Bahram Soroush
Robert Tait describes Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the newly 'elected' president of the Islamic regime of Iran, as a 'devout working class hero' (The Guardian, Tues June 21st, 2005). An interview with a stallholder around a religious shrine in South Tehran seems to have bolstered this astonishing claim. Had he chosen to speak to workers themselves in the industries nearby, I'm sure he would have arrived at a different conclusion.
Ultra-conservative Ahmadinejad is a former commander of the regime's paramilitary force (Pasdaran) and an ex-leader of the vigilante Baseej militia, responsible for the brutal suppression of political dissidents, students and labour activists. He is also wanted for terrorist activities abroad. Not surprisingly, he was the favoured candidate of Iran's paramilitary forces and Baseej militias.
Workers in Iran stayed away from these so-called elections in their millions. They were right not to have faith in a show masqueraded as elections, where only Muslim males faithful to the regime can run, while opposition political parties and candidates are all suppressed.
They rightly despise a regime that has imposed unimaginable poverty on them, smashed labour organisations, banned strikes, persecuted workers' leaders and enforced brutal repression on the whole of society. Mr Ahmadinejad is a top executive of such a regime.
To call such a reviled figure a hero of Iranian working class beggars belief; it is a monumental insult to Iranian workers.
* Read Latest News Updates on Iran by Siyaves Azeri on www.wpiran.org/english.htm
* Visit TV International English site to see programme of week of July 3, 2005 on www.anternasional.tv in which Maryam Namazie interviews Bahram Soroush on dangers of UK incitement to religious hatred bill; Azar Majedi on the tragedy of Iraq and Fariborz Pooya on the US and Iranian election.
Questions raised:
Stephen Zunes says that Iranian voters were forced to choose between two flawed candidates where the relatively liberal contender came across as an out-of-touch elitist and his ultra-conservative opponent who put together a majority coalition based upon a pseudo-populist campaign promoting a more moral and value-centred society – a situation that should not be too unfamiliar to American voters. Is that what happened and are the two comparable?
A criticism of Islam is already being deemed racism – Islamophobia – and now with the incitement to religious hatred bill in the UK, it could be a prosecutable offence. Will it further silence critics?
Leader in the Guardian few days ago says that 'Iraq is both a tragedy and a mystery, since the nature of what is going on in that country is obscure to Iraqis and outsiders alike. What is the most basic cause of the tragedy in Iraq?
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