Iran, Islam and the ‘Axis of Evil’

Pak Bui

Some Sarawakians are wary of PAS, and by extension, Pakatan Rakyat, because they see Islamic politics as violent and totalitarian.

PAS sees Islam as a way of life, inseparable from politics. But it has never been violent and it is far from totalitarian.

The party has engineered ambitious internal reforms and has progressed through the years, arguably further than any other political party in Barisan Nasional or Pakatan Rakyat. PAS has come to choose to emphasise its commitment to the welfare state, rather than Islamic theocracy. PAS recognises that an all-encompassing Islamic state is a far-fetched concept in multicultural Malaysia. Yet many Malaysians remain skeptical.

Some Malaysians see Islamic states as the great enemy. Some even believe the story that Iran, for example, is a member of a so-called totalitarian ‘Axis of Evil’, together with Iraq and North Korea. This made-for-television soundbite was first trotted out in 2002, and then mumbled repeatedly by George W Bush, during his two catastrophic terms as president.

George W Bush spouted ‘Axis of Evil’ propaganda, fabricated ‘evidence’ for weapons of mass destruction, and pretended that Iraq had links to Al-Qaeda, in order to invade Iraq in 2003. George Jr was trying to complete his father’s work in the 1991 Gulf War. Today, in an echo of history, America’s military industrial complex still harbours dreams of invading Iran, as it has done since the fall of the Shah in 1979.

War on Iran ‘has begun’

Seumas Milne of the left-leaning Guardian newspaper in Britain argues that war in Iran has already begun.  Milne notes that spy drone flights, covert operations – including assassinations of scientists and an Iranian general – and cyberwarfare are already taking place. He urges citizens in Western countries to campaign against a full scale invasion.

America’s propaganda campaign against Iran has focused on its nuclear power programme. Iran has never denied an ambition to have a nuclear weapon one day, although it is a current signatory to the global nuclear non-proliferation treaty. This is unsurprising, since Russia, Pakistan and Israel, in its close vicinity, are all nuclear powers. Iran and other regional military powers will not give up this ambition – unless Israel and the superpowers renounce the nuclear threat too, in an ideal, though inconceivable, scenario.

Every American military expedition in the last half century has followed a similar pattern to this campaign against Iran. America’s leaders begin with righteous indignation over some enemy’s threat to an all-important ‘way of life’, wring their hands, rachet up pressure on the enemy, and finally set off fireworks (napalm in Indochina, cluster bombs in Afghanistan, ‘shock and awe’ in Iraq). Television images of military coffins draped in American flags follow shortly afterwards, accompanied by photo opportunities of solemn but determined presidents.

But who exactly is the enemy?

Mainstream American news networks concentrate on Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as a hate figure. Rightwing commentators claim the Iranian president is an Islamic fanatic. Ahmadinejad, they keep repeating, has denied the Holocaust ever took place, and has threatened to ‘wipe Israel off the map’. America, these pundits insist, must defend its ally Israel from attack.

Pro-war cheerleaders in both Washington and Tel Aviv are unimpressed by the argument that Iran has no nuclear weapons, and would face decimation by nuclear-armed Israel if it were to directly attack Israel.

The warmongers are urging yet another battle in a Muslim nation, the sixth in ten years, after Afghanistan in 2001 and Pakistan (by remote control), Iraq in 2003, Lebanon in 2006 (by Israeli troops) and Libya this year. The pro-war lobby is excited that US troops are being withdrawn from Iraq, allowing another potential front to be opened up.

The New York Times  painstakingly explained, five years ago, that Ahmadinejad had never declared war on Israel.

Of course, that does not mean Iran supports Israel’s existence. After all, Iran does not hide its support for Hezbollah and Hamas, two militias dedicated to destroying Israel.

Even so, Iran has never invaded another country since the Islamic Revolution in 1979. When Saddam Hussein, aided by the American and Soviet superpowers, invaded Iran in 1980, Iranians did fight a desperate war. Iran and Iraq struggled to an exhausted standstill after eight years. At least 500,000 people had died, including many child soldiers – both nations lost the war.

Israel, on its part, has launched five recent wars in southern Lebanon alone, invading in 1978, 1982, 1993, 1996 and 2006.  Each time, civilians suffered the brunt of the killing. The sickening massacre of children and unarmed civilians in the Palestinian refugee camps of Sabra and Chatila in 1982 are an indelible stain on the history of the 20^th century. Israel has claimed provocation each time, citing attacks on its civilians from Lebanese territory.

Is Iran evil?

Ahmadinejad has often been praised for his modest lifestyle and renunciation of material trappings. But he has lost a great deal of credibility following his regime’s ruthless suppression of the mass student demonstrations in Teheran in 2009, following his disputed victory in elections.

These Teheran protests presaged the Arab Spring, but were crushed by the Revolutionary Guard. Nonetheless, change appears irresistible: with Syria’s regime in mortal danger next door, the days of authoritarian rule in Teheran are likely to be numbered.

Iran is not a monolithic Shia Islamic state, but has different streams of Islam within it. The younger generation, many highly educated and steeped in social media, also provide complexity and diversity. The thirst for basic human rights in this nation is real. Iran’s proud history, fabulous culture and intellectual heritage cannot simply be reduced to a cartoonish hate campaign against a figurehead in Ahmadinejad.

It remains far from clear whether the broad swathe of people’s uprisings against totalitarianism in the Arab Spring will give way to an inclusive democratic movement in the region. But it is obvious that largely Islamic societies have begun to show the way for the rest of the world, by resisting tanks and snipers’ bullets with little more than their courage and conviction.

The geopolitical influence of the West on the rest of the world is waning. Wars in the Middle East, Afghanistan and Pakistan can only drain scarce resources from failing economies. America is going to war because it is thrashing around for petroleum, in thrall to its powerful automobile, petrochemical and arms lobbies. America appears hellbent on turning ploughshares into swords.

America’s George W Bush and his oil cartel friends appealed to their bedrock of support among Christian patriots to facilitate their war crimes in Iraq. Bush intentionally embraced apocalyptic language, such as the ‘axis of evil’, and called repeatedly for God’s blessings on his unholy war in Iraq.

Britain’s David Cameron has said his nation ‘should not be afraid’ to call itself a Christian country, even though 65% of young respondents in the British Social Attitudes Survey said they had no religion.

We have seen that violence and intolerance have been hallmarks of diverse nations invading others in recent history. These countries include, but are not limited to, ‘Christian’ nations like America and Britain in the Middle East and Russia in the Caucasus, ‘secular’ nations like France in Vietnam, and Muslim-majority nations like Indonesia in East Timor and Iraq in Kuwait. Iran has not been among the ranks of these invaders.

These warmongering traits are universal, yet wars are readily rationalised by apologists within all societies. For instance, the immensely talented essayist, the late Christopher Hitchens, produced fiery polemic in support of the invasion of Iraq. He wrote, among other things, of ‘fascism with an Islamic face’ after the September 11, 2001 attacks on America, and accused anti-war protestors of supporting fascists.

Still, it seems much more credible that fascism has a human face. Fascism has been kindled and burns brightly in all societies. We understand this from the grim record of war crimes the world over, from those committed in Iraq by America and its allies, to those inflicted by Nazi Germany, the Khmer Rouge and the Chinese government on their own people, to cite a few examples. History reveals that so-called ‘Islamic fascism’ is a relative newcomer to the world stage.

The ‘axis of evil’, it can be said, lies at the centre of each and every human being, and of every human society. How we deal with our own intrinsic potential for good and evil will determine our common fate.