K N Pandita
Iran is down and flat. The slogans that Ayatollahs deemed their jugular vein were like “to hell with Zionists (Seyhuniha be jahannam) and “Death to America” (marg bar America).
These intimidating slogans became so regular and commonplace, that many of the mullahs instead of beginning their sermon to the congregations with bismillah (in the name of Allah) began with one or the other abusive slogans against Israel and America,
Why is the theocratic regime in Iran deadly hostile and inimical towards the state of Israel and its people of Zionist faith?No convincing reply is there, not even from the Ayatollahs. Their boundaries do not meet, they are not contiguous states, their language, religion, ethnicity, history, geography, culture, life stye etc. nothing has any commonality. Why then the hate syndrome?
Two observations can be presumed. First, the proselytized Iranian Islamic theologians and jurisconsults claimed to be the true Musselman because they honour the Quranic injunction of hating and decimating Zionists, something which the Arabs would not follow.
The second observation is that America has been the enemy number one (Shaitan-I-rajeem) or “the Devil incarnate” supporting Israel because there is a comfortable majority of pro-Jewish Congressmen in the American Congress.
Logic does not support either of these assumptions. If, according to Shia interpretation, the Quran ordains killing of a particular community for whatever reasons, then the Allah of the Musselman is neither rahmatu’n lil alameen (blessing for two worlds) nor arrahman-ar raheem (the benevolent forgiver)
Moreover, if the followers of the Shia faith really believe in the particular injunction of the Quran, why then should Iran choose to become a member of the UN and a myriad of its organizations, committees and subcommittees?
Why did Iran approach the UN SC invoking the clauses of human rights and demanding the SC chastise Israel and ensure restoration of peace there? Does Iran want endorsement from the Security Council for Iranian belief of decimating a whole community with which she is at ideological variance?
Secondly, the US is a democratic and secular nation. The administration of that country is run according to its constitution which strictly forbids religion to interfere in state affairs. There are several hundred elected members of the American Congress who profess or do not profess a particular faith. It is not Iran’s business to make an issue of who is in majority in the US Congress and who is in minority just as no country in the world is bothered about who is in majority position in Iranian Majlis.
Iran’s argument is that Jews have grabbed Palestinian territory belonging to Muslims. But Iran forgets that the British government had previously issued the Balfour Declaration in 1917, expressing support for the establishment of a “national home for the Jewish people” in Palestine.
Following World War II and the British decision to terminate the mandate, the United Nations proposed a plan to partition Palestine into separate Arab and Jewish states. On May 14, 1948, the State of Israel was proclaimed, coinciding with the end of the British Mandate. This declaration took place in Tel Aviv on the day the British mandate ended.
If it was not acceptable to Iran, it should have confronted the British government and not Israel. Tehran maintained cordial relations with Great Britain but traded enmity with Israel just because Great Britain was a super power and Israel a nascent state that could be intimidated.
None of Iran’s reasons for belligerence towards Israel is supported by logic. In other words, by sticking to the illogical posture, Iran gives a right to Israel to take punitive action for spreading hatred and animosity among the Shia community world over against Israel.
Iran-Israel armed clashes have been going on more frequently after the ouster of Shah and take over of the Iranian regime by the theocratic dispensation.
Some Iranian experts in the West assert that Iran never became truly Islamic. More than anybody else, the Shia theologians and jurisconsults are conscious of this reality. The simple reason is that a thousand-year-long Achaemenian and Sassanian empires had built a civilization and a nation that would not easily accept an alien civilization and culture. That is reason why soon after the occupation of Iran by the Arabs, till date there have been recuring revolts against the imposed culture, though, of course, these revolts proved abortive, these did dilute the unevenness of foreign rule while lending sustenance to the indigenous traditions.
Of course, Islamic Iran’s apostolic sector has always wielded considerable influence with the working class yet, conspicuously that class never aspired to grab the Government and run it according to their choice. The Islamic Revolution of Iran of 1979 is clearly distinguishable from its earlier patterns. The Ayatollahs grabbed the government and after the exit of the father of revolution, the country that had changed its nomenclature from Iran to Islamic Republic of Iran, pandered to rabid Islamism and the rule of sharia, incompatible with the ethos, tradition and Iranian mind’s outreach.
The animus which Iran has been nursing against Israel all these years has ultimately turned counter-productive, which it was to happen. It is the irony of fate that a wonderful nation with glorious past and rich cultural heritage, a nation gifted by nature with intelligence, wisdom and aesthetics should have fallen to such bad days and in such a complicated situation that it has to reap the whirlwind after sowing the wind.
In the lure of obtaining a weapon of mass destruction, it has lost a large number of its soldiers and dozens of its army generals. Its battery of nuclear scientists has been decimated, its social structure has been wildly dismantled.
The worst is yet to follow. And that is the internal crisis knocking at the door. The religious chief, who used to issue death warnings to Israel day in and day out, has been huddled in a bunker cut off from the world outside and rendered paralyzed. Voice against the supreme religious leader have become loud and those demanding change of regime are louder than ever before. Country’s economy is in doldrums and Iran stands isolated completely. Russia is doing some lip service and China, as is her wont, sends some ammunition clandestinely and has sealed its mouth. The Islamic world is tight-lipped and only a few of them have given an odd bark and nothing more.
The redemption lies in Iranian enlightened class taking over the regime through mass uprising so that a truly democratic and secular regime is established which will establish friendly relations with major powers of the world and refuse to fall in the lap of one or the other super power. Iranian people must be provided opportunity to let their potential of reviving the glory of Iran come forward and play its part. Iranian rich traditions of living a life of peaceful coexistence and having healthy and friendly relations with world powers have to be revived. The new regime that is waiting in the wings has great responsibility to steer the ship of the nation safe through storms and dangerous winds of international and regional politics.
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