Published on January 16, 2020.
The author introduces Masayuki Takayama’s column in Shukan Shincho, tracing Iran’s history from Zoroastrianism and Shiism to the Islamic Revolution and the rise of the Revolutionary Guard.
The essay argues that Qasem Soleimani had come close to dominating the Middle East, and that President Trump’s order to eliminate him was also a form of atonement for America’s past role in leaving Iran to religious fanatics.

January 16, 2020
Soleimani, who possessed power surpassing that of the president, had settled in Baghdad, which had by now become a Shiite stronghold, and was on the verge of seizing control of the Middle East in cooperation with the Taliban and Al-Qaeda.
The following is from Masayuki Takayama’s serial column, which brings up the rear in the Shukan Shincho released today.
This essay, too, proves that he is the one and only journalist in the postwar world.
Pseudo-Islam
The Aryan Iranians had reigned over the Middle East for 3,000 years and had ruled the surrounding Arabs and others.
They believed in Zoroastrianism, which is based on a dualism of good and evil gods.
It was a sound and dramatic doctrine, and if I remember correctly, India’s Nehru was also a believer.
But the world is impermanent.
In the seventh century, their traditional empire was destroyed by the Arabs, and, to make matters worse, they were forced to convert to the Islam in which the Arabs believed.
This religion, founded by Muhammad, was based on Judaism, and the Quran even depicts scenes in which Muhammad ascends to the heavenly realm and meets Adam and Jesus.
In fact, that Judaism too had a foundation beneath it.
That was Zoroastrianism, and ideas such as the Last Judgment and virgin conception were taken from the sacred text Avesta.
Therefore, when Iranians saw the Quran, they thought, “What is this? It is merely a secondhand quotation from Zoroastrianism.”
So, at the time of conversion, the doctrine was altered so that Iranians could more easily accept it, and the legend was added that the Persian princess Shahrbanu married Muhammad’s grandson.
This became Shiism, which resembles Islam but is not truly the same.
Its commandments were also loose, and the eleventh-century poet Omar Khayyam even wrote poems about drinking forbidden wine and amusing himself with beautiful women.
However, it was originally the religion of the Arabs, whom they had looked down upon.
In the twentieth century, during the time of Emperor Pahlavi, the authority of Islam had disappeared, and the priests were nothing more than people who made a living from funerals.
They were no different from Japanese priests.
However, the United States, wary of Pahlavi, supported Ayatollah Khomeini, and, incredibly, the Islamic Revolution was achieved.
The priests rose to become rulers.
Immediately, alcohol and even prosciutto were made forbidden, and women were forced to wear the chador.
If they disobeyed, flogging awaited them.
At that time, I went to Tehran as a correspondent.
The girls were cute, but adultery was punishable by death.
Public executions of those who violated that prohibition were held on Thursday mornings on street corners here and there.
When the people’s faces were taut with fear, only the priests were smiling.
Having seized real power over politics and the economy, they all became corrupt priests.
The priest who controlled pharmaceuticals brought in cheap generics and pocketed the difference.
Patients died one after another.
The people were fed up with the religious regime, but the priests had Sepah-e Pasdaran, the Revolutionary Guard, behind them.
They killed without hesitation those who did not obey Allah’s teachings.
Their first target was Iran’s regular army, and they killed all officers of field-grade rank and above who seemed likely to attempt a coup.
Next, they purged both the royalists and the leftist parties.
When there were no more political enemies to kill, they dragged out women who had committed adultery and stoned them to death.
Television broadcast those executions live.
The people were terrified into silence.
As the corruption of the priests progressed, the Pasdaran began expelling even them, and took important posts themselves instead.
In Iran today, the two top positions are occupied by two priests, Supreme Leader Khamenei and President Rouhani, but half of the ministers beneath them are former Pasdaran members.
The shadow of the priests has grown thin, and now Iran is controlled by the terror regime of the Pasdaran.
The New York Times recently reported on this power relationship.
When Trump questioned Rouhani about interference with U.S. forces, “the one who answered in his place was Pasdaran commander Soleimani.”
Soleimani, who possessed power surpassing that of the president, had settled in Baghdad, which had by now become a Shiite stronghold, and was on the verge of seizing control of the Middle East in cooperation with the Taliban and Al-Qaeda.
Trump knows that the United States once entrusted Iran to religious fanatics.
Partly in atonement for that, the other day he ordered the commander’s elimination and had it carried out.
Next, he is sure to begin destroying the Shiite axis line extending from Tehran to Baghdad and Lebanon.
When many of the Iranian people learned of Soleimani’s death, they rejoiced that the collapse of the anachronistic religious regime was beginning.
“The people have the right to have a government they desire” is a passage from the Atlantic Charter.
The Iranian people have finally reached the starting point for creating a proper government.
I would like to offer them my heartfelt congratulations.