Producing Glorious Works Based on Scientific Researches, Must and Must Not
This article contains the meaning what politics should be considered in action in order that production of books is increased as a cultural activity in the way the quality does not drop.
The article has focused on cultural essence of Islamic Revolution which is fighting with hegemony and making efforts to achieve to freedom. This is the characteristic that has been the target of severe cultural attack by small and large enemies. And we can neutralize this attack merely by carrying out cultural activities.
Later, we have paid attention to statistics of producing books considering annual festivals of sacred defense books. And it has been emphasized that we face considerable decrease in production of books. And in order to solve this problem, I have discussed different topics such as thinking, conducting researches, appropriate targeting, explaining blessings of war, damages of distortion and finally immunizing the society culturally.
Introductory:
During the last thirty years, Islamic Revolution has been focused in the world as an important change. And considering its essence that was fighting with hegemony, Islamic Revolution has caused major changes and influences such that it brought challenges for many schools of thought and governments. Islamic Revolution especially caused instability and movement in the system of dominance in the world.
Hence, facing with this freeing movement has been placed as a strategy in politics of dominant governments and dependent systems. And those who had been damaged by this resurrection united directly and indirectly to overthrow, damage and stop the brilliant waves of Islamic Revolution. They put in their agenda different types of fight with our Revolution including cultural aggression, siege, economic sanctions, security limitations and finally military attack. They started to test different ways in order that they probably achieve their wicked target which is overthrowing Islamic Revolution.
But since Islamic Revolution was an event with its special characteristic, defending the objectives of Islamic Revolution in its entirety and especially sacred defense was unique; because technologies of east and west the world and converging with regional movements were placed in one unified battle field in order to weaken the movements of seeking independence, freedom and Islam. The top point of this plot of enemies was appeared in the form of the imposed war and resistance of Iranian nation led by Imam Khomeini. And the Islamic Iran stood against imperialist dominant countries lonely and relying on efforts of Iranian self sacrificed men and women. And in an unequal battle, the Islamic Iran could defeat all plots of enemies relying on God’s help. Iran opened its way again and could continue the path of seeking independence and freedom by today.
Now after years that have passed since the end of war, “Foundation for Preservation of Monuments and Dissemination of Values of Sacred Defense”? as the true responsible foundation respects memories of sacred defense epic with complete awareness and carrying out required cultural activities.
By holding annual sacred defense book festivals, this foundation makes efforts to preserve values of sacred defense and transfer the message of epic creators of sacred defense to the next generations. And this foundation has been able to value works of people who truly continued the way of sacred defense by carrying out such cultural activity. This foundation has been also able to pave grounds for the second and third generations of Islamic Revolution to be flourished and improved. These second and third generations of Islamic Revolution are somehow familiar with the movements which resulted in victory in war. This way, “Foundation for Preservation of Monuments and Dissemination of Values of Sacred Defense”? has been able to transfer the message of brave men and women in the field of war to every one in all parts of our Islamic homeland.
It is obvious that we require long term and classified programs in order to achieve the basic objectives of this cultural activity. And it will be merely possible through wide participation of writers, publishers and artists while being away from deviations and personal tastes. They should work in groups and think simply and merely aim at producing economic works in order to achieve this objective.
This article intends to pave grounds for the festivals to achieve a hopeful future with particular objectives by studying, criticizing and pathology of held festivals.
Because as Imam Ali said: “Only continuation of lessons from experiences will result in creation of insight and deep view.”?
Reviewing the Past:
Considering mentioned statistics and numbers, holding 12 festivals of sacred defense book has been a valuable and influential work with precious objectives. More than 400 titles of books with the subject of sacred defense were published in 1386 (2007-2008).
Apart from quality and quantity, the scientific, cultural and artistic works participated in these festivals were the results of efforts made by committed writers and artists. They made these efforts as self motivated and without expecting regular awards and prizes. They made their best efforts to express war and sacred defense epics. And these works generally had wonderful effects on the society such that we can bravely claim what teenagers and young people know about sacred defense is the result of cultural and artistic activities carried out by these dear committed people. We should now however ignore the leading and managing role of festivals in paving grounds for transferring messages and encouraging activities in particular.
Total carried out activities have been glorious activities which should be encouraged, honored and appreciated; because these festivals paved grounds for books and artistic works to be displayed for talented and non-talented audience groups; but comparing with global similar festivals, it is not sufficient at all. In this respect it is better to read the following example:
During one year after the attack of Americans to Iraq in “Desert Storm”? War which was launched with the excuse of freeing Kuwait, Americans published and produced 5000 titles of books and cultural products to justify their action which was carried out to dominate and intervene in the region. Using their unlimited power in media, they paved grounds for translating these cultural products to most of common languages in the world. And they transferred their false message of seeking freedom to the ears of the people in all around the world such that nowadays many of people in Africa and Asia can express opinions about what America and its allies have done in this region. They unfortunately criticize and study issues according to the will of global expansionism. In other words and in a simpler explanation, we can say that public opinions were formed to the benefit of their aggressive policies. And it is while this war lasted less than five months. And 17 countries supported this war directly and more countries supported this war indirectly. In fact, all these countries supported the war against a country with an unsteady leadership to gain an apparent victory. And if commanders and leadership of Iraq did not converge upon this aggressive attack maybe disgraceful result would be gained similar to what is happening at the present time.
In contrary, a look at mentioned presented statistics and numbers as a reliable reference shows the fact that we have not only been unable to provide interested compatriots with information about how we defended our country while we were alone against the devil unity of east and west and their regional supporters, but also only few people interested in real information about the imposed war in foreign countries have heard our voice and oppression.
This is while the nature of our victory over the enemy which was fully armed and benefited from oil selling incomes Oil dollars) and also benefited from the support of the mental war of media can be the subject of research for numerous research and epic works. And it can be put as the agenda for what should be carried out in order that current shortages inside and outside the country are eliminated and an acceptable cover of artistic and cultural works are formed.
What Must Be Done?
“Foundation for Preservation of Monuments and Dissemination of Values of Sacred Defense”? is one of the main and organized foundations which are responsible for managing creation of artistic and sacred defense related works. And “Festival of Sacred Defense Book of the Year”? is a place for evaluating quality and quantity of these produced works. This festival is responsible to identify status and rank of writers, researchers and publishers in the field of sacred defense in a one- year period of time.
Analyzing and criticizing the performance of the festival starts since the point that:
The current atmosphere ruling on supervising the activity of the festival shows that management of the festival has limited its responsibility to information dissemination, scheduling stages of holding the festival, receiving books and classifying them, selecting fair and knowledgeable judges, holding the festival on time and in an acceptable and honorable way, awarding some prizes and finally closing the festival office till the coming year.
That is while if we look at the issue positively and accept that these stages of the festival are complete and the festival has been held well, it is merely one page in the notebook of duties of this festival; because as we mentioned above, studying the quality and quantity of created books in this festival can only pave grounds for encouraging creation of glorious books and writing about such important subjects due to having compiled information regarding quality and quantity of books and suitable people who are able to produce such books.
And we require collective wisdom and team work in order that this important duty is fulfilled; but some points of view are clear and effective.
1: We Should Think
1: Collection of Articles of Conference on Honoring Esfahan Martyrs, Page 40
Quranic researches show that one thirteenth of Holy Quran is about inviting people to thinking, expediency and wisdom. And it doubles our today’s duty 1 (explained above). Thinking and being serious in seeking the truth and research are the most important methods to achieve the answers of main questions that we face with. And it, itself requires enough bravery in telling the truth in many cases.
If we want to be present in defense thoughts mentally we should have a growing thought and be curious in its requirements.
If we do not think and we do not write about our war other people will fill this gap and they will work instead of us; it was the war that we paid lots of materialistic and spiritual price for it. Others have been able to impose war in the military and security vacuum that existed during the first years after Islamic Revolution.
The historical and very obvious example of this weakness (Not thinking) is expressed in the Book “Rouh-ol Ghavanin”? (The Spirit of the Laws) as quoting Montesquieu who imposed his western tastes and values in eastern countries of the world. Montesquieu has discussed separation of triple powers for comfort of human being. And in other part of the book, Montesquieu has written: “It is impossible to believe that black people are human beings.”?
It seems that he is smart enough to distinguish that black people are also human beings. This is while at least 1000 years before Montesquieu the Islamic culture of Iran has stated equality of human beings apart from their colors, races and languages. He has been able to write such things merely by using superior propaganda instrument of west and also our weakness and negligence in expressing and telling the truth. And the world has known him as the supporter of human rights for years. And even today maybe the world knows him as the supporter of human rights.
We have lots to say in order to show the 8 year resistance of our combatants during years of sacred defense. These will be the most pleasant stories that the future generations will hear about us. Besides, using these valuable experiences in facing with different issues will form the base of the future too. 1 (explained bellow)
Telling these words is one of the necessities that are completely felt at the present time. And narrating the history of war is a very important and critical issue that we should do.
Hence, if we know and we are able to write but we do not write it means that we have truly treated unfairly to sacred defense and we are responsible. It is obvious that committed thinkers and intelligent people, politicians, commanders and those who have had responsibilities during sacred defense and doubtlessly have wide information should not sit back and do nothing. They have lots of information and can explain different angles of sacred and answer to many questions that the society has in this regard. They should not say that war has passed and time has made it meaningless. They should not have the excuse that war has not finished yet 2 (explained bellow) or the excuse that they have not classified their information yet. They should not merely fulfill their duty by narrating some ordinary memories about sacred defense and telling tactic information. They owe to war. They should know that only God remains alive. And human beings will die soon or late like other examples such as Major General Martyr Ali Sayyad Shirazi, Martyr Chamran, etc. And when we lose them the society will not gain the information they had about sacred defense.
1: Quarterly of Resistance Culture, Page 40, Speeches of Amir (Commander) Major General Sattari
2: There are some people who say writing about war, focusing on war and writing the history of war is meaningless; because the war has not finished. They believe that writing about war is kind of spreading information and helping the enemy. They believe that we should merely collect information and documents about war and make documentaries about war. This is while the same group of people believes that the world is changing so fast that every 10 years (And even less than every 10 years), the information becomes unworthy due passing of the time. The question is that if the war continues, why public opinions throughout the world has not focused on this war and even one piece of news or commentary about this war has not been published during the past 3 months, 6 moths and even the last one year. That is while this group of people believes that war is continuing and public opinions pays special attention to even one simple issue and repeats any unimportant event and issue tens of times and hundreds of times.
Hence, the fact that we think war has not finished yet is rooted in being conservative and being afraid of side effects in flowing movement of information. That is while we know our people at the same time. And we believe in the fact that the society is understanding and wise in contact with different movements.
2:
2: We Should Conduct Researches
What questions exist? How should the questions be answered? Who can give suitable answers? And how can we encourage them to answer to the questions? How can we transfer these answers to audiences? And finally, are the answers sufficient and justifiable or not?
Although it seems difficult to solve this problem; but men of action and hard working men do not consider it as out of access. They are not afraid of amount of job and difficulty of the path; but they plan for reaching to the destination. The result of such research is achieving the subjects that should be focused, noticed and attached priority.
In an Example in the World:
In order to justify the defeat of Germany in World War II in 1939 (It means only 20 years after World War I) researchers and scientists in the field of the humanity in Germany announced that the most important reason of defeat of Germany in World War I has been neglecting the weapon of propaganda and the effective use of this weapon by Germany’s competitors in the war. Immediately, they employed teams consisted of experts and researchers for conducting research in this field in order to teach lessons about the reasons of defeat of their attack to other countries and also eliminating this shortage and giving the answer to Germany society of that particular time. Giving this example does not however mean that major subjects that the society faces with are totally security and protecting issues; but they can include a simple social issue which is important at the same time and is not paid attention at all or is paid less attention.
For Example:
* The fact that no camps were made for the people damaged from war and the immigrants who immigrated from their war torn cities during our war; while making such camps is common in the world. And these immigrants were simply absorbed by families in other cities and villages. This subject can be the subject of a wide social research and will doubtlessly have miraculous results. And such research may present new models for the people of the world.
* Observing rights of war prisoners can be a good subject for studying and conducting researches. Rights of war prisoners were observed in the excellent possible way and even more than what had been predicted in international treaties. And even one case of infringement was not reported against Iran. In these researches, the condition of Iraqi captives in Iran with Iranian captives and what Iraqis did during war in Iran in the opposite battle field can be compared. They massacred war captives, destroyed and set on fire the houses, farms and agricultural lands that they occupied. They captured women and children and plundered people’s properties and destroyed cultural monuments. They even destroyed mosques. And these actions are very meaningful. And at the top point of these actions the moving and improving culture of Iranian people appears.
* What has remained on minds of people of the world about the name of Japanese “Kamikazes”? shows reviewing this action after war and analyzing it such that “Kamikazes”? are mentioned as an example when ever people speak about bravery and unequal battle nowadays? This is while this action carried out by tens of pilots in Japan is not comparable with spirit of seeking martyrdom and self sacrifice in our combatants who widely and in a self motivated way defended our territorial integrity and stood against aggressive spirit of the enemy during war with Iraq. Transferring this message to the people of the world can be effective in transferring the message of seeking independence and freedom in a global scale.
In front of this self sacrificing politics, in many of wars in contemporary era, the enemy had chosen the attack to non military regions and killing innocent people consisted of women and children and old people as well as destroying places and causing fear in these regions.
* Now the question is what effects did the behavior and performance of our military forces cause on the current culture of contemporary world? And we know that their behavior is rooted in constructive lessons of Islam and rich culture of Iranian people. Were our combatants successful in teaching the people of the world that war should also obey moral regulations and conditions of human being? And were they successful in telling that the culture of sacrificing blood and accepting volunteer death are more successful than guns and complicated war equipments? And this fact brings up another key question. And this question is if the culture of managing war and behavior of military forces in battle fields of sacred defense is different with war management that is common in the world or not? And what effects do these differences cause in motivating the spirit of seeking martyrdom in the world? And these questions will finally challenge aggressive attacks and seeking dominance.
* The high number of killed military forces, especially martyrdom of a large number of key and important commanders in war is a unique statistical example in history of wars and even world wars. What justified reason can we mention for this statistics? And if they were not justified, how can we decrease the damages caused by that to the minimum in order that combatants will not face it as a tactic challenge in the future? Or this can be due to the active attitude of commanders and key person towards military operation that they did not limit themselves to staying at their offices and explaining objectives and details of the operation from their offices; but they entered the field of action personally and made endless and multidimensional efforts and supervised on well performance of battle forces. Or in contrary, it is rooted in lack of programming and planning or neglecting the importance of protecting themselves as a functional command.
We should not forget if necessities of writing history of war is well observed and well clarified, the nature of sacred defense which is unique in recent one hundred years has numerous lessons in it to be learned by people. And grounds are paved for learning these lessons. What lesson can we learn from this event in relation with cultural, military issues?
This is the job that should be put in agenda of cultural officials of sacred defense. And writers and artists are able to encourage people to an action in a wide scale. And writing about sacred defense is the most important subject for writers. And committed writers will doubtlessly focus on this subject and will write about sacred defense if they are encouraged materialistically and spiritually.
The questions of the society about the imposed war are not endless; but considering passing of the time and some limitations and security issues and limitations about secret information are disappeared, we should act wisely and impose fewer limitations in order that major issues are included and consequently more and more specialized answers to questions are given.
Bringing up such questions by a specialized organization which defends values in its nature has some advantages; some of which are as follows:
* The questions that the society has in this regard will be appropriately led and canalized and consequently negative side effects will be considerably decreased; the negative side effects that some officials and lovers of Islamic Revolution might be concerned about them.
Besides, bringing up deviational questions which are asked by some partial people will be prevented this way.
By having such agenda, writers can lead their thoughts and finally their pen in writing about these subjects and they do not wait for subjects. By the way, we should not ignore damages of this action that canalizing the flowing movement of information in the society is one of them; but at the same time, we should not forget the fact that we face an unrestrained cultural attack which has targeted the society, the young people in particular and continuously attacks the young people with thought bombardment with its extraordinary media power.
3: Appropriate Targeting
We should not be involved in extempore words and policy making when evaluating books. And we should pave grounds such that every research work conducted in the field of sacred defense is valued. These research works should be valued either they are conducted by a person or an organization. We should not pay attention to the fact if it is published with a circulation of thousands of copies or it is written only in one copy. What matters is the value and content of the research and created work not side issues. We should pay attention to the fact that materialistic facilities might not be provided to some people to write a book in many pages and a book cover inlaid with gold letters.
4: Expressing Blessings of War
Blessings and numerous positive results of war in different aspects of social, cultural, political, and military, etc can be studied. These blessings and positive results are unique and undeniable.
Preventing cultural attack, preventing the influence of foreign thoughts, unity of people, creating self confidence and strengthening believing in oneself among Iranian nation and Islam seekers in the world, strengthening roots of Islamic Revolution and … and in one word insuring Islamic Revolution was one of the blessings of God that became fundamental in the society due to war. Meanwhile, we should express well that writing about war and focusing on this subject as well as valuing cultural and artistic activities years after war do not mean turning the society into a situation of security and making the war fundamental as the tool of seeking freedom and independence.
5: Damage of Distortion
History of an event such as war is written due to the fact that audiences are informed about how that event really occurred without changing and omitting some facts. Now if you narrate parts of that event due to any justified or unjustified reasons and you are not allowed to narrate the other parts of that event or you are conservative in narrating them and censor it consciously and observe some issues, then it means that you have distorted that event.
What I understand about the culture ruling on history writing of war is that we are caught in kind of going to extremes in most of subjects. We sometime exaggerate some subjects and prolong them and value them. And we sometimes ignore some facts and speak little about them and we act just opposite when we are exaggerating. Here I refer to what Mr Doroudian said: “We completely question existence and appropriateness of an event. We have never stood on the balance point; because we have not searched for the logic behind occurrence of events. The history of war should be able to answer to existing questions in the society unless no one will either read the calendar of war or the reports of operations in war. We should not think that criticisms and questions will destroy the foundation of this building; but the truth of war and the blood which was poured in this way are of an originality that can defend itself lonely.”? 1
1: Negin-e Iran (Iran’s Gem), Issue No 13, Page 22
Damages of distortion are not limited to what mentioned above; but if we act conservatively and do not make efforts as much as required, if we are involved in must and must not and play with words and in one word, if we kill the time, others will start to carry out actions in this regard. They distort to the benefit of their own by interfering in content and changing the reality. And it will cause lots of damages.
Mr. Mohsen Rezaee is one of the most informed people regarding issues about battle field and war because of his responsibilities during war. 2
2: 1: Negin-e Iran (Iran’s Gem), Issue No 22, Page 94
He has said: “There are some deviations waiting in ambush on sacred defense that should be noticed. One of them is the matter of distortion. There are some distortions being formed among narrators, reporters and writers of sacred defense at the present time. And we should think seriously about eliminating these distortions about sacred defense. There are some words said about the relationships between commanders during sacred defense. Many of these words are not true at all. I have heard some words about Martyr Hemmat. And many of them are not true at all. For example, it is said that there was an argument between Martyr Hemmat and one of the other friends of us (One of commanders). There are some words said about Martyr Sayyad Shirazi and his relationship with other commanders. And there are also some words said about what the Supreme Leader said during sacred defense. I have heard many distortions about sacred defense during the last two years; the distortions of the reality while such things never existed during sacred defense. Sometimes it is said that “Basiji”? people (Volunteer forces during sacred defense) were volunteer to pass through barbed wires and jumped on mine fields and other stepped on their dead bodies and moved ahead. Such a thing is absolutely lie. In order to make people cry deeply, some people distort realities of sacred defense while narrating them in mourning ceremonies as they make these distortions for Imam Hossein about the event of Karbala on Ashoura (Imam Hossein was martyred in Karbala on the 10th day of Moharram, the Arabic Month. This day is called Ashoura). We do not want to say that there were no exceptions; but such things did not exist. Distortion is one of the serious dangers and one of the serious damages that threatens researches. And you researchers! You should stand against such distortions and now it is the time to stop such distortions.”?
As for other aspects of distortion, we can refer to narrating only parts of the reality, narrating the reality not sufficiently, narrating in an unfinished way, narrating while mixing the reality with false things, narrating too much or narrating based on imaginations, etc. All these types of distortion are not only damaging, but also they damage the original history too. Writing the history of war from a point of view of realistic, critic and observing the regulations ruling on studying and criticism will help us to find our weak and strong points and also become more prepared for serious threats that the sound of drum of their infantrymen can be heard.
Immunizing the Society Culturally
Stabilizing values of sacred defense in the society and acting based on these values can be very effective in cultural and political immunizing. Hence, expressing values of sacred defense should include the message that victory of combatants was due to the fact that their souls and bodies were clean from all abominations that have made dirty most of societies of human beings; abominations such as drugs, sexual deviations, destruction of base of families, materialism, irreligion, crimes and suicide, theft and tens of other social difficulties.
In the shadow of these messages, the messengers in the field of art know what they should think about or what they should create. And receivers of messages will become ready about what message they receive and use. And they understand the difference between science and belief, technology and culture, immoral behaviors and freedom, corruption and art, championship and heroism and self-sacrifice as well as unity and dependence. And the receivers of messages will know the received messages and evaluate them.
Conclusion:
If I am accused as a person who shows facts black and negative, I should say that considering mentioned titles of books produced during past 2 or 3 years, we can come to the result that some organizations and writers have decided to produce books with any price and under any conditions. They aim at presenting high statistics in producing books. I believe that the border between cultural products and industrial products has been eliminated. Some people have mistaken industrial products for cultural products.
The characteristics of cultural products are defined in their quality, being excellent, attractiveness and worth. That is while characteristics of industrial products can be defined in quantity with the objective of less finished price. No one with any degree of science and wisdom expects that we produce a book with invaluable content; a book that is lie and full of distortions and superstitions. No one wants a book that is rewritten; but it is not expensive. Doubtlessly, if the book does not have characteristics of value it will not have audiences.
This is while even governments expect low quality industrial products such as textile, etc. with low prices nowadays. And such products have still their own customers.
In conclusion of this article, I suggest that a list of important sacred defense subjects which have been less noticed is prepared. And if such a list is prepared, it will pave the ground for negative effects of canalizing thoughts.
This is however a subject that requires collective wisdom. And if it is recognized as a good action, it will be effective in creating and leading art works towards considered important subjects.
In Final Paragraph:
We have finished one of the longest wars in contemporary era. We have passed ups and downs as it was expected. We should either write or pave the grounds for writing in order to learn lessons from war and benefiting from experiences of this war. We should merely observe telling the truth and the free movement of information in our writings. We should not search for documents by which we show that it was others’ fault in order to exonerate ourselves. We should not think about making ourselves big by making others small, humble and worthless. We should write the history considering what has really occurred. We should merely write the history considering what had happened. And any writer, organization or foundation should make efforts and spend facilities for disseminating information appropriately in order that the future generations find themselves as people with strong background and identity by studying this history and information. It is not necessary that they are proud of what we have done; but they should know what we have done and judge it.
Writer: Heybatollah Assadi
During the last thirty years, Islamic Revolution has been focused in the world as an important change. And considering its essence that was fighting with hegemony, Islamic Revolution has caused major changes and influences such that it brought challenges for many schools of thought and governments. Islamic Revolution especially caused instability and movement in the system of dominance in the world.
Hence, facing with this freeing movement has been placed as a strategy in politics of dominant governments and dependent systems. And those who had been damaged by this resurrection united directly and indirectly to overthrow, damage and stop the brilliant waves of Islamic Revolution. They put in their agenda different types of fight with our Revolution including cultural aggression, siege, economic sanctions, security limitations and finally military attack. They started to test different ways in order that they probably achieve their wicked target which is overthrowing Islamic Revolution.
But since Islamic Revolution was an event with its special characteristic, defending the objectives of Islamic Revolution in its entirety and especially sacred defense was unique; because technologies of east and west the world and converging with regional movements were placed in one unified battle field in order to weaken the movements of seeking independence, freedom and Islam. The top point of this plot of enemies was appeared in the form of the imposed war and resistance of Iranian nation led by Imam Khomeini. And the Islamic Iran stood against imperialist dominant countries lonely and relying on efforts of Iranian self sacrificed men and women. And in an unequal battle, the Islamic Iran could defeat all plots of enemies relying on God’s help. Iran opened its way again and could continue the path of seeking independence and freedom by today.
Now after years that have passed since the end of war, “Foundation for Preservation of Monuments and Dissemination of Values of Sacred Defense”? as the true responsible foundation respects memories of sacred defense epic with complete awareness and carrying out required cultural activities.
By holding annual sacred defense book festivals, this foundation makes efforts to preserve values of sacred defense and transfer the message of epic creators of sacred defense to the next generations. And this foundation has been able to value works of people who truly continued the way of sacred defense by carrying out such cultural activity. This foundation has been also able to pave grounds for the second and third generations of Islamic Revolution to be flourished and improved. These second and third generations of Islamic Revolution are somehow familiar with the movements which resulted in victory in war. This way, “Foundation for Preservation of Monuments and Dissemination of Values of Sacred Defense”? has been able to transfer the message of brave men and women in the field of war to every one in all parts of our Islamic homeland.
It is obvious that we require long term and classified programs in order to achieve the basic objectives of this cultural activity. And it will be merely possible through wide participation of writers, publishers and artists while being away from deviations and personal tastes. They should work in groups and think simply and merely aim at producing economic works in order to achieve this objective.
This article intends to pave grounds for the festivals to achieve a hopeful future with particular objectives by studying, criticizing and pathology of held festivals.
Because as Imam Ali said: “Only continuation of lessons from experiences will result in creation of insight and deep view.”?
Reviewing the Past:
Considering mentioned statistics and numbers, holding 12 festivals of sacred defense book has been a valuable and influential work with precious objectives. More than 400 titles of books with the subject of sacred defense were published in 1386 (2007-2008).
Apart from quality and quantity, the scientific, cultural and artistic works participated in these festivals were the results of efforts made by committed writers and artists. They made these efforts as self motivated and without expecting regular awards and prizes. They made their best efforts to express war and sacred defense epics. And these works generally had wonderful effects on the society such that we can bravely claim what teenagers and young people know about sacred defense is the result of cultural and artistic activities carried out by these dear committed people. We should now however ignore the leading and managing role of festivals in paving grounds for transferring messages and encouraging activities in particular.
Total carried out activities have been glorious activities which should be encouraged, honored and appreciated; because these festivals paved grounds for books and artistic works to be displayed for talented and non-talented audience groups; but comparing with global similar festivals, it is not sufficient at all. In this respect it is better to read the following example:
During one year after the attack of Americans to Iraq in “Desert Storm”? War which was launched with the excuse of freeing Kuwait, Americans published and produced 5000 titles of books and cultural products to justify their action which was carried out to dominate and intervene in the region. Using their unlimited power in media, they paved grounds for translating these cultural products to most of common languages in the world. And they transferred their false message of seeking freedom to the ears of the people in all around the world such that nowadays many of people in Africa and Asia can express opinions about what America and its allies have done in this region. They unfortunately criticize and study issues according to the will of global expansionism. In other words and in a simpler explanation, we can say that public opinions were formed to the benefit of their aggressive policies. And it is while this war lasted less than five months. And 17 countries supported this war directly and more countries supported this war indirectly. In fact, all these countries supported the war against a country with an unsteady leadership to gain an apparent victory. And if commanders and leadership of Iraq did not converge upon this aggressive attack maybe disgraceful result would be gained similar to what is happening at the present time.
In contrary, a look at mentioned presented statistics and numbers as a reliable reference shows the fact that we have not only been unable to provide interested compatriots with information about how we defended our country while we were alone against the devil unity of east and west and their regional supporters, but also only few people interested in real information about the imposed war in foreign countries have heard our voice and oppression.
This is while the nature of our victory over the enemy which was fully armed and benefited from oil selling incomes Oil dollars) and also benefited from the support of the mental war of media can be the subject of research for numerous research and epic works. And it can be put as the agenda for what should be carried out in order that current shortages inside and outside the country are eliminated and an acceptable cover of artistic and cultural works are formed.
What Must Be Done?
“Foundation for Preservation of Monuments and Dissemination of Values of Sacred Defense”? is one of the main and organized foundations which are responsible for managing creation of artistic and sacred defense related works. And “Festival of Sacred Defense Book of the Year”? is a place for evaluating quality and quantity of these produced works. This festival is responsible to identify status and rank of writers, researchers and publishers in the field of sacred defense in a one- year period of time.
Analyzing and criticizing the performance of the festival starts since the point that:
The current atmosphere ruling on supervising the activity of the festival shows that management of the festival has limited its responsibility to information dissemination, scheduling stages of holding the festival, receiving books and classifying them, selecting fair and knowledgeable judges, holding the festival on time and in an acceptable and honorable way, awarding some prizes and finally closing the festival office till the coming year.
That is while if we look at the issue positively and accept that these stages of the festival are complete and the festival has been held well, it is merely one page in the notebook of duties of this festival; because as we mentioned above, studying the quality and quantity of created books in this festival can only pave grounds for encouraging creation of glorious books and writing about such important subjects due to having compiled information regarding quality and quantity of books and suitable people who are able to produce such books.
And we require collective wisdom and team work in order that this important duty is fulfilled; but some points of view are clear and effective.
1: We Should Think
1: Collection of Articles of Conference on Honoring Esfahan Martyrs, Page 40
Quranic researches show that one thirteenth of Holy Quran is about inviting people to thinking, expediency and wisdom. And it doubles our today’s duty 1 (explained above). Thinking and being serious in seeking the truth and research are the most important methods to achieve the answers of main questions that we face with. And it, itself requires enough bravery in telling the truth in many cases.
If we want to be present in defense thoughts mentally we should have a growing thought and be curious in its requirements.
If we do not think and we do not write about our war other people will fill this gap and they will work instead of us; it was the war that we paid lots of materialistic and spiritual price for it. Others have been able to impose war in the military and security vacuum that existed during the first years after Islamic Revolution.
The historical and very obvious example of this weakness (Not thinking) is expressed in the Book “Rouh-ol Ghavanin”? (The Spirit of the Laws) as quoting Montesquieu who imposed his western tastes and values in eastern countries of the world. Montesquieu has discussed separation of triple powers for comfort of human being. And in other part of the book, Montesquieu has written: “It is impossible to believe that black people are human beings.”?
It seems that he is smart enough to distinguish that black people are also human beings. This is while at least 1000 years before Montesquieu the Islamic culture of Iran has stated equality of human beings apart from their colors, races and languages. He has been able to write such things merely by using superior propaganda instrument of west and also our weakness and negligence in expressing and telling the truth. And the world has known him as the supporter of human rights for years. And even today maybe the world knows him as the supporter of human rights.
We have lots to say in order to show the 8 year resistance of our combatants during years of sacred defense. These will be the most pleasant stories that the future generations will hear about us. Besides, using these valuable experiences in facing with different issues will form the base of the future too. 1 (explained bellow)
Telling these words is one of the necessities that are completely felt at the present time. And narrating the history of war is a very important and critical issue that we should do.
Hence, if we know and we are able to write but we do not write it means that we have truly treated unfairly to sacred defense and we are responsible. It is obvious that committed thinkers and intelligent people, politicians, commanders and those who have had responsibilities during sacred defense and doubtlessly have wide information should not sit back and do nothing. They have lots of information and can explain different angles of sacred and answer to many questions that the society has in this regard. They should not say that war has passed and time has made it meaningless. They should not have the excuse that war has not finished yet 2 (explained bellow) or the excuse that they have not classified their information yet. They should not merely fulfill their duty by narrating some ordinary memories about sacred defense and telling tactic information. They owe to war. They should know that only God remains alive. And human beings will die soon or late like other examples such as Major General Martyr Ali Sayyad Shirazi, Martyr Chamran, etc. And when we lose them the society will not gain the information they had about sacred defense.
1: Quarterly of Resistance Culture, Page 40, Speeches of Amir (Commander) Major General Sattari
2: There are some people who say writing about war, focusing on war and writing the history of war is meaningless; because the war has not finished. They believe that writing about war is kind of spreading information and helping the enemy. They believe that we should merely collect information and documents about war and make documentaries about war. This is while the same group of people believes that the world is changing so fast that every 10 years (And even less than every 10 years), the information becomes unworthy due passing of the time. The question is that if the war continues, why public opinions throughout the world has not focused on this war and even one piece of news or commentary about this war has not been published during the past 3 months, 6 moths and even the last one year. That is while this group of people believes that war is continuing and public opinions pays special attention to even one simple issue and repeats any unimportant event and issue tens of times and hundreds of times.
Hence, the fact that we think war has not finished yet is rooted in being conservative and being afraid of side effects in flowing movement of information. That is while we know our people at the same time. And we believe in the fact that the society is understanding and wise in contact with different movements.
2:
2: We Should Conduct Researches
What questions exist? How should the questions be answered? Who can give suitable answers? And how can we encourage them to answer to the questions? How can we transfer these answers to audiences? And finally, are the answers sufficient and justifiable or not?
Although it seems difficult to solve this problem; but men of action and hard working men do not consider it as out of access. They are not afraid of amount of job and difficulty of the path; but they plan for reaching to the destination. The result of such research is achieving the subjects that should be focused, noticed and attached priority.
In an Example in the World:
In order to justify the defeat of Germany in World War II in 1939 (It means only 20 years after World War I) researchers and scientists in the field of the humanity in Germany announced that the most important reason of defeat of Germany in World War I has been neglecting the weapon of propaganda and the effective use of this weapon by Germany’s competitors in the war. Immediately, they employed teams consisted of experts and researchers for conducting research in this field in order to teach lessons about the reasons of defeat of their attack to other countries and also eliminating this shortage and giving the answer to Germany society of that particular time. Giving this example does not however mean that major subjects that the society faces with are totally security and protecting issues; but they can include a simple social issue which is important at the same time and is not paid attention at all or is paid less attention.
For Example:
* The fact that no camps were made for the people damaged from war and the immigrants who immigrated from their war torn cities during our war; while making such camps is common in the world. And these immigrants were simply absorbed by families in other cities and villages. This subject can be the subject of a wide social research and will doubtlessly have miraculous results. And such research may present new models for the people of the world.
* Observing rights of war prisoners can be a good subject for studying and conducting researches. Rights of war prisoners were observed in the excellent possible way and even more than what had been predicted in international treaties. And even one case of infringement was not reported against Iran. In these researches, the condition of Iraqi captives in Iran with Iranian captives and what Iraqis did during war in Iran in the opposite battle field can be compared. They massacred war captives, destroyed and set on fire the houses, farms and agricultural lands that they occupied. They captured women and children and plundered people’s properties and destroyed cultural monuments. They even destroyed mosques. And these actions are very meaningful. And at the top point of these actions the moving and improving culture of Iranian people appears.
* What has remained on minds of people of the world about the name of Japanese “Kamikazes”? shows reviewing this action after war and analyzing it such that “Kamikazes”? are mentioned as an example when ever people speak about bravery and unequal battle nowadays? This is while this action carried out by tens of pilots in Japan is not comparable with spirit of seeking martyrdom and self sacrifice in our combatants who widely and in a self motivated way defended our territorial integrity and stood against aggressive spirit of the enemy during war with Iraq. Transferring this message to the people of the world can be effective in transferring the message of seeking independence and freedom in a global scale.
In front of this self sacrificing politics, in many of wars in contemporary era, the enemy had chosen the attack to non military regions and killing innocent people consisted of women and children and old people as well as destroying places and causing fear in these regions.
* Now the question is what effects did the behavior and performance of our military forces cause on the current culture of contemporary world? And we know that their behavior is rooted in constructive lessons of Islam and rich culture of Iranian people. Were our combatants successful in teaching the people of the world that war should also obey moral regulations and conditions of human being? And were they successful in telling that the culture of sacrificing blood and accepting volunteer death are more successful than guns and complicated war equipments? And this fact brings up another key question. And this question is if the culture of managing war and behavior of military forces in battle fields of sacred defense is different with war management that is common in the world or not? And what effects do these differences cause in motivating the spirit of seeking martyrdom in the world? And these questions will finally challenge aggressive attacks and seeking dominance.
* The high number of killed military forces, especially martyrdom of a large number of key and important commanders in war is a unique statistical example in history of wars and even world wars. What justified reason can we mention for this statistics? And if they were not justified, how can we decrease the damages caused by that to the minimum in order that combatants will not face it as a tactic challenge in the future? Or this can be due to the active attitude of commanders and key person towards military operation that they did not limit themselves to staying at their offices and explaining objectives and details of the operation from their offices; but they entered the field of action personally and made endless and multidimensional efforts and supervised on well performance of battle forces. Or in contrary, it is rooted in lack of programming and planning or neglecting the importance of protecting themselves as a functional command.
We should not forget if necessities of writing history of war is well observed and well clarified, the nature of sacred defense which is unique in recent one hundred years has numerous lessons in it to be learned by people. And grounds are paved for learning these lessons. What lesson can we learn from this event in relation with cultural, military issues?
This is the job that should be put in agenda of cultural officials of sacred defense. And writers and artists are able to encourage people to an action in a wide scale. And writing about sacred defense is the most important subject for writers. And committed writers will doubtlessly focus on this subject and will write about sacred defense if they are encouraged materialistically and spiritually.
The questions of the society about the imposed war are not endless; but considering passing of the time and some limitations and security issues and limitations about secret information are disappeared, we should act wisely and impose fewer limitations in order that major issues are included and consequently more and more specialized answers to questions are given.
Bringing up such questions by a specialized organization which defends values in its nature has some advantages; some of which are as follows:
* The questions that the society has in this regard will be appropriately led and canalized and consequently negative side effects will be considerably decreased; the negative side effects that some officials and lovers of Islamic Revolution might be concerned about them.
Besides, bringing up deviational questions which are asked by some partial people will be prevented this way.
By having such agenda, writers can lead their thoughts and finally their pen in writing about these subjects and they do not wait for subjects. By the way, we should not ignore damages of this action that canalizing the flowing movement of information in the society is one of them; but at the same time, we should not forget the fact that we face an unrestrained cultural attack which has targeted the society, the young people in particular and continuously attacks the young people with thought bombardment with its extraordinary media power.
3: Appropriate Targeting
We should not be involved in extempore words and policy making when evaluating books. And we should pave grounds such that every research work conducted in the field of sacred defense is valued. These research works should be valued either they are conducted by a person or an organization. We should not pay attention to the fact if it is published with a circulation of thousands of copies or it is written only in one copy. What matters is the value and content of the research and created work not side issues. We should pay attention to the fact that materialistic facilities might not be provided to some people to write a book in many pages and a book cover inlaid with gold letters.
4: Expressing Blessings of War
Blessings and numerous positive results of war in different aspects of social, cultural, political, and military, etc can be studied. These blessings and positive results are unique and undeniable.
Preventing cultural attack, preventing the influence of foreign thoughts, unity of people, creating self confidence and strengthening believing in oneself among Iranian nation and Islam seekers in the world, strengthening roots of Islamic Revolution and … and in one word insuring Islamic Revolution was one of the blessings of God that became fundamental in the society due to war. Meanwhile, we should express well that writing about war and focusing on this subject as well as valuing cultural and artistic activities years after war do not mean turning the society into a situation of security and making the war fundamental as the tool of seeking freedom and independence.
5: Damage of Distortion
History of an event such as war is written due to the fact that audiences are informed about how that event really occurred without changing and omitting some facts. Now if you narrate parts of that event due to any justified or unjustified reasons and you are not allowed to narrate the other parts of that event or you are conservative in narrating them and censor it consciously and observe some issues, then it means that you have distorted that event.
What I understand about the culture ruling on history writing of war is that we are caught in kind of going to extremes in most of subjects. We sometime exaggerate some subjects and prolong them and value them. And we sometimes ignore some facts and speak little about them and we act just opposite when we are exaggerating. Here I refer to what Mr Doroudian said: “We completely question existence and appropriateness of an event. We have never stood on the balance point; because we have not searched for the logic behind occurrence of events. The history of war should be able to answer to existing questions in the society unless no one will either read the calendar of war or the reports of operations in war. We should not think that criticisms and questions will destroy the foundation of this building; but the truth of war and the blood which was poured in this way are of an originality that can defend itself lonely.”? 1
1: Negin-e Iran (Iran’s Gem), Issue No 13, Page 22
Damages of distortion are not limited to what mentioned above; but if we act conservatively and do not make efforts as much as required, if we are involved in must and must not and play with words and in one word, if we kill the time, others will start to carry out actions in this regard. They distort to the benefit of their own by interfering in content and changing the reality. And it will cause lots of damages.
Mr. Mohsen Rezaee is one of the most informed people regarding issues about battle field and war because of his responsibilities during war. 2
2: 1: Negin-e Iran (Iran’s Gem), Issue No 22, Page 94
He has said: “There are some deviations waiting in ambush on sacred defense that should be noticed. One of them is the matter of distortion. There are some distortions being formed among narrators, reporters and writers of sacred defense at the present time. And we should think seriously about eliminating these distortions about sacred defense. There are some words said about the relationships between commanders during sacred defense. Many of these words are not true at all. I have heard some words about Martyr Hemmat. And many of them are not true at all. For example, it is said that there was an argument between Martyr Hemmat and one of the other friends of us (One of commanders). There are some words said about Martyr Sayyad Shirazi and his relationship with other commanders. And there are also some words said about what the Supreme Leader said during sacred defense. I have heard many distortions about sacred defense during the last two years; the distortions of the reality while such things never existed during sacred defense. Sometimes it is said that “Basiji”? people (Volunteer forces during sacred defense) were volunteer to pass through barbed wires and jumped on mine fields and other stepped on their dead bodies and moved ahead. Such a thing is absolutely lie. In order to make people cry deeply, some people distort realities of sacred defense while narrating them in mourning ceremonies as they make these distortions for Imam Hossein about the event of Karbala on Ashoura (Imam Hossein was martyred in Karbala on the 10th day of Moharram, the Arabic Month. This day is called Ashoura). We do not want to say that there were no exceptions; but such things did not exist. Distortion is one of the serious dangers and one of the serious damages that threatens researches. And you researchers! You should stand against such distortions and now it is the time to stop such distortions.”?
As for other aspects of distortion, we can refer to narrating only parts of the reality, narrating the reality not sufficiently, narrating in an unfinished way, narrating while mixing the reality with false things, narrating too much or narrating based on imaginations, etc. All these types of distortion are not only damaging, but also they damage the original history too. Writing the history of war from a point of view of realistic, critic and observing the regulations ruling on studying and criticism will help us to find our weak and strong points and also become more prepared for serious threats that the sound of drum of their infantrymen can be heard.
Immunizing the Society Culturally
Stabilizing values of sacred defense in the society and acting based on these values can be very effective in cultural and political immunizing. Hence, expressing values of sacred defense should include the message that victory of combatants was due to the fact that their souls and bodies were clean from all abominations that have made dirty most of societies of human beings; abominations such as drugs, sexual deviations, destruction of base of families, materialism, irreligion, crimes and suicide, theft and tens of other social difficulties.
In the shadow of these messages, the messengers in the field of art know what they should think about or what they should create. And receivers of messages will become ready about what message they receive and use. And they understand the difference between science and belief, technology and culture, immoral behaviors and freedom, corruption and art, championship and heroism and self-sacrifice as well as unity and dependence. And the receivers of messages will know the received messages and evaluate them.
Conclusion:
If I am accused as a person who shows facts black and negative, I should say that considering mentioned titles of books produced during past 2 or 3 years, we can come to the result that some organizations and writers have decided to produce books with any price and under any conditions. They aim at presenting high statistics in producing books. I believe that the border between cultural products and industrial products has been eliminated. Some people have mistaken industrial products for cultural products.
The characteristics of cultural products are defined in their quality, being excellent, attractiveness and worth. That is while characteristics of industrial products can be defined in quantity with the objective of less finished price. No one with any degree of science and wisdom expects that we produce a book with invaluable content; a book that is lie and full of distortions and superstitions. No one wants a book that is rewritten; but it is not expensive. Doubtlessly, if the book does not have characteristics of value it will not have audiences.
This is while even governments expect low quality industrial products such as textile, etc. with low prices nowadays. And such products have still their own customers.
In conclusion of this article, I suggest that a list of important sacred defense subjects which have been less noticed is prepared. And if such a list is prepared, it will pave the ground for negative effects of canalizing thoughts.
This is however a subject that requires collective wisdom. And if it is recognized as a good action, it will be effective in creating and leading art works towards considered important subjects.
In Final Paragraph:
We have finished one of the longest wars in contemporary era. We have passed ups and downs as it was expected. We should either write or pave the grounds for writing in order to learn lessons from war and benefiting from experiences of this war. We should merely observe telling the truth and the free movement of information in our writings. We should not search for documents by which we show that it was others’ fault in order to exonerate ourselves. We should not think about making ourselves big by making others small, humble and worthless. We should write the history considering what has really occurred. We should merely write the history considering what had happened. And any writer, organization or foundation should make efforts and spend facilities for disseminating information appropriately in order that the future generations find themselves as people with strong background and identity by studying this history and information. It is not necessary that they are proud of what we have done; but they should know what we have done and judge it.
Writer: Heybatollah Assadi
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