At the start of the Cold War, PM Mossadegh moved against the pro-American Shah of Iran, who was temporarily forced into exile. He then initiated major political and economic reforms and nationalized the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. When it appeared Iran was ready to make an oil deal with the Soviet Union, U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles sent agents to Tehran to organize street riots and to spread terror.
The CIA eventually overthrew PM Mossadegh in a bloody military coup and reinstated the Shah. This event, coupled with the Shah’s ruthless attempt to westernize and modernize Iran (patterned after the U.S.), caused deep resentment and anger. It is also the fifth thing America needs to learn from Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution: Cold War policies helped cause the revolution, as it did the tragic retaliatory attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. America’s obsession to destroy the Soviet Union, along with its militant imperialism in the Middle East, encouraged Islamic revolutions and Islamic jihads-defensive wars.
The bitterness against American hegemony and supremacy, at least for Iran, culminated in the 1979 Islamic Revolution, and when the U.S. refused to extradite the Shah for crimes against his people. I can still recall how this event alarmed conservatives and the Christian Right in the Reagan and Bush regimes. Now, the Reagan-Bush-Sr. Doctrine was not only trying to destroy Communism, but rattling it sabers against the spread of Islamic republics in Iran, Lebanon, Somalia, Sudan, (and most recently Afghanistan, Iraq and Gaza).
After Sept. 11 when President George W. Bush used the term “crusade,” he was simply evoking a European-Reaganesque barbarous military term against Islam. It was also unfortunate for President Bush to include Iran in the Axis of Evil. He was wrongly associating Iran’s utopian Islamic vision with al-Qaeda’s dystopian society. President Barack Obama was right when he recently said it was very important for Americans to recognize that specific “terrorist organizations” were not representative of a broader Arab community. At the same time, the U.S. must too admit, and change, its own state-sponsored terrorist activities and strategies in the Middle East.
Seventh, Theocracies, such as Islamic republics, can be just as viable and serve the needs of their people as other types of government. The U.S. currently embraces Israel and its Declaration of Independence and laws “based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel.” (1) It also supports the Dali Lama and Tibetan theocratic rule. Therefore, America conveys political hypocrisy in rejecting Islamic Republics that are guided by the Qur’an and the governing wisdom of the Prophet Mohammed(PBUH).
The U.S. must learn to confront and overcome this double standard in foreign policy, especially in relation to Islamic republics. It must also recognize its own short comings and limitations with its strict and dogmatic approach that separates religion and state. America (and the world) would be better off if they were mindful that most major religions have initially been peaceful and merciful. What corrupts the incorruptible and subverts human rights and equality are the emotions of greed, revenge, hatred, retaliation, and violence, and nations that pursue such policies of ethnocentrism, imperialism and militarism.
Another thing the U.S. can learn from Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution is the central role of peaceful martyrdom in preserving the ummah, or community. Millions of devout Muslims opposed the Shah’s attempt to modernize and militarize Iran. They viewed such a society, that was built on greed, materialism, usury and violence, as dehumanizing. Secular and capitalistic democratic institutions can easily diminish and negate the spiritual nature of humankind.
The acquisition of goods and commodities can unfortunately replace human dignity and the value of life itself. Since the Age of Enlightenment, the West (including America), with its ideological empires of reason and science, have murdered millions in trying to modernize and democratize the world. Without spiritual wisdom and a religious consciousness, even so-called free and modern institutions can become extremely worldly and intolerant.
Through general strikes, boycotts, mass protests, and self-sacrifice, Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution reminded the world of the importance of community and the value of suffering for others, instead of causing others to suffer. It rejected the West’s irrational but all to common belief that “We have to destroy you to save you.”
Is the religious ummah and significance of life the reason Iran’s religious leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and the Council of Guardians have called for the complete abolishment of all nuclear weapons and nuclear war? Is it also why Iran’s Constitution sets forth social and communal rights such as retirement, unemployment, old-age benefits, and housing commensurate with an individual’s or family’s needs; and the reason Article 4 says that all civil, penal, economic…military, political, and other laws and regulations must be based on Islamic criteria? (2) In doing this, the 1979 Iranian Islamic Revolution recognized that a social contract exists between a ruler and his/her people (community), only if the ruler is in compliance to God.
Since Islamic law is superior to the state, if a ruler disobeys God, the people owe him/her no obedience. The Christian Right and Left in America have yet to learn, let alone, follow this sacred principle. When did a major religious figure in the U.S. State Department call on the Reagan, Bush, Clinton, and Bush Jr. Administrations to destroy its nuclear and bio-chemical arsenals, or a Commerce Department official decry profiteering over people? The answer, of course, is never. Reason without religion can be just as destructive as religion without reason!
While many of the goals of Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution have been achieved, it is true that some have not. While several people were treated unfairly after the revolution, others even today long for more justice, equality and economic development. And like most countries, Iran must deal with the tension between its moderates and conservatives, and its ethnic majorities and minorities.
But still, there are many things the U.S. needs (and I stress the word “needs”) to learn from Iran’s Islamic Revolution. Perhaps the most important lesson, and the final one, is how to transform American Hubris into American humility, and apologize. As U.S. power begins to wane in the Middle East, as it did in Asia and Indochina years ago, and as Iran’s influence increases, an apology may be helpful to America’s economic an geopolitical future. At any rate, it would at least start a much needed healing process between the U.S. and Iran.
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