ANALYSIS INFORMATION FROM A EUROPEAN PERSPECTIVE

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THE COLLAPSE OF CHRISTIANITY

IN WESTERN SOCIETIES AS BASIS FOR CRITICIZING RELIGION AND POLITICS IN THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN

Empty churches.

Before we as less civilized and empathic people criticize religion and spirituality in the Islamic Republic of Iran today one should first explain and understand the collapse of Christianity as a main factor in the western societies of today.

The decline of Spirituality in the West in general, the weakening and the right out abolishment of the Christian faith in many places today, and the materialization and dehumanization process reflected in the general coldness between people, gives reason for great concern. In Norway, however, this is "business as usual", a stroke of death before the curtain fall. In the Age of conspicuous consumption, oil and gas, sexual "freedom" and decline of conservative values the Norwegian society is identified with an overwhelming absence of piety in combination with a cold, disdained and superfluous inter-human relations almost devoid of human dignity. Just as it was in the last days before the fall of the decadent, Roman Empire!

NORWAY: WHEN THE STATE TAKES UPON THE ROLE AS CHURCH AND SPIRITUAL GUIDOR

The most devastating decision for Norway in recent times was to harass and ultimately destroy the Catholic Church in the country. Introduce Protestantism and, through an iron-fisted church and Ministry of Education, impose bureaucratic directives on people. The state took on the role of both tax collector and spiritual guide. The following of this new arrangement has made Norway's population atheists and the country a cultural bracket; yes, an almost underdeveloped and norm-breaking society without much other values ​​than money.

The Norwegian State - young as it is in European history, has a rude and free-spirited attitude when, on its own behalf, it imposes on the population its extremely troublesome opinions about what it believes is right and proper in ecclesiastical matters. This is the dictatorship of the partitocracy wrapped in gold-embroidered gloves and foggy talk. In front of an indifferent population that has been detached from the Mother Church almost by a kind of «military coup.” I am referring here to the commander of Akershus Fortress in Oslo, who in his time had the Catholic monastery church on Hovedøya, which is located deep in the Oslo fjord, demolished, and burned to the ground. The power saw the Catholic Church as a real threat and got rid of it in 1636 by order of the Danish king Christian the Fourth. This was a catastrophic mistake for Norway's further development as a nation.

NORWAY AS A NON-PIETY STATE

Article by Harald Jan Teodor Dahle on Pentecost Sunday May 20 2018. "Piety is the dignity of the Spirit as it is reflected towards God and people," says Dahle. "And there were more spirituality and piety in Tehran than on St. Peters Square in Rome," he observed. (C) 2018 Harald Dahle. Quote with reference to source, thank you. Harald Dahle:

"The most remote and isolated tribe on New Guinea seems to be more spiritually enlightened than what the everyday Norwegian is. In the Norwegian society of today, Man is undoubtedly being reduced to the weight of his own body. The newspapers write about losing and gaining weight every, single day. "It's all about meat, meat and more meat," says Harald Dahle, "and nothing about Man as a Spiritual being in God." He reflects on the Norwegian's Laissez-faire type mantra "to enjoy,"

"Enjoy, enjoy the naked flesh... above all there is! This certainly seems to be the fanfare of the day!" With the full blessing of the State, off course! The decline of Spirituality in the West in general, the weakening and the right out abolishment of the Christian faith in many places today, and the materialization and dehumanization process reflected in the general coldness between people, gives reason for great concern. Before we criticize religion and spirituality in Iran, one should first explain and understand the collapse of Christianity as a main factor in the western societies of today. In the Age of conspicuous consumption, oil and gas, sexual "freedom" and decline of conservative values the Norwegian society is identified with an overwhelming absence of piety in combination with a cold, disdained and superfluous inter-human relations almost devoid of human dignity. Just as it was in the last days before the fall of the decadent, Roman Empire!

On the streets of Oslo, the Norwegians bow their small and worried heads down towards their large, active-matrix organic light-emitting diode screens on their cell phones. And that they do all day! And it is the only time ever when the Norwegians bow their heads! On the walls of the houses in capital Oslo, there are not the minutest sign of spirituality. No al-fresco paintings of the apostles, the Blessed Virgin Mary, a cross, some ornaments pointing towards a cultural connection with continental Europe. Nothing! The capital is chemically, organically and spiritually devoid of any sign of a higher and dignified purpose in life!

"Walking in Oslo 2018 reminded me about walking in Godless DDR in 1954."

Alongside country roads leading through walleyes and over plains, through small towns and barren fields there is not a single cross, no memory built for an ancient, Christian pilgrim who shall have walked and died there. Not a sign post pointing towards a time when Norway was a country belonging together in spirit with the other Christian nations on the grand mainland of Europe. Below a breath from Norway's Catholic Era. Harald Dahle's fatherly mentor and friend, the French Dominican munch, Pater Marie Gabrielle Vaneufville in the living room at Bjerkebæk, the home of the 1928 Nobel Prize winner in literature Sigrid Undset.

What we do see when we travel are road signs of more food, more gasoline and more pizza and kebab shacks. And so go the days, one after the other, in a country so absent of spirituality that one is damn lucky to find an open church on a Sunday at eleven am. And even luckier if one can find a person to have a dialogue with,

"As the Norwegians avoid talking at all costs, except for when they criticize a fellow citizen for daring to having an opinion."

That is when they really start to utter strange and hateful words. Below, decadence in the old Rome; fill your stomach, drink, relax and enjoy life! And T.S. Eliot wrote that,

"Man has left God for no God, and that has never happened before!"

"Norway is the country of "the flesh", not that of the spirit," ads Harald Dahle laconically. Below, decadent Rome! “In my work dealing with people and dialogue, “says Harald Dahle, “I have come to learn that many of us are not capable if viewing another human being right in front of ourselves with warmth, empathy and humanness. I believe this defect to be one of several primary causes for disharmony, conflict and war!

"The Coldness between People"

This phenomena bears special relevance to the people of Norway who actually live on an "island" - with the North Sea on one side and the forest and mountains bordering to Sweden and Russia on the other - and can do as they damn well please without having to take into account the more aristocratic and refined continental European culture further south. "I was in Munich already in 1956 and was raised in Sissach in Canton Basel Land in Switzerland," says Dahle whose father became a Swiss citizen. Harald Dahle,

"I have long and close experience with the Swiss Calvinism and the heavy Baroque inspired Catholic churches in Bavaria."

It sets the Norwegian minimalistic Lutheran Church, controlled by the Department of Church -and Culture, in a certain perspective!"

WHEN THE ATHEISTIC, ARROGANT AND PROTECTIVE NORWAY ENTERED THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN AND WAS KICKED OUT ONLY THREE YEARS LATER

"I will argue that their neck muscles were not heavily burdened by the weight of their capability to sound judgement."

This bears specially meaning for the wobbly Norway-Iran relations some twenty years ahead of Ambassador Noghrehkar Shirazi's four year turbulent and exhaustive period in Oslo from 2000 till 2004. Picture of Ambassador Noghrekar Shirazi, who on July 10 2003 got heart problems due to the massive attack on the Embassy, is seen here being carried away by Oslo medical first responders.

Harald Dahle, "The Iranians were so tired of the bullish attitude of the Norwegians, that at one point in 2003 they were ready to break off all further contact and go home. When the Iranian Embassy was under siege on July 10 2003 and the demonstrators were dismantling the main door at the embassy to get access, the Oslo Police finally came. His Excellency Rezvani, assistant to Ambassador Shirazi told me in person, "At last the Police came. I remember with dismay that one police officer softly laid his arm around the shoulder of the violent demonstrator - just as a father would do towards his own daughter - and I thought to myself, what is this Police doing?" The Police authorities excused themselves by saying they did not have enough people working that day!

Harald Jan Dahle's work in the Islamic Republic of Iran was of a Spiritual nature, not of a Diplomatic nature. Picture from the Center for World Religions in Tehran, Iran, April 2002. (C) 2002 Harald Dahle. Below is the video from the meeting with Mohammad Ali Abtahi.

THE NORWEGIAN INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS NUPI

In the autumn of 2003 my work inside Iran was more or less over for now. Many people wanted to talk to me in Oslo to hear what I had to say. One of them was a representative of the Norwegian Institute of International Affair, NUPI whom I had met at the Nobel Institute some weeks prior. He invited me to the NUPI Headquarter so that I could give him the latest updates on Iran, he thought!

Arriving at NUPIs flashy think-tank Headquarter at Hambros’s plass, left picture, in Oslo in high spirit, this representative greeted me with a big smile. I tried to follow this man on a mission from above as he hurriedly run down stair after stair in front of me till we came to a lover and darker level of the big NUPI headquarter. A rather desolated place, I would say, with rows and rows of tiny, empty offices, with space enough just for a slim table, a chair and a rectangular, narrow window. The view from that window went nowhere. There we were, standing uncomfortably close, with my PC on the table beaming out high-level video impressions from my meetings in Tehran."

"No invitation for a cup of tea; no chair to sit in." NUPI HQ Oslo

And above all, no respect and dignity. It was obvious that this NUPI representative just wanted to milk my information regarding Iran; have everything for nothing, as they say, a Norwegian treat. Former Governor of the Central Bank Iran had though me, "What sits in your heart when you talk, will sit in the heart of the person you talk to." Actually, I didn't feel anything in my heart during my visit at NUPI in Oslo!

Reception the Iranian way, left picture. Respectful, empathic and with dignity. Fruits, cake and tea in a worthy setting. Not like in Oslo where you are treated as "Ein Jude" ready to be harassed at any moment! To the left is Hossein Nassiri, Advisor to the President and Secretary of High Council of Free Trade Industrial Zones; right myself. Arriving back in Oslo was like coming to a war zone. "No-where in the world did I experience more lack of basic manners as in the Norwegian Capital Oslo, where people generally do not know how to behave in a public spaces, it was ugly!" complain Harald Dahle after his arrival back from Tehran in 2003. Picture from the office of Hossein Nasiri in Tehran. (C) 2002 Harald Dahle.

Not one single researcher could advice the Government on Iran

Back to NUPI, where I didn’t allow the representative in front of me that cheap strategy. I briskly turned off my PC and told him up in his surprised NUPI-face, "That the meeting was definitively over!" And after just about fifteen awkward minutes, but, he didn't give up that easily and desperately tried to continue the strained meeting. In fact, almost begged me there and then to let the PC continue and show my video interviews from the Iranian Capital. But the charade was definitively over! It had felt more like a veiled interrogation than a respect-ful and empathic welcome placed in a respectful and nice office with nice chairs, a table, tea cups and a cake. I was used to that from Tehran. After all I was fifty three years of age at the time and had spent six consecutive years in the Islamic Republic of Iran and often under great strain.

"I was good enough for the Vice President, the Governor of the Central Bank, the Deputy Minister of Oil and President of the National Iranian Oil Company with more than 150.000 employees - but not for NUPI Director Sverre Lodgaard, which tells you all you need to know about arrogance, disrespect and stupidity in academic circles in Norway."

But at NUPI there were no respect; they behaved like good old intellectual train robbers! Shocked and disappointed, I hurried out of the impressive oracle packed with hyped-up theories, relieved to have left nothing of intellectual value behind. Indeed, what a welcome meeting it had been!

Left picture: Former NUPI Director turned senior researcher Sverre Lodgaard: IBM machine. No piety? Later that same year there was a meeting at NUPI and the subject was again Iran. After the meeting, the then Director of NUPI Sverre Lodgaard, turned senior researcher after 2007, came up to me and shook my hand. His hand shake was demonstratively weak as he looked at me with great disdain. And I thought to myself, “So now you are angry because I didn’t give NUPI any information from my time in Iran. But, you see Mr. Lodgaard, you showed me neither empathy, respect nor dignity. You treated me as cattle, had me run down stairs and placed me in an interrogation like micro-office where I was left standing and bewildered. Why should I give anything to you people?" About the only time you show some dignity is when you suck up to the American lecturers that you invite to talk at NUPI. I have seen it with my own eyes! And that is why NUPI didn’t get anything from me.

"The U.S. Department of State-people in Dubai really pissed me off."

The United States Department of State in Dubai also desperately wanted information from me from my time in Iran. But they also forgot to invite me for tea and a cake, so they didn’t get anything either. So much for empathy and good manners! Cheap, cheap and more cheap!

Picture above. The Iran-Norwegian drama unfolded in "Moment of Truth." Deputy Foreign Minister for Economic Affairs, former Governor of the Central bank, Ambassador to Ottawa and Tokyo, His Excellency Hossein Adeli PhD and Harald Dahle in Adeli's office in the Foreign Department Tehran in April 2002. Discussing the very essence of the Iran-Norway relations.

"Which, truth be told, had actually collapsed years before Norway's Grand entrance into the Islamic Republic of Iran in 2000." And the former Iranian Ambassador to Vienna His Excellency Noghrehkar Shirazi's arrival in Oslo the same year amidst Gotterdammerung.

"I work on a Spiritual basis, not on a Diplomatic basis." Harald Dahle

Harald Dahle's three years in St. Dominicus Monastery Neuberggaten 15 in Oslo.

"After all, being a Catholic, we have much historic material in common with the Muslims." says Harald Dahle, and continues,

"In the Muslim teachings, Jesus is regarded as a great Prophet - in the West he is increasingly not!"

And when I worked i Tehran I found Jesus the Prophet on a first-day postage envelope, which surprised me a lot." Harald Dahle had once lived three consecutive years in the St. Dominicus Monastery in Oslo from 1968 till 1970. His fatherly mentor in the Abbey was Pater Marie Gabrielle Vaneufville, a most piety French munch. Dahle, "We had room next to each other on each side of the narrow corridor on the third floor in the old, Swiss-style wooden building.

"Words like vagina, penis, balls and tits are classy words that the Norwegians frequently like to use in their dignified talk - and fuck, off course, not to forget!"

Now and then he would knock carefully on my door and ask me to lower the music a tad. Every day I had dinner with the Brothers. During the dinner one Brother read from a book while the others had their meal. There were no talking. I used their well-stocked library, and was included as one of them. Pater Halvard Rieber-Mohn was a great sport too, and thought me many things in literature and in writings. In the evenings we watched television together. What a glorious time of my life it was!"

"I went to Rome in 1969 to research the possibility to be a priest,"

says Harald Dahle. Below is a handwritten letter from Pater Vaneufville to him, "With my good wishes and a fatherly blessing in Jesus." This was back in 1968 when I rented a tiny room next to Pater Vaneufville on the third floor in the old, Swiss-style looking wooden house on the lawn next to the St. Dominicus Monastery church in Neuberggaten 15 on Oslo's West side.

"Nowhere else in the world, except in Oslo, was I treated with maximum disdain, no respect and piety," one elderly woman living in one of Oslo's posh areas confined sadly to me, "I have lived here in this house of mine for almost forty years now after my husband died too early, and during this time none of my neighbors invited me home for a cup of coffee, which is chocking! I come from Holland, and that could never have happened there!"