As if it wasn’t contemptible enough that Iran’s ayatollahs have been oppressing religious and ethnic minorities ever since they took power in 1979, they are currently attempting to strangle the entire region with their medieval ideology. Worse, they have resorted to threatening neighbouring countries and funding terrorists and proxy militias to overturn governments.
The Qur’an stresses upon the unity of Muslims in numerous verses and the Hadith tells us that the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) said, “Stay with the group (of righteous Muslims), for the wolf eats the sheep that strays away from the herd.” [Ahmad and Al- Tirmidhi]
In essence, the ones issuing proclamations in Qom are acting in ways that are the very antithesis of the Quran’s edicts by fomenting divisions and sectarian hatreds, “And if two factions among the believers should fight, then make settlement between the two. But if one of them oppresses the other, then fight against the one that oppresses until it returns to the ordinance of Allah. And if it returns, then make settlement between them in justice and act justly. Allah loves those who act justly.” [Surat AlĤujurā 49:9]
The regime, created by Ayatollah Khomeini, was born out of a revolutionary climate and his own will to power. The inherently political Shiite Islam that claims to champion resistance against tyranny and subjugation was used by the Ayatollah Khomeini as a tool to attract the poor and the disenfranchised onto his bandwagon.
The irony is that there is no country on earth, with the exception of North Korea, which squashes its population underfoot, both politically and socially, while keeping over almost 11 million illiterate and 15 million struggling below the poverty line, in addition to 24 per cent of the country’s youth being unemployed.
The late Iranian thinker and writer Ali Shariati described this trajectory perfectly relative to his homeland years before the West turned its back on the Shah, “A religious regime is one in which, instead of the political figures, religious figures take up political and governmental positions. In other words, a religious regime means the rule of the clerics. One natural consequence of such a regime is dictatorship, because the cleric views himself as God’s representative who carries out his orders on earth, and therefore, people have no right to express their opinions, or criticise and oppose him” He expressed his belief that under such a regime, followers of other religions are considered deviants from “the true path” whose oppression is “God’s justice”.
Shariati’s words turned out to be prophetic. Iran’s human rights record worsens year upon year. President Hassan Rouhani goes out of his way to present himself as a moderate reformist but statistics contradict his rhetoric. According to the United Nations, on Rouhani’s watch, executions have risen, women’s economic opportunities are diminishing and his government’s influence over the media, civil society, political organisations and the judiciary has expanded.
It is only a matter of time before the Iranian pressure cooker explodes. Eighty million human beings can only be trodden upon for so long before they rise up en masse. Many will be galvanised due to Iran’s repressive policies; others will react to the dire economic situation.
Signs are that more than eight million Ahwazi Arabs in Iranian occupied Arabistan - an oil-and-gas rich region bordering the Arabian Gulf – are readying an intifada against Persian discrimination and economic neglect. Likewise, Turkmens, Baluchis, Kurds as well as Sunnis in the Iranian provinces of Kurdistan, Kermanshah, Khorasan and Sistan, are angry at being treated as second-class citizens. The internet and satellite television has afforded young Iranians a glimpse of what 21st century freedom looks like; they will soon rebel against subjugation.
Whether it takes one year or 10, the future of Iran will rest in the hands of peaceful Iranians seeking prosperity, not those arming and funding terrorists around the globe. These are the people the US, which never fails to trumpet its own values and works to export ‘democracy and freedom’, should be helping. Instead the Obama Administration may be about to sign a pact with the devilish Mullahs in Iran, biding their time to turn the Middle East into a fireball as a precursor to what they believe will be the appearance of the 12th Imam (Al Mahdi Al Mountathar).
And one day, the veil will be lifted from the eyes of Lebanese Shiite supporters, nay slaves, of Hezbollah that turned this once peaceful Mediterranean haven into a paralyzed state operating under a democratic façade plagued by conflicts and internal violence.
Musa Al-Sadr is widely credited as being the Lebanese Shiite’s first power broker. Born in Qom, he became a cleric upon his coming to Lebanon when he wooed the underclass. In 1967, he headed the newly-founded Supreme Islamic Shiite Council, which set out to dominate Lebanon militarily, economically, politically and socially through the use of Shiite theology to politicise the Council’s goals.
In 1974, Al-Sadr launched a movement called the Harakat Al- Mahrumin (The Movement of the Deprived) that bore a militia (AMAL) a year later. Following his mysterious disappearance, Iran’s mullahs were quick to see an entrée into Lebanon on the pretext of resisting the 1982 Israeli invasion when Hezbollah came into being. However, an article published in the Weekly Standard titled ‘The Secret History of Hezbollah’ has a more accurate take. “It’s an Israel centric myth that makes the Jewish state Hezbollah’s motivation and prime mover. In reality, the story of Hezbollah’s origins is a story about Iran, featuring the anti-shah revolutionaries, active in Lebanon in the 1970s years before Israel’s intervention… There we find that, contrary to the common wisdom, Hezbollah didn’t arise as a resistance movement to the Israeli occupation. Rather it was born from the struggle between Iranian revolutionary factions opposed to the Shah.”
Iran’s aim to control Yemen, via the agency of Shiite Houthis, was thwarted by a Saudi-led Arab coalition. Syria is close to being liberated from rule by the Allawite minority Shiite sect responsible for the death of over 200,000 Syrian citizens. Furthermore, Iraqi Shiite militias that take their marching orders from Tehran will not survive in the short-to-medium term. Those traitors to this great Arab country should flee to their true home, Iran, and the same goes for Iran’s conspirators in Lebanon and elsewhere in the Arab world.
Arab Shiites mesmerised by their propaganda should repent and be forgiven. But there must be no forgiveness for Hezbollah that’s crippled Lebanon for generations or for the leaders of the pro-Iranian Houthis in the pay of Tehran. There can be no pardon for Iraqi militias directed by Muqtada Al-Sadr or the pro-Iranian Badr Organisation, headed by Hadi Al-Amiri, or the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, led by Ammar Al-Hakim. And Nouri Al Maliki, who gave those thugs free rein, should not get a free pass either. There can be no negotiations with anyone whose hands are blood-soaked, just a single address – the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
Iran’s vision of a new Empire will not manifest. Arab states are coming together in an unprecedented way to slice its roaming tentacles and are increasingly wary of foreign allies seemingly engaged in playing a double-faced game. We Arabs want to live in peace and security. We don’t crave Empire but we will be our people’s rescuers and protectors of our faith and our culture.
Evidence is mounting that the mullahs and their terrorists are in for a mighty fall; their masks are off, their hypocrisy and lies cannot be hidden. I long for the day when those deceivers get their just reward. I pray for the day when we can reclaim our authority over our lands. And I believe deep in my heart and soul that those days of celebration won’t be long in coming.