IRAN: The Time Has Come

David Etebari

 

79 years ago, while the dark shadow of fascism had spread throughout Europe and many parts of the world, the British Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill in a letter to the US president Franklin D. Roosevelt wrote: “If necessary, we shall continue the war alone and we are not afraid of that. But I trust you realize, Mr. President, that the voice and force of the United States may count for nothing if they are withheld too long. You may have a completely subjugated, Nazified Europe established with astonishing swiftness, and the weight may be more than we can bear.”

The threat that the world is facing today is no less. The events that lead to the establishment of the ruling Islamic Republic in Iran 40 years ago has had a great impact on the historical path of Iran, Middle East, the world and humanity. Since then we have witnessed the rise of Islamic extremism, Jihadists, suicide bombings, beheadings, mass asylums and government sponsored terrorism. With the emergence of political Islam, peace between Israel and its neighbors has also been less achievable. Hamas, Al Qaeda, ISIS and Islamic Republic’s far-reaching proxies such as Hezbollah in Lebanon, Iraq and other parts of the world have created new challenges to the world peace.

Meanwhile the Ayatollah’s and their military machine empowered by Petro-dollars and lucrative commerce with Europe, Russia and China and documented embezzlements of billions of dollars from government and private projects, had become stronger while channeling some of these funds to other dictators such as the ones in Syria and Venezuela, as well as funding terrorists in Afghanistan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Bahrain, Africa, Europe and Israel. Meanwhile they have been hoarding the rest of the stolen funds in their multimillion-dollar bank accounts in Europe, Canada, UAE, Latin America, Russia, China and USA.

A quarter century ago, the world stood together against racial discrimination in South Africa and after victory against the Apartheid regime, in his landmark speech to the United Nations, the newly elected South African president Mr. Nelson Mandela said: “We believe that it was indeed of great importance to the universal efficacy of and respect for the Declaration on Human Rights and the UN Charter, that the United Nations should have spurned the pleas of the apartheid regime that the gross violation of human rights in South Africa was a domestic matter of no legal or legitimate concern to the world body.”

The underlying message of visionary leaders such as Churchill and Mandela was that the citizens of the world are of the same destiny and therefore must stand together and adhere to the common principles that sets them apart from those with discriminatory ideologies and schemes such as Nazism, Fascism, Racism, Fanaticism and alike, and in order to protect themselves from those who want to strip away all that the free world has fought for and is based upon.

The tyrants evolve and reemerge and meanwhile those who do not possess the long term vision of adherence to the principles of liberty and human rights for all, under the context of diplomacy and peace or temporary economic gains, continue to promote policies of appeasing the despots, ignoring the plight of their victims and overlooking the expansion of their threat to our ways of life. Great leaders of the past also faced the so called progressive calls for appeasement, but they strongly stood for what set them apart, knowing that negotiating with the aim of short sighted temporary gains, they would jeopardize the future of their nations, the world and the future of our children.

As 28 Iranian men and women in their recent letters declared: “ Together, with peaceful and continual civil disobedience, we shall rid ourselves from the ill of the Islamic Republic and in a national referendum under the supervision of the international organizations, we shall decide our destiny by ourselves and then entrust the reconstruction of our crushed country to the good, wise, expert, altruist and patriotic Iranians.” They continued “We ask the people, the governments and the human rights and civil societies of the world to never regard the Islamic Republic as the representative of the Iranian people.”

Today at least 14 of these distinguished and brave Iranian lawyers, artists, teachers, environmentalists, writers, poets, labor leaders and activists who believe in the same principles of intellectual liberty, justice, equal rights and prosperity as the rest of the free world are in the prisons of the ruling criminal cult in Iran, for the simple act of expression of their opposition to gender, ethnic and religious apartheid in Iran.

Today the world democracies must stand with Iranians to help “tear down” the invisible “wall” that has gradually been built by this regime in the form of religious divide, before we face a more powerful nuclear-powered sectarian dictatorship that has no respect for the most basic international norms such as respecting the sanctuary of the embassies of other nations while promoting, sponsoring and exporting extremism, discrimination, hatred and terrorism in Iran, Middle East and the world.

In contrast, supporting the establishment of a liberal secular democracy in Iran, allied with the free world, will change the direction of the Middle East​ future but this time for a more prosperous and peaceful region. A peaceful secular Middle East will offer cooperation with the rest of the world, economic growth opportunities and prosperity for Middle East and the world as oppose to a breeding ground for alienation and extremism.

Like those before them, the dictatorship in Iran is doomed to collapse due to its own sectarian fallacies, inherent fanatism, inefficiencies, greed and corruption. The strong will of the Iranian people who have weathered many challenges in their long history is the other factor that will pave the end of the Ayatollahs’ hegemony. Through 40 years of struggle and experience, the Iranians have reached a new paradigm of inclusion and unity in their effort to save their ancient nation. They have overcome tyrannies and occupations before and will do it again, “alone” if they must and “are not afraid of that.”

Many Iranians are fighting against this ruling cult by non-violent means and are not asking others to do the fight for them, but they “trust” the world leaders “realize” not to appease or throw lifelines to this corrupt, fanatic, inhumane and expansionist tyranny, or their “ voice and force…may count for nothing if they are withheld too long” . Our secular principles, desires and destiny are the same and “we shall never surrender”

The opinion expressed do not necessarily reflect those of ITC