Word: hysteria
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...present crisis in Iran is cloaked in hysteria which obscures the important questions: Why is the Shah here and should he be here? The press dwells on the uncomfortable condition of the hostages, the Shah's failing health, and especially on the "anti-Americanism" of Iranians. When hostages express sympathy for their captors' demands, this is dismissed as a psychological syndrome without consideration of the validity of those demands. Feelings of hatred towards Khomeini and Iranians are whipped up at the expense of reasoned consideration of the issues...
Agony and hysteria as zealots seize the Sacred Mosque...
News of the incident set off a wave of anger and hysteria throughout the Muslim world. There were outrageous rumors, later spread by no less a figure than Iran's Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini, that the U.S. and Israel were behind the attack. Enraged mobs from Turkey to Bangladesh attacked American diplomatic missions and staged anti-American demonstrations. Most serious was the rioting in Pakistan, where two American servicemen were killed in the burning of the U.S. embassy in Islamabad. The attack on the Sacred Mosque probably had no direct connection with the recent events in Iran...
Every day after noon prayers, the students and the crowd went through a curious ritual that often ended in mass hysteria. The students came to the embassy gates to exchange political slogans with the people outside. They threw carnations and tulips, an Iranian symbol of martyrdom, back and forth through the gates. Said one worried Iranian bystander: "I think the're is a national death wish emerging...
...legalistic aspects of the embassy siege is specious. The Revolutionary Council did not do it. You deserve the credit for unleashing this rebellion. Don't talk to me about whether the siege is right or wrong. Talk to the very people you have provoked into this hysteria. You think you can get away with murder by hiding behind the law. The Islamic canon recognizes the right of an oppressed people, faced by a government that cites the law in order to betray justice, to rebellion. The Iranian people's occupation of the U.S. embassy falls squarely within this...