Iranian-American debate on Ahmadinejad's meeting with the U.S. peace community

There are more than one million people of Iranian descent living in the United States. Approximately one-half of that large diasporic community live in southern California, but the population is spread across the country. Three organizations that represent efforts by Iranian-Americans to prevent war between the U.S. and Iran participated in the September 24th meeting that the Fellowship of Reconciliation hosted between President Ahmadinejad and members of the U.S. peace and anti-war community: the American Iranian Friendship Council (based in Portland, OR); the American Iranian Council (based in Princeton, NJ); and the American-Iranian Friendship Committee (based in Armonk, NY). Other Iranian-Americans were in attendance, and other such organizations had been invited but did not attend (including the National Iranian American Council and the Campaign Against Sanctions and Military Intervention in Iran).

Last week, Mr. Ardeshir Ommani, the cofounder and chairman of the NY-based AIFC, wrote an open letter that was sent to FOR and meeting participants, which criticized several aspects of the meeting's planning process, structure, and intent. This week, a strong rebuke to Dr. Ommani was written and posted online by Dr. Goudarz Eghtedari, a founder of the "other" (Pacific Northwest-based) AIFC, titled "Silence coming to an end soon."

These two commentaries, of course, reflect but a selection of the many voices in this part of the Iranian diaspora. There are families who fled their home country before and after the 1979 revolution —- some who still support the deposed Shah, others that left due to economic reasons, others who were dissenting voices to the Islamic regime, and still others — intermixed with people who left of their own accord, and who regularly travel back and forth to their native country. It is important that those of us who work to seek peace between our nations but are not Persian listen carefully to these voices, and recognize the diversity of perspectives they represent.