There’s a Reason Why I Hate Iran

There’s a reason why ever since the expulsion of the Shah I have thought of Iran as the mortal enemy of the left (and also of the West, of course). This account in the latest Chronicle of Education - kudos to them for publishing this, by the way - is about a left-of-center academic in Iran, Ramin Jahanbegloo, who was dragged off to jail and questioned in a threatening manner and spent months in solitary confinement. But what was particularly striking is that his questioners regarded Edward Said as in effect a Zionist and that his friendship with that Jew Noam Chomsky was proof of his guilt of being a spy for America and Israel.

And this is why I have always thought of the Iranian regime as essentially anti-leftist and indeed a mortal enemy of the left. Anyone who thinks otherwise is about as far from being reality-based as one can be. The only thing that would satisfy those Iranian inquisitors like would be giving up on leftism entirely and believing everything they believe.

I’m sure those at the far end of Islamophile spectrum will employ extreme forms of denial to continue with their fiction that somehow that Iranian regime isn’t the bad guy that it is made out to be. For example, they could say that everyone knows perfectly well that Said was not a Zionist and that associating with Chomsky does not make one a spy for America and Israel; therefore, this story by Prof.  Jahanbegloo is clearly nothing but fiction, and not only that, it is fiction by the Islamophobes, invented for the purpose of smearing harmless Muslims. Accordingly, it can be ignored. The question is whether it will convince those who are at the near end of the Islamophile spectrum.