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October
2009 Edition
News
and Analyses from the Indian Subcontinent
Braving the
Tyranny of Iran's Islamo-Fascist Regime
In the
last several months, the people of Iran have electrified the world with
their numerous acts of courageous and heroic resistance, even as Iran's
manaical regime has maintained its hold on power through the shameless
use of unvarnished terror over an unarmed civilian populace that has
nevertheless refused to be cowed down.
Unfortunately, the response of many of the world's so-called political
"leaders" has been mostly tepid, best exemplified by the empty
platitudes issued by the Obama White House. In a world where Islamic
appeasement has become the norm, any concrete international support for
Iran's suffering millions appears to be out of question for the moment.
But far worse than the empty rehetoric of the West has been the cynical
support that the Iranian regime has garnered not only from an
aspiring (or incipient) imperial power such as China, or a US
rival such as Russia,
but also from various so-called "radical" or "progressive" or
"left-leaning" regimes in Latin America (such as Venezuela).
When the mass protests over the cynically rigged "election" reached a
crescendo (with some estimating the turnout at the largest protests at
over 2 million, possibly even 3 million) all manner of self-styled Iran
"experts" attempted to downplay the mass outrage.
Various apologists for the Islamo-fascist regime dismissed the
protestors as "an elite minority", as "just the rich and upper middle
class from one section of Tehran", as being "unrepresentative" of the
country as a whole. We were condescendingly informed that most
protestors were either students from a select few universities or the
children of the rich with too much time on their hands.
While the Western media did provide some coverage of the mass protests
that appeared to contradict such patronizing assertions, the Indian
press simply ignored the unfolding democratic revolution as a non-event
relying more on pseudo-left analysis from out of touch idealogues who
claimed that the working class was with Ahmedinijad - and that the
Islamic revolution continued to hold considerable mass appeal.
Yet, this time, the tech-savvy younger generation of Iran rose to the
occasion and flooded the Internet with twitters and surreptitiously
shot videos that belied the pundits. Thousands of amateur videos on
YouTube showed in no uncertain terms the sheer depth and intensity of
the Iranian democratic opposition.
In protests that covered entire city avenues - that stretched as far as
the eye could see - that covered vast expanses of open city
space, Iranians from all walks of life could be seen marching,
chanting, screaming, shouting,
passively resisting, seething with rage, fighting back, throwing rocks
at security forces, setting fire to vehicles associated with state
terror, being tortured and terrorized, and often just fleeing for their
lives so they could come back to fight another day.
Video after video showed the breadth and scale of the opposition, and
the extent of the disgust and hatred that Iran's masses felt towards
their Islamic tormentors. Protests could be seen in all parts of the
city - in forlorn and unkempt working class ghettoes as well as in
unassuming middle class neighborhoods. Women draped from head to toe in
black chadors were as much part of the protest waves as were
young men ready to do anything to bring Iran's despots to their knees.
In the fervent protests - the impassioned voices of young
women were as much to be heard as the fiery slogans of their male
counterparts.
Mesmerizing videos of the night-time protests revealed the tortured
intensity of Iran's suppressed (female) half as thousands of
heart-breakingly lilting soprano voices cried out for freedom with a
compelling urgency that no beating heart could ignore.
Spontaneous protests had broken out day after day, and night after
night, in neighborhoods all over Tehran - challenging the regime
in ways - big and small. A search on YouTube (and sites such as
irannewsnow.com) showed up protest videos (or news reports) from every
major Iranian city - not only from Isfahan, Shiraz and Tabriz, but also
from Abadan, Ahvaz, Ardabil, Bandar Abbas, Birjand, Hamedan, Kashan,
Kerman, Kermanshah, Mashhad, Qom, Rasht and Yazd (and several other
smaller towns as well).
One video from the Najafabad University showed how students shouted
down a pro-government panel discussion at the university and turned an
official event into a large rally for the democracy movement.
Outside Iran, protests in solidarity with the unfolding revolution were
organized in every major European capital and all major German cities,
throughout the US and Canada, and also in cities such as Bahrain, Dubai
and Kuala Lampur. Comments on various pro-democracy sites displayed the
utter contempt so many Iranians had for Islam and the Arab invasions
that destroyed Iran's vibrant pre-Islamic Zorastrian and Sasanian
culture. Iranians free to express themselves saw Islam as a barbaric
evil that had destroyed the very essence of the old Iranian
civilization and had mentally and physically enslaved the people of
Iran for far too long.
For many, the end of the road was not some reform of the Islamic state
in Iran but its total destruction.
That Arab Islam no longer rules the Iranian psyche is becoming more and
more evident, day by day. In the most recent "Jerusalem Day" protests,
as government clerics shouted slogans in solidarity with Hamas and
Hezbollah - the Iranian streets responded with slogans condemning the
Iranian Islamic dictatorship. When government stooges shouted slogans
against Israel - they were outmatched with slogans condemning Russia,
China and Hugo Chavez. Decades of vicious Israel-baiting and holocaust
denial have backfired with many young Iranians justly feeling far
greater sympathy for Israel than its unrelenting Arab/Islamist bashers.
A revolution is brewing in Iran - and it threatens to upturn the
existing world order in which the West and its rivals in Russia, China
and Brazil (and elsewhere in Asia and Latin America) have all
cynically aligned with the forces of medieval darkness. They have all
ignored the malignant cancer that is political Islam.
But the people of Iran have now exploded the myth that political Islam
can ever be a force for peace - that "Shia" Islam is any more tolerant
than "Sunni" Islam or that there was any substance to the claims
of "democracy" in Iran.
When put to the real test, the Islamic regime has revealed all its
savage instincts. The clerics in control have shown they are dangerous
megalomaniacs rather than some benign guardians of public "morality".
It is also abundantly evident that the idealogy they espouse is at
complete odds with modern science, sociology, historical truth
and genuine civil morality. Their totalitarian system of Islamic
controls runs counter to the very essence of what it is to be human.
Wittingly, or unwittingly - this is what the people of Iran are
exposing every day - they are laying threadbare the poisonous rot that
engulfs every Islamic regime.
The Muslims of the Arab world, of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, of
Malaysia or Nigeria may still be in a state of dumb stupor, but the
people of Iran have woken up - and they know that they have woken from
a bone-chilling nightmare. They will never be drugged into submission
again.
Arm in arm, step by step, the people of Iran - its valiant women and
men
are together constructing a brand new civilizational ethos - in which
all the old prejudices and false beliefs are being systematically
destroyed - their songs of liberation represent a new hope for humanity
- for a future where religious arrogance and state-sponsored
sado-masochism will no longer crush the hopes and dreams of millions of
honest and peace-loving citizens. Where human life will embrace all the
colors of the rainbow - where creativity and the search for truth will
be unhindered by the violence and terror unleashed by small-minded
bigots.
We (in India and everywhere else in the world) should greet the
unfolding Iranian Revolution
with unfettered joy - embrace it with open arms and stand steadfast in
our solidarity with it.
Not just out of empathy or sympathy for the tragic plight of the people
of Iran - but because it will also liberate ourselves - from making the
daily excuses we make for not standing up to counter Islamic bigotry
and tyranny in our own nations. Political correctness demands not an
apology for Islamic barbarism but courageous opposition and resistance
to it.
The people of Iran are at the vanguard of a brand new dawn for human
civilization - if we can't stand shoulder to shoulder with them, at
least we shouldn't get in their way.
So once again, let us
hail the coming Iranian Revolution - let
us welcome the fresh breezes that represent liberation from religious
totalitarianism - let our hearts beat for every victim that such
tyranny creates - and let our minds discover the new freedoms that the Revolution will surely bestow upon
all of us.
Let us not cling to a putrid world order in which tyrants feel secure
and the innocent feel helpless.
Instead - let us empower the Iranian Revolution - so that we can
set new standards for human justice - for human happiness - for
fairness and equity for humanity in all the diverse forms that it may
appear in (or as mother nature might create) - without rancor or
thoughtless prejudice.
The Iranian masses are whispering, and murmuring, and cajoling, and
asserting these truths every day - let us tell them they are not alone.
We are with them, too.
Note:
It is ironic how so many so-called left governments and
parties have supported Iran's Islamic totalitarian regime notwithstanding
the fact that Iran's Tudeh Communist Party has openly
championed the democratic revolution and sees itself as one of its
leading flag-bearers citing how the Islamic regime has supressed
workers as much as it has hounded women, biological/sexual
minorities, intellectuals,
artists, journalists, free-thinkers, political whistle-blowers and
human rights
activists.
(But such is the bankcruptcy of the world's communist
movement that it has preferred to line up behind self-serving
demagogues like Hugo Chavez whose alignment with Iran's Islamo-fascists
reveals not some radical "anti-imperialist" axis - but rather a
thinly-veiled resource parasitism and a cartel-like tendency shared by
many of Latin America's left populists.)
Related Essays:
Malaysia
- Truly Asia?
World Hypocrisy Regarding Israel
India's Surreal 'Secularism'
'Secularism' or 'Sickularism'?
India's Demographic Transformation
Educational Progress in Rural India
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