[lbo-talk] Support Bloomberg and Rafsanjani? (was Re: Rafsanjani to lead key Iran body)

[John Thornton]

Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
> Speaking of Muslims, Tariq Ali said in an interview: "For socialists
> the task is clear: the Muslim communities must be defended against
> being made scapegoats, against repression, against the very widespread
> representation that terrorism is proper to Islam. All that must be
> energetically fought. But at the same time we must not close our eyes
> to the social conservatism which reigns in these communities, nor hide
> it. We have to try to win this people to our own ideas" (" The
> Anti-Imperialist Left Confronted with Islam," IV Online 376, March 2006,
> <http://www.internationalviewpoint.org/spip.php?article1012=>).  But
> what are "our own ideas" to which we are to win "this people" over?
> If it's basically "Vote for Moderates," then the idea would have a
> better chance of winning them over if it doesn't come saddled with
> tortured socialist justifications for it.
>   

Tariq Ali is wrong. For socialists Islam, Christianity, Judaism, etc. 
should rightly be considered modalities of repression to be opposed. 
They are superstitions which have nothing to offer in guiding modern 
society. The only question is how opposition to such superstitions is to 
be incorporated into strategy. In many cases it should play a very minor 
role but in other instances a much more prominent role could be favored.

John Thornton