Church & State -Passport to Freedom with Dr. Nizam Missaghi

Spokane Valley could become a sanctuary city. A different housman, Caleb Collier says that this I'm. Proposing that the city of Spokane Valley issue a proclamation stating that our city is a Second Amendment sanctuary. Welcome to the fire. Today on Church and State Passport to Freedom with doctor Dezam Massagi. Hello Christian Patriots, and welcome to Church and State, where we drive morality and religion over tolerance and apathy. And I'm your host, Caleb Callier, once again your favorite far right chalk jock and the show that talks about politics and religion. Jesus Christ is our referee, so it's always nice and clean. Real quick, I'm gonna point you to the website Church and State dot media so you can do a few things here. Number one, fill out that registration form so you can get our newsletter and of course a personal phone all from yours truly. While you're on the website, check out some of our most recent episodes. We continue to cover hard hitting subjects that you're really not finding anywhere else. While you're there, please check out the featured guests as well. We have some incredible people that have joined us over the years and with every single one of them, you can see or you can listen to the episode just by clicking on their name. Please perduce through some of the wonderful affiliates that we have. As I always tell you, we've got some great companies that I personally use and with every one of them, if you use the promo code Church and State, you'll be helping to support us here. I also want to make sure that you hit the donate button for us, ladies and gentlemen, we need help to stay on in RBTV Prepper Broadcasting Network newscasters. So many great avenues for you to enjoy the show, and we're looking to expand. We have opportunity in front of us, but we do need your help to do so, so something as small as ten dollars a month can help us dramatically. Lastly, if you want to get a hold of us, Church and State seventeen seventy six at Proton dot me with that, let's go ahead and start this interview. Now, I'm very excited to bring on doctor Nizam Massagi. Sorry you know how I am with the names, but he's written a book, Passport to Freedom. Now, doctor Massagi is a physician, educator, and entrepreneur. He literally had to escape the nation of Iran. But it's a story of how tragedy turned into triumph. And with everything that's going on everybody talking about Iran, I thought he'd be a great guest to interview. Doctor Massagi. Thank you so much for joining us on Church and State. It's my pleasure. Caleb, thank you so much. I am now a big fan. Well, thank you very much. I appreciate that. So let's get into this because you have truly a unique story. You were born in the United States, correct, that's correct. I was born in nineteen seventy six. In New York, all right, but then ended up living in Iran. But you had a little secret that no one could know about, and it was a passport, a US citizen passport, and you held on to it for a number of years. That's correct. If I may remind the audience that the Islamic Revolution in Iran happened in nineteen seventy nine, and shortly after there was the raid on the American embassy, and after that, of course, the hostage crisis that lasted four hundred and forty four days, with fifty two embassy workers who were held hostage. And subsequent to that, the US Embassy ceased to operate in Iran, and this created significant difficulty for anyone who was a US citizen who happened to be in Iran, because even renewal of your passport was a difficult thing to do, and especially when I was a minor, renewals happened to have to happen every five years, and so we would have to go through the Swiss embassy in Tehran, and they would use diplomatic mail and ship it to Switzerland to the US embassy there. And a simple task of renewal of a passport that should take all of maybe two or three days here in the US or in any country with the US embassy, it would take two to three months before you would have your renewed passport. And this passport sat in a shoe box in the back of a closet in my father and my mother's bedroom. Truly incredible. Now I want to go back because being born in the United States and then moving to Iran, can you tell us the story there why your parents decided to move to Iran. Absolutely so. In the nineteen seventies, my mom and dad both were studying in the US. My mom was a physician. She had finished medical school in Tehran, and she decided to do her residency in the US as a way to learn from the best and the brightest, and with the understanding that they would take their newfound knowledge back to Iran and managed to improve and help the development of their own nation. And my father also is an engineer, and he'd done his studies, and so the two of them had decided that they would go back. And this is not an uncommon thing. It certainly was not in the nineteen seventies. Iran was a very desirable place to live, and people would leave, go abroad, receive an education, go back and serve their own nation. That makes absolute sense, and it's honestly something to applaud. You know, you go and you want to return home and better your community, better your nation. So I can definitely appreciate that. So they decided to move back. Now they moved back. How old were you when you moved back? I was an infant. So I was born in March. Mom's residency finished at the end of June, and so I was all of three months old when my parents moved back to Iran. And this would be nineteen seventy six. The Islamic Revolution that uphended the lives of millions of Iranians occurred in nineteen seventy nine. Okay, So going along that vein, were your parents did they like the Shaw? Do they like the culture of Iran? I mean Americans. We've seen pictures of how Iran looked prior to the Islamic Revolution, and it was very westernized. People were enjoying a lot of freedom. And so what happened with the Islamic Revolution where unfortunately the people of Iran were sold to bill of sales and the freedoms, you know, the righting the wrongs of you know, kind of I guess you could say a lot of people were believing that the SHAW was a puppet regime that had been installed by the United States, and so there was some anger towards that. And that's what the Israel Islamic Revolution really really engineered, the kind of anger and how they were able to enter in. But your parents were they fans of the SHAW or did they see the Islamic Revolution as a positive thing? Initially? They certainly never saw the Islamic Revolution as a positive thing. Even I remember being a toddler and hearing the conversations between my parents and some of their friends who had thought that this was an opportunity for democratic change for Iran, and my father specifically, who was a student of politics for many years, would always speak of the cautionary tale of islamis would never bring freedom to our country, and so this from the very get go. My parents knew. My parents none of them participated in any demonstrations that led to the overthrow of the Shop. Having said that there is no singular government that's perfect. Every government has had its own issues, its drawbacks, and its positives. Overall, the Pahlavi dynasty and the Shop was the second monarch within that dynasty, was considered very progressive. Were sure, there were some limitations in. What we would call First Amendment, but basically the ability to express yourself freely, and there was some restrictions as far as people who wanted to have political movements that may not have been approved by the government. Having said that social freedoms were abundant, the ability to assemble was not restricted, and people did have a parliament at that time. The Shaw was a constitutional monarch, but certainly the parliament did not have as much power as it should have, so it could have been reformed where the powers would be distributed more appropriately and the system could have survived. But this idea of completely upending everybody's lives and coming up with a new system unfortunately backfired, where people who thought that freedom is coming and democratic change is coming, and perhaps Atla Homeni is some peace loving Gandhi like figure who's going to come and lead this revolution to democratic change felt very flat on his face, and very quickly people realize that this is not what they signed up for. Absolutely, and you're really feeding my libertarian roots and the statement of all governments have problems. I completely agree with that assessment of government. And also, you know, you speak of revolution, as far as I'm concerned, there's really only been one revolution in history that brought about freedom, and I'm talking about the American Revolution. The vast majority of them have promises of you know that we're going to right the wrongs, we're going to bring about freedoms, and you look at what happened in China and Russia and Cambodia and Vietnam, and obviously I ran as well, they never really materialize. That's absolutely true. People have many aspirations and hopes, and unfortunately, and many people say, our revolution was stolen. You hear this significantly from the Iranian populace. You even hear this from the Cubans. When I was in Cuba in twenty nineteen. Still something like what sixty years after that revolution occurred, people were still saying, well, this revolution was stolen. I'm like, I've heard this before, and so I understand that they thought that they were doing something that was going to bring them positive change, and it didn't. The Shaw of Iran, for all the drawbacks he had, was a very progressive person, and so he was Western educated and he certainly brought many changes, including the right of voting to women, which predated that in Switzerland, for example. So Iran had become a very progressive place. And the Islamic people and the people who wanted to be observant had their mosques and their imams and their observances, and there was no issues there. But also people. Who wanted to live beyond the tradition and religion had the ability to do so without any fears and repercussions. And you did make one reference to a puppet regime, and I wanted to make one thing that I know, it's said very frequently about the CIA backed coup in nineteen fifty three that installs. The Shaw, But there is more. There's really more nuance to this story than meets the eye, because at that time, the way the Western media portrayed this is that there was a democratically elected prime minister, Mohammed Mossadegh, and he was overthrown with the help of CIA, and the Shaw was installed. And the story is overly simplistic and not exactly true. The way things were working is that this monarchy had had two. Kings. The first one had ruled until for about twenty years until nineteen forty one, and from nineteen forty one onward, the second king in the Batavi dynasty, who was Mohammed Rizoshah, was already ruling. Iran was a constitutional monarchy, and that constitution was written in nineteen o six, and the monarchy allowed for and the parliament, and the constitution allowed for the appointment of a prime minister that either had to be nominated by the parliament and approved by the king, or nominated by the King and approved by the parliament. And so this prime minister was not democratically elected in the sense that we would think that there are elections and people voted for him. He was nominated and the Shaw approved him to become the Prime Minister. But also the Shaw had the powers to remove him at his will. And so when the Shaw and him had where at odds over who should control the military and whatnot, the show tells him that he needs to resign. He refuses and creates a constitutional crisis. So the idea that he was very democratic and neither holds true as far as him being directly voted in, nor as far as him respecting the laws of the Constitution, or the fact that he dissolved the parliament, creating basically a bipolar decision making point between the king and himself only. And so the CIA certainly had made attempts of trying to overthrow him and reinstall the Shah. The Shaw had never been removed from power, but the idea was that his powers had been significantly restricted given that constitutional crisis. But it's really unclear as to how much the CIA actually was able to effectuate that plan. There was already very much as far as the populace is concerned, lack of trust in Mohammad Mosade in the way that he was moving the country, especially with the dissolution of the parliament, and so the story has a lot more nuanced, far more than I think your audience cared to know today. But the idea that Cia installed the Shaw is not true. The shot had already been the second monarch in a sequence, and this was a rogue prime minister who had challenged his authority. Yeah, I really appreciate you sharing that history, and I think my audience will be interested in hearing that perspective. I got to tell you, the history of Persia really is astounding, and Persia is such a proud nation, and the contributions to science and medicine are well documented. And now seeing what the Islamic Revolution has turned that country into, I mean, it's tragic for me, and I can only imagine it's even more tragic for you. Absolutely, Iran has a long history. It has contributed significantly to sciences, to mathematics, to astronomy, and it has also been home to very progressive monarchies, very significant places where pluralism was celebrated. Perhaps the first author of the First Charter of Human Rights is enshrined in what Cyrus the Great had dubbed and now the document of this is available for people to see. It's the first document that ensures the rights of all citizens, regardless of their tribe, or their ethnicity, or their religion or creed. And it was also the place where the Jews had been freed from the machinations of Hayman, who was the prime minister at the time. And the story of Esther, the story of what's known in the Jewish community as the Festival of Purim, happens in Old Persia as well, and so modern day Iran was known as Persia the time, and the Persian Empire was home to a very large, diverse populations that lived in peace and respected each other's beliefs and religions and backgrounds. Absolutely. Now, going along that line of religious freedom and religious tolerance, you were not in your family, was not islamisis and so can you speak a little bit about that with the persecution that you experienced being a different faith from the status quo the norm. That's correct if you talk about me today, I practice the religion of humanity as far as anybody who has the code of ethics that they live by, and they try to be the best version of themselves, in my opinion, has the best religion, regardless of what they call it. Nonetheless, I was raised in the Bahai faith, and the Bahaigh faith is a nineteenth century religion that arose from Iran at the time, and it has grown to becoming an international faith with many communities across the globe, and it is a very peace loving religion. It indeed believes in international peace that will happen sometime in the future. It also believes in the unity of all mankind, regardless of background. And so this is a very different faith than the Islamic traditions that are practiced in Iran, and especially the Islamic tradition that the founders of the Islamic Revolution practice, which is a very narrow interpretation of Islam, which is the twelve Vershism, and it's very significantly an odd to the Bahai faith because the Bahais believe that the time for people to have intermediaries between themselves and their God is done and over with, and people can read the scripture and understand and connect with their Lord the way they wish, and so their whole system of the Islamic Republic runs on the idea of a supreme jurisprudence, which is this supreme jurist also known as veloyetta Fai, which is within Persian literature, that allows for this holy Man to become a supreme leader. And so they thought that they were overthrowing a king, but they ended up getting a person who rules by divine mandate, and not only any divine mandate, but their own interpretation of this divine mandate. So I grew up in the Bahaiah faith. My last name is kind of a telltale sign of being potentially from a Bahai family, So just by looking at my name, most teachers would know in school that likely I belonged to the Bahai faith. And there's also a lot of asking where a teacher would come in the room and say in the classroom and say, do we have any non Muslims. Here in this class? And typically a few people would raise their arms and it would be a couple of Christians, typically of Armenian descent, who have a poppy in Iran. There would be maybe a Jew or two, there would be a Zoroastrian, and there would typically be a two or three Bahais in the classroom and the Constitution of the Islamic Republic recognizes these religious minorities, except for the Bahais. They consider the Bahais as apostates, as people who have left the true religion of God, and that depending on who you read, they would consider them untouchable or dirty. Years later, when I read the Emma lazarus poem The Great Colosses, when she talks about the wretched refuse, we were treated as the wretched refuse in Iran. And so the idea was that they could deny you access to education, especially at university level, where no Bahai student was ever allowed to enter universities in Iran. And even during your elementary and secondary education, they could very well dismiss you from school, not for bad grades or bad behavior, but because of the religion with which your parents were associated. And so I had been dismissed from school multiple times by the time I finished high school, and I would get called to the principal's office where the beliefs of my family were ridiculed and said that this is not a religion. This is a cult that was promulgated by the British in Iran to cause division in Islamic societies. Wow absolutely incredible, which is a far cry from what we're used to here in the United States, where we celebrate religious freedom that people can worship God as they see fit. And so moving from there, You've graduated high school now, and I'd love to hear the story and I'm sure my audience would as well, of how you were able to escape. I ran and come to the United States. I graduated at the top of my class at my high school, and everybody would expect that somebody who graduated the top of their class would be getting into the top universities in Iran. But I was not allowed to even participate in the university entrance examination imagine like an ACT or an SAT type exam, because they would not issue a card for me to even enter, and so they completely filter you out at that point. So somebody who graduated the top of his class was basically disposed of so easily, and I knew that I would either have to stay in Iran and not receive a university education, or I would have to find a way to leave, and the Golden ticket, the passport was going to help me. The only problem is that the Iranian government under the Islamic Republic does not recognize your passport of a different country if you are a person of Iranian descent. So if I were to use my Iranian passport my American I'd never had an Iranian passport. To use my American pasport to go to the airport and try to fly out to the US and there are no direct flights, but through any sort of connection, they would say, where's your Iranian passport. The other problem is that at the time, Bahis in Iran were not issued any passports at all. So I was completely stuck in a very large prison called Iran, and I had to figure out a way to get out. And so you can imagine there are human smugglers who help you get across the border. Some of them do it across the border to Pakistan, and some of them do it across the border to Turkey. My family decided that Turkey was a safer route. There's no less infectious diseases and difficulties, and so they decided to do it that way. And also realized that this is before the times of the Internet. This is the times when people would look up things in yellow pages. But imagine that there are no human smugglers that put an ad in any Yellow pages, and so it's all word of mouth. We had heard that a family friend had sent two of his daughters recently through Turkey, so you would never trust the phone lines because there is no privacy in the Islamic Republic. You couldn't call them on the phone and say, hey, who helped you get your daughters out? We want their services, because your phones could very well be tapped and you could be arrested for attempting to leave the country illegally. And so we just simply called them and said we are interested in coming and having conversation with you and having tea and sweets, and they said, of course, come on over. So we would do it in person. We showed up to their home and said, hey, who was the smuggler who helped your daughters across the border in Turkey? Do you have his name and his phone number? They laughed, They said, we don't know his name, we don't have a phone number. We're like, well, how did you that connect with him? Well, we had done the same thing as you did. And they basically, whoever the family is who had set them would be contacted free only by this guy looking for referrals, and he would call from payphones and they would say, oh, yeah, a friend of mine wants to talk to you, and this is their number, and then he would be the one who would call you. None of us know his name. We never looked at any form of identification by him. He came to my house and met my parents, and I met him. He had nice, curly air with rosy cheeks. He spoke with an accent as if he was from northwestern Iran, and he demanded some cash, which was equivalent of about thirteen hundred dollars in dollars of those days. And my dad said, well, okay, and it would only be cash, of course, because you. Would never write a check to this guy. You didn't know his name. So my dad said, okay, we'll give you the money, but what if we never see you again. He looked at my dad and smiled and said, that's the risk you take. So he said, I will be in touch. I will call, be prepared, have a bag, a luggage that is no larger than a carry on, and so I will let you know. I'll call with two or three days notice and tell you where to be at what bus terminal in northwestern Iran in the city of Tabreez and I will see you there. A few weeks went by, he called. He said, I'll see you in two days. At noon in the Tabreeze bus terminal, which was about twelve fourteen hours from Tehran, we got on a bus with Dad. I said goodbye to my sister and to my mother. And when we arrived there, he looked at the two of us and he said, now say goodbye to each other as if you were going to see each other tomorrow. No fanfare. So we just hugd very briefly, and I just walked with him to a back of a truck. The truck went for hours on dirt roads, and then around dusk time we went to a little hut, waited a little bit for them to get the signal. It was a few of them, and then set out to the mountain. Since liked it for about eight hours before we were in the smallest village on the Turkish side. Wow, absolutely incredible story. I got to ask, are your parents, is your sister still in Iran or were they able to get out as well? The policy of not giving passports to the Bahai's changed several years after I left the country. My sister left Iran five years after me in nineteen ninety nine, and she didn't have any trouble getting an Iranian passport to leave, and once she left, she used her US passport to come here. My parents moved in twenty ten and eleven, and Mom unfortunately has passed away of breast cancer since, but my father now lives three miles away from me, and my sister lives in Philadelphia area. She has a PhD in pharmaceutical sciences and hads the research and development for a major pharmaceutical company in the on the East Coast. I got to tell you, it's very heartwarming to hear about success that all of you have found in the United States, that you were able to flee a tyrannical government and come to this country. And I'm so thankful that your whole family was able to get out and reconnect. I'm sorry to hear about your mother, but I just thank you for sharing this story with our audience. Now I'm going to bring up because we're coming up on a herd break, I want to bring up your website, and it is Passport to freedombook dot com. We've got it right there where you can order this book, and sir you know, we've got about a minute left. We just pitch your book to the audience real quick. Absolutely, this book is an American story. It's an American dream story, in my opinion, where you go from very humble beginnings to becoming a positive member, contributing member to your community. I have always been a fan of immigration, immigration in the legal way, immigration in the way that the law permits. I'm not into breaking laws. And I think that any country that receives immigrants not only gives them opportunity to enrich their own lives, but they will also enrich the lives of communities that receive them as their hosts. And this mutuality, I think, is where magic happens. And so I am grateful to this land for people who helped me come here. And I also have the message that we will enrich our communities just like anyone else. Fantastic, and we're going to talk about that a little bit more. This is Caleb Collier with Church and State. Are you tired of your device spying on you? Ladies and gentlemen. We live in nineteen eighty four. Your phones, your tablets, your smart televisions, they all are spying on you. And this is why I heavily endorse Mark thirty seven dot com. This is everything you need for your digital privacy. Phones, tablets, laptops. All of them are ghost protocol, so that means that you are in charge of your own data. Just go to Church and State dot Media, scroll over to shop and hit Mark thirty seven dot com for all of your privacy needs. Make sure to use that promo code Church and State. And we are back and thank you for staying with us. You're over at Church and State dot Media and we're going to go back to our guests. But real quick, I do got to pitch one of our wonderful affiliates, and I am thinking, well, methylene blue, Chris. I love methylene blue. I use it daily and it might be a solution for you. I know for me, I was running against some brain fog. I was losing words, and so I started using methylene blue and it hand a dramatic effect on me. It may not be for everyone, but I think you should give it a thirty day shot. I use Best three sixty five Labs. It's the one that I trust. There is a lot of garbage products out there. These guys are some of the good guys, and if you order and use the promo code Church and State, you'll get a discount and you'll help support us here with what we're doing at Church and State. And one more time, I'm going to tell you to donate to the cause. As I talk to so many people around the country that are enjoying the show, the thing that I hear overwhelmingly is you've got a real unique show. It's very different. And I'm doing that intentionally, ladies and gentlemen. I'm asking the questions that you're not going to hear a lot of different places. And so if you like the content, if you like the host, please consider donating to Church and State. But just hitting that donate button. All right. With that, let's go back to our guest, doctor Nizam Missagi. We're talking about Passport to Freedom, an incredible journey escaping the tyrannical Iran regime and coming to the United States and enjoying the blessings and freedoms that we all take for granted here in our country. Now, doctor Masagi, you just brought up something that I'm so glad that you did. You brought up immigration. And this is where I'm perhaps a little bit different than your average conservative commentator. I like immigration. I see immigration as a positive thing. Now there are a lot within the conservative movement who say, now we just need to close our borders. I disagree. I agree with what you said doing it legally. But I see immigrants and you know, I mean, I know the name doesn't look it Caleb Collier, but my ancestors, a number of them came from Italy the legal way, and they benefited the community, and they had benefits from being part of their adopted country. But I think as conservatives, as libertarians, as Republicans, we need to have that conversation about immigration and that it can actually benefit our society. Absolutely agree with you. We are very much like minded in this way that immigrants, as long as there is some process of betting, there's some process of knowing what dreams and hopes they have for coming here, what potentialities they have that could be unlocked, I think that we will benefit from them. The fact that there are governments that are so tyrannical, that are so restrictive in terms of allowing people to achieve their dreams, that could become our game and their loss. The wretched refuse reference that I made from Emma. Lazarus's poem specifically says this, if they got discarded from some other place, they probably have a very significant will to succeed, and so to capture them will enrich us and will give us a competitive advantage on the world stage. If you look at. The Americans, the Americans who are winning Nobel prizes, many of them I don't have the exact number, but more than half of them were not born in the US. But they're proud Americans who have become naturalized citizens and have helped the advancement of the sciences. And so the competitive edge that we have here as far as research and development and being among the best in the world, if not the best in the world, is in part due to immigration and people who have come here not just to enrich themselves, but to give back amptly to the communities that welcome them. I completely agree with you, and unfortunately it's a sad tale. But currently in the United States there are a lot of people that just don't appreciate the freedoms that we have. A lot of our public education systems, well they leave a lot, they leave a lot out of true history of true science. I mean some kids are being taught that two plus two can equal five. And that's okay. What I see from so many immigrants, and certainly your story is individuals who are educated in the system that didn't play woke politics, and so they have a great education, they come here, they're able to better themselves. And with you, I mean, you are a world renowned anesthesiologist. You have a fantastic practice in Arizona. Can you tell us a little bit about that. Yes, I finished my training in anesthesiology at the University of Virginia. I looked at different opportunities around the nation, and there was an opportunity to deliver care to pediatric anesthesia patients at the County Hospital Americopa County here in Arizona and the Phoenix metro area, and I accepted that opportunity and the challenge of taking care of so many people who come from difficult backgrounds, indigen populations, and there's language barriers, and there's people who may not know, even if they understood the language, necessarily the diagnoses and the prognoses, and so. That was a challenge to do this. And so I was very young at the time. I was thirty years old and just beginning my practice at the time, and so I understood the value of being in these environments and serving people who are underserved, and so I did that for a period of three years and helped them in the development of some of their protocols and improving their systems to care for these patients, and also improving the systems for documentation and delivery of regional anesthesia techniques where a lot of the older anesthesiologists who worked there were not properly trained in because it was more of a newer technology. And so I helped that place. And then after three years, when I kind of reached that glass ceiling of how well you can do and how much you can do within that system, I thought about starting my own practice. So I became the founder of Grand Canyon Anesthesia in two thousand and nine. I joined forces with one other anesthesiologist who came and the two of us went around town and started coming up with contracts and contacts that we could serve and grow our practice. Our practice went from two people in two thousand and nine teen doctors and thirty nurse anesetus in twenty eighteen, at which time we had a transaction with a private equity firm so that they could manage how large we had become and we had our own exit, and it helped us become more independent financially and helped us become more interested in doing things for our communities, such as the founding of a nonprofit organization and serving on the boards of human rights organizations and things like this that I've done here in the Phoenix metro have also been on faculty at two of the universities here locally receiving medical students and helping to train the next generation of anesthesiologists here in the valley. These are the stories of success that I absolutely love. One of my heroes for personally is actually my father in law, who is one hundred percent Mexican. He was born in the United States and his father was a very very poor minister, a Spanish speaking only church. Mother worked the fields picking fruits and vegetables, and he became a dentist and a world renowned dentist. He travels around the world actually teaching people on new science, new medicine that they're using in the dentist field. And I look at that man who came from nothing and built himself up, and I consider him a hero, and so your story is very similar to that somebody who came from nothing and really built themselves up and have contributed greatly to society. And I thank you for sharing that for the audio or with the audience, and also for your drive here to better not only yourself but also your environment. Absolutely, what an inspiring story that you shared of your father in law, and I wish him every success in his ability to give back. I always feel that those who give back benefit themselves many folds. That it's not just a one way street, but the give because we seek meaning in our lives. And so those who simply pick up, get up from their bed and have their cup of coffee, rush to work, do their usual routine, and come back and then repeat and rinse it, repeat every time. I feel that they may be alive, but they're not living. I feel that the distinction in living and truly understanding the value of life is the pursuit of meaning, and of course the pursuit of happiness is a byproduct of pursuit of meaning, and so everybody and anybody who takes a step, a positive step in that direction, I think is truly reaching that pursuit of happiness as well as giving back and bringing happiness and joy to the faces of people that they serve. Absolutely amen to that. So the last question is we're winding down here, is I really want to know what the drive for was writing this book. I know that you shared a little bit as we were closing there, but I want to expand upon you know, this is a book that I'm looking forward to reading myself, but just from talking with you, it's a story that you know is one of tragedy, absolutely, but also to show people that you don't have to be a victim of the situation, that you can pull yourself out of it by your bootstraps and really make something of your life. So, really, what was the drive for writing this book? Absolutely, I think the drive had multi prongs. One is that I wanted to leave that legacy for my children to I have three sons, for them to equate themselves with where they've come from and what the freedom that they were born in had cost the generations before them, that there are sacrifices that lead to this level of freedom, and then once you understand that, I think you. Will cherish it. But also by depicting the situation in Iran from the lack of religious freedom, from the lack of social freedoms, from the lack of ability to assemble, from the lack of ability to speak, from the lack of ability to even have access to the Internet. And if you make one comment on social media that the power apparatus of the Islamic Republic does not like, they could grab you and put you away, and you would be in solitary confinement for months, and you would be lucky if you get out alive. For the custodial debts and the tortures and the forced confessions that they do, and all of this, as much as it sounds so medieval, it's happening today in the twenty first century. It's sort of like the handmade's tale story of what it would look like when religious extremism. Takes over a nation. And so from that perspective, I thought it's important for people to know that this doesn't just happen in stories. This is truly happening. And so for the American readership, if I wanted to get one point across, is that famous statement after the Constitutional Convention where Benjamin Franklin emerges from the convention and the press asks him what sort of government did you conceive? And he said, a republic if you can keep it. And I don't think this was a casual remark. I think this remark is so powerful that democratic system can erode if we are not vigilant about it. That democracy is not something that you win once and place it on the shelf and keep it forever. But it's something that has to have its checks and balances, has to be tested routinely, has to have the input of the people, and that when a system erodes and these things go away, then one day you wake up to having something that is very different. And so it's also that cautionary tail that we all have a role to play in preserving the republic that we all so much love and cherish. I think that's very well said, and yes, Benjamin Franklin's famous words, it was a warning to all of us and the generations now need to really look back upon that and say are we keeping it? And I would argue that in a lot of ways we are not. One last question that I just actually thought of, and I want to get your take on this and then we'll promote the book again here, But what is your take on the current Iranian US conflict. The Islamic Republic. As terrible as it is to the Iranian population, it has also been terrible for world stability, and especially in the region. It has had the adventurism of wanting to export its own grant sed ideology. At some point the Islamic Republic had to be faced, and I think that this idea of appeasement is not going to work for these people who are completely wrotten with extremist ideology. There is no way that you would change them. I know that the Obama administration tried this and came up with the JCPOA agreement, and there's. Evidence that they violated it. And there was things happening as far as the nuclear system and the radioactive material they could not explain, and so it had to be dealt with, and it's unfortunate that it took so long. The Islamic Republic is a slow moving disaster, and the longer you wait to face it, the stronger it becomes, and the more roots it grows, not only in hard power, but in soft power all over the globe, and it becomes a threat to national and international security. And so at some point it had to be dealt with. They can got kicked down the road so frequently for so long. I think that it was time and I wish that it had been done sooner when it was weaker, maybe after the conclusion of the Iraq War. Yet we are here today and we see how they behave in the face of adversity and how they're not interested in any proper negotiation. I definitely appreciate that perspective, especially from somebody who is in and O who lived under the Islamic Revolution. Let's go back once again, Passport to freedombook dot com and this is where you can purchase the book. You can order it right on the website. There you got a forward from Rain Wilson of the fame from the Office fantastic actor in my opinion. But tell us a little bit more about your book and certainly how people can purchase it. Yes, So I have my own social media, which is Nizam Misagi. I know that's the usual spelling, but it's a hard spelling, and so I think Passport toofreedombook dot com allows this. My social media on especially Instagram, has little videos and talks about a lot of the current events. Majority of my videos are in English for the English speaking audience. Occasionally I put something out for the Persians speaking audience. The people of Iran have been very significantly affected by this. It's not just the religious minorities, but every Iranian in some way, shape or form, has been affected by the Islamic Republic. And it's not that the Iranian people are looking for a savior to bring them freedom. They understand that the reason. That Israel and the United States are there, of course, are for their own national interests. But here there has been an alignment between the national interests of the US and Israel and the interests of the Iranian people in freedom. And so the weakening of this system, the fracturing that is happening within it, within the ranks of the highest officials in the Islamic Republic, will provide the backdrop for yet another uprising for the people to finally be able to reclaim their own dignity and their own right to self determination. Well, I said, I look forward to reading this book, and I just want to thank you for taking the time out of your busy day to come on the show and speak with authority on the subject. I'm sure my audience has appreciated it. And so yeah, as we close out any last words for the audience. Caleb, one thing that I appreciate about you and your program is that you have helped give a voice to someone like me with lived experience under the Islamic Republic. The Islamic Republic has had a soft power, and it is its infiltration of media. It's infiltration of colleges and universities, it's infiltration of nonprofit organizations and think tanks, where any major news outlet who's looking for an Iran expert would grab somebody who likely in some way is linked with the Islamic Republic, and so we Irani has picked them out very quickly. But to the average newscaster or pundit out there, they will just speak some language of virtue that well, war is bad, let's talk about removal of sanctions and engagement and appeasement and all of these things. It speaks the language of virtue. But we know this system, and the system will not tolerate, will not accept that kind of language. And so there are people who willingly or unwillingly show up as Iran experts who are called upon, but they will tell a story that's not true for us with lived experience under the Islamic Republic. So I appreciate that you gave me a voice, and I hope that more outlets give a voice to people who have had a lived experience and no connection with the tyrannical regime that rules over ninety two million people in Iran today. Absolutely, I mean, I guess, on church and state, you could be our Iranian expert, and so I love that about you. I love the story that you've told. I love your insight on what's actually occurring in Iran. And I'm sure my audience has really benefited greatly from this interview. I'm gonna go ahead and close this out. If you hold on one more minute post production to say our goodbyes, i'd appreciate it. But thank you again for your time and your work. It's my pleasure, thank you for the opportunity. Absolutely. Well, there you go, ladies and gentlemen. A fantastic book. I'm looking forward to reading it. You know I read constantly, but Passport to freedombook dot Com go check it out. I think it's a worthy book for you to consume and get a different perspective from perhaps what you're hearing from some within the alternative media space. Some within the CNNs or Fox Newses. Maybe somebody who actually lived it would be the person to listen to. Church and State is brought to you in part by colonialized Spookane, independent Agents, Finders Insurance and Mark three seven dot Com. I'm Caleb Collier. I was born for a storm. Welcome to the fire. This is Caleb Callier with Church and State Dot Media. Yes, and gentlemen, if you're not sleeping on my pillow, do you even patriots? I gotta tell you this is the most wonderful stuff from a man who's given it all for your freedoms. Whether it be the pillow, the sheets, or the slippers. I absolutely adore my pillow. My pillow has the greatest products around. I know when I want to shuffle around in my bathrobe and slippers and yell at the neighbors. Of course, I'm buying from my pillow. I need you to head on over to Church and State Dot Media scroll over two shop because every single time that you purchase any of these products using the promo code Church and State, you ensure that we keep our message out on the air. I thank everybody for your support and using a promo code Church and State, you guys, you go to my pillow at dot com, forward slash church and state two and then you get your own known platform right there. Everybody, are you aware that the Holy Word of God tells us to eat beef? Romans fourteen to two says one person's faith allows them to eat anything, but another whose faith is weak eats only vegetables. Look, it may sound kind of foreign, the idea of meat being an investment, but as you go to the grocery store, you can see that everything is increased. This is including beef. So buy something that's got a ten to fifteen year shelf life and make sure that your family is okay and that when there's a crisis, that you're not in a breadline waiting on the government asking police, sir, may I have some more? Have you read the ingredients in the meats that are now in the grocery. Stores these days. There's all sorts of synthetic products in it. We've got mRNA, they've got vaccine technology in it. Not for me. I don't want to eat that garbage. I know that I can trust the people at gritdown shoutdown dot com because it is one ingredient and that one ingredient is beef that The process is so simple. All you do is go down to your basement or your bunker if you're so lucky, Grab the vacuum sealed package, go upstairs to your kitchen, open it up, add a little bit of water, wait a little bit, and boom. It's rehydrated and you can make anything you want, tacos, lasagna, hamburgers, whatever you'd like with the beef. Your family is going to be happy and you're going to be well fed. I need you all to go to griddownshoutdown dot com and put in an order for this store ble beef. You got lots of different options for you. Buy the seven hundred and fifty dollars one. You're gonna be set for a year's time. Remember Griddownshowdown dot com promo code Church and State. Hey, this is Caleb Collier with the Church and State podcast. Ladies and gentlemen, I want all of you to go to Galileo dot com. You need to stay connected no matter what comes our way, whether it's government intrusion or a meteor fallen from the sky. Galileo has you connected. As a marine veteran, I can tell you that communications is essential. Galileo has you connected. Whether it's worldwide coverage, uncensored content, or real time alerts. Galileo is going to make sure that you're connected with your friends, family, and neighbors. Just head on over to Church and State dot Media. Just scroll over to shop and hit Galileo dot com. Make sure to ask them for a free bibistick and make sure to use that promo code Church and State