humility and respect for others. Perhaps the former Pope likes the brand of Roman Catholicism that signed a Concordat with Adolph Hitler and took pains to be the first state to embrace that regime. We cannot forget that most Nazis of the Hitler era in which this pope grew up were rewarded for acts of barbarity infamous throughout the world. One example of Nazis in high places was Attorney Hans Globke who wrote the racist Nuremburg Laws and the legal doctrine that gave Hitler dictatorial power, and in post-World War II West Germany he was the Director of the Federal Chancellery between the years 1953 and 1963 and German President Konrad Adenaur's right-hand man. We cannot expect a person cultivated in a society that is unrepentant of its gross crimes against humanity to produce persons wholly untainted by their environment, and, therefore, we have to conclude that the deep hatreds of 20 th century Germany reside in the recesses of his unconscious mind.
His intolerance cannot be divorced from his coming-of-age in Nazi Germany. The Catholic Church leadership has few peers in doing great acts of injustice for centuries, and this should make them more circumspect in how they discuss other faiths.
Q: What's your analysis of the current political situation in the Muslim states? Independent nations such as Iran are under huge pressure, such nations as Qatar and Saudi Arabia who have exchanged their independence with obedience to the United States and Israel are enjoying the advantages of a free and unrestricted trade and business with the West which makes their economy more prosperous every day, Bahrain is experiencing a popular revolution which the West has turned a blind eye to, and Palestine which is in a constant state of occupation and trepidation is paying the price for a colonial project. What do you think in this regard?
A: The Muslim nations are evolving into more independent societies even if this is not perceived by observers. The revolts against corrupted elites that serve the decadent Western powers will rise because the capitalistic system based on greed, vileness, idolatry of hedonism, racism, and fatalism is unsustainable.
Iran, Syria, and nascent movements for real freedom in Yemen and Tunisia come at the cost of persecution of the United States and Europe, but the day of the Aryan bully states never being challenged is changing in the multi-polar power world. Part of Iran's mission as a nation is to prove that it can be the Cuba of the Middle East. For 33 years, it has resisted the most powerful forces in human history, and each year it has grown stronger. The present sanctions regime comes as a great sacrifice to the people, but there is no such thing as freedom without a struggle, and the losses were greater during the earlier revolutionary period where Iraq's aggression claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of Iranians. In a sense, the suffering of the present are mild compared to the missile attacks and MEK-aided incursions on Iran's soil. The sanctions and persecution have united most of the people in the nation, thus, hobbling the traitors and fifth columnists that would return the Shah or some CIA-stooge to the peacock throne. As a Christian I wish to share a scripture with the righteous people of Iran. Proverbs 24:19 tell us, “Fret not over evil-doers (Zionists, Imperialists, Wahhabis) nor be envious of the wicked”. The inevitable victory over adversity will come.
Saudi Arabia is a burning brothel without a sprinkler system and it is sustained by the presence of American troops, and the Shiite revolt in the Eastern-oil rich region shows no sign of calming down. The Saudi invasion of Bahrain was a foolhardy effort to prevent the inevitable intifada of its people tired of corruption. To this day, the Saudi government has not explained the whereabouts of Prince Bandar who some news accounts alleged that was killed by a terrorist attack on the intelligence agency he directed. If the very director of the apparatus of repression, torture, and assassination of the Saudi Kingdom is not safe, then what is the fate of the rest of the royals there? There is no way that the House of Saud could withstand any of the terrorist acts that is has meted out on Syria, and one day the chickens that slash throats of babies and eat livers will return home. Similarly, Qatar, another Wahhabi sheikhdom, addicted to meddling, needs the American presence to secure itself. As the United States imports more oil from Africa and Latin America, the gradual withdrawal of its military forces will one day start. An idiotic foray into war with Iran would only hasten the collapse of the Wahhabi regimes on the Arabian Peninsula. The manpower and constant improvement in domestically made weaponry in Iran make its antagonist more fearful daily. Saudi Arabia and Qatar will always be vulnerable to being unset because their rulers are arrogantly anti-democratic and despotic, and the fossil fuel cash spigot can dry up as more oil fields are found in Africa collapsing prices. This has happened before. A sudden and protracted fall in the price of oil could be fatal to such regimes. The Christian scriptures influence my final thoughts on the fate of the rich Wahhabi monarchs. The Christian Bible Romans 6:23 says, “the wages of sin is death”.
I would not invest much time or energy thinking about what the racist western man or his societies do or do not do to help the Palestinians or Bahrainis. An abortionist is never someone that rational people would want as a pediatrician for their children. I marvel at the lack of clarity in the minds of people of the world in the manner that they look at Western people as if they have not been the greatest mass killers, thieves, and oppressive invaders of all human history. Can someone find another civilization where a pedophile like Adolph Hitler is revered like a modern Messiah? Attaining freedom comes with the prerequisite to understand your oppressor. As long as people of the Muslim world slobber over the professed Western man versus seeing him for the sociopathic liar and brute that he is, they condemn themselves to more senseless suffering.
To me, it is fascinating as a Black man to be hated so strongly for my color alone by people who have never been bombed, exploited, raped, and colonized by people that look like me, and such goodwill for those who have meted out 500 years of abuse in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and Oceania. When the British wanted to dismiss the rightful claims to Palestine by the Palestinians, they characterized them as Negroes. To many people, the Bahrainis and Palestinians are just another group of disposable Black/Brown people. If the hundreds of years of oppression of Black and Brown people by the Anglos does not impress upon people the horror that is white supremacy that governs how the Western man deals with non-Europeans, those experiencing injustice will never come to a basic understanding of the global struggle we all face.
Kourosh Ziabari is an award-winning Iranian journalist and media correspondent. He writes for Global Research, CounterCurrents.org, Tehran Times, Iran Review and other publications across the world. His articles and interviews have been translated in 10 languages. His website is http://kouroshziabari.com
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