In the massive protests flowing across Lebanese and Iraqi streets, and the continuing subjugation of Iran’s people, we see the absolute lie of Iran’s Khomeinist ideology. Forged by the Islamic Republic’s founder Ayatollah Khomeini, Khomeinism claims to offer just moral governance, but actually offers only sectarian corruption and rampant brutality.
Indeed, Khomeinism is the ultimate in political hypocrisy. Its officers claim themselves heirs to Shia hero Husayn ibn Ali but act with utter disdain for Ali’s example. Ali was a martyr for his faith and people. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his cronies subjugate human lives at an authoritarian altar of greed.
Don’t take my word for it, take the reality of Lebanese, Iraqi, and Iranian streets.
Resigning from office on Tuesday, Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri admitted defeat. “I’m at a dead-end,” he said. While Lebanese protesters are particularly infuriated by poor government services and rampant cronyism, it would be a mistake to view those concerns in a vacuum. These protests are the direct consequence of Iran’s stranglehold over Lebanese politics. Acting through their political proxies Hezbollah and Amal, Iran has ensured that sectarianism rules Lebanon. Each faction gets its piece of the pie — Sunni, Shia, and Christian each get a ministry to pilfer, enriching their own supporters.
So naturally, wherever Hariri has sought bold reforms to address public concerns, Hezbollah and Amal have vetoed his actions. Instead, they are threatening to return bloodletting to Lebanese streets that have historically seen far too much of it.
This isn’t surprising, of course.
Khomeinism has always had an intimate comfort with violence against civilians. It’s unsurprising that its supporters are now attacking protesters in an effort to make them retreat to their homes. Since yesterday, Hezbollah supporters have launched sporadic knife, gun, and mob attacks on protesters assembled in and around Beirut’s Martyr’s Square. To its credit, the Lebanese Army has protected protesters from the worst of the violence, at least so far.
Unfortunately, things are different in Iraq. More than one hundred protesters have been killed in weeks of protests over many of the same governance issues as in Lebanon. As with Hariri in Lebanon, Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi isn’t an Iranian puppet, but neither is he willing to take on the vested Iranian interests that are driving protester concerns. Undercutting claims by Iran’s Iraqi puppets, the Fatah bloc, that the protesters are criminals and foreign saboteurs, many of the protests are taking place in traditional Shia strongholds. That list includes the holy city of Karbala, the site of Ali’s martyrdom.
But there are signs for hope. Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, today rebranded as an Iraqi nationalist, is now openly supporting the protesters. As in Lebanon, the courage of these protesters means Iran’s proxies will have to spill much blood to end their marches. But if the politically powerful Shia-icon Sadr is on the front lines, it will be very difficult for Fatah and Iran to claim they are defending the Iraqi nation.
Within Iran itself, the regime retains its increasingly fragile grip on power by brutalizing its people. The hardliners know they could improve living standards dramatically by ending their economic cronyism and engaging more fruitfully with the world (and in doing so, finding sanctions relief). But they won’t.
They won’t for the same reasons that their governance model now sparks such fury in Lebanon and Iraq. Because Khomeinism, in the end, is an ideology of absolute moral bankruptcy.
