The Iranian Theocracy of Terror and Vengeance

"This disaster is a reminder of what it means to be Canadian and to belong to this cosmopolitan nation."
"There is a certain fluidity of identity when you open your doors to the whole world."
"Exile is a longing to belong. It's an emotional space that we confuse with a physical space."
"There is this very strong identity which is based on historical continuity. [Out of a diverse culture in Iran, Iranians treasure a deep attachment to] a rich mystical culture that refuses to be eclipsed despite the wars and invasions of the centuries."
Payam Akhavan, former UN war crimes prosecutor, professor of law, McGill University

Iran is known to have Russian-made Tor missile defence systems   AFP Getty Images

Canada has suddenly lost a large swath of citizens of Iranian heritage. In one fell swoop fate struck down the passenger plane they boarded at Tehran International Airport, bound for Kyiv in Ukraine. They hadn't yet reached cruising height, just several minutes into take-off from the airport when the Boeing 737-800 Ukrainian airliner suddenly burst into flames and plummeted to the ground, shattered, passengers and crew killed in the conflagration and crash.

Their connecting flight from Kyiv to Toronto arrived on schedule in Toronto later, where the 138 passengers of the total 176 that left Tehran, were to deplane, but there was no one to occupy those flight-reserved seats, it arrived void of those passengers, a silent rebuke to fate. A total of 63 Canadians perished in that first leg of their journey from Iran to Canada. Other Iranians had been scheduled to arrive in Canada for various reasons; Iranian students attending university in Canada, people on travel visas.

Delaram Dadashnejad, 26, was studying nutrition at Langara College. (Ksenia Ivanova)

The Canadians whose lives were forfeited when, as now being announced, the plane was hit by a sophisticated missile system, represented a full spectrum of any society; families, business professionals, academics, children, university students. Many of the Iranian students studying at Canadian universities would decide to stay in Canada, to become Canadian citizens; their long-range agenda will now never be realized. An 8-year-old, a 9-year-old and a one-year old child aboard will never see adulthood.

Iranian Canadians hailing from Western Canada to Central Canada are being mourned, their tragic deaths traumatizing their communities, stunning the nation. Toronto was home to such a large contingent of Iranian expatriates it was sometimes referred to within that community as "Tehranto".
Iran, the Islamic Republic of Iran under the Shiite Ayatollahs is nothing like the social and cultural treasurehouse it once was. The militant leadership embracing terrorism as a mode of entry to commanding regional conquest has completely divorced itself from what the West views as civil behaviour.

 U of Toronto student Mojtaba Abbasnezhad, crash victim. (Mojtaba Abbasnezhad/Facebook)

Its relentless and violently injurious embarkation on undermining an already-fractious Sunny-majority mostly Arab Middle East to place Aryan Persia in the ascendancy, its viral anti-Israel pathology where threats against Israel's existence reveal its plans for Iran's future as the authority in the Middle East, its unstoppable search for and research into technological advances in nuclear arms and ballistic missiles of increasing sophistication, its commitment to spurning Western overtures and its ardent support of regional terrorist groups reveal it as a threat to peace, security and stability.

Internal dissent by disaffected Iranians has roiled the country time and again, and the regime's response has been swift, brutal and viciously deadly. The sanctions placed on Iran by a new administration in the United States determined to keep nuclear weaponry out of the regime's possession has disastrously weakened the Republic's economy. But not to the point where they will forego funding their proxy terrorist militias, nor fail to supply them with missiles, nor direct them to sectarian violence.

Samira Bashiri, husband Hamid Setareh Kokab, (Submitted by Sahar Nikoo)

All this is what most expatriate Iranians have sought to escape, to find refuge elsewhere to live aspirational lives of achievement and decency. All the while a yearning for the culture and heritage left behind propels many to return for brief periods, not the least cause of which is to keep in touch with extended family members left behind. That yearning led to the cessation of life itself for those whose misfortune was to be in their country of origin at this critical time.

When an irate theocratic regime whose focus is on the return of the Hidden Mahdi to bring the final destruction of all non-Muslims and the elevation of the faithful to Paradise, and doesn't mind hastening the process reflecting its corrosive scorn for humanity other than those it claims for its own, recklessly sacrifices the lives of innocents to emphasize its contempt for the West and the power it calls 'the Great Satan'.

Rescue teams gather at the scene after a Ukrainian plane carrying 176 passengers crashed near Imam Khomeini airport in the Iranian capital Tehran early in the morning on Jan. 8. Rouhollah Vahdati/ISNA/AFP via Getty Images