[img]911|left|||no_popup[/img]Armen Saginian, the soft-spoken but controversial 77-year-old author of “Mission for Mohammed and Islam,” is the subject of a two- hour documentary currently being produced by The Scene Dock.

Mr. Saginian claims that only a portion of the Koran came from Mohammed; that Mohammed was murdered in Mecca and that an imposter called himself Mohammed in Medina and then declared war on the non-Muslim world.

“I separated the Arabian Koran into two books of Mecca and Medina,” said Mr. Saginian. He concluded that “the Koranic Verses of Medina are neither Mohammed's words nor the words of Allah.”

He claims “Sharia Law was concocted much later — by rulers and clerics to manipulate innocent believers.”

Raised in poverty, Armen Saginian was born and raised in poverty in Tabriz, Iran, where his family had lived for centuries. His Christian parents were of Armenian, Georgian and Persian lineage.

Stability was hard to come by. His parents separated shortly after he was born. His mother took baby Armen to live with her, but she died in 1935, shortly after his second birthday.

His maternal grandmother took over, but she died when he was a lad of 13, leaving him to dangle and struggle. Armen decided early that the only way to gain independence and escape his miserable existence was to get an education.

Armen was 22 when he migrated to the United States in1955. He put himself through college by working as a farmhand, janitor, barber and teacher's helper.

Eventually, he graduated from the University of Tennessee with a degree in mechanical engineering, and later graduate school at UCLA.

A career engineer, Mr. Saginian has worked at Boeing, General Dynamics, Rocketdyne and Garrett-Air Research.

In 1975, four years before the revolution, he went back to Iran to help bring scores of villages out of the Dark Ages.

Not long afterward, the Shah’s regime began to lose control.

During the revolution, Mr. Saginian said sadly, “the people of Iran, who have a rich and ancient culture, destroyed what they had labored so long to build. When this destructive revolutionary process was finished, most of the people were left tolive in its ruins.”

Los Angeles is home to one of the largest Iranian communities in the world, nearly 1 million.

Mr. Saginian’s later-in-life goal has been to promote democratic ideals and rational discussion among Iranian Americans.

He says the turmoil in the Middle East is being fomented by religious fanatics in Saudi Arabia and in Ahmadinejad’s Iranian government.

Of Islam, Mr. Saginian says:

“It is not a religion like any other. It is a combination of monotheism, law and government. Islam is the essence, the foundation of an Arab nationalist movement as well as the structure of Arab imperialism.”

Among topics that will be covered by Mr. Saginian in the documentary:

• Hitler's plot to kill Roosevelt, Stalin and Churchill in Tehran where they met during World War II, and how the KGB foiled the plot

• British Petroleum's “diabolical” activities in Iran.

• Saudi Arabia's covert role in terrorist activities in the Middle East.

• Khomeini's revolution and the plot to destroy Iran and her culture.

• The movement to build a mosque near Ground Zero.

Questions regarding this documentary may be directed to Mr. Hawkins at rjhculvercity@aol.com