CENTER FOR IRANIAN STUDIES - کانون پژوهشهای ايران شناختی

سازمان ِ بلندآوازه ي نَشنال جئوگرافيك كه چندي پيش با انتشار ِ اطلس تازه ي خود و كاربُرد ِ نامي ساختگي و برآمده از غرض هاي سياسي و اقتصادي براي ِ خليج فارس، بانگ انتقاد ِ روشنگرانه ي آگاهان ايراني و جُز ايراني را بر ضدّ ِ خود بلند كرد و بر اثر ِ اعتراض هاي سزاوار و رو به رو شدن با تحريم نشريّه هايش در ايران، ناگزير از پوزش خواهي و توضيح و بازپس نشيني در آن زمينه گرديد، اكنون بار ديگر دسته گل به آب داده و با نگرش ِ يك سو نگرانه و نژادپرستي ي ِ يونان باورانه ي خود به ميدان آمده و به تحريف تاريخ و ناديده انگاشتن ِ واقعيّتي آشكار و جهان شمول دست زده است.

هم ميهن گرامي آقاي نياز كسروي، امروز پيام و آگاهي نامه ي ِ زير را -- كه خود از دوستش مجيد دريافته، به اين دفتر فرستاده است كه با سپاس از هردوان، براي آگاهي ي ِ شمار ِ بيشتري از هم ميهنان، در اين صفحه مي آورم.

در متن ِ پيام، همه چيز به روشني بيان شده است و نيازي به افزودن ِ سخني در اين جا نمي بينم. تنها از همه ي ايرانيان و دوستداران راستي و درستي و حق شناسي، خواهش مي كنم كه با آگاهي از داده هاي اين پيام و بيش از پيش آشكارشدن ِ دروغ و دغل و فريب ِ اين نهاد ِ ستيهنده با يادمان هاي تاريخي و فرهنگي ي ايرانيان، خاموش ننشينند و بار ديگر بانگ ِ اعتراض و انتقاد ِ سزاوار ِ خود را بلند برآورند و به هر وسيله و با هر ميانجي و رسانه اي كه در دسترس دارند به گوش ِ همه ي ِ جهانيان برسانند و سازمان هاي جهاني و نهادهاي دانشگاهي و پژوهشي را در همه ي سرزمين ها از اين ترفند و تلاش دغلكارانه در پوشانيدن ِ آفتاب به گِل، آگاه گردانند و خواستار ِ جبران ِ هرچه زودتر ِ اين جفا و خطاي نابخشودني در حقّ ِ ميراث داران ِ يكي از كهن بُنياد ترين و ارجمند ترين فرهنگ ها و تمدّن هاي جهان باستان از سوي دست اندركاران ِ سازمان يادكرده شوند.

جليل دوستخواه

تانزويل- كوينزلند - استراليا

بيستم شهريور ماه 1384

(يازدهم سپتامبر 2005)

Dear friends,

I received the following e-mail from a friend. Ithough maybe some of you might be interested to pursuethis issue further. Please pass on to interestedparties.

Regards,

Niaz Kasravi

Los Angeles, CA, USA

Hi Everyone,

I need some help with a political issue that I shouldprobably pursue (I amreally not a political person, but I'm outraged). Mydaughter brought her6th grade history book home today, and I reviewed it.The title of the bookis "ANCIENT WORLD; Adventures in Time and Place", andit is put out by TheNational Geographic Society and published by McGrawHill publishers. Itcovers the history from the begining of civilization(ice age) to the timeof the Roman empire. It covers the stone age,Mesopotamia, Egypt, Africa,India, China, Ancient America, Ancient Israel,Phoenicia, Greece, and Rome.I read the book very carefully (practically cover tocover) and there isonly half a page (in the Greek Empire chapter) thatrefers to the PersianEmpire. These are the four sentences devoted to Persiain this entire 443page book called the ANCIENT WORLD (This will amazeyou):1. "During this time the persian empire you read aboutin chapter one [I didNOT find this reference to persian empire in chapter1] still controlledalmost all the world known to the Greeks".2. "Egyptians, Phoenicians, Jews, Babylonians, andIndians all lived underthe Persian kings."3. "Alexander traveled the roads of the Persian Empirebetween 334 and 323B.C..."4. "In 334 B.C. Alexander set out to conquer Persia".There is also a picture of Alexander's conquests thatsays: "after theleades of Persian capital surrendered, Alexander lethis troops destroy thecity and enslave its people". That is basically theentire reference to thePersian Empire in this history book, and it is veryobvious to me thatPersia has been intentionally and almost completelyeliminated from thisbook by The National Geographic.For those of you who may not know or remember, it wasthe NationalGeographic who also put out the map that referred tothe Persian Gulf as the"Arab Gulf". I will try to find some Iranian activistsin San Diego to tryto initiate some sort of boycut of this book in SanDiego Public Schools.Meanwhile, I would like some input as to how to bringthis issue to theattention of the rest of the Iranian people andactivists (that The NationalGeographic appears to be attempting to wipe out anyreference to Persia andIran in its publications even when it is a text bookmeant to educatethousands of children). If you know any one who isactive or can distributethis info widely, please let me know.

Thanks

Majid