I believe Islamic fundamentalism is the most serious and immanent challenge facing the international community. The undeniable fact is that most if not all major terrorist attacks over the past two decades have been carried out by the Islamic fundamentalist groups.
The question facing International community is what is the solution? Declare war on Muslims?
No, that is what the fundamentalist wants us to do. We should not fall into that trap.
Mogens Camre, Member of the European Parliament-Denmark
Speech in Paris Conference; "Iran after elections – Global consequences"
For years we were told by our governments that reformers are marching forward in Iran. However, the outcome of the elections shocked the international community. I wonder if "election" is the right word to describe the process.
This well-organized political coup propelled an obscure radical with a wicked past as a hostage-taker, assassin, and interrogator – nicknamed “the Terminator” by colleagues for firing coup de grace shots at political prisoners – into the office of presidency.
The move, backed and blessed by the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and engineered by the notorious Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), cements the dominance of the ultra-conservative faction of the ruling regime over all key levers of power in Iran.
Ahmadinejad’s Presidency, therefore, will have major internal and foreign policy implications. Constitutionally, the office of presidency in Iran has little power or control over key domestic or foreign policy issues. These issues are all decided by the office of the Supreme Leader. It is however a different matter when the person occupying the presidential office is a crony of Khamenei and will act as an executor of the office of the Supreme Leader.
Ahmadinejad has not wasted any time to articulate the direction of his presidency, which gives a sneak preview into the thinking of the IRGC elite. According to Iran’s state news agency, IRNA, after his election, he vowed to spread the “new” Islamic revolution throughout the world. He told the agency, "The wave of the Islamic revolution will soon reach the entire world".
Ahmadinejad’s win also serves as a wake-up call that we are indeed dealing with an irreformable fundamentalist regime, eager to acquire nuclear weapons and fully committed to the idea of spreading fundamentalism using every available means including terrorism.
It is imperative that we fully comprehend the policy ramifications of Ahmadinejad’s win and articulate our long-overdue Iran policy accordingly. For years we followed a policy of appeasement calling it engagement. As part of this immoral policy which we were told it will lead to a more moderate regime in Iran, the European Union made concession after concession to a theocratic dictatorial regime. Our governments went as far as labeling Iran’s main opposition movement, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran, as terrorist to please the terrorist mullahs. Last November, in the course of negotiation on Iran’s nuclear program the EU’s three made a commitment that the EU would reward the mullahs’ compliance by “continue[ing] to regard the MEK (Iranian resistance group) as a terrorist organization." Such blatant appeasement of the terrorist regime ruling Iran is deplorable. Appeasement is not the way to prevent the mullahs getting their hands on nuclear weapon.
This approach resembles the Neville Chamberlain’s initiative in 1938 to placate the Nazi Germany. It will only embolden the mullahs to demand even more concessions from the EU and continue their rogue behavior. We should recognize that EU’s appeasement of an innately outlaw regime will not defuse the serious nuclear threat posed by Iran. Labeling the PMOI as terrorist in respond to demands from Tehran was at the core of that failed policy of appeasement and must be changed.
The EU must change its policy towards Iran. The PMOI must be removed from EU’s list of terrorist organizations. It must be done, not only because it is unjust, unfair and immoral, but because peace in the world requires an international front against Islamic fundamentalism and the PMOI is the most anti-Islamic fundamentalist Muslim organization in the region.
I believe Islamic fundamentalism is the most serious and immanent challenge facing the international community. The undeniable fact is that most if not all major terrorist attacks over the past two decades have been carried out by the Islamic fundamentalist groups. The question facing International community is what is the solution? Declare war on Muslims? No, that is what the fundamentalist wants us to do. We should not fall into that trap. Should we increase our security measures to deal with this problem? We have done that to some extent and of course we should take other necessary measures, but we should also recognize that in democracies security measures alone will not solve the problem. We have already taken measures that to some extent violate the privacy and civil rights of individuals. We must eradicate the roots of the problem. We must uproot the source of fundamentalism. The mullahs’ regime in Iran has been for the past 25 years the heart of this phenomenon. It is in this regard that we should remove the PMOI from the EU list. Giving support to the PMOI is not just supporting the Iranian people in their quest for freedom and democracy but it is also in our interest to defeat Islamic fundamentalism.
Europe should wake up. Failing to take a new approach towards Iran could lead to a catastrophe; nuclear armed mullahs, or a situation that makes military intervention inevitable. We can avoid that by siding with the Iranian people and their organized resistance.