FATHER FRANK’S RANTS - Iran’s Cause

Rant Number 353 2 July 2009.

‘Fr Frank, what have you done? After you went to Iran all hell broke loose there!’ an alarmed reader wrote. Huh! I am powerful but not that powerful. Besides, I am as innocent as a lamb. Nonetheless, Iran interests me - deeply. I feel kind of involved in it. Because it is partly run by fellow clergy. Stone me to death, surely a priest cannot object to that per se – it would be unnatural.

‘Iran must choose whether it is a nation like others or a cause.’ One of infamous Dr Heinz Kissinger’s pronouncements. On BBC2, he reiterated it to Jerry ‘Rottweiler’ Paxman. Implication: Iran is bad. Because it waves the flag of Shiism. That feisty branch of Islam especially associated with rebellion and discontent. (Dig now why I sometimes describe myself as ‘an Anglican Shia’? Turbulent priest OK. Praise God for that.) Since the 1978 revolution guided by Ayatollah Khomeini, Iran has scared the wits out of safe establishments both West and East. That is why they armed and backed big bad wolf Saddam Hussain’s war against Iran. Today it is because Iran aids radical Islamic movements like Hezbollah and Hamas. That’s what makes it a threat or ‘a cause’, according to old Heinz. Should Iran jettison its Shia identity and fervour, plus its pursuit of nuclear energy, presumably it would then become ‘kosher’ – oops, sorry, I mean ‘halal’, of course.

Neat, Heinz, but bogus argument. Other nations are causes, too. Like America. In Cairo, President Obama swore democracy promotion everywhere. Groan...since Bush, a cause marred by aggressive military interventionism. Leaving behind a vast trail of blood, like in Iraq, and now ditto in Afghanistan. But those are mere bagatelles. Pace venomous critics like Chomsky, who claim the whole thing is a sham, democracy and human rights remain America’s proud, universal cause.

Or take France. The fanatic values of the French revolution – liberte’, egalite’, fraternite’ – are plugged relentlessly. (Never mind that liberty and equality are incompatible and fraternity impossible.) France banned the mention of God in the European Charter of Fundamental Rights. France, once ‘the most Christian country’, excludes religion. Now President Sarkozy even wants to outlaw the burka, the full Islamic female dress. Because, apparently, it is a threat to cohesion, secularism, the dignity of women, waffle, waffle. Sounds pretty cause-like to me...

Or consider Saudi Arabia. Its banner bears the shahada, the Muslim profession of faith. So that country promotes its chief cause – Islam – everywhere. It funds mosques, schools and Islamic institution all around the world. When Muslims are under attack, the Saudis move to defend them. They have dispatched money, arms and men to fight the Communist Rousskies in Afghanistan and the Serbs in Bosnia. No coyness about the Saudi cause, eh?

Israel. Jews are its worldwide concern. The law of return means any Jew anywhere can emigrate to eretz Israel, his ancestral land. To escape persecution or start a new life or....whatever. Another cause, methinks. (Er...wait a minute: the Palestinians? Forget them. A mere trifle. Soon, they will be gone.)

Britain? Its empire was its cause. And opposition to any other country’s hegemony in Europe. Self-interest, in a nutshell. Empire gone, today’s Britain has yet not found any cause or purpose, other than aping laws and diktats and fashions emanating from Brussels. Plus the constant, shameful, racist harping on the ‘immigration’ dangers. Sic transit gloriae mundi. Sad.

Kissinger’s hostility to Iran is really about ideology. Conducting international relations on ideological premises – the Shia cause - is what he and many others abhor. But his own ideology blinds him to the obvious. There are many, competing ideologies around us – call them human rights, democracy, equality, gays, feminism, free trade, God, globalisation, etcetera. They influence, shape and direct the foreign policies of nations. In the case of the West, often with disastrous effects for peoples of darker skin-colour, like Iraqis and Afghanis. Iran’s cause may be deemed subversive of the established world order but...why is that so bad? What’s so good about the status quo, eh?

As a statesman, Kissinger dominated US foreign policy between 1968 and 1977. His role was especially calamitous vis-a-vis the Vietnam war. This former refugee from Nazism never understood the determination of Hanoi and the Vietcong to fight on for independence and freedom from foreign rule. The mountains of corpses his failed strategies engendered should keep him awake at night, if, improbably, he possesses the thing called conscience.

Iran. Since I came back from Tehran just before the elections, I have received many e-mails from friends I made there. They are overwhelmingly pro-Ahmadinejad. True, the conference I was on was, shall we say, a tad on the conservative side so maybe...it figures. But the memory that sticks in my mind is that of a young couple I met in Meshed, a holy city on Iran’s East. After coming out of the haram, the shrine of Imam Reza. They heard us speak English and so we chatted. Mohamed was a lawyer and Fatima a teacher. Pilgrims from Isfahan. ‘We have God’s rule here’, Mohamed said, ‘that is why we are happy.’ Who did he support in the elections? Ahmadinejad. But, surprise, surprise, Fatima rooted for Mousavi. ‘He would deal with the West better’, she asserted. ‘Iran needs more friends abroad.’ I wonder what they are saying now...

‘Who’d you think the Hidden Imam would vote for?’ I provocatively put to them. ‘God knows’, they reply in unison, seriously. ‘Why are your churches so empty? Are all the Christians dead?’ they in turn demanded. It transpired they both had visited London, staying with friends in Kensington, my former parish. Did they poke their noses inside St Mary Abbots and saw the emptiness? But, had they visited instead Holy Trinity Brompton, they would have witnessed a vibrant, thronged congregation of believers rejoicing in the One True God. ‘You must not buy any lying, smug secularist propaganda. Christianity, like Christ, isn’t dead. It is alive’ I advised them. They looked pleased. ‘Like the Hidden Imam’, they responded, joyfully. Well, why not? Had I known the Farsi word for ‘right’, I would have said it, loud and clear.

Revd Frank Julian Gelli

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