Friday, May 3

One Down, Three To Go

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The Iranian revolution in 1979 is an excellent example of exactly what democracies (like the U.S.) should NOT do when a dictator is being challenged by his people. Our cowardly wish to keep the despotic (but controllable) Shah of Iran in power is part of the reason religious extremists were able to co-opt the Iranian Revolution and twist it to their ends. We recently came very close to making the same mistake in Egypt a week ago. Luckily someone woke up and decided we should get behind the people Egypt instead of the people controlling Egypt. Sadly, we did not do this in Iran.

We screwed up, and what we got was a regime so hostile to the United States (and the free world at large) that is seems like some morality tale come to life.

But I’m not here to blame the existence of Iran on the West, because the opportunistic, reactionary bigots of the Iranian Revolutionary Council are also responsible for their own actions. This is another dictatorial regime that uses religion as their primary weapon. Much like the Kings of old in Europe, the true positions of power in Iran are protected by political as well as religious safeguards. Iran does have a government and elections, but none of the real power positions are available to being vetted by the citizens of Iran. I’ve raised this subject before and, even after the extensive protests of 2009, nothing has apparently changed. I sincerely hope the next uprising of the Iranian people will be much more successful and that the United States will openly back the oppressed citizens of that country in every way possible.

Saudi Arabia

Abdullah bin Abdul-Aziz

Abdullah bin Abdul-Aziz

The most terrifying regime in this list isn’t Iran, though. It is Saudi Arabia. Unlike Libya and Iran, Saudi Arabia has actually managed, in the modern era, to create and maintain a monarchy entirely based on one familial line that has de facto control of an entire country. This is the sort of thing guys like Gaddafi have wet dreams about.

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2 Comments

  1. Nice article – although i cannot think of a muslim democracy ever existing aside from iraq and in future afganistan. democracy is in direct conflict to the koran.

    my concern is the muslim brotherhood – aka the community organizers of the middle east!

  2. At least in Iran Transsexual are protected by a fatwa, In Canada it is legal to molest transsexuals as Canada is based on case law not on the Criminal code. I was molested in 2009 and the local courts said that grabbing my breast is not a criminal offence, because I am not a real woman. This decsion was based on an earlier decsion in Ontario’s supreme court. Since I was not the victim in the original case I cannot contest the that decsion which is what the decsion in my case was based on. I would love to live in Iran I am tired of being molested. Recently a man grabbed my breast so hard he left bruises. I pushed him away and he fell down I did not report this because I am afraid. Then about two weeks ago I was approached in a mall parking lot by a police officer who told me if I pushed someone down again that they the Waterloo Regional Police Service will arrest me for assault. I told him what happened and he told me that the court said it was legal and I should act like a man.