The freedom epidemic in the mideast and Iran

Submitted by Tom Martin (United States), Jun 23, 2005 at 10:20

The freedom epidemic in the mideast and Iran has been fermenting a long time. The radical Islamic regime brought on by the locally brainwashed Shiite students of the then exiled Ayatollah Khomeini overthrew the Shah's regime by dent of mass riot. There was little or no control of the mobbing students; the Ayatollah's political cadre floundered to create order out of chaos, and serious, educated and well-intended political leaders were swept aside or purged in the wake of the new disorder. The Ayatollah declared that there was only one political party, Hizbollah, the Party of God, all others were the parties of Satan. An absolute dictatorship ensued, followed by a dicatorship by committee. Freedom was never a factor in this regime, nor were anything resembling civil rights, much less freedom of speech, so necessary to political activity leading to a reasonable vote. Those brave enough to offer even theoretical alternatives to this government were swept aside. Just as in every other absolute power, from Hitler to Stalin to Pol Pot and Saddam Hussein, the heavy hand of the political police outweighed any voice or written word.

But, meanwhile, another kind of mind-control, that of exposure to a free society and unlimited educational opportunity, was being provided to two generations of Iran, dating back to the early days of the Shah's regime. The United States provided a student exchange program, that persisted, interestingly, into the regime of the Ayatollah. In both systems, attempts were made to regiment the students, including transparent staged and rehearsed student demonstrations for the benefit of news media. In Washington, D.C., a planned demonstration by Iranian exchange students suddenly made to demonstrate for the Ayatollah, were carefully directed by the D.C. police to limit their activity to a parade, in single file, down the yellow line of Pennsylvania Avenue and a few parallel streets. They looked very puzzled and confused as they chanted from prepared printed brochures.

---

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".