Democracy, or is it “margins of liberty, even democracy” exist? That will certainly be news to any journalist who tries to write anything critical of the regime. “Journalists without frontiers” has declared Iran the greatest enemy of press freedom in the Middle East. And a few years ago a Canadian journalist who was exploring the evils of the regime was beaten to death in Tehran. And an American journalist has just been thrown into prison. But Cohen doesn’t comment on any of this. Indeed, he thinks young Iranians are much like young Americans, since they surf the net a lot.
…it’s an Internet-connected generation. Access to satellite television is widespread. The BBC’s new Farsi service is all the rage.
,,,a student opponent of the regime, told me, “The Internet is very important to us; in fact, it is of infinite importance.” Iranians are not cut off, like Cubans or North Koreans.
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Not quite right. The Iranians are indeed cut off. The Iranian regime uses the same “internet filtering” software as China, and the anti-filtering software, which is produced here in America by Chinese opponents of that regime, is in wide use in Iran. Mr. Cohen should have a look at this phenomenon, which even has its humorous side: the web site (which is in Chinese) with the software (and a secure portal) is most used by Chinese people, but the Iranians are right behind them (the Saudis are third). I get a chuckle imagining those Persians trying to navigate a web site in Chinese.
Political blogging is a crime in Iran, and several popular bloggers are now in prison. You wouldn’t know that by reading Mr. Cohen. And as for his claim that “satellite television is widespread,” I suppose it all depends on what you mean by “widespread.” It certainly exists, but satellite dishes are frequently torn down, and the users punished. Mr. Cohen’s language is misleading; he clearly thinks it’s quite all right for Iranians to have their dishes.
In support of his claim that there is at least some “democracy” in the country, he writes “The June presidential election pitting the incumbent, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, against Mohammad Khatami (a former president who once spoke in a synagogue) will be a genuine contest as compared with the charades that pass for elections in many Arab states.”
As if there were only two candidates! There will be several; we don’t yet know what the full ballot will look like, but Mehdi Karrubi, a longtime staple in the mullahcracy, has already announced, and others will probably run as well. Will it be “a genuine contest”? If so, it would be a first. Iranian elections are routinely rigged, and the corruption of the process is so widely recognized that the abstention rate is astronomical. Nor does Mr. Cohen note that only those candidates approved by the regime are permitted to run. Some democracy!
He’s certainly right to say that the regime routinely makes a mess of its projects. It helps explain the mystery of Iran’s failure to develop an atomic bomb in more than two decades, when other countries have done it in less than one. Corruption plays a huge role. But then, we could have said the same thing about Mussolini’s Italy, which most scholars consider a totalitarian regime.
Then comes the closing paragraph, which gives away what Mr. Cohen is all about:
But the equating of Iran with terror today is simplistic. Hamas and Hezbollah have evolved into broad political movements widely seen as resisting an Israel over-ready to use crushing force. It is essential to think again about them, just as it is essential to toss out Iran caricatures.
This comes right after a passing condemnation of Iranian-supported terrorism in Argentina in the 1990s (tellingly, he doesn’t mention Hezbollah’s role in it). Mr. Cohen is apparently not persuaded that Iran is the world’s leading sponsor of terrorism (although virtually every expert is), nor is he willing to condemn Iran and its various proxies, most certainly including Hezbollah and Hamas, for the tens of thousands of innocent civilians they have murdered in Lebanon, Iraq, Gaza, Israel, Somalia, and Afghanistan, nor the thousands of Americans they have killed around the world. Instead, he whitewashes it by trotting out the conventional slur of Israel. In fact, it sounds very much as if Mr. Cohen thinks we should make nice to Hezbollah and Hamas.
Like many intellectuals who refuse to see evil when it’s right in front of their nose, Mr. Cohen hears what he wishes, and filters out the rest. Just in the last few days, the regime executed a member of a community of Sufi dervishes who had clashed with authorities. He was found guilty of blasphemy. Three others, condemned for the same crime, were sentenced to more than ten years in prison, where, according to the reliable Iranian Political Prisoners Association, they are being tortured.
It’s legitimate to debate what we should do about Iran, which has been officially at war with the United States for thirty years, but denying the nature of this theocratic fascist regime can only make the debate more sterile.
UPDATE: Many thanks to Ronnie Radosh, my old (sigh) classmate and friend, for his kind remarks on his Pajamas Blog. And you must, must, must read his review of Jamie Glazov’s new book here. Ronnie is a national treasure.
UPDATE 2: Here is a French report on how internet access is censored in the Middle East, including Iran, which is explicitly defined as “totalitarian.”
“Iran has not waged an expansionary war in more than two centuries.”
To think that Pinch Sulzberger can’t understand why New York Times’ share price is worth less than a Sunday edition…
Most recommended comment on Mr Cohen’s article today:
“I am a columnist for the Jerusalem Post and all I can say is bravo – both for your reporting about Iranian Jews and for calling out the obvious pro-war agenda behind much of the criticism you received.
” Larry Derfner, Modi’in, Israel”
Recommended by 183 readers.
http://community.nytimes.com/article/comments/2009/03/02/opinion/02cohen.html?permid=18#comment18
“The incentives – ranging from �5,000 a person to �30,000 for families – were offered from a special fund established by wealthy expatriate Jews in an effort to prompt a mass migration to Israel among Iran’s 25,000-strong Jewish community. The offers were made with Israel’s official blessing and were additional to the usual state packages it provides to Jews emigrating from the diaspora.”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/jul/13/iran.israel
“”Whatever they say abroad is lies – we are comfortable in Iran – if you’re not political and don’t bother them then they won’t bother you,” he explains.
His customer, middle-aged housewife Giti agrees, saying she can easily talk to her two sons in Tel Aviv on the telephone and visit them.
“It’s not a problem coming and going; I went to Israel once through Turkey and once through Cyprus and it was not problem at all,” she says.
The exodus of Jews from Iran seems to have slowed down – the first wave was in the 1950s and the second was in the wake of the Iranian Revolution.
Those Jews who remain in Iran seem to have made a conscious decision to stay put.
“We are Iranian and we have been living in Iran for more than 3,000 years,” says the Jewish hospital director Ciamak Morsathegh.”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5367892.stm
The proxy use of Hamas and Hizbullah isn’t expeditionary war in the classic sense but war nonetheless. Also Khatami as minister of Cultural Guidance set up a brigade of terrorists to operate in Lebanon in the 1980s. See my The New Russia and Iranian Moderates April 1999 Midstream and Hydra of Carnage Uri Ra’anan et. al editors Lexington books, my source for the Khatami reference. Michael Ledeen is cited in four places in that invaluable text regarding Cuban and Soviet involvement in terrorism.
As a proud gay Muslim convert I agree with Roger Cohen. My ex boyfriend is a gay in Iran and he is free to practice homosexuality. There are gay clubs in Iran and we even have a gay Muslim assosiation in NY.My husband is a proug gay Muslim too. I hope in the near future we can organize a first gay parade in Teheran.
The Iranian Jews are Iranians just many others in Iran. Like majority Iranians who are suffering in Iran, yes, Jews in Iran are suffering too. So why those Jews in Iran don’t leave? Because REGARDLESS of how much Dr. Ledeen or others talk in speakers, they are Iranians and they love their country. They were Iranians and still are and by the way they are Jews too.
Now you people keep yelling FIRE…FIRE and keep thanking Ahmadinejad for helping anti-Semite initiative to cause fear among Jews in Iran to leave, yet, many of those Jews know who Ahmadinejad is and how deep he is supporting Israel cause.
Now many of the right-wing regime supporters are also questioning Ahmadinejad blood relation to Jews and they are saying that by his phony anti Semite statement he is more in support of Israel. Do you get it people?
I know of one Iranian-Jewish family that makes fun of those who left Iran for Israel and calling them something like “Cooking Stove Jews”, since long time ago Israeli government offered each family a cooking stove if they migrate to Israel. So Iranian Jews call people those people like Mofaz “Cooking Stove Jews”. The same Jewish family that I know, he is in constant trips all around the world with his family and children and he is making lots of money in Iran also.
Just like Iranian women have 50% of legal rights, there are so many other groups that are suffering in Iran, and Jews are no exception. So their suffering is very much with their other countrymen.
And by the way, these days, if you are a minority in Iran, like Jewish, Zoroastrian, etc. BEFORE you leave Iran, you can start all your asylum paperwork in Tehran, and just as the U.S. Consulate in Vienna is ready to issue an asylum visa, these young minority populations leave Tehran via direct flight from Tehran to Europe.
Now what I’ll tell you is hard to digest, but listen to me now, believe me later:
Theoretically, there are 25,000 Jews in Iran, but in true DNA testing and verification, I declare 30-50% of Iranians have Jewish blood, given that for the last 2000+ years of Jews in Iran, they have mixed with so many other Persians and basically it is hard to distinguish between them. So in many ways lots of Iranians are like Madeline Albright or like John Kerry.
Can alwatys count on Helter Skelter hellucinations from Alireza. Hey, lights on but nobody home! Koo Koo! Koo Koo!
Roger Cohen – WInner of the Walter Duranty Prize for Courageous Journalism. (sarc)
Yaakov Sullivan: Can’t wait to see that Tehran Gay Pride Parade, though it would be kind of difficult to march when you’re all hung by the neck from construction cranes.
It amazes how people like Roger Cohen become an Iran specialist just by spending time in Iran. However more amazing is that many other analysts who have studied Iran for years make similar claims. Heck the CIA does even get it wrong.
Well, Mr.Cohen should tell his fairy tail story to the thousands of families of the victims who were tortured and executed by the mullahs. Teenage girls raped before execution so they would not end up in heaven as in their theology; girls who die virgin will go to heaven no matter what. Tell it to the students, teachers, union workers who pay the price of seeking freedom with their blood everyday, tell it to Parvaneh and Dariush Foroohar (Leader of the Iran’s people party),the elderly husband and wife who were tied to chairs facing Mecca and brutally mutilated. Tell it to Farokhzad, the Iranian singer in Germany who was beheaded by the mullahs’ terrorists for speaking against the regime.
Shame on those who don’t stand by the Iranian people and their desire to freedom no matter if its by ignorance or an evil agenda!
Hey, yakoov smirnoff sullivan; my gay russian who has adopted the last name of the US ambassador to Iran in 1979: read #8 comment above– Farrokhzad was also gay like you(or at least bi-sexual); the regime beheaded him in his own apartment in Germany while he was enetrtaining whom he thought were friends of a friend he knew who came to “pay him a visit”. Maybe your gay Iranian friends and you yourself will get the same treatment from the child-malesting mullahs too if you’re not careful(Note: mullahs have been notorious for being petiphiles in Iran’s folklore). Of course, in the same manner that they rape young virgin girls who oppose their regime before murdering them, the mullahs may decide to do the same to you and your gay friends first before they behead you. You live in fantasy-land my gay friend!!
“Gay parade in Tehran”, my butt(pun intended.)
some Iranians still have a pass to deliver their propaganda on western thinktanks, also some Chineses I happened to conter some of them on a german site.
Mr. Cohen, if Iran is not the world’s leading sponsor of terrorism! Why? Iran still give military support and financial for terrorist groups “Hezbollah militants, Hamas, Jihad, and Iraqi insurgents.”
Why? The Shiite Muslim Iran is also providing support to Sunni Muslim Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan. Why Iranian regime secretly executed the political activists?
The theocratic evil regime in Iran tries to force the US and its allies to get out from Afghanistan and Iraq, and NO sane man could deny that mullahs trying to thwart freedom and democracy operation in the region, which is about to hit their turbans as well.
Mr Cohen and the rest of wimp’s policymakers, I think NO sane man could denies that Iranians killed a lot of Americans and Jews in Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Argentina, Iraq and Afghanistan. Tries to build regional influence in the region so that drive the United States from the Middle East.
You believe that Iran is a good example of democracy, where “Iranians have satellite dishes and surf the net”. Well, if so, Why Iran is theocratic oligarchy?
Do you deny that Iran is NOT ruled by an elite handful of fanatic religious leaders? If you there found freedom and free elections according to your claim, PLEASE JUST REMEMBER THAT “any elect official who have to be pre-approved by the Guardian Council of mullahs.”
In Iran, NO free press, NO freedom of speech, and NO freedom of religion. They are good in a wave of arrests and secret executions.
In May 2006, Ahwazis, were deported by the Syrian government. The men were all recognized refugees under UNHCR protection, and were pending third-country resettlement at the time of their deportation to Iran.
On 27 Sep, 2008, the criminal Syrian regime handed to Iran a woman and his four children of Ahwazi-Arab refugees in Syria. On January 14, 2008, the Syrian criminal regime also handed to Iran over three more Ahwazi-Arab political refugees.
Despite our Ahwaz Human Rights Organization appeals and the appeals of the international community and a large number of international human rights organizations, but the Iranian regime is secretly executed the political activists who deported to Iran by my previous government “Syrian regime”.
Iran and Syria are the world’s most active state sponsors of terrorism, Iran and Syria are the world’s most criminal regimes. PLEASE Mr. Cohen, just tell the true,We are not blind people!!!
Jassem Othman,
you are an idiot. blatantly ignorant. I am not even going to take the time to respond to your idiotic post.
Iran is the only country in the M.E. besides Israel and Turkey where there actually is a legitimate democracy, where there are real elections.
Where there is freedom of religion, where women can vote, where women can drive, and where there are newspapers that are not scared to post what they want with regards to current events.
Lets stop being an ignorant conservative ideologue and talk about issues.
Uh-Oh Iranian Regime operative Alert!
we love Dr ledeen and his view on iran is as always RIGHT ON ,,,dr ledeen you are the man and miss your presense at AEI……
Dr. Ledeen; you indicated that Iran has had 3 revolutions in the past century. That’s a very interesting point, and intriguing.
OK: one is the “Iranian Constitutional Revolution” around 1905(?)which limited the powers of the monarch and introduced the Majlis or the parliament; then there is obviously the most recent one in 1979 that started off with pure and secular goals: freedom from political repression and freedom of speech, and more socio-economical equity But was later hijacked by the Islamists since the secret police SAVAK had all but destroyed all other secular democratic institutions in the country in th e60s and 70s.
Is the third revolution you are referring to the “Movement of Gilan Jangal” by Mirza Kuchek Khan in 1917 or so(??) which was basically the second phase of the “Constitutional Revolution”?
or are you referring to the Shah’s reformist “White Revolution” in 1963?
Your view on Iran being a revolutionary society is thought-provoking– Could another revolution just be around the corner? As you said it’s hard to predict the timing of revolutions, if not impossible–
But if we go by 3 Revs./100years; then the “mean” is 1 revolution every 33 years– And as the mullah regime is 30 years old now; statistically we should be near another plowing of the Iranian turf within 3-years
Sounds to me as though Mr. Cohen was ‘handled’ by the Iranians, and easily confused form with substance. He needs to revisit the writings of Bonhoeffer on why tolerating great evil is, in itself, evil.
# 12. Sam:
You should be proud you have conservative ideologue. They are the crown of your head.
It’s impossible to denies that American hard-line had been defeated the Soviet Communism Empire “evil empire”, through great struggle and mightily from American right-wing Institutions that materialize the real America dignity and values. Seemingly many policymakers has been forgotten the enormous impact of President Ronald Reagan’s denunciation the Soviet Union as an evil empire, at that time, some policy makers were miscalculated, they didn’t convinced in that warning speeches toward evil empire, some had considered it an dangerous speeches. But EVENTUALLY they brought Americans to the most perfect possible triumph in the cold war. Thanks to THEM Eastern Europe are free, so morally we should not deny the facts! Didn’t they?!
Sam: “Iran is the only country in the M.E. besides Israel and Turkey where there actually is a legitimate democracy, where there are real elections.”
Sam, you are incredibly an ignorant when you compared Israel with Iran,” stupidity”. Israel is the ONLY State is practicing real democracy in the Middle East. No Arab State in the Middle East could be compared to Israel.
Most of the Middle East countries are governs on the basis of Koran and Sunna (Islamic Sharia) and its emblem is “MARTYRDOM & SWORD” or JIHAD & SWORD, simply terror, while Israel governs on the basis of law and its emblem is “human development, enlightenment and prosperity” i.e. (REAL FREEDOM).
Your behavior has been proved that you are worthless person such as your despotic masters, in spite of that Dr. Ledeen’s forum isn’t a forum for insults.
Your views toward your tyrannical masters, it is an insult to those American soldiers who killed in Iraq and Afghanistan for people freedom. Your silly views about your despotic masters, it is an insult to those Americans who killed in NY, Iraq, Lebanon, Somalia, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, and Afghanistan. It is also an insult to those who risking their life for their rights and freedom. It is SHAME ON THOSE western pundits and journalists and policymakers who come and praise the evil corrupt regimes, they supposedly thinking that they are helping those people or rather those oppressed. Shamefully, they echo and adapt the claims of the dictators and their hired demagogues that everything is the fault of America and Israel. By such ugly case you just bless the terrible regimes acts and absolve the regimes of evil intent. The jittery arbitrariness regimes and illegitimate monarchies in the Middle East did NOT grant their people a comprehensive cultural life. They tyrannized their people, massacred them, oppressed them, their survival in rule is forcibly, the Middle East lives backwater in all scopes although that region is most oil-rich area. But please remember “there are millions of ordinary people in the Middle East they WANT a decent life and a peaceful future WITHOUT tyrannical regimes, WITHOUT fundamentalist Islam, and of course they just need your moral support and your courage if you have it, I think you do not have!!!”
I ask you and ask the journalists of hypocrisy or the lies sellers such as Mr. Roger Cohen and other who made themselves the perfect tool of the Mullahs government.
What religious freedom you talk about?
What freedom of press and expression you talk about?
In Iran, there is NO freedom of the press and expression, there is NO free-thinking press and expression, and there is NO religious freedom “in practice”, the religious freedom in Iran continues to be virtually non-existent for Christians and for other minority groups. Although the Constitution gives some minorities such as a Christians, Jews, and Zoroastrians the status of protected religious minorities, but IN PRACTICE, those who are not Shiite Muslims faced societal discrimination, where there are particularly egregious violations of religious freedom as harassment, intimidation, discrimination, and imprisonment because of their religious beliefs .The government policy is practicing severe restrictions on religious freedoms. All non-Shiite religious minorities suffered varying degrees of officially sanctioned discrimination, particularly in the areas of employment, education, and housing, where there are threats secretly and publicly by government for some religious minorities. Non-Islamic minorities live in constant fear of arbitrary abuse or arrest. the adherents of religions do not enjoy freedom of activity. Homes of non-Islamic minorities are commonly destroyed or occupied.
There are harassment to non-Muslim minorities such as a Zoroastrian, Christian, Jewish, Bahai”, but violations and terrible discriminations is against Bahais, the Bahais are Iran’s largest non-Islamic religious minority, Bahais over 300,000, nonetheless is not recognized and is openly persecuted and terriblely by the government. There are also a violations and egregious discriminations against non-Shiite Muslims minorities such as Sufis and Sunnis. Let alone apostasy by a Muslim is punishable by death.
The religious activity is monitored closely by the Ministry of Islamic Culture and Guidance and by the Ministry of Intelligence and Security; the same is true of most of Islamic countries. Evangelical Christian groups have been pressured by government authorities, the evangelical church leaders are subject to pressure from authorities, where over 300, 00 Christians live in Iran, although many of them are practicing their beliefs in secret.
The government policy continued to aim at the eventual elimination of the Bahais as a community as expulsions from universities, and confiscation of property. Bahais are not allowed to freely practice their religious traditions. For example, are banned from the social pension system, many historic Bahais gravesites have been desecrated or destroyed by Revolutionary Guard officers. Attacks on Bahais in Iran have increased since Mahmoud Ahmadinejad became president.
The women are effectively deprived of many rights that granted to men. Gender segregation was enforced generally throughout the country without regard to religious affiliation. The women of all religious groups were expected to adhere to Islamic dress in public.
The Jewish community has thinned by more than two-thirds since Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution, now more than 25,000 out of a population of around 70 million. The largest exodus took place soon after the Islamic Republic was formed. They fled because of religious persecution and still some Iranian Jews are continuing to emigrate because of continued anti-Semitism on the part of the government and within society as well. The Jews in Iran are often regarded with suspicion by Iranian government, where the Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is one of the world’s most Holocaust deniers and he calls continually for wiping Israel off the map. Iranian regime is the most repressive and anti-Semitic regime in the world.
The Iranian Jewish leaders are reluctant to draw attention to official mistreatment of their community due to fear of government reprisal. Therefore many Jews sought to limit their contact with or support for the state of Israel out of fear of reprisal.
The Death to Israel”, of course it is chants going to concern Jews themselves. So, Jews in Iran say they don’t mind the chants of Death to Israel also out of fear of reprisal, because if they did mind, they would be arrested as spies for the Zionist Satan. So in order to they experience relative calm, they must be ok with calls for the destruction of Israel and Zionism that is on a daily basis.
The Jewish schools must remain open on Saturdays, which violates Jewish law. During the reporting period and within the domestic press, the anti-Semitic editorial cartoons depicting demonic and stereotypical images of Jews, along with Jewish symbols, were published. Ditto during the reporting period, most Muslim conservatives would not eat food prepared by Jews.
the Jews whom Cohen met them in Iran had only positive things to say about their anti-Semitic government. Obviously they were afraid that such criticism would make things worse for the Jewish minority in Iran. That’s why you can never take at face value what a Jew in a totalitarian state says to a foreigner, because they are captives of the regime, and whatever they say is carefully calibrated not to get themselves into troubles out of fear of reprisal.
No doubt, those Jews whom Cohen met them in Iran had only positive things to say about their anti-Semitic government. Obviously they were afraid that such criticism would make things worse for the Jewish minority in Iran. That’s why you can never take at face value what a Jew in a totalitarian state says to a foreigner, because they are captives of the regime, and whatever they say is carefully calibrated not to get themselves into troubles out of fear of reprisal.
As Dr. Michael pointed, the Iranians love hostages, therefore the 25,000 Jews will serves the interests of the regime to have hostages on call.
The Middle East countries especially Iran, Saudi Arabia, Syria are considered the worst regions in the world in the field of the press freedoms and human rights. For a long time the women in Syria can drive, nonetheless the regime prisons are full of political activists and other activists who fight for human rights, freedom of speech and freedom of press. Iran and Syria are the largest prison for journalists in the Middle East.
The Iranian regime continued to crack down on critical publications, journalists, and bloggers through arrests, detentions, and newspaper closures.
The government continued to intimidate and persecute journalists who covered the country’s ethnic minority issues. The Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance has banned and closed more than one hundred publications since 2000. According to Reporters without Borders, in 2007, more than fifty journalists were prosecuted or imprisoned, some without charge, and also some were sentenced to death. Of course the charges against journalists and publications are often arbitrary. Editors and publishers are prohibited from hiring journalists who have previously been sentenced, and many journalists are banned from leaving Iran. Moreover, the Iranian government maintains a direct monopoly of all domestic broadcast media and presents only official political and religious viewpoints.
As for the transparency of Iran democracy you are talk about.
Indeed any political party is OPPOSED TO THE MULLAHS regime is banned and their members either executed or persecuted. In Iran, there is no freedom of association and organization that is necessary for a fair election and transparent.
of presidential elections in Iran is neither about the continuation of reform nor democracy. It is only about the survival of theocratic regime, where any elect official who have to be pre-approved by The Mullah’s Guardian Council, of course among its own hand-picked candidates. they show to the outside world that it has political legitimacy through bringing people to the polling stations by any means possible.
If you believe that Iran is a good example of democracy, so, why the Iranian regime is secretly executed the political activists?
Mr. Cohen, your article is an insult to journalism and above all it is an insult to those oppressed people by that evil regimes you advocate it.
Islamic regime in Tehran remains hell bent on the destruction of Israel and the US with a commitment to lay, cheat, and deceive.
MR. COHEN, JUST A BIT OF COURAGE AND TRUE!!!
WAKE UP, PLEASE!!!
For educational purpose, I recommend reading Roger Cohen article of today. It is hard to accept, but makes more sense and closer to reality than the nonsense from the Right.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/09/opinion/09cohen.html?_r=1