The pre-Islmaic government of Iran was brutal toward disenters and anti-government activists. The post (and current) Islamic government is the same, most likely even more so, but has the added benefit of spreading their vision of revolution around the world. Let's not forget the hundreds and probably thousands of women who were slashed and hatcheted to death in the streets of Tehran in the early days of the revolution. This was for the unforgivable crime of protesting in the streets. Why were they protecting? The complete loss of freedoms suffered by all women under the new regime. Islamic men took to the streets and made sure that sort of behavior did not occur again. As we speak there are a large number of terrorist training camps operating in complete freedom in Iran.
Remember the "open" elections Iran promised to hold a year or so ago? Dozens of candidates filed for the ballot, the mullahs reviewed lists, removed anyone they didn't like (not Muslim enough), and the election was between 2-3 hard line Islamists. Just like our Revolution, eh? Oh, by the way, slavery is still being practiced openly throughout much of the Middle East. For decades after we (and other evil Western countries especially Great Britain) had fought many bloody battles to end slavery, the Middle East was still openly and legally practicing this barbaric horror. Went on well into the 1920s.
A co-worker of mine married an Iranian women in 1985. She had escaped the terror that is Iran, however, her brother remained behind and was actually a member of the "Revolutionary Islamic Party". As such, he was duty bound to avenge his sister's "dishonor" and sent sister letter demanding her return. When she refused, he attempted to come to America to do the right thing, which was to kill sister and her new husband, my friend. The feds came to out office, arranged for my friend to get a concealed weapons carry permit and finally stopped this terrorist at the Canadian border. He was sent back to Iran where he vowed to come back as soon as possible to finish the job. My friend and wife had to move out of state for protection where she soon divorced him to save his life.
Avguygeorge, the time for self hatred is long past. There are enough terrorists in the world who hate us for simply being alive. The main mosque in England (as reported in the Detroit Free Press) has a sign up that says, "Islam and the word of Allah will one day rule the world".