The aging mullah regime in Iran is faltering: the people of Iran are rebelling against one of the worst dictatorships of the present - and risking their lives. But where is the solidarity of the West?
Their courage is enormous. Women in Iran take off their headscarves. They violate the mullahs commandments, they demonstrate. Women and men protest against the dogmatic and Islamist regime, a theocracy that rules with torture and imprisonment. They take to the streets and they take the greatest possible risk: they risk their lives.
But where are the human rights activist in the West? Where are the tent camps on the university campuses in New York, Los Angeles, Berlin, Brussels, London, Paris etc.? Where are the demonstrations, the banners and chants to express solidarity with the oppressed Iranians?
The behavior of many left-wing movements is particularly striking. Those milieus that otherwise mobilize with remarkable speed and moral fervor -- especially when it comes to Israel and Gaza. Within hours, places fill up, demonstrations are organized, resolutions are passed, social media profiles are redecorated. “All Eyes on Gaza”, for example, an anti-Israel protest movement with the support of the Left. In the case of Iran, however, hesitation. Silence. Dodge. No “All Eyes on Iran.”
This ideological imbalance has history. Parts of the Western Left romanticized the 1979 Islamic Revolution as an “anti-imperialist” liberation strike. But the resulting brutal mullah theocracy, disfranchising women, murdering opposition activists and persecuting minorities, was suppressed!! This blindness continues to work. While Israeli military strikes are morally condemned within minutes -- often without context and differentiation -- executions in Iran remain side notes. While solidarity is loudly demanded for Gaza, Iranian women must fight to be noticed at all. This is not a balanced morality. This is selective outrage.
The Islamic Republic of Iran is in a deep internal crisis. The current protests are harbingers of their decay. The economy is collapsing, the currency is in free fall, prices are rising, food is missing, the population is starving and has lost their faith in the political elites.
The oil-rich country has wasted its resources on terror -- Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza, Houthis in Yemen, the Assad regime in Syria; in addition, there is an adventurous nuclear program and the expansion of ballistic missiles. The bill is paid by their own citizens. Infrastructure is decaying, poverty is spreading, hope is withering. The people no longer bear this policy -- and it refuses to bear the madness of an aging mullah elite.
The recent remarks by American President Donald Trump have noticeably increased the nervousness in Tehran. He stated unequivocally that there would be consequences if the regime will further kill protesters. These words feed hope among the Iranian people. But their hope is soaked with bitter experience. Too often people have been persecute, imprisoned, murdered.
In their uprising for dignity and justice, Iranians look to the world’s democracies and expect broad solidarity, clarity, consistency. But unfortunately the Western silence sounds loudly in her ears.
Anyone who roars at Gaza but is silent about Iran proves that for him morality is not universal, but optional -- and does not care about the freedom of the suppressed people of Iran.