The Islamist Threat: Looking for Common Ground

Shortly after 9/11, I was staggered to learn that the average progressive was siding with Muslims, and conservative Muslims at that. For me the butchery in Iran in 1979, when many liberals and leftists were murdered by Muslims, was still too vivid to consider any but the most liberal of Muslims as tolerable. Yet, the average progressive acts as though that event never happened. Just for the sake of precision and as a starting point for a discussion, here is a statement about that event from a progressive:

The Islamists murdered tens of thousands of leftists, perhaps as many as 100,000, after the 1979 Iranian revolution.

That statement comes from Nick Cohen’s Waiting for the Etonians (p. 118), and Cohen is (or at least was) generally progressive. Let me add that his statement is in line with my own memories and other descriptions of that event that I have encountered.

If you are liberal or leftist, do you accept this statement? That is, do you accept that at least 20,000 leftists were murdered by Muslims in Iran in 1979? (I take it that “tens of thousands” means at the bare minimum 20,000.) If not, why not? Let’s see if we can find some common ground on this event, and maybe from there we can find common ground on other related issues.

Comments

[Charles N. Steele]

Today's leftists can't even remember that pre Trump they laughed at the idea that Russia is an enemy of the U.S. They can't even remember that *this year* Joe Biden publicly bragged he threatened to cancel a promised $1 billion loan unless they immediately fired the prosecutor investigating Burisma, his son's company. How can they remember anything back in the 1970s?

OTOH, Iranians who had permanently left Iran told me about it, and were furious over it. I don't know how many were killed, but certainly thousands.

[John Pepple]

Maybe you could encourage some of these Iranians to write a book about it. Or have they already done so?

[Charles N. Steele]

Publicly criticizing the regime endangers one relatives back in Iran, and makes one a target for assassination. And leftists have placed themselves beyond rational argument. It’s hard to find people willing to do battle under these circumstances.

Here’s an old NYT article on an aspect Khomeini’s crackdown. This info is already available and leftists don’t care:

https://www.nytimes.com/1981/09/24/world/khomeini-calls-for-purge-of-leftist-schoolchildren.html

[John Pepple]

"Publicly criticizing the regime endangers one relatives back in Iran, and makes one a target for assassination." Oh, yes, too true. I hadn't taken that into account. For that matter, there might be Iranians here who are agents of the regime.

And thanks for the link!