Basically, Fundamentalism Is A Modern Phenomenon. In

When I First Left Iran At The Age Of 13, Iran Had Become Such A Shining Star - It Was The Point To Which All My Desires And Dreams Returned.

I Believe That It Is Only Through Empathy, That The Pain Experienced By An Algerian Woman, A North Korean Dissident, A Rwandan Child Or An Iraqi Prisoner, Becomes Real To Me And Not Just Passing News. And It Is At Times Like This When I Ask Myself, Am I Prepared - Like Huck Finn - To Give Up Sunday School Heaven For The Kind Of Hell That Huck Chose?

It Is Only Through Literature That One Can Put Oneself In Someone Else’s Shoes And Understand The Other’s Different And Contradictory Sides And Refrain From Becoming Too Ruthless. Outside The Sphere Of Literature Only One Aspect Of Individuals Is Revealed. But If You Understand Their Different Dimensions You Cannot Easily Murder Them.

The Stories From Iran's Present And Past Are Reminders That Freedom, Democracy And Human Rights, Or Fundamentalism, Fascism And Terrorism Are Not Geographically And Culturally Determined, But Universal.

Basically, Fundamentalism Is A Modern Phenomenon. In The Same Way That Hitler Evoked A Mythological Religion Of German Purity And The Glory Of The Past, The Islamists Use Religion To Evoke Emotions And Passions In People Who Have Been Oppressed For A Long Time In Order To Reach Their Purpose.