Ali Dashti

Life

Born into a Persian family in Dashti in Bushehr Province, Iran on 31 March 1897. Ali Dashti received a traditional religious education. He studied Islamic theology, history, Arabic and Persian grammar, and classical literature in madrasas in Karbala and Najaf (both in Iraq). He returned to Iran in 1918 and lived in Shiraz, Isfahan, and finally in Tehran, where he became involved in politics of the day.

Rather than becoming a cleric, he became a journalist and published a newspaper (Shafaq-e Sorkh) in Tehran from 1922 to 1935. He was a member of Majlis at various times between 1928 and 1946.

His criticism of allowing the Tudeh party into the cabinet and concessions to the Soviets landed him in prison in 1946. He was appointed a Senator in 1954 until the Islamic revolution in 1979.

An Iranian newspaper reported his death in 1982.

Writing

In the book, 23 Years, A Study of Prophetic Career of Muhammad, Dashti chooses reason over blind faith:

"Belief can blunt human reason and common sense, even in learned scholars. What is needed is more impartial study."

Dashti strongly denied the miracles ascribed to Muhammad by the Islamic tradition and rejected the Muslim view that the Quran is the word of God himself. Instead, he favors thorough and skeptical examination of all orthodox belief systems. Dashti argues that the Quran contains nothing new in the sense of ideas not already expressed by others. All the moral precepts of the Quran are self-evident and generally acknowledged.

The stories in it are taken in identical or slightly modified forms from the lore of the Jews and the Christians, whose rabbis and monks Muhammad had met and consulted on his journeys to Syria, and from memories conserved by the descendants of the peoples of Ad and Thamud.

Muhammad reiterated principles which mankind had already conceived in earlier centuries and many places.

"Confucius, Buddha, Zoroaster, Socrates, Moses, and Jesus had said similar things. Many of the duties and rites of Islam are continuous practices which the pagan Arabs had adopted from the Jews."

Criticism

Criticism on Ali Dashti dates back to the 1940s when Gholamhossein Mosaheb, founder of The Persian Encyclopedia, wrote a book named Ali Dashti's plots. Mosahab has another note on Dashti which he published as an anonymous author in the Shafagh newspaper around the same time.

Supporting Reza Pahlavi

According to Mossahab, "ever since Reza Pahlavi assumed head of the defense ministry and violated the constitution, Dashti supported him". He indicates Dashti's article in a newspaper back in 1930 where Dashti addresses Reza Pahlavi as a "national symbol". Dashti's alleged role in Reza Pahlavi's assumption of power was so large that the famous poet Mohammad-Taqi Bahar mentions his name in his political poem, "Jomhoori Nameh"(The republic letter).

Spying for the British

In the fifth Iranian national assembly, Hassan Modarres presented documents showing Dashti's relations with the British government and the mutual support by the British to help him become a congressman. The documents were published in the "Siasat" newspaper at that time in which the British ambassador was ordering some to financially support Dashti in return for his service. As a result, Dashti's petition to enter the congress was denied by the majority of congressmen.

The book "55"

In 1977, Dashti wrote a book titled "The 55", a sympathetic account of the 55 years of the Pahlavi family's reign. The council of Tehran University nominated Dashti for an honorary Doctoral degree. The reviews were polarized. One of his harsher critics, Ehsan Tabari, wrote:

In Iran's contemporary history, there are and have been men like, Taghi-zadeh, Doctor Rezazadeh Shafagh and the very Mr. Ali Dashti, who spent all they ever owned serving the tyrants in return for their personal benefits; or as the poet says "They have enslaved knowledge, freedom, faith and fairness"; or, as in the proverb taken from the Gospel teachings, "spared the pearl for the pigs".

When the Iranian revolution occurred two years later, Dashti published a book named "The Fall Factors", a critical analysis of the Pahlavi dynasty exploring the reasons behind its downfall.