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CounterPunch
November
20, 2002
US Should Use
"Soft Power" to Engage Iran
by REZA LADJEVARDIAN
In the past few days, thousands of Iranian students
have been peacefully protesting against the death sentence for
apostasy handed out to Hashem Aghajari, a liberal dissident.
Aghajari is a 45-year-old history lecturer,
journalist and veteran who lost a leg in 1980-88 Iran-Iraq War.
His speech titled "Islamic Protestantism" infuriated
the conservative clerics dominating Iran's judiciary. In it,
he compared Iran's current clerical rulers to the medieval Catholic
popes. Stating that "Islam is in a dire need of a structural
shakeup," he called for an urgent "renewal" of
Shiite Islam. Especially irritating to the clerics was his questioning
of the Shiite Muslim practice of emulating senior clerics as
role models. "Are people monkeys to emulate someone else?"
newspapers quoted Aghajari.
The death verdict by the conservative
judiciary came amid President Mohammad Khatami's introduction
of the two most important pieces of legislation since he entered
office in 1997. One bill would enable the office of the president
to warn and sanction conservative judges who have shut down reform-oriented
publications and incarcerated numerous journalists and intellectuals.
The other bill would curb the veto power of the conservative,
nonelected Guardian Council to bar many reformists from participating
in elections.
Many Iran experts believe these two pieces
of legislation mark the climax of the ongoing power struggle
between the reformists and conservatives in Iran and view Aghajari's
death sentence as a warning shot by the conservatives to intimidate
the reformers.
Iran's elected pro-reform Parliament
has passed both pieces of legislation, but the Guardian Council
is expected to either reject or significantly water them down.
Lacking popular support, the conservatives have resorted to delay
tactics that have inhibited real progress in Iran. Frustrated
and fed up by the pace of reform, students have even chanted,
"Khatami, Khatami, resign, resign." Khatami, who has
previously backed down from the brink of confrontation, has said
this time he will resign if the two bills are not passed by the
Guardian Council -- thus depriving the Islamic theocracy of any
form of legitimacy.
The students' growing demonstrations
in support of Aghajari's right to free speech and the Parliament's
swift and overwhelming passage of the two bills reflect the mood
of the Iranian people. For them, the hope of an Islamic utopia
has become a reality of broken promises wrapped in oppression,
high unemployment, inflation, lack of opportunity and minimal
forms of self-expression.
The Iranian people no longer consider
Islamic fundamentalism an ideal to strive toward but a failed
ideology, like absolute monarchy, communism and authoritarianism.
Having rejected fundamentalism, they are yearning for democracy.
The outcome of this power struggle is
vital for America. Because an effective reform movement committed
to democratic principles in Iran can have a moderating influence
throughout the Islamic world.
The Bush administration ought to listen
to European allies and engage the reformists. It should abandon
the notion of fomenting a revolution. Reformists, like Aghajari,
who risk their lives to promote democracy, do not deserve to
be, mistakenly, branded along with the tyrannical, corrupt mullahs
they are fighting against.
If America actively engages Iran's reformers
and helps to bring into law these two pieces of legislation,
the nullification of velayat-e faqih (the supreme leader's absolute
power and final say on all matters) will not be far behind. A
free press is the linchpin of any democratic society. A democracy
will cease to exist without it, and a dictatorship will cease
to exist with it.
By exposing corruption, ineptitude and
injustice, a free press in Iran will be the beginning of the
end of the Islamic theocracy. By helping to empower the reform
movement in Iran, President Bush can inspire and ignite the imaginations
of Muslims the world over.
America's soft power -- its ability to
inspire, offer hope and show a more promising future centered
on the pillars of freedom and justice -- is a far more potent
force in our war on terrorism than solely relying on high-tech
hard power. The same way that Iran's Islamic revolution galvanized
the fundamentalists across the Islamic world, its successful
embrace of democracy will embolden democracy-seeking moderates
across the region and help to reconcile the differences that
exist between the Islamic world and the West.
REZA LADJEVARDIAN can be reached at: rezalad@yahoo.com
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