ALI KHAMENEI

The Iranian religious theocrat of Iran sees the issue as one where the United States is trying to keep nuclear technology from Iran and other Islamic countries. He seems to discount his own often uttered calls for “death to America” and the statements of intended war with the United States by the leading military officer of Iran. See {624408}.

This quotation is an example of a phenomenon that occurs with many foreign leaders who do not understand America or democracy. Because the world was able to see people on American television claim that racial discrimination was a factor in the Federal government’s terrible performance with Hurricane Katrina, Khamenei and others assume that the accusation is true. Their view is through a very warped prism of Islamic Fascist Fundamentalism. So when they see the American government being so heavily criticized, they assume that this is in spite of government efforts to silence the critics. Therefore the notion that the administration Iranian policy is a ploy to deflect domestic pressure away from Katrina becomes creditable as does the fact that the media carry some American support for this “wag the dog” theory. For us the domestic debate is too important to our democracy to try and adjust domestic political debate to avoid misinterpretation those who do not understand democracy.

What is fascinating about his perception of governance is that if this quotation were viewed in isolation, one might conclude that Khamenei was a populist whose political views do not differ much from those of Thomas Jefferson. But then Islam enters the picture. His belief is that the Koran and the word of the Prophet trumps everything else including the people. So he has little trouble passing laws or enacting regulations that are opposed by the vast majority of Iranians. In a Presidential and parliamentary election, the candidates most popular were disqualified by Khamenei on the grounds that they were not sufficiently consonant with his interpretation of Islam. So in reality his personal view of Islam comes first and secondary to that is the will of the people.

There was no problem with Iran having nuclear power. However, they wanted to utilize a process with which fuel for nuclear bombs could be made. Russia had offered to provide them with nuclear fuel for any power plant that they might want to create, but Iran refused insisting that they had a right to enrich their own uranium. Then they lied to the inspectors for the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission. They had threatened to “wipe Israel off the map” and the major Arab nations in the area secretly asked the United States to prevent Iran getting nuclear weapons even if force had to be used. Economic sanctions were tried first.

The Ayatollah howled that the US and UN sanctions and economic boycott of Iran was illegal and immoral, but he had no trouble decreeing a boycott of Israel.

Khanenei failed to make three important distinctions. First, the crimes committed by American forces in Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo were NOT the policy of the American government whereas all of Hitler’s crimes were not only government policy but Hitler had laws passed to enable these atrocities. Bush and the American Military command may have not been competent enough to prevent the problems, and may have been too lenient to punish the guilty, but they never intended them to occur. Second is scale. Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo illegalities led at most to the deaths of one or two people. Hitler killed over 6 million in his prisons. Third, as soon as Bush found out about the problems, they were stopped whereas Hitler continued until militarily removed from power and neutralized.

Iran has been a terrible persecutor of Bahais, their largest religious minority. The Bahai faith was an offshoot of Islam which opposed to the concept of a theocracy and in a political sense at are the opposite end of the religious spectrum from Islam. Bahai in Iran are not allowed to attend higher education institutions, build religious facilities, preach openly or serve in many roles. Many have been executed on the spot by government officials, and others have been murdered by mobs. The radical Islamic justification of these murders lies with the relative intolerance Islam has for other religions. At the inception of Islam, the Prophet preached respect for People of the Book, which included Jews and Christians. He also made exception for Zoroastrians—the pre-Islamic traditional religion of Iran. These were not executed for heresy although they were never allowed to function on an equal footing with Islam. The harshest penalties were reserved for Muslims who abandoned their faith and converted or became atheists—it was death. They were allowed to repent and repudiate their new beliefs and there would be lesser punishments. But if they did not, they were executed. It is much the same logic of the Romans requiring early Christians to renounce their new religion or die in the arena or otherwise. Bahai grew out of Islam and is in many ways a type of reform movement within Islam. The initial torture and execution of the heretics, was not very different from what the Roman Catholic Church and its Inquisition did with Protestants. Some argue that historically Islam is 700 years behind Christianity. In the Middle ages the Christian Church killed non believers and heretics. However, by modern standards, this behavior of Iran and some other Islamic countries is as barbaric and evil as anything could be. The Bahai happen to be the greatest victims these days. See {614912}.

This coup has been the biggest trauma for the Iranian people in the last centuries. The blowback from it, has soured relationships between America and Iran for decades. Khamenei personally was traumatized by the coup and publicly refers to it quite frequently. Ironically, reasons and policy logic for the CIA orchestration of the coup are even today murky. The desires of the British may well have been the main reason. “Arrogance” is the term Khamenei uses to describe the British-American alliance and their propensity to try and shape the affairs of other nations.

What the Supreme Leader did not understand was that the very books that he recommended to see the faults of America were the very instruments that influenced the American reformers to change and improve America. And the lesson he missed is that he would not allow authors to heavily criticize the current Iran and have a wide audience so that Iran could improve. His examples were very well chosen. The lesson is the wrong one however.

What is interesting is that when he cites the dreadful facts about American slavery, he never points out that the American slave traders rarely raided the villages and captured the slaves themselves. Most often this was done my Khamenei’s Muslim brethren slave traders who dominated the slave trade in Africa. Nor does he point out what after realizing the evil that Americans perpetrated with slavery, we ended it in the 1860s. Saudi Arabia, the central nation of Islam, did not make slavery illegal until 100 years later, and even today, there are many Saudi’s who get caught practicing slavery with household servants and forms of indentured servitude. And while Christians and the Bible tolerated slavery, the Koran and the Prophet never once condemn the practice of slavery. Democracy at any point in time is not always morally right, but it is a process by which under pressure from the people it improves over time because the people can change it and do.

the U. S. and the West Of particular interest is the last sentence. Rarely does the Iranian leader and the American leadership agree on anything, but what Khamenei alleges is exactly the object of American general policy toward Iran. The U. S,, has other objectives as well, and the man purpose of the draconian sanctions is to pressure the Iranians to halt their nuclear weapons development or give the UN access to be sure that there is no military development nuclear program.

They are so different that most people in the West think of what Khamenei describes as “religious democracy” as not even close to democracy—almost the antithesis of democracy, and Islamic fundamentalists perceive Western democracy as sinful and evil.