Recently I spent four days with an Iranian scholar at his families home in the U.S.  He'd spent half his life in Tehran and half here in America. With so much of Iran in the news, we had a lot to talk about. The four days were enlightening.

Though he and his wife are dogmatically against Israel, he is also against the current regime in Iran. He stated that this "show" is a game the current regime is playing to obviously divert attention away from themselves. While this game is played, they are using the diversions to steal the countries oil riches. The current U.S. administration knows this, and so does most of the banking world. Educated Iranians also know this as well. The danger is coming from the uneducated "faithful". He urges Americans to expose the corruption, rather than unify the uneducated faithful against the West. The best way to combat such a culture is to turn it against itself.

One thing that struck me hard was his comment that most educated Iranians have a terrible distaste for Mullahs. He stated that during his time in Iran, moderate people would openly claim that to be a Mullah, one had to be a homosexual.

We talked a great deal about this point of view. I often wonder what drives someone to be so fanatically religious. Is it an escape from personal fault, guilt or shame?

He stated that Iran is not devoid of homosexuals and is much like any other country, as far as statistics on homosexuality afford insight. However, homosexuality is treated as a curse upon oneself in the Muslim culture. My Iranian host went so far as to claim that this homophobia was perfect fodder for recruiting terrorists. He also stated that many of the suicide bombers are in anguish over this internal issue which causes them to seek a way out. I asked are all the "terrorists" dealing with internal issues such as sexuality? He stated it's never all of one thing or another. There is basis in poverty, misguided passion, abuse in the family, brainwashing and so on. However, he made it perfectly clear that the 2-5% of the Iranian population, as in other Muslim nations, are homosexual. These individuals are brainwashed from an early age to think they are cursed, and the one great way to make it to heaven is Martyrdom. This may explain John Walker Lindh's search for something greater than his parents indiscretions.

If you look at the conditions in the Middle-East: Abusive and absentee paternal figures, lack of tolerance, subservient maternal rolls, lack of psychological support, religious intolerance and so many other damaging structures, it is not a implausible premise. As we in America suffer daily from the social ills created from poor parenting and abusive household conditions, the world suffers from the poor conditions which develop from within the Muslim countries.