There are two kinds of Western liberal and leftist attitudes to Islamists. One kind follows Washington and the mass media:
Islamists hated by Washington and the mass media = BAD Islamists backed or tolerated by Washington and the mass media = GOOD
The kind who think well of Chechen Islamists and ill of Iranian Islamists belong in the above category.
The other kind works by this logic:
Islamists who have state power = BAD Islamists who don't have state power = GOOD (or TOLERABLE)
This kind manage to love Hizballah while hating its paymaster!
Iran lands on the bad side of both kinds of Western liberals and leftists. :->
Neither kind think about the BIG PICTURE (that the Right never forgets): what sort of world we want to live in and what roles states and movements may play in moving the world toward or away from it. -- Yoshie <http://montages.blogspot.com/> <http://mrzine.org> <http://monthlyreview.org/>