Former Muslim: Islam causes Middle East violence

LIMA — Daniel Shayesteh knows firsthand of the fighting in the Middle East.
And he said he knows why Hezbollah militia is fighting Israel from Lebanon.
“Islam is not a peaceful religion,” Shayesteh said. “We see that Islam is fighting all nations. They blame America. No, look at the Quran. Quran is saying this.”
Shayesteh, 50, was born in Iran and was a self-proclaimed militant Muslim. He helped Ayatollah Khomeini rise to power and force the Shah of Iran into exile in 1979.
Israel and Lebanon have been fighting since July 12. Two Israeli soldiers were captured by Hezbollah guerillas and prompted an aggressive offensive response from the Jewish state.
“The current situation really is not the fighting of two groups of people. It’s the holy war of Islam against the Jews, and it stems from the pages of the Quran,” Shayesteh said. “The Quran is clearly written that Jews should be demolished, and tradition says there should not be a single Jew in Israel.”

If Shayesteh returns to Iran, he will be executed. His mother and brothers are still in Iran.
“It makes us realize our freedoms,” Ralph Miller said.
A violent ideology
The people in Iran cannot stand President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Shayesteh said. He said more than 95 percent of Iranians hate their government.
Iran fuels the fighting in Lebanon, and Shayesteh said Iran funds Hezbollah.
“This Iranian president is a suicide bomber,” Shayesteh said. “He is just ready to die for Islam and demolish Israel.”
Muslim ideology is cloaked in violence because of the status of its creator, Muhammad, Shayesteh said. He said because the prophet fought in ancient wars, the Muslim holy book seeps with violence.

“Osama bin Laden is the servant of Islam. Islam is the enemy of this country,” he said. “Osama bin Laden can be changed, but Islam cannot. Osama bin Laden is just a tool in the hand of Islam.”

Shayesteh was heavily involved in the Iranian Fundamentalist Revolution and taught Islamic and religious philosophy in Iran.
After Khomeini was in power, Shayesteh helped spread propaganda and gain support from other militant Muslims near his hometown of Talesh in northern Iran.

“Anyone who followed Ayatollah Khomeini must be a radical Muslim,” Shayesteh said. “We were eager to overthrow the kingdom in Iran, and to do that you have to be a militant and radical Muslim.”
Khomeini put Shayesteh in charge of a revolutionary army that had a primary goal of killing all Jews in Israel and recapturing the Holy Land for Arabs.
Shayesteh then began spreading propaganda and training young Muslims.
“That was our main goal to mobilize all the boys and girls of the country and to teach them the terrorist actions,” Shayesteh said. “You have to terrorize Christians and Jews by frightening them. By killing them, you can take Islam to the countries and to the rest of the world.

“Islam is a harsh religion. There is no why in Islam.”

“Islam does not believe in freedom and democracy. You have to blindly follow the leader,”

Shayesteh said. “If you criticize Islam and Muhammad, your fingers should be chopped first and then your head.”

Reluctant convert
Once in Turkey, Shayesteh began visiting a Christian church that was harboring Iranian refugees.
He only went there because there were people there in his situation. He was not interested in Christianity.
“We as Muslims were always taught, ‘Do not touch Christians. They were impure,’” Shayesteh said.
He returned to the church week after week and grew interested in its message. Christians preaching respect of their enemies amazed Shayesteh.

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