Ahmadinejad's "Nazis"

[IndianaGreen]

Ahmadinejad's "Nazis"

By Norman Markowitz
12-14-06, 9:14 am

Although Ahmadinejad is the leader of a clerical regime, he is not himself a cleric and many see his religious politics as political opportunism. Some have contended that he identifies with pro Nazi ideologues in the Court of the Shah in the 1930s (the old Shah who tilted toward and perhaps sought to ally himself with Nazi Germany to break the hold of British oil interests on his nation before WWII). In 1941, Soviet and British forces ousted that Shah, whose actions were clearly aiding the fascist Axis, and replaced him with his son, as a constitutional monarch. Had this not happened, Hitler might have declared the Iranians "honorary Aryans" as he did his Japanese allies.

In holding his conference this week, Ahmadinejad was inviting fascist elements from many countries to become his allies. Perhaps he will follow in Hitler's footsteps and declare them "honorary defenders of the faith."

In 1953, the CIA with British support overthrew the elected prime minister, Mossadegh, and in effect made the Shah into an all powerful dictator, savagely suppressing the Tudeh Party (communist) and all secular center and left forces in the society. In the political vacuum created by the dictatorship, a section of the Islamic clergy became a center for opposition and when the Shah was overthrown in 1978, a clerical "Islamic Republic" was established.

What would Iran be like today if Mossadegh had not been overthrown and the oil wealth of the nation used for social development. What would Iran be like today if the Reagan administration had not supported Saddam Hussein's war of aggression against the clerical regime after the overthrow of the Shah? It is very doubtful that the Iranian people would be suffering today under the regime of Ahmadinejad, just as the Iraqi people would probably have been able to dispense with Hussein in the 1980s had it not been for the Reagan administration's support of his regime.

Anti-Jewish racism, which the world has called anti-Semitism since the late 19th century, has little resonance in the history of the Iranian people, or in the Muslim religion for that matter, although the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has enabled rightwing elements to highlight anti-Jewish statements in Muslim religious texts and peddle anti-Jewish racist works, including The Elders of the Protocols of Zion, in Arabic speaking countries under the pretext of fighting Israel and Zionism.

Like David Duke, for whom anti Jewish racism, anti-Black racism, anti-whatever the market calls for racism, has been something like a racket for over thirty years, Ahmadenejad has "invested" his government in anti-Jewish racism or anti-Semitism, hoping perhaps to "corner the market" and become the leader in this niche of the racist business. In the process, he has hurt and insulted his own people and their progressive traditions. He has, along with and insulting all Jewish people regardless of their religious sentiments and views of Israel, insulted the Palestinian people who struggle against Israel's oppressive policies he has sullied by identifying that struggle with the crude lies perpetrated by supporters of Hitler fascism.

http://www.politicalaffairs.net/article/articleview/4560/1/227/

[11cents]

1. Just plain wrong.

As in, historically inaccurate. Anti-Jewish racism has plenty of "resonance" in Iran. The situation of Jews under the Qajjars (the dynasty that preceded the short-lived Pahlavi dynasty) was arguably considerably worse than in Czarist Russia. I think the more doctrinaire brand of leftists have a hard time conceding that racism can exist as anything other than an extrusion of Western capitalism, "false consciousness," da-da-da. Racism: it's not just for Westerners anymore -- and it never was. True, though that the first Pahlavi explicitly aligned himself with Nazi ideology. It's why Iran is called Iran (as in "Aryan") now instead of Persia.

[blitzen]

2. the author loses credibility when he says "the regime of Ahmadinejad"

Ahmadinejad is not the ruler of Iran, nor is the "the leader of a clerical regime." He himself is ruled and led by a council of clerics.