Paganism, Yay!

Historically tolerant, eh?

60-year-old Hussein Tehrani said the festival was "part of our cultural heritage" that cannot be wiped out. "It's impossible to fight this festival because Iranians are proud of it. It's one of the world's oldest feasts. We have inherited it from our ancestors. It's our identity and our identity doesn't only start after the advent of Islam," he said. His wife, Azita Pirnia, nodded in agreement....17-year-old Mahdi Sabouri saw no conflict between being a Muslim and Iranian. "I want to be a Muslim and respect my cultural heritage," he said.

This is what's going to end the war on terror; not regime change, not the overthrow of global capitalism, but the Muslim mainstream rejecting the bigotry against kafir (non-Muslim) and jahiliyyah (pre-Islamic, literally "Age of Ignorance") cultures taught by fundamentalist clerics.