Iran’s Islamic Revolution challenges Western imperialism
By Dr. Amir Dabiri MehrTue Dec 18, 2012 1:22PM GMTBy Dr. Amir Dabiri MehrTue Dec 18, 2012 1:22PM GMT
How are the Islamic Republic of Iran’s successes and failures connected to the Islamic civilization? Why is the fate of Iran’s Islamic Republic so important and decisive for the Western liberal civilization? Is the significance of the Islamic Iran an objective reality or merely an ideological and mental imagination translated into the official structure of a country?
In response to these questions, the history and roots of Islamic movements need to be reviewed. The Islamic movements took shape in the early 19th century in Egypt, Sudan, Libya, Iran, etc. in reaction to the Western empowerment and the decline of Islamic civilization. The movements were determined to warn Muslim nations against civilizational twists and turns on the one hand, and revive Islamic communities on the other. In either way, the Islamic movements built upon a political Islam fighting tyranny and arrogance and heralding an Islamic framework to emancipate Muslims from weakness and submission.
Violent suppression of Islamic movements in North Africa in the 20th century and stifling of Islamic resistance movements in recent years are well indicative of the West’s attitude.
However, Islamic movements – regardless of their ideals, roots and mottos – have met three different, but significant and influential fates over the past two centuries.
۱٫ Some of these movements were nipped in the bud and could never find any chance to establish an Islamic government. The Islamic movements in India and Iran’s Constitutional Revolution (1905-1907) are examples of this category.
۲٫ Certain Islamic movements managed to found an Islamic government, but this government did not meet the regionally and internationally acceptable criteria. They did not arouse the Western sensitivity, and were cited as examples of failure of Islamic movements. Examples of this category are the Saudi Kingdom, pioneered by Wahhabism, and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. The latter is blamed for its failure to establish security and provide welfare to its people.
۳٫ Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution and the Islamic Republic represent a third model which set a precedent for Islamic movements in the 20th century. French philosopher Michel Foucault described Iran’s revolution as a movement which breathed fresh life into the spiritless body of the world and raised hopes among Muslims that Islamic movements are not necessarily doomed to fail and that they could lead to formation of Islamic government, Islamic society, Islamic establishment and Islamic civilization. Even in the heydays of Islam, the prophet Mohammad (PBUH) founded an Islamic government which ended in the strength of the Islamic civilization. Well mindful of this background, the arrogant front set up a strong alliance of owners of power, wealth and philosophy against the Islamic Revolution to kill it off in the very beginning. A variety of coups, conspiracies, embargoes, smear campaigns and above all instigating an unbridled and uncivilized dictator like Saddam to wage a war against Iran were all examples of the Western civilization’s onslaught on Iran’s Islamic Republic, which was promoting the Islamic civilization. Alas, the West’s dream of overthrow of the Islamic establishment did not come true. However, the West did not abandon its focal strategy of defeating the Islamic Republic. This strategy openly stipulates that no effective, legitimate, progressive, democratic and powerful Islamic establishment should take shape in post-revolution Iran because it would be envisaged as an alternative to the Western civilization and would teach other Islamic movements how to get stronger. The US-led Western civilization’s all-out opposition to the cores of Islamic resistance in the Middle East and the West’s persistent hostile and often harsh and cruel policies against Iran are all proof of this strategic approach.
Today, the Islamic Awakening is at the center of all debates and Iran’s Islamic Revolution is the centerpiece of this wave. Anytime Western governments speak of historical turn they mean Iran’s Islamic revolution which can make the greatest contribution to future human civilizations.
Therefore, if the Islamic Republic fails for whatsoever reason, the Western civilization would spread its hegemony on the world for long years in a bid to eclipse all cores of resistance, awakening and independence. On the contrary, in case the Islamic Republic manages to realize its ideals and stabilizes its model, the ongoing wave of Islamic Awakening would end in an Islamic civilization that would rival the liberal civilization as models of individual and social life, not to mention myriads social, political and cultural consequences.
Last but not least, the experience of Islamic Republic is not tied only to Iran, and is intertwined with the fate of human civilization.
KA/JR
As expected, this intellectual paradigm faced firm opposition from the West which never favored a political and social structure be born out of Islamic culture and civilization to challenge liberalism or social democracy.
