Suddenly Conservative christians are Worried about Gay Rights??

As I wrote in more detail on The Public Intellectual, Irani president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad struck me as reasonable, humble, articulate, and informed at his question and answer session at Columbia University. (Our own leader, it should be noted, is none of these things).

Popular folklore and propaganda about Ahmadinejad centers on four issues:

1. Iran Funds Terrorism and is a Terrorist Nation
2. Iran Has a Nuclear Program
3. Ahmadinejad Wants Israel “Wiped Off the Map” and Believes the Holocaust Never Happened

Let’s explore briefly the reality of each of these issues.

IRANI TERRORISM

The reality here is that for years Irani’s have been victimized by terrorists, as have most (or possibly all) Arab nations. Here in the U.S. we tend to believe terrorism in the Middle East is one cohesive unit, that al-Qaeda is a single terrorist organization whose members all have exactly identical beliefs. Anyone who has lived over there can tell us how simple and absurd we are to believe in these limited explanations. But here in the U.S. we’re not big fans of getting our information from people who actually know what they’re talking about. At worst, we take our politician’s words for it. At best, we send over troops who don’t speak they’re native language and have them report back to us on the cultural intricacies of the countries they’re ordered to occupy. But I digress.

The point is that our American ignorance allows us to believe these lies. As a result of our gullibility, powerful corporations and our government can portray any Arab nation as a terrorist state. If Iran has ties to terrorist regimes, these ties are no different than American ties to bin Laden during the Cold War. Alliances form when two entities have a common enemy. If Iran gave money to terrorists it was because one terrorist group hated (for religious regions) another terrorist group that was killing Irani civilians. So for very different reasons Iran had a common enemy. As America learned after we supported bin Laden’s crew in the late 1980’s, you have no control over what terrorists do with the money and knowledge you give to it. But terrorists attacking U. S. troops was no more Ahmadinejad’s goal in recent years than 9/11 was a goal of Ronald Reagan’s in the 1980’s.

IRAN HAS A NUCLEAR PROGRAM

Iran does have a nuclear program, and Ahmadinejad states that every step they take is and will be “by the book.” Nuclear power is the energy source of the future, and any country that doesn’t develop it will be surpassed economically. It is wrong for the U.S. to deny a country with the means to develop this technology the right to do so on account of our paranoia.

As Ahmadinejad pointed out in his 60 Minutes interview, if having nuclear weapons was an effective tool for world power the Soviet Union never would have collapsed. The time for the atomic bomb was in the past (WW II). Now that multiple countries have nuclear weapons and all of those countries are aware of its capabilities, all countries realize there’s no point in actually using them. The developing countries may still think its a big deal, but Iran clearly has surpassed that level of thinking.

ISRAEL & THE HOLOCAUST

What would wiping a country off the map entail? Would it entail murdering all of its citizens? Or would it simply mean that “Israel” as a nation would no longer exist. I know that sounds frightening to us, atrocious or even unthinkable. But we do need to ask ourselves how that’s any different from what happened to the Palestinians in 1948. And I for one don’t have a clear answer to that question. Do you?

As for the Holocaust, Ahmadinejad’s position here is similar to that of any other scientist–that no topic can or should ever be considered “closed” from further research. He is not a Holocaust denier, in fact he freely admits that it indeed occurred. His focus centers more on the role that Palestinians played in the Holocaust–which was, presumably, none. After all, if we explore the Holocaust in terms of how it has effected people who are alive today, we must allow that one of the significant stories is its impact on a nation of Arabs who had absolutely nothing to do with it. Since Israel’s existence as a nation is justified by the fact that its people were victimized by unthinkable atrocities, it follows that one might want to explore how the decision was made to compensate the Jews for their loss. That way other ethnic groups who have been victimized by unprovoked attrocities (such as the Palestinians) might become familiar with how exactly the process of compensation works.

WOMEN & GAYS

As with most world leaders, not everything Ahmedinejad says is morally correct. I was somewhat appalled by the Irani president’s assertion that there aren’t any homosexuals in Iran. Further, his comments about women showed that Iran still has some progress to make in the arena of women’s rights.

But we must consider his comments in context. American propaganda claims he is building a nuclear bomb, he is funding al-Qaeda, and he does not believe the Holocaust ever occurred. Since Ahmadinejad debunked all of these myths in his speech and elsewhere, the far right racists now have to reach for something else to make the guy look bad.

So all of a sudden the “jesus Hates Fags” Right is deeply concerned about gay rights and egalitarianism. If so then why not prove it by supporting those ideals in the ‘08 election? And why not be honest about the fact that certain christian nations are at least as adamant as Iran about denying the existence of its homosexuals.

But unfortunately, to those Americans who are trying so desperately to demonize Ahmadinejad, human rights are far less relevant when they can’t be leveraged for political gain.

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