Iran: the World's Newest Mad Dog
What can one say about Iran and it's new President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad? Not much, it seems, since the pundits generally have it that the world is so shocked by his pronouncements that it is "speechless". Well, not quite. Most responsible world leaders have wasted no time condemning Mr. Ahmadinejad and his unbelievably stupid statements outright, demanding retractions that no one really expects to hear. Mind, Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the United Nation's nuclear watch agency stated that the world is losing patience with Iran over it's nuclear programme, which it claims is for domestic energy use only. Mr. ElBaradei, who recently received the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo has 'put Iran on notice' that it must convince the world it has only peaceful intentions with its nuclear programme. But how could we believe otherwise, after all?Well, we could have at one time, perhaps when the Shah of Iran ruled the country as a benevolent dictator. The prospect of Iran acquiring nuclear knowledge and technology at that time would have been extremely remote in anyone's estimation. Shah Rezi Pahlevi, scorned as a puppet of the United States ruled Iran with the kind of pomp and ceremony accepted for eastern potentates. But he was also a little bit more than that; he did care about his country and his people. He went to great lengths to institute reforms in modernizing his country, and under his rule women were free to obtain academic accreditation, free to take jobs, free to become respected partners in their society. Shah Pahlevi opened schools and hospitals at a rate never before seen in Iran, and scarcely reflected elsewhere in the neighbouring countries, Israel aside. But he was deposed, he was dethroned, and, sad to say, Iran changed dramatically from a monarchy to a brutal theocracy.
Grand Ayatolla Khomenei and his lesser ayatollas and religious fundamentalists hurried back to Iran from their safe haven in France, and swiftly took the reins of political power, turning the country toward uncompromising Islam. All the old strictures against women in public life were restored. Khomenei declared the United States "the Great Satan" and the people, feeling newly liberated took up the chant while the newly-instituted Revolutionary Guard did their utmost to overturn all the modernizing undertaken to bring the country into the 20th century. A religion-based war of morals and ethics was declared against the western world, and no one can quite forget the long siege of the American Embassy in Tehran. Westerners became persona non grata in the country and they were, after all, eager to depart, in any event.
It was not all that difficult, nor is it ever, to manipulate a general population into believing they have become the world's victims, that their way of life, their sacred religion is under siege. Ayatolla Khomeini in the name of Islam and the devoutness of the Shia brand, cleverly engineered a crisis of embattlement, and his people lined up squarely behind him. Except for the thousands who fled their home country for other welcoming countries willing to give them succour in the west and elsewhere. Walking the downtown streets of Ottawa decades ago one could come across groups of expatriate Iranians conducting "marches", handing out literature to inform the world of what was happening in their beloved country.
Cultivated, educated upper-middle class intellectuals left the country in droves. Wealthy businesspeople, academics joined them for greener pastures in the open societies represented by Europe and North America. We met highly intelligent Iranians eager to begin life anew in an atmosphere of toleration, and found much in common with them in their regard for freedom of speech and their reverence for higher learning, their pride in their country's history, its contribution to the arts and culture. The Iran they hurriedly left was not their Iran, and from within the country they could do nothing to further the welfare of their late, lamented country.
There was some hope in the last decade as a so-called more moderate President who continually locked horns with the rigid ayatollahs took tentative steps to move the country forward, but that appeared to be more in the realm of smoke and mirrors than actual forward momentum. The world no longer holds any illusions regarding Iran's direction, in its focus on pursuing nuclear power for means other than domestic use, in the ferocity of its anti-Semitic declarations; both endangering the peace of the world at large. New York-based Human Rights Watch has outlined the fact that Mr. Ahmadinejad's new Cabinet is comprised of severely compromised security and intelligence officials who are known to be responsible for the killing of thousands of jailed dissidents. But guess what? Iranians thought so highly of their former mayor of Tehran, Mr. Ahmanadinejad that they elected him with a huge majority. Have they victimized themselves, or us?
President Ahmadinejad's insistence that the Holocaust simply never occurred, that Jews as such have no place in the Middle East, which is to say no history there at all, that if Europeans and North Americans are so convinced that Jews require a homeland they should take steps to partition their own countries and thus offer space for relocation of the State of Israel leaves one gasping in disbelief. He believes, and seems convinced he will be able to handily bring about the obliteration of the State of Israel from the map of the Middle East. Quaint idea is that not? He has convinced his own people that Israel poses a threat to the very existence of the Middle East; this tiny country surrounded by hostile neighbours. And Iran's population seems more than willing to accept this truth that the United States and Israel are inimical to the existence of their own country.
Certainly a blood-curdling proposition that in this continually less-than-civilized world that we inhabit with such trust and hope for the future, one backward country ruled by a group of hard line theocrats could pose such a danger to the existence of its neighbours, and by extension to the world at large. Lest anyone breathe a sigh of relief that sanity will prevail, consider this: A video viewed by Iranian exiles shows Mr. Ahmadinejad explaining that he was bathed in a celestial light when he spoke to world leaders at the opening of the United Nations in September. He believed his audience of world leaders to be mezmerized by his presence, by the miraculous light which shone about him at his invocation of the name of God. Does Allah permit a lunatic to rule over millions of gullible people perceiving themselves to be embattled by the world? Experience leads us to admit that this is indeed what occurs.
Should anyone be concerned enough to try to do something, however meagre, about this horrendous state of affairs, one can always access www.wiesenthal.com to sign their on-line petition of protest against this insanely despotic theocrat for presentation to the United Nations Security Council.
posted by Pieface @ Thursday, December 15, 2005
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