City boy

Let’s face it, people can be very ignorant. That’s why much of the anti-war coalition, especially in the Iranian part - the so called CASMII (Campaign Against Sanctions and Military Intervention in Iran) - have put all their focus on stopping any future war and have not said much on actually what to do with the current ruling fundamentalist regime of Iran.

The full history of CASMII, both American and the British branches, with much interesting background of the founding members can be found here (Sorry, Persian only)

Now, before anyone assumes that I am pro-war or “ultra neo-conservative” (!), be sure that I am not - I am 100% against any unwanted wars in the region that is already devastated. However, being anti-war should not take away any one’s common sense.

Sadly since the Iraq war, it has become very common to show hatred for America, what America stands for and in fact any Americans - or even those that shake hands with them! I have witnessed this fascist attitude from fellow colleagues who refused to watch Al-Gore’s pro-environment documentary “An Inconvinient Truth“, because of his associations with current or previous American governments.

That’s just the start though! where else is it common to see this attitude? This new Fakhravar bashing.

Amir-Abbas Fakhravar, a democracy activist that escaped Iran after being arrested numerous times is now subject of endless criticism by journalists and bloggers from all over the world, because since his arrival in US, he has been shaking hands with neo conservatives and praised Bush for calling Islamic Republic of Iran part of axis of evil.

So how did this Fakhravar bashing started? Well, it started by in October by an article written by a lefti anti-war campaigner Laura Rozen, on the MotherJones magazine, titled Has Washington Found its Iranian Chalabi?

As Potkin Azarmehr, a well known figure in the opposition movement against to Islamic Republic, explained in a reply post some time later, this was just another anti neo-con, and anti-war report which this time unfortunately a student opposition leader Fakhravar became the victim of, and the allegations attached to Fakhravar by Laura were completely false.

After a few minutes of investigative journalism and emails to Bernhard, the author of the blog “moonofalabama.com“, it was all confirmed. Bernhard admitted in his email that he is strongly opposed to the Iraq war, and when he found that Laura Rozen had taken Fakhravar as a serious figure back in June, he was determined to prove that Fakhravar is a “fraud”, so Bernhard - another anti-war hero with next to nothing knowledge about the Iranian regime - emailed Laura about a few links here and there that he found which apparently inspired Laura to write that false report.

Anyways, it didn’t take long until the less informed anti-war and anti neo-con coalition and their followers targeted Fakhravar, accusing him of being a liar, charlatan, etc, etc.

This obviously can not be as result of Fakhravar’s support for the war - because he has always opposed it! including when he spoke right in front of the US senate where he condemned it and called for support and help for the movements inside Iran.

As for anyone who still lets his anti-war feelings to distort his beliefs, why don’t you read what Kianoosh Sanjari, another ex-jail mate of Fakhravar admitted on Amir-Kabir University’s site, that he was asked to “Explain what’s going on with Richard Perle and Fakhravar?” and claims that he honestly didn’t know anything about what was going on there with his old prison friend.

Moving on from this tragic case, Chomsky wrote an interesting article on this a couple of weeks back, let me tell you what I take from it.

Instead of seeing the unpopularity of the Iraq war as failure of democracy, and therefore taking on sides with Islamic fundamentalists who believe that democracy should not be in our interest, we should start promoting democracy. Both in the West - UK, US, etc - and of course more so in the democracy thirsty middle east, and everywhere else that is deprived of freedom for whatever ‘-ism‘ it may be.

It is really frustrating to see the left praising Islamic fundamentalists and the other dictatorship states just because they are in their view “anti-imperialist”, or whatnot. Clearly, it is the result of complete ignorance of those in the left to promote or defend such regimes as Islamic Republic in Iran, who deprive their workers, students and women of political freedom - these people only want to exercise the same rights as we do everyday in the ‘free’ countries.

Let’s go back to basics and use our common sense shall we? Oppose the war, but also condemn dictators and help to promote democracy - and let others do the same, if the left is not doing anything about it, how can it expect the Iranian opposition not to accept help from others?