It is hard to believe that four decades has passed since the Islamic Revolution was forced upon the Iranian people and their freedom disappeared. Under the rule of these adherents of death, everything in Iran is deteriorating while Iran’s religious government is strong and has a great deal of control on everything. Too much control without independent checks and balances encourages corruption, nepotism and inefficiencies.  As a result, the bulk of the nation’s wealth flows to a few select individuals.

This is a wake-up call for Iran’s authorities and the international community. Although denied by many through the past four decades, Iran is literally a political, social and economic time bomb closing in on a colossal detonation.

While Iran continues to develop its missile program that is sharply criticized by the United States and Israel, they simultaneously seek to suppress people’s desire to keep a share of the country’s wealth. Prosecution and imprisonment of innocent people and systematic and illegal abuse of detainees, along with hundreds of gruesome acts, have also been reported.

Iranians have witnessed several uprisings, but they have become numb and unable to function and conduct a normal life. The battle against the Islamic regime remains arduous and long. The mullahs will not give up power easily, even if that means the complete destruction of Iran.

The people of Iran are hoping this current uprising is not a repeat of 2009 when Obama threw a lifeline to the mullah's regime by not supporting the Iranian people and in effect siding with the genocidal mullahs.

Third day, Green Protest Rally, June 15, 2009, by Hamed Saber (Wikimedia Commons)

These turbaned thugs were taking their final breath, completely broke, when the good old USA came to the rescue, releasing billions of dollars at the end of Obama’s second term while easing other sanctions.

With the election of President Trump, once again, the Iranian people are encouraged. They have watched the value of the rial plummet from 37,500 to the dollar in June 2017 to 90,000 mow, as sanctions are retuning and the economic vice is tightening, putting pressure on the Islamic regime to change its behavior.

The Islamic Republic's infamous record is replete with instances of child execution, restrictions on freedom of speech and the press, imprisonment of journalists, discrimination against women in general, and persecution of religious minorities (with a particular systematic program of genocide against the  Baha'is and their religion). The regime has ruled over a peaceful people with an iron fist while committing the most heinous crimes against humanity.

The current revolt may not lead to the immediate downfall of the regime, but we are witnessing the death throes of the Islamic Republic. Even if the uprising ends today, it is but one step in a long struggle to achieve a more representative, democratic and popular government led by Reza Pahlavi who has been summoned by the Iranian people to return.

After 40 years, the prosperity envisioned by Khomeini's followers has yet to materialize, leaving many Iranians disillusioned. The children of the revolution have entered adulthood to find a lack of jobs, limited freedom, and little hope for the future.

What we are observing in Iran now should not be viewed as a selective outcry, but rather a work in progress, a hybrid momentum that started in 1999 and led by students who later became involved in the Green Movement. They are belatedly joining the current unrest, which is evolving to include new social classes of people who were not at the center of previous protests.

Iran has one of the youngest and brightest and the most educated populations of any country at this time in history.

 Young Iranians, particularly the urban educated, are among the most ardent believers in democracy in the world. Many view America as the country that holds the best hope for spreading and protecting the high ideals of democracy. In a sense, many Iranians feel a closer affinity with a democratic Israel than all the neighboring Arab Muslim dictatorships. Although Islam was imposed on Iran some 1400 years ago, Iranians deeply value their own ancient non-Arab identity and have never fully surrendered to the Arab culture.

During the bloodletting in the past war, initiated by the late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein against Iran, all Arab states sided with the Butcher of Baghdad against Iran. Yet, Israel was the only Middle Eastern country that remained neutral and in fact helped Iran in the struggle. We Iranians don’t forget our friends and we also remember our enemies.

Let me re-emphasize that the current protests in Iran are just as much against the Islamic Republic as they are about Shi’a Islam. In fact, much of it is against Islam itself. People have experienced what a primitive and defective system of belief Islam is and aim to abandon it for good. Many will still hang on to it for some time.

Time has arrived to end the Mullahs’ reign of terror. We Iranians and Iranian-Americans -- in spirit free people of the world -- greatly cherish individual liberty and freedom, where the mind is imbued with enlightenment, and every individual by virtue of being born human is afforded measured freedom. It is within the open expanse of liberty that each and every person can be at his or her best. And when the individual person is at his best, humanity is as well.