Ken MacLeod's comments.
The title comes from two quotes:
“If these are the early days of a better nation, there must be hope, and a hope of peace is as good as any, and far better than a hollow hoarding greed or the dry lies of an aweless god.”—Graydon Saunders
Contact: kenneth dot m dot macleod at gmail dot com Blog-related emails may be quoted unless you ask otherwise.
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An uprising that will stun the world
In Iran [...] the reality is that the rise of political Islam and religious rule has caused a staggering anti-Islamic backlash, in both ideological and personal spheres. The emergence of political Islam in Iran has become the prelude to an anti-Islamic and anti-religious cultural revolution in people's minds, particularly amongst the young generation, which will stun the world with an immense explosion and will proclaim of the practical end of political Islam in the whole of Middle East.I don't know if he was right. But I hope he was.
[...]
In my opinion, the Islamic movement in the Middle East and internationally will run out of breath with the fall of the Islamic regime in Iran. The question is not that Islamic Iran will be a defeated model, which others can disassociate themselves from. The Islamic Republic's defeat will arise within the context of an immense mass secularist uprising in Iran, which will touch the foundations of reactionary Islamic thought and not only discredit but condemn it in world opinion. The defeat of the Islamic regime will be comparable to the fall of Nazi Germany. No fascist can easily hold on to their position by merely distancing themselves organisationally and ideologically from this fallen pole. The entire movement will face decades of stagnation. The defeat of political Islam in Iran is an anti-Islamist victory, which will not end within the confines of Iran.
Labels: far left, War on Terror
9 Comments:
Reading the passage I'm reminded of Tariq Ali's writing on Pakistan (like in his recent book The Duel). Hopefully "culture war" politics have run out of steam in the region, which is a possibility too rarely discussed. (Not least, I suppose, because it has often been made to seem as if there is no other politics than that-anywhere-by the mainstream press.)
Nacho: neither side in the current presidential dispute, that's for sure. However, some discredit might accrue to the Supreme Council for the way things have blown up this time. Though they've faced down agitation before, I don't think they've simultaneously had to deal with public pushback from Rafsanjani and Grand Ayatollah Montazeri, especially when it's pushback against not-actually-an-Ayatollah Khamenei.
Nacho, Hekmat's party (the Worker-communist Party of Iran) would like to, but I doubt they have the forces on the ground.
I was once standing outside Conway Hall in Red Lion square, London, when the WCP-Iran were holding a memorial service for their deceased leader, and they gave me a copy of the booklet which was in farsi (which I cannot read) every page had at least one very heroic picture of the dead man, and the service went on for two days, with hours of polemical speeches from the podium.
Well, yes - and then they had a major split. I was impressed by Hekmat's writing, but I haven't followed the ins and outs of his followers/successors.
I'd hope so as well. I really, really do. But the revolutionary demands I've read seem to be written within the framework of the Ayatollah system.
Dunno if it's going to happen, I fear not, that it will rather be a first blossoming followed by crushing repression. Not every demonstration has the success of the Montagsdemonstrationens
But, if it does I don't think it's going to be an entirely old-school party: "who has the power" thing. This is very much more a teenybopper, wired-in, cyberpunk, casual-but-determined revolution. Distributed active democracy.
It's very interesting, and could change the world. Although, probably not, yet.
But this morning I heard young people shouting "God is great." Now what am I to make of that?
By
George Berger, at
Tuesday, June 16, 2009 9:22:00 pm