Who Killed The Next One Hundred People Like Rafiq Tagi? You Did
“The stars are dead. The animals will not look./We are left alone with our day, and the time is short, and/History to the defeated/may say Alas but cannot help nor pardon.” –W.H. Auden, “Spain, 1937”
By Barry Rubin
You’ve almost certainly never heard of Rafiq Tagi but the drip-drip drumbeat that has so long made much of the Middle East into a living Hell is like the drops of his blood. Tagi was an Azerbaijaini writer of courage. He was stabbed by two men in Baku on the night of November 19. Five days later he died in a hospital bed. Sixty-one years old.
Here is his funeral. It is a Muslim funeral. Not many mourners. Certainly not enough.
Tagi was one of those guys who had real guts and real convictions even though he knew for certain that his life was at risk every day. Not like the well-paid, safe and secure people who tremble about telling the truth so often found among the exalted intellectuals of the West. He said what he thought about his own government, criticized Islamism, and lambasted the regime of Iran which was not far from his home in Baku. The Iranian regime especially hated him.
Who killed Tagi? I asked a trusted friend in Baku who replied, “We don’t know for sure but everyone believes it was the Iranian regime.”
In 2007 he was sentenced to three years in jail for an article the previous year in which he said what he thought and even had included some of the Danish “Muhammad cartoons.” The president of the country pardoned him eight months later. Azerbaijan is a dictatorship but not a bloodthirsty totalitarian one. It’s the kind of dictatorship that the West likes to see overthrown even if it replaced by a bloodthirsty totalitarian one.
But the Azerbaijanis are scared, both government and a lot of the people. They wanted to have a modern, relatively secular state, prosperous and with equality for women. Naturally, they chose as a role model Turkey. Then they watched to their horror as Turkey turned into an Islamist-oriented country. The walls are closing in on them.
When Tagi wrote his aforementioned article the Iranian Grand Ayatollah Fazel Lankarani issued a fatwa calling for Tagi’s death.
That’s a fit measure of the difference between a country like Azerbaijan—three years’ sentence but quickly pardoned—and Iran—murder.
Tagi’s lawyer said, “If the criminals are not punished, then not a single dissident in Azerbaijan will be able to be safe.”
Why stop there? Can a single moderate whether secularist or someone who wants to interpret Islam in a more liberal way feel safe in Algeria, Egypt, Lebanon, Libya, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, or other places that can be named? What is the trend? In the countries where Westerner are celebrating democracy there are going to be a lot of such funerals.
Western intellectuals should be fighting for people like Tagi. They should be raising funds, reading his work, holding demonstrations and meetings of support for his counterparts in Iran, Turkey, and the Arabic-speaking world. Not a day should pass when such people aren’t being celebrated.
Shall I recite the names of those intellectuals who have been murdered by the Islamists, including the Arab world’s greatest novelist, Naguib Mahfouz, who survived the knife wounds by the luck of inches?
Yet the cheers are reserved for the terrorists and those who incite them. Shame, shame, and more shame.
My friends, mark my words: This is only the beginning.
In Cairo, a well-known Egyptian female journalist has just been sexually assaulted by soldiers while covering a demonstration. She certainly did not deserve such a fate. But this same journalist has been prominent in asserting—insulting those who disagreed, I’m told–that everything was going just fine with the revolution. In fact, she asserted, it was a revolution that was liberating Egyptian women.
This phenomenon is widespread now, especially in Egypt. Liberal reformers publicly insist that there are no problems, no real threat from Islamists. Yet the same people privately tremble for their country’s, and their own, future.
We are in the midst of a disgrace. Thousands of anti-Israel, pro-Hamas, and pro-Hizballah demonstrations have been held on campuses. Has there been one in defense of democratic dissidents? One in support of the Iranian opposition in which not all the participants were exiled Iranians? One in defense of Egyptian Copts in which not all the participants were Coptic immigrants? One in support of the beleaguered Syrian democrats mowed down in the streets of that country?
Do those in the West who congratulate themselves on their great humanism and political heroism have any idea of what they are really doing? Do those in the West who brag about being “pro-Arab” and “pro-Muslim” and “pro-Palestinian” have any concept of how ridiculous they are, of how much damage they are doing to those they profess to love?
And aside from morality and the question of “which side are you on?” consider the practical impact. In the West, critiques of the Islamists are met by cries of “racism,” “Islamophobia,” and outright threats or just plain ignored. In the Middle East, the radical Islamists murder, wound, and intimidate. The other, moderate, side commits no violence at all. Who do you think is going to win?
Apathy is one thing; the fact that most Western intellectuals, most liberals and leftists are on the side of the oppressor is quite another.
It’s the Spanish Civil War of the twenty-first century out there. And you, my fine examples of the allegedly caring Politically Correct, are on the Fascist side.
You can’t say it better than the old labor ballad, “Which Side are You On?”:
“They say in Harlan County/There are no neutrals there/You’ll either be a union man/Or a thug for J.H. Blair….
“ Will you be a lousy scab/Or will you be a man?
“Don’t listen to their lies/Us poor folks haven’t got a chance/Unless we organize.”
Let me know if you see any evidence of that happening.
How about we strip naked men,women,kids, then put them in a stright line. Then we ask the haters to pick out the Jews,Arabs,Persians and any others they hate. You hand them a knife and say go kill all the Jews. He or there responce would be, UH? We all look the same, without clothes.
Here’s a link to Pete Seeger singing Which Side Are You On
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iAIM02kv0g
Barry, the Spanish Civil War analogy is perhaps a bit off? We now know that the Republican forces were infested with Stalin’s agents, and it can be argued that Stalin — sensing that his infiltrators wouldn’t be able to fully dominate the Republicans — eventually starved their forces of the arms and materiel he had previously lavished and gradually hastened their defeat. Obviously, on the other side, Franco was being supplied with Nazi Germany’s leading-edge weaponry. The obvious bottom line is that the behind-the-scenes struggle was between two variants of bloodthirsty totalitarianism. So, shifting to the Western intellectual/campus denizens you so appropriately condemn, perhaps the better appellation for them is the one Jonah Goldberg so helpfully furnished: “Liberal Fascists.”
Totally agree with Danny Alexander on the Spanish Civil War. It is a very bad analogue. Orwell had this disclosed and it inspired his “1984″. Stalin had applied his “cleaning” methods to the republican army, and had all his messengers executed afterwards.
It would be great to have a competent PJM reporter like Michael Yon travel to Egypt and interview some Copts and other players–
Given the importance of Egypt in the Arab world the PJM coverage by reporters on the ground has been pathetic so far–a real missed opportunity.
We do not need metrosexual travelogues
–we need incisive reporting like Yon provides from AfPak and Iraq
You are right on target. The Republicans fighting Franco were on the side of freedom even if some think it was Stalin at work. Once no one helped them Spain descended into a dark oppressive period. In fact you can add another comparison the Kopts with the Basques. Franco forbade their laws, moved Spaniards into Basque country to dilute their strength. To this day the Basques have not regain their traditional independence and commercial strength that was above everyone else in Spain before Franco. Very dark days are up for non-Muslims all over the Middle East except in Israel where they thrive. But you would not know that watching US campuses cheering Palestinian terror.
The monarchists, the Carlists and the Falange to some extent had differences but what gave Spain’s Right unity was a horror of a Communist takeover. The Spanish Republicans were dominated if not led by totalitarian Communists. Defeating them took precedence over everything else and it was the correct course to follow. There is no such unity among the moderate middle class and secular elements in the Arab World to defeat the totalitarian specter of Islamism. What we’re going to get is all too predictable. Franco’s regime in Spain was quite moderate compared to what would have happened had the Left won the Civil War. A similar outcome in the Middle East would avert the disaster of Islamism. The West’s uncritical devotion to democracy is like looking at the trees and missing the forest.
About the same Civil War, I would have sided with Franco and the Nationalists. A right-wing dictatorship can be oppressive but it will not destroy religion and the economy. It will do the reverse and that is exactly how Spain developed to become a stable, middle class democracy. Military regimes in the Arab World would offend our sensibilities but they would be far preferable to the Islamists. So what is the West doing? Handing over the Middle East to new totalitarian dictators even more extreme, repressive and xenophobic than the ones being replaced. One prediction can be made with certainty: the Arab Winter will not lead to secular democracies being established in the Middle East in our lifetime.
But wasn’t there that guy with the Charlie Chaplin mustache?
I respect your knowledge but I believe it is simplistic to categorically state that the right (or the left) is automatically good and the other side evil. Would you support King George or George Washington? And I doubt the Taliban can be classified as leftists.
I meant the Spanish Civil War.
Guys, quit picking the nit. We need to be talking about liberal cowardice. Sheesh.
P.S. Victor, leave it. We all know your opinion about MJT. This isn’t his blog. Sheesh, again.
I had a friend who is a marine biologist. He said his work was depressing: pollution and over fishing are slowly and inevitably destroying everything. This excellent article shows that watching the Middle East is just as depressing. Maybe more so, because people don’t root self-righteously for the polluters.
I would do something to help, but I have no idea what. I throw money at Israeli causes. I’m not sure how I could help liberals / moderates in Azerbaijan or elsewhere. At one time you could support Amnesty International or Human Rights Watch, but these groups are twisted, corrupt versions of their former selves.
among the students (and faculty) in American universities taking part in all those thousands of anti-Israel, pro-Hamas, and pro-Hizballah demonstrations on campus, a great many of them are Jewish, go figure that one out.
It is always good to hear about the silent majority and the unsung heroes. However, before we get all teary eyed, remember some historical facts: Azerbaijan is muslim and predominantly ethnically Turk so they are best friends with Turkey. During the self inflicted war with Armenia in the 1990′s, the first Christian culture on the planet -Armenia, Armenians living in Baku were rounded up and shot, pushed off balconies and kicked out. It was gladly supported by Turkey – a supposed democracy. I have first hand stories about this because I work with refugees. 1000 year old christian cemeteries are bulldozed, churches even older demolished, with Turkish money. No one says a word about christian persecution, in any muslim country. Why is that? I hear crickets and the sound of tumbleweeds rolling in the wind………. These are very, very old communities and just as with the Jewish communities who were even older, not a peep is said.
While I salute the poor guy who dared take a stand, I suspect that “democracy” Azeri style would still consider anyone not muslim as a second class citizen. And that isn’t Iran talking, that’s “our good friends” the Turks.
I opine this is a true large article mark.Thanks Again. Truly Outstanding.