Iran’s Islamic revolution

Mohammad Jamil

There are many instances in the history of mankind when a nation is faced with the dilemma of choosing a right course of action for solution of multi-dimensional problems. During Shah of Iran’s era, despite material resources, hardworking people and above all wealth of cultural, historical and philosophical resources both the state and society remained clueless as to how to capitalize on these rich resources. The government functionaries had failed to release the latent energy and reach the ultimate goal of spiritual emancipation, prosperity, social cohesion and solidarity of the people. After strikes and demonstrations paralyzed the country and its economy, the Shah fled away in January 1979. In February 1979 the people of Iran under the guidance and leadership of Imam Khomenie brought about Islamic revolution, and since then Iran’s leadership had established a paradigm for other Muslim countries to emulate. It has proved that Islamic system has the potential to make a nation great, and is also capable of coexisting with democracy, science and technology. Of course, it was visionary leadership that has enabled Iran to achieve these laudable objectives.

Since the Islamic revolution, Iran has made strides in all spheres of life – education, health care, industry, defence production and culture. Iran’s Consulate in Lahore has circulated a paper giving achievements of Islamic Republic of Iran despite military invasion, coup de tat and eight years’ long imposed war by Saddam Hussein against Iran. Iran has made progress in various walks of life. Iran had held elections even during the war with Iraq thus defying the predictions of the US and the West that it is dictatorship.The Iranian society was in abjection when Cyrus provided it leadership and life and took it to new heights. Later, Zoroaster enlivened it with spiritual guidance and Persian Empire saw its golden age. Later it deteriorated into feudalism, factionalism and autocracy. Again amid supine masses some free and conscious thinkers saw answers to the problems in an ideology contain in the teachings of Islam and persuaded the Iranian nation to embrace Islam. Four decades after acceptance of the new faith, though Abu-Muslim Khorasani invaded the Arab world and helped establish the Abbasid caliphate but Iran remained in the grip of dictatorship in the garb of monarchy till the time Imam Khomenie inspired its people to rise to the occasion and bring about Islamic Revolution in 1979 that changed its trends and directions. 

The US and the West continue with their intrigues and conspiracies, but leadership and people of Iran have the resilience and courage to frustrate their designs. Though Iran is living with sanctions for the last thirty years yet it has defied predictions of the West that it will not make progress and people will one day rise against the government. International print and electronic media continues with their propaganda against Iran. In a recent article captioned “The Iranian revolution at 30” published in Washington Times, the writer Clifford D May resorted to scathing criticism on Iranian leadership on the occasion of 30th anniversary of Islamic revolution in Iran. The author started the article making a pointed reference to two terrible revolutions in the twentieth century. He had compared Iranian revolution with The Russian Revolution of 1917 and Chinese Revolution of 1949 stating that 20 million and 65 million people were murdered in two Communist revolutions respectively. He did not give any figures about the people who lost their lives in the Iranian revolution; nevertheless the comparison was not relevant in any case. Of course revolution is not a peaceful affair and it becomes a bloody revolution when the beneficiaries of the old order and forces of the status quo vociferously oppose and resist the change and try to subvert the revolution. 

Clifford D May however wittingly omitted to make a mention of two great wars in the 20th century, which were imperialist wars to capture markets and to make inroad in each other’s colonies. Historical evidence suggests that 40 million people were killed in the World War I and 60 million in the World War II. It is not known how many million were killed in 100 years’ war and other wars between the European countries. The author also states: Iran’s attempt to export its revolution to Iraq has failed for now”, which is travesty of truth, as after Saddam it is the rule of the majority and people of both the countries are bound with religion and shared values. The fact of the matter is that the US and ‘the coalition of the willing’ have utterly failed to keep Iraq under control. This is borne out by the fact that even Bush administration had decided to withdraw forces from Iraq in phases. Of course, President Obama has seen the writing on the wall and he therefore has vowed to expedite withdrawal of US troops. There is however cause of concern for Iran and Pakistan that he has decided to send 30000 additional troops to Afghanistan. Pakistan and Iran are bound together by faith, common heritage and shared values of love and peace, tolerance and humanity. Pakistan and Iran have cooperated in the past, and stood by each other in the event of a calamity or crisis. Both countries have identical views with regard to the need for establishing fairness in international trading in this era of globalization. And both countries also feel the need to revitalize the Organization of Islamic Conference with a view to effectively meeting the challenges faced by Muslim Ummah at the present juncture when efforts are being made to malign Muslims and demonize Islam. But Iran and Pakistan can take the initiative and further strength ties by expanding trade which is much less than the potential. Muslim countries should also overcome the differences, and that can be done by focusing on the commonalities – one God, Prophet Muhammad (SAW) and the Holy Quran. By doing, so they can forge unity in their ranks to counter the machinations of yahood-o-hanood. 

Iran was completely taken by surprise when India voted for the EU-3 resolution at the IAEA board of governors at Vienna. Later, India also voted in UNSC threatening Iran with further sanctions. In India, not only BJP and its allied parties but also pro-Congress parties considered this u-turn in India’s foreign policy. Leftist parties had criticized India’s vote at the IAEA in Vienna on Iranian nuclear issue. Leaders of India’s Communist Party, who support the Congress-led government, considered this act as a major departure by the government from the clear formulations spelled out in the national minimum programme. Anyhow, India is the cause for the delay in finalizing the gas-pipeline. However, Iran and Pakistan are determined to go ahead with it if India buckles under the US pressure.