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CALL FOR ACTION: Iran being labeled "part of the arab w
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Liberator



Joined: 29 Aug 2003
Posts: 1086

PostPosted: Mon Oct 31, 2005 12:05 am    Post subject: CALL FOR ACTION: Iran being labeled "part of the arab w Reply with quote

A CALL FOR ACTION:



For God's sake look what we have to deal with!

All was good until this passage:


Quote:
The Sassanids fought a series of debilitating wars with the Byzantine Empire in the 6th and 7th centuries, which fatally weakened the Persian Empire when the Arabs exploded onto the scene. In a series of decisive battles between 633 and 642, the Arabs conquered and destroyed the Persian Empire; since this time, Persia (modern Iran) has largely belonged to the Arab world. The customs and religion of ancient Persia were destroyed and the population absorbed into the surrounding Islamic culture; only a few remnants survive today.


http://www.2kgames.com/civ4/home.htm



This is an excerpt from a PC Game called Civilization 4. Are we going to let all those young generations who buy this game fall for this utter lie! Are we going to stand for this or what?! I'm personally going to write them a letter of protest. IF enough of us can get enough pressure on them I am sure they will correct their mistake. Please this isn't any less important than the whole Persian Gulf Affaire, I hope we can sort this out with the same resolve that we were able to solve the PG/National Geographic affaire!

Any templates for protest letters are welcome to be posted on here. That's all for now.


WE CANNOT STAND FOR THIS!




Ba Sepaas
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Liberator



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PostPosted: Mon Oct 31, 2005 12:07 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
Before the spread of Islam and the Arabic language, the term "Arab" referred to any of the nomadic residents of the Arabian Peninsula. When used in a modern context, "Arab" refers to any of the Arabic-speaking peoples who reside on the Atlantic Coast of Africa, Southwestern Iran, Egypt, Sudan, Saudi-Arabia, Syria, and Iraq.



All of South-Western Iran is now Arab as well! They must have spoken to the group calling itself "Al-Ahwaz" for their information!


Quote:
The Arabs of this period made many advances in medicine, astronomy, mathematics, and other areas, as well as translating many of the classics of the Ancient Greeks into Arabic, thereby saving them from destruction.


These are clearly Iranians but they've been labeled ARAB because they lived under arabo-muslim occupation!



I was having an OK day and NOW THIS! For God's sake!





Ba Sepaas
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PostPosted: Mon Oct 31, 2005 11:52 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

This is what a friend of ours "Ahouye Esgh" has posted on IU:

Quote:
Here are some strategic points that comes to my mind, and I am sure others can do much better. So please add, comment, improve. People like Oldman and Espandyar (that we know them well here) can play EXTREMELY important roles on this matter. In fact a letter signed by all these and similar organisations will even give more weight to our united efforts. Here are some strategies that came to my mind:

1. Complaint letters should arrive this company from 'Multiple Sources' not just one
2. Each source should have brief references to Iran's history, as well as the 'DAMAGE' that this game can potentially make to children's learning. Relate this misinterpretation issue to creating a sense of unawareness, among our kids, and exciting undesirable attitude amongst them against current Iranian history and heritage, etc etc, all with very harmful effects on humanity and fair educational processes of our kids. (I just provided one single example here; numerous cases/scenarios can be considered depending on our affiliation with various organisations).
3. Complaints must also be sent to various 'Department of Fair Trading', and 'Consumer Affairs' in ANY country that we live in, and asking THEM to also take up the action against the company.
4.

In short, not only we should complaint directly to this company, but also involve ALL other national and international organisations to this issue.

To compile a good letter we need the following (perhaps Libby can help here):

The exact name of the company, their address, the name of the game, and please repeat the above quotations once more so that the writers can make references to those wordings within the game.

Our letters should not show extreme anger, but should have a tone of 'threathening' their commercial interests, and should make mentions of their shareholders' and their Board of Directors. We can also refresh their minds of the National Georgraphy, and with a very gentle tone, remind them of the consequences. We should also make sure to make it clear to them that "all care will be taken to prevent free advertisements for your new game", and that "we would chase the issue through legal entities rather than by demonstrations and noise, that u may believe to be a further conspiracy-oriented advertisemnt for ur product".

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PostPosted: Mon Oct 31, 2005 11:53 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'll be gathering the required contact info. and will be posting it here as soon as possible. I'm glad we were able to notice this problem so early-on since the game is going to be released end of Oct. 2005/ beginning of Nov. 2005. Keep your heads high and see this as yet another obstacle that we will overcome together.




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PostPosted: Mon Oct 31, 2005 11:58 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

"AskSid" section of the official website for Civilization IV:

http://www.firaxis.com/community/asksid.php

On the above link:

"If you want to ask Sid a question, send an email to webmaster@firaxis.com. Put "Ask Sid" in the subject line. Please note that we cannot answer all questions submitted to this forum. Due to the quantity of "Ask Sid" emails we recieve, we ask that you please refrain from sending us new game ideas."


Sid Meier is the programmer, mastermind, behind the game:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sid_Meier




************************************************************************************




Firaxis Games is the developer of the game. Their website is:

http://www.firaxis.com/

And their contact page:

http://www.firaxis.com/company/contact.php


There are various departments that we can contact:

Community Relations
Government and Education - dbriggs@firaxis.com


Feedback
Game Feedback - Fill out the form on this link: http://www.firaxis.com/company/gamefeedback.php

Product Sites - lriehl@firaxis.com

International Sites - dbriggs@firaxis.com



For those of you that live in the States it might be a good idea to write/call Firaxis regarding this issue:

Firaxis Games
11350 McCormick Road
Executive Plaza III; Suite 1100
Hunt Valley, MD 21031

Phone:
410-891-3001

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PostPosted: Mon Oct 31, 2005 11:59 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Guys I found something that can help us immensly and we have Firaxis Games THEMSELVES to thank for! Look at this:

http://www.firaxis.com/community/teacher.php




Quote:
Welcome to the Firaxis Games Teacher Features!
Over the past several years, leading educators have begun a global discussion about the efficacy of using off-the-shelf consumer games to educate students. Teachers have found that some games in particular have a remarkable ability to keep students engaged and teach them at the same time. The basic requirements for a "stealth" teaching game is that it be fun, that in order to succeed in the game the student needs to learn about "real world" topics, and that the game's content be suitable for the particular education level and sophistication of the target students.

Much to our surprise, teachers around the world have been using Firaxs games for these purposes. Sid Meier's Civilization III, in particular, is now widely being used to teach students about history, geography, politics, and the like — though we in no way intentionally designed it to be used as such.


The Teacher Features section is for teachers who are interested in discussing this issue — with us, and with each other. Over the next few months we will begin a serious dialog on "stealth" education: we hope that you find it useful.

About Firaxis Games
Many Firaxis games focus on "real world" topics: Sid Meier's Civilization III, for instance, is about the development and growth of world civilizations. Sid Meier's Civil War games look at some of the most important battles in that most important struggle for the survival of the United States. Even Sid Meier's SimGolf looks at the problems and challenges of building and running a successful entertainment facility — albeit in a lighthearted manner. Click here to see all of Firaxis' current and past game titles.

Again, it cannot be overstated that Firaxis has never set out to make an "educational" game — however, it turns out that the company's basic design tenets tend to create games that work quite well for these purposes.


.................
Stealthy Education The more you know, the better the flow.


In-Game Rewards
Your progress in the game is rewarded with cool images, and interactive experiences that entertain you while revealing information that will make you smarter the next time you play.

The "Just One More Turn" Effect
Firaxis creative director Sid Meier is famous for creating games with the "just one more turn" effect, in which the player becomes so enamored with the progress of the game that they find it enormously difficult to stop playing — like reading a good book you can’t put down. Sid achieves this by constantly presenting the player with another challenge, another decision to make. The challenges are so engaging that the player wants to play "one more turn" to see how it turns out. Further, the player realizes that all of his or her decisions are important — even if they lose, they'll want to try again to see how a different decision would affect the outcome.

Firaxis wants to keep kids engaged and playing because that increases our sales, while educators want kids to keep playing because they're learning while they play. Everybody wins — even the students!

What the Educators Say
“Will computers change the way we learn? We answer “yes”. Video games create new social and cultural worlds, worlds that help people learn by integrating thinking, social interaction, and technology, all in the service of doing things they care about … virtual worlds are powerful contexts for learning. “ — Schaffer, Squire, Halverson, Gee (2004)


Further Information
TeacherSpeak opens the floor to educators. In our first issue (Winter 2004) we heard from noted educator and computer-game proponent Kurt Squire.

Our current issue (Spring 2005), Rex A. Martin from Bowie State University discusses the interactive nature of games, and their ability to reach, motivate and teach students.

Developer Soapbox is a place where we share the best lessons learned and (quite frankly) Firaxis viewpoints on some of the pressing issues of the day.

Our current issue (Summer 2005), Noah Felstein

Talk to Us!
Want to tell us about your experiences using consumer games to educate your students? Have a comment on what someone else has said? Want to make contact with other educators in your area? Drop us a line at Webmaster@firaxis.com! Put "Teacher Features" in the subject line.

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Liberator



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PostPosted: Mon Oct 31, 2005 12:09 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

What the Iranian Civ Fans have to say (please read all the relevant information before anyone decides to send an email to Firaxis Games etc..):

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=132327



Here's what a compatriot of ours suggested the text in regards to Persia be changed to:


Quote:
The term Persia has been used for centuries, chiefly in the West, to designate a region of southern Iran formerly known as Persis or Parsa; the name of the Indo-European nomadic ‘Aryan’ people who migrated into the region about 1000 BC, eventually supplanting the Assyrians and Chaldeans. The Persian Empire, in its peak, stretched from India to Egypt and the Greek mainland. The first mention of the Parsa occurs in the annals of Shalmanesar III, an Assyrian king, in 844 BC. Cyrus II (559-529 BC), also known as Cyrus the Great, was heir to a long line of ruling kings in Persia and was the founder of the Persian Empire; he was called the father of his people by the ancient Persians. In 550 BC, Cyrus, the Prince of Persia, revolted against his maternal grandfather, the Median king Astyages, and welded the Persians and Medes together into one powerful force. Cyrus consolidated his rule on the Iranian Plateau and then extended it westward across Asia Minor. In October 539 BC, Babylon, the greatest city of the ancient world, fell to his Persian forces. Cyrus also oversaw the construction of a series of great roads to link together the territories that he had conquered. Although Cyrus was a great military conqueror, he was also a fair ruler; he allowed and funded the Jews’ return from Babylon to their homeland in Palestine. Upon his invasion of Babylon, he had his decrees written on a clay cylinder known as the cylinder of Cyrus. This cylinder is considered the first universal declaration of human rights in history. His dynasty, known as the Achaemenids, ruled Persia for two centuries.

Following the death of Cyrus' heir, who added Egypt to the empire, Darius I (522-486 BC), a leading general and one of the princes of the Achaemenid family, proclaimed himself king following the suppression of a number of provincial rebellions and challenges from other pretenders to the throne. Darius was in the mold of Cyrus the Great - a powerful personality and a dynamic ruler. To consolidate his accession, Darius I founded his new capital of Parsa, known to the Greeks as Persepolis ("Persian City") and expanded the ranks of his personal bodyguard, the Immortals. The elite force consisted of exactly ten thousand men and drew its name from the fact that no matter how many men were lost, the Persian Emperor would always pay the cost to restore the Immortals back to their original strength. Although Darius consolidated and added to the conquests of his predecessors, it was as an administrator that he made his greatest contribution to Persian history. During his reign, political and legal reforms revitalized the provinces and ambitious projects were undertaken to promote imperial trade and commerce; coinage, weights and measures were standardized and new land and sea routes, including the earliest Suez Canal, explored and established.

Such activities, however, did not prevent Darius from following an active expansionist policy. Campaigns in the east confirmed gains made by Cyrus the Great and added large sections of the northern Indian subcontinent to the list of Persian-controlled provinces. In 502 BC, Persian-controlled Ionian provinces in Asia Minor started to revolt supported by the Greek city states. Darius moved against the city states and defeated the revolution (afterwards allowing democratic government in the states). He then invaded mainland Greece in 492 BC. Thrace, Macedonia and Eretria were taken, but the Persian army was defeated at the Battle of Marathon and retreated back to Asia. Xerxes (486-465 BC), son and successor of Darius I, was determined to continue the Persian conquest of the west and is best known for his massive invasion of Greece from across the Hellespont in 480 BC, a campaign marked by the battles of Thermopylae, Salamis, and Plataea. Although successful in the pacification of Egypt and suppression of a Babylon revolt, his defeat by the allied Greek city-states spelled the beginning of the decline of the Achaemenian Empire. In Xerxes' last years, he squandered the once-enormous treasury he had gathered through trade and taxation by launching vast construction programs, most never finished.

The death of Xerxes was the final turning point in Achaemenian influence. Occasional flashes of vigor and ability by some of Xerxes' successors were too infrequent to prevent eventual collapse. The final act was played out during the reign of Darius III (336-330 BC), who was defeated at the Battle of Granicus (334 BC) by Alexander of Macedon, who in April 330 BC burned down Persepolis in a drunken rage. Darius, the last Achaemenian, was murdered by his own officers in the summer of the same year while fleeing the Greek forces. In the struggle for power after Alexander's death, Seleucus I brought under his control the Persian provinces of Alexander's empire. But this unity was short-lived, as the Parthians, another Iranian tribe, retook the empire. The Romans and Parthians struggled against one another for centuries over control of Mesopotamia, with the Parthians usually holding onto most of the Fertile Crescent. The Parthians introduced a new tactic by combining archers and cavalry, hence ‘The Parthian Shot’. They used this to defeat Krassus of the Roman Triumvirate at the Battle of Carrhae in 53 BC. But in 224 AD the Parthians, who had grown weak, were overthrown by a new Sassanid dynasty that revived many of the customs of the Achaemenids, such as the Zoroastrian religion. The Sassanids fought a series of debilitating wars with the Byzantine Empire in the 6th and 7th centuries, even taking the Roman Emperor Valerian prisoner. These wars, however, weakened the Persian Empire when the Arabs exploded onto the scene. In a series of decisive battles between 633 and 642, the Arabs conquered and destroyed the Persian Empire. After several hundred years of Arab rule, Persia was restored to Persian rule in 1501 with the Safavid Dynasty. During the ensuing centuries, Persia was invaded by the Mongols, Russians and Timurids, yet managed to keep its unique culture and language, and made significant contributions to the arts and sciences. In 1935 Reza Khan Pahlavi, the Shah of Persia, formally requested that the international community call the country by its native name, 'Iran', which means ‘Land of the Aryans’.



http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=132327





Ba Sepaas
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Liberator



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PostPosted: Mon Oct 31, 2005 2:53 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Alright guys. Nobody seems to have come up with a template yet so here's one that I've drafted. Please advise on any adjustments or other comments that can make it better. Others are welcome to post their own templates - we don't need to use one template for all of us.





****************************************************************************************









Dear Sir/Madame,

Having recently come across your new PC Game "Civilization IV" and coming from a Persian (Iranian) background I was tempted to see how the "Persian Empire" would be depicted in this new edition of the game. I was shocked and offended as any other Iranian would be to find many factual errors in the description of the "Persian Empire" and of Persians/Iranians. This factual error has also been brought up and discussed on this Civilization Fan's Forum: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=132327

Seeing that your games are being used as educational tools to many teachers around the world ( http://www.firaxis.com/community/teacher.php ) and that you yourself have professed dedication to what you've named "stealth education", which I believe is an excellent idea if implemented correctly, I wouldn't have expected to find a major factual mistake such as the ones below.
These are excerpts from the "Civilization IV" Firaxis Games:


-"In a series of decisive battles between 633 and 642, the Arabs conquered and destroyed the Persian Empire; since this time, Persia (modern Iran) has largely belonged to the Arab world. The customs and religion of ancient Persia were destroyed and the population absorbed into the surrounding Islamic culture; only a few remnants survive today."-

In the above paragraph Iran is labeled an arab country which is not true and has no factual base. Iranians are Indo-Europeans as you have yourself explained in the beginning of your introduction but in the end you switch to claiming that Iranians are part of the arab world and thus arabs. This is nothing less than offending to anyone that is from Iran.
The next sentence is also offending and un-true:


-"The customs and religion of ancient Persia were destroyed and the population absorbed into the surrounding Islamic culture; only a few remnants survive today."-

It is true that the ancient Persian religion of Zoroastrianism was dealt a major blow by the arab invasion. Persia was "islamized" but Persians never abandoned their own culture and customs to that of the arabs. Iranians have always celebrated their pre-islamic customs and traditions such as their New Year (Norooz, approximately March 20th and it is recognized by over forty US States as Persian Heritage day), "Fire Feast" (Chaharshanbe Soori) and many more. Iranians do not share cultural/linguistics factors with that of the arabs; the only thing that is shared is the religion of islam. In fact, Iranians are shia muslims and most (99%) of the Arabs are sunni muslims, two different sects.

What I and other fellow Iranians are asking for is not to write the whole history of our nation but to, as you have done, make a summary of it in a truthful manner. This is imperative since misrepresenting history will only lead to more ignorance in our world. One individual has gone about correcting this and his edited version is presented below- note that most of the original text is kept in place and only those sentences that were false have been corrected.

Sample edited version:

Quote:
The term Persia has been used for centuries, chiefly in the West, to designate a region of southern Iran formerly known as Persis or Parsa; the name of the Indo-European nomadic ‘Aryan’ people who migrated into the region about 1000 BC, eventually supplanting the Assyrians and Chaldeans. The Persian Empire, in its peak, stretched from India to Egypt and the Greek mainland. The first mention of the Parsa occurs in the annals of Shalmanesar III, an Assyrian king, in 844 BC. Cyrus II (559-529 BC), also known as Cyrus the Great, was heir to a long line of ruling kings in Persia and was the founder of the Persian Empire; he was called the father of his people by the ancient Persians. In 550 BC, Cyrus, the Prince of Persia, revolted against his maternal grandfather, the Median king Astyages, and welded the Persians and Medes together into one powerful force. Cyrus consolidated his rule on the Iranian Plateau and then extended it westward across Asia Minor. In October 539 BC, Babylon, the greatest city of the ancient world, fell to his Persian forces. Cyrus also oversaw the construction of a series of great roads to link together the territories that he had conquered. Although Cyrus was a great military conqueror, he was also a fair ruler; he allowed and funded the Jews’ return from Babylon to their homeland in Palestine. Upon his invasion of Babylon, he had his decrees written on a clay cylinder known as the cylinder of Cyrus. This cylinder is considered the first universal declaration of human rights in history. His dynasty, known as the Achaemenids, ruled Persia for two centuries.

Following the death of Cyrus' heir, who added Egypt to the empire, Darius I (522-486 BC), a leading general and one of the princes of the Achaemenid family, proclaimed himself king following the suppression of a number of provincial rebellions and challenges from other pretenders to the throne. Darius was in the mold of Cyrus the Great - a powerful personality and a dynamic ruler. To consolidate his accession, Darius I founded his new capital of Parsa, known to the Greeks as Persepolis ("Persian City") and expanded the ranks of his personal bodyguard, the Immortals. The elite force consisted of exactly ten thousand men and drew its name from the fact that no matter how many men were lost, the Persian Emperor would always pay the cost to restore the Immortals back to their original strength. Although Darius consolidated and added to the conquests of his predecessors, it was as an administrator that he made his greatest contribution to Persian history. During his reign, political and legal reforms revitalized the provinces and ambitious projects were undertaken to promote imperial trade and commerce; coinage, weights and measures were standardized and new land and sea routes, including the earliest Suez Canal, explored and established.

Such activities, however, did not prevent Darius from following an active expansionist policy. Campaigns in the east confirmed gains made by Cyrus the Great and added large sections of the northern Indian subcontinent to the list of Persian-controlled provinces. In 502 BC, Persian-controlled Ionian provinces in Asia Minor started to revolt supported by the Greek city states. Darius moved against the city states and defeated the revolution (afterwards allowing democratic government in the states). He then invaded mainland Greece in 492 BC. Thrace, Macedonia and Eretria were taken, but the Persian army was defeated at the Battle of Marathon and retreated back to Asia. Xerxes (486-465 BC), son and successor of Darius I, was determined to continue the Persian conquest of the west and is best known for his massive invasion of Greece from across the Hellespont in 480 BC, a campaign marked by the battles of Thermopylae, Salamis, and Plataea. Although successful in the pacification of Egypt and suppression of a Babylon revolt, his defeat by the allied Greek city-states spelled the beginning of the decline of the Achaemenian Empire. In Xerxes' last years, he squandered the once-enormous treasury he had gathered through trade and taxation by launching vast construction programs, most never finished.

The death of Xerxes was the final turning point in Achaemenian influence. Occasional flashes of vigor and ability by some of Xerxes' successors were too infrequent to prevent eventual collapse. The final act was played out during the reign of Darius III (336-330 BC), who was defeated at the Battle of Granicus (334 BC) by Alexander of Macedon, who in April 330 BC burned down Persepolis in a drunken rage. Darius, the last Achaemenian, was murdered by his own officers in the summer of the same year while fleeing the Greek forces. In the struggle for power after Alexander's death, Seleucus I brought under his control the Persian provinces of Alexander's empire. But this unity was short-lived, as the Parthians, another Iranian tribe, retook the empire. The Romans and Parthians struggled against one another for centuries over control of Mesopotamia, with the Parthians usually holding onto most of the Fertile Crescent. The Parthians introduced a new tactic by combining archers and cavalry, hence ‘The Parthian Shot’. They used this to defeat Krassus of the Roman Triumvirate at the Battle of Carrhae in 53 BC. But in 224 AD the Parthians, who had grown weak, were overthrown by a new Sassanid dynasty that revived many of the customs of the Achaemenids, such as the Zoroastrian religion. The Sassanids fought a series of debilitating wars with the Byzantine Empire in the 6th and 7th centuries, even taking the Roman Emperor Valerian prisoner. These wars, however, weakened the Persian Empire when the Arabs exploded onto the scene. In a series of decisive battles between 633 and 642, the Arabs conquered and destroyed the Persian Empire. After several hundred years of Arab rule, Persia was restored to Persian rule in 1501 with the Safavid Dynasty. During the ensuing centuries, Persia was invaded by the Mongols, Russians and Timurids, yet managed to keep its unique culture and language, and made significant contributions to the arts and sciences. In 1935 Reza Khan Pahlavi, the Shah of Persia, formally requested that the international community call the country by its native name, 'Iran', which means ‘Land of the Aryans’.




I hope that we can rectify this problem as soon as possible, and with that improve Firaxis Games' image and efforts in "stealth education".


Yours sincerely,
_________________
JAVID IRAN!



www.anjomane-padeshahi.org
http://aryamehr11.blogspot.com/
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Liberator



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Posts: 1086

PostPosted: Mon Oct 31, 2005 6:17 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I would like to send this off as soon as possible (preferrably tomorrow), knowing that this game will be on the market very soon. Please if you have anything to comment on don't hesitate to do so. I've come up with a letter (seen above) that others can use (it's been modified as i've got input from other friends online), you're more than welcome to use your own templates if you have any. The important thing is that Firaxis Games gets the message from all of us that we are not arabs and we want them to stand corrected.

They (Firaxis Games) have professed that "stealth education" is something incorporated into their products and that many teachers across the world use their products as educational material thus it's important for them not to commit such a big mistake such as confusing Iranians for being arabs or even vice versa. This will only lead to more ignorance in the world.



Ba Sepaas
_________________
JAVID IRAN!



www.anjomane-padeshahi.org
http://aryamehr11.blogspot.com/
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Liberator



Joined: 29 Aug 2003
Posts: 1086

PostPosted: Tue Nov 01, 2005 4:08 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The FINAL DRAFT has been posted below:







Quote:
Dear Sir/Madame,

Having recently come across your new PC Game "Civilization IV" and coming from a Persian (Iranian) background I was tempted to see how the "Persian Empire" would be depicted in this new edition of the game ( http://www.2kgames.com/civ4/home.htm ). I was shocked and offended as any other Iranian would be to find many factual errors in the description of the "Persian Empire" and of Persians/Iranians. These factual errors have also been brought up and discussed on this Civilization Fan's Forum: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=132327

Seeing that your games are being used as educational tools to many teachers around the world ( http://www.firaxis.com/community/teacher.php ) and that you yourself have professed dedication to what you've named "stealth education", which I believe is an excellent idea if implemented correctly, I wouldn't have expected to find a major factual mistake such as the ones below.
These are excerpts from the "Civilization IV" Firaxis Games:


-"In a series of decisive battles between 633 and 642, the Arabs conquered and destroyed the Persian Empire; since this time, Persia (modern Iran) has largely belonged to the Arab world. The customs and religion of ancient Persia were destroyed and the population absorbed into the surrounding Islamic culture; only a few remnants survive today."-

In the above paragraph Iran is labeled an Arab country which is not true and has no factual base. Iranians are Indo-Europeans as you have yourself explained in the beginning of your introduction but in the end you switch to claiming that Iranians are part of the Arab world and thus Arabs. This is nothing less than offending to anyone that is from Iran. Also the Arab occupation was not the end of Persia, the Arabs were defeated and Iranians began ruling their Empire with several disruptions by Afghan/Mongol Invasions (we are not Afghans or Mongol's either simply because these people invaded us for a short historical period).
The next sentence is also offending and un-true:


-"The customs and religion of ancient Persia were destroyed and the population absorbed into the surrounding Islamic culture; only a few remnants survive today."-

It is true that the ancient Persian religion of Zoroastrianism was dealt a major blow by the Arab invasion. Persia was "islamized" but Persians never abandoned their own culture and customs to that of the Arabs. Iranians have always celebrated their pre-islamic customs and traditions such as their New Year (Norooz, approximately March 20th and it is recognized by over forty US States as Persian Heritage day), "Fire Feast" (Chaharshanbe Soori) and many more. Iranians do not share the culture or language of the Arabs; the only thing that is shared is the religion of islam. In fact, Iranians are shia muslims and most (99%) of the Arabs are sunni muslims, two different sects.

We are not asking you to rewrite history, but rather present it as it is - in a short and concise manner like you've aimed to; and I am certain Firaxis does not want to jeopardize Civilization's historical accuracy. Misrepresenting history will only lead to more ignorance in our world.
One individual has gone about correcting this and his edited version is presented below- note that most of the original text is kept in place and only those sentences that were false have been corrected.

There are many Iranian organizations that have dealt with similar issues in the past such as the Persian Gulf Task Force ( http://www.persiangulfonline.org/ ) and MarzePorGohar ( http://www.marzeporgohar.org/index.php?l=1 ) who together with a coalition of various other organizations, parties, and media were able to convince National Geographic to withdraw the fictitious name of "Arabian Gulf" which they have put underneath the name of the Persian Gulf on their atlases.
We all hope that we can rectify this problem in a professional manner as soon as possible, and with that improve Firaxis Games' image and efforts in "stealth education".


Yours sincerely,







SAMPLE EDITED TEXT:






"The term Persia has been used for centuries, chiefly in the West, to designate a region of southern Iran formerly known as Persis or Parsa; the name of the Indo-European nomadic ‘Aryan’ people who migrated into the region about 1000 BC, eventually supplanting the Assyrians and Chaldeans. The Persian Empire, in its peak, stretched from India to Egypt and the Greek mainland. The first mention of the Parsa occurs in the annals of Shalmanesar III, an Assyrian king, in 844 BC. Cyrus II (559-529 BC), also known as Cyrus the Great, was heir to a long line of ruling kings in Persia and was the founder of the Persian Empire; he was called the father of his people by the ancient Persians. In 550 BC, Cyrus, the Prince of Persia, revolted against his maternal grandfather, the Median king Astyages, and welded the Persians and Medes together into one powerful force. Cyrus consolidated his rule on the Iranian Plateau and then extended it westward across Asia Minor. In October 539 BC, Babylon, the greatest city of the ancient world, fell to his Persian forces. Cyrus also oversaw the construction of a series of great roads to link together the territories that he had conquered. Although Cyrus was a great military conqueror, he was also a fair ruler; he allowed and funded the Jews’ return from Babylon to their homeland in Palestine. Upon his invasion of Babylon, he had his decrees written on a clay cylinder known as the cylinder of Cyrus. This cylinder is considered the first universal declaration of human rights in history. His dynasty, known as the Achaemenids, ruled Persia for two centuries.

Following the death of Cyrus' heir, who added Egypt to the empire, Darius I (522-486 BC), a leading general and one of the princes of the Achaemenid family, proclaimed himself king following the suppression of a number of provincial rebellions and challenges from other pretenders to the throne. Darius was in the mold of Cyrus the Great - a powerful personality and a dynamic ruler. To consolidate his accession, Darius I founded his new capital of Parsa, known to the Greeks as Persepolis ("Persian City") and expanded the ranks of his personal bodyguard, the Immortals. The elite force consisted of exactly ten thousand men and drew its name from the fact that no matter how many men were lost, the Persian Emperor would always pay the cost to restore the Immortals back to their original strength. Although Darius consolidated and added to the conquests of his predecessors, it was as an administrator that he made his greatest contribution to Persian history. During his reign, political and legal reforms revitalized the provinces and ambitious projects were undertaken to promote imperial trade and commerce; coinage, weights and measures were standardized and new land and sea routes, including the earliest Suez Canal, explored and established.

Such activities, however, did not prevent Darius from following an active expansionist policy. Campaigns in the east confirmed gains made by Cyrus the Great and added large sections of the northern Indian subcontinent to the list of Persian-controlled provinces. In 502 BC, Persian-controlled Ionian provinces in Asia Minor started to revolt supported by the Greek city states. Darius moved against the city states and defeated the revolution (afterwards allowing democratic government in the states). He then invaded mainland Greece in 492 BC. Thrace, Macedonia and Eretria were taken, but the Persian army was defeated at the Battle of Marathon and retreated back to Asia. Xerxes (486-465 BC), son and successor of Darius I, was determined to continue the Persian conquest of the west and is best known for his massive invasion of Greece from across the Hellespont in 480 BC, a campaign marked by the battles of Thermopylae, Salamis, and Plataea. Although successful in the pacification of Egypt and suppression of a Babylon revolt, his defeat by the allied Greek city-states spelled the beginning of the decline of the Achaemenian Empire. In Xerxes' last years, he squandered the once-enormous treasury he had gathered through trade and taxation by launching vast construction programs, most never finished.

The death of Xerxes was the final turning point in Achaemenian influence. Occasional flashes of vigor and ability by some of Xerxes' successors were too infrequent to prevent eventual collapse. The final act was played out during the reign of Darius III (336-330 BC), who was defeated at the Battle of Granicus (334 BC) by Alexander of Macedon, who in April 330 BC burned down Persepolis in a drunken rage. Darius, the last Achaemenian, was murdered by his own officers in the summer of the same year while fleeing the Greek forces. In the struggle for power after Alexander's death, Seleucus I brought under his control the Persian provinces of Alexander's empire. But this unity was short-lived, as the Parthians, another Iranian tribe, retook the empire. The Romans and Parthians struggled against one another for centuries over control of Mesopotamia, with the Parthians usually holding onto most of the Fertile Crescent. The Parthians introduced a new tactic by combining archers and cavalry, hence ‘The Parthian Shot’. They used this to defeat Krassus of the Roman Triumvirate at the Battle of Carrhae in 53 BC. But in 224 AD the Parthians, who had grown weak, were overthrown by a new Sassanid dynasty that revived many of the customs of the Achaemenids, such as the Zoroastrian religion. The Sassanids fought a series of debilitating wars with the Byzantine Empire in the 6th and 7th centuries, even taking the Roman Emperor Valerian prisoner. These wars, however, weakened the Persian Empire when the Arabs exploded onto the scene. In a series of decisive battles between 633 and 642, the Arabs conquered and destroyed the Persian Empire. After several hundred years of Arab rule, Persia was restored to Persian rule in 1501 with the Safavid Dynasty. During the ensuing centuries, Persia was invaded by the Mongols, Russians and Timurids, yet managed to keep its unique culture and language, and made significant contributions to the arts and sciences. In 1935 Reza Khan Pahlavi, the Shah of Persia, formally requested that the international community call the country by its native name, 'Iran', which means ‘Land of the Aryans’."

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AmirN



Joined: 23 Sep 2005
Posts: 297

PostPosted: Wed Nov 02, 2005 2:20 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Good job, Liberator. I’m glad to see you take up this fight.

I’m also very impressed and content with the short synopsis of Iran’s history that one of our compatriots provided. I did notice a couple of facts/passages in there that I don’t necessarily agree with. They are minor, and probably insignificant, but I think that if we are to send in an “edited” version of the “true” events, lets make sure everything is right. So here are a few of my corrections/suggestions regarding the sample edited text:

1. I would strike out the statement “In Xerxes' last years, he squandered the once-enormous treasury he had gathered through trade and taxation by launching vast construction programs, most never finished.” One of Dariush’s dying wishes to Xashayar, his son, was to keep the treasury as full as he had found it. Xashayar kept this promise to his father. The economic state of Iran was still excellent until much later than Xashayar’s time. In fact, up until the very end of the Acheamenid Dynasty, the Persian treasury was strong. When Alexander the Destroyer looted Persepolis, he had to fetch countless mules and camels to carry away all the gold and silver; the penniless Macedonians could not believe their eyes at the sight of such treasure. In addition, it was Dariush who began many projects and left them unfinished. Xashayar actually vigorously pursued these projects, and completed most of them, though a few were left to his successors. He was one of Iran’s greatest builders.

2. The statement “The final act was played out during the reign of Darius III (336-330 BC), who was defeated at the Battle of Granicus (334 BC) by Alexander of Macedon” is a bit misleading. There were three major battles the Persians fought with the Macedonians: the Battle of Granicus 334BC, during which Dariush III himself was not present, Battle of Issus 333BC, where Dariush III was present, and the Battle of Gaugamela 331BC, where Dariush took his last stance, but unfortunately was again defeated. I would therefore change that statement to “The final act was played out during the reign of Darius III (336-330 BC), who was defeated at the Battle of Gaugamela (331 BC) by Alexander of Macedon.” --By the way, I like that our compatriot referred to that pyromaniac as Alexander of Macedon, not by his undeserved but commonly used name of Alexander the Great. Smile

3. I believe the statement “After several hundred years of Arab rule, Persia was restored to Persian rule in 1501 with the Safavid Dynasty” is a bit inaccurate. I think that most would give that credit to the Saffarid Dynasty, namely Yaqub Saffarid, starting in 861. Under Yaqub, for the first time since the Islamic conquest of 200 years earlier, a large part of Iran came back under the rule of Iranians. Yaqub was the first sovereign to undertake painstaking efforts to restore Iranian culture and tradition. We must pay tribute to him. The Saffarid Dynasty’s power was short-lived, however, and they soon became vassals to the Samanids. As for the Safavids, their contribution to Iran, starting in 1501, was also substantial. However, Arabs and Arab rule by that time had become quite irrelevant. The major contenders on the scene at that time were the Uzbeks and other Turkish peoples, who the Safavids took on with a vengeance.

4. I would also add that the major contribution of the alleged “Arabic” influence to the fields of philosophy, algebra, poetry, medicine, chemistry, astronomy, and other sciences were in fact Persian contributions. They came from the likes of Omar Khayyam, Razi, Saadi, Avicenna, and countless other Persians. In fact, it took a Persian to present to the Arabs their own grammar. Razz

I apologize if some of my critique seems like minute nit-picking of little relevance. But I must confess that Iran’s ancient history is a passion of mine.

Good luck with this endeavor; I’ll support you however I can, and will happily sign your final draft.

Ba Sepaas,
Amir
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I am Dariush the Great King, King of Kings, King of countries containing all kinds of men, King in this great earth far and wide, son of Hystaspes, an Achaemenian, a Persian, son of a Persian, an Aryan, having Aryan lineage

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Oppenheimer



Joined: 03 Mar 2005
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PostPosted: Wed Nov 02, 2005 8:31 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Liberator,

This a good thing you've put into play here, how they will recompile the text at this point in correction I don't know...as I understand some 6 million copies are already on shelves, but games usually have updates.

I would like to ask both you and Amir one question regarding Persian history....among all the battles and conqusts that mark the history, what was the longest period of continued peace, when, and under what dynasty?

P.S. I have CIV II , took over the world as Cyrus the Great on diety level -7 players- without a major war, and a spotless reputation. Damned Mongols attacked, but that was their last mistake....they were all assimilated....

Peace has been kept for the last 2000 years....all other civs allied.

Too bad I don't have time to devote to it more often.
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Morning Light



Joined: 12 Oct 2005
Posts: 54

PostPosted: Wed Nov 02, 2005 12:00 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I agree that the passage is bad, and that Civilizations should elaborate that not all of ancient Persia was converted into Arab, and that most of Iran isn't an Arab look alike, however you must admit that this underlines a major problem though.

The problem being that is the Monkeys succeed in their goals there will be no difference between Persians and Arabs.
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Liberator



Joined: 29 Aug 2003
Posts: 1086

PostPosted: Wed Nov 02, 2005 3:23 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Amir-jaan,

Thank you fot the comments. I already sent in my protest letter but I would advise you to incorporate your points (if you'd like to) into the template that's provided above. We have to send them enough letters for them to realize that there are many people out there who are concerned.


Dear Oppie,

I think you should direct your question towards Amir since i'm sure he is much more knowledgable in Iranian History than I am.
Please send in your protest to Firaxis Games as well. Thank you in advance.



Ba Sepaas
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http://aryamehr11.blogspot.com/
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Liberator



Joined: 29 Aug 2003
Posts: 1086

PostPosted: Wed Nov 02, 2005 4:21 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hopefully this will attract more people to our cause. Thanks to all those who were quick to respond to the call. And thanks to MPG for putting it up on their site.

It can only get better from now on.



http://www.marzeporgohar.org/index.php?act...&n_id=26034&l=1




Ba Sepaas
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