Whose side are we on?

Tehrani

Ummm...the real Iranian pro-democracy activists actively don't want your support, and laugh at people like Potkin Azarmehr. You're not helping. Shoo.

phil

Melanie I wrote this in july (see below)to a broadsheet -not one comment came back ,so what chance when fools like your first poster makes his feelings known.
"Very recently I have had the good fortune to meet socially some young Iranian people working in Europe and was astonished to find how educated and pleasant they were -Their description of Iran was very different from the one we all have come to accept -they say that 70 percent of the population have nothing to do with Islam ,want a new regime and fair elections and obviously have admiration for the western way of life

-so what do we do to encourage this population to find a way out of this isolation that the mullahs have brought about .I have to say it was a shock for me to see such a different picture than I had anticipated because I know I had started out with a prejudicial view of them -They are also the victims of this crazy regime and perhaps we need to offer help to the appropriate sections there rather than threats to those that do not represent the views of the majority -I realise it was a snapshot view but I know many of their friends and my view is in accord with those I trust -My point is talk and communication can only help ,in this case it was to those who wish to talk and eventually it is them who will bring influence to bear on the masses ."

Herbert Thornton

Melanie lamentations, from time to time, of various failures of the west in relation to Iran are entirely justified, but I suggest they should make us think about this topic in a considerably wider context.

The failure that springs to mind most immediately is the west's failure to give asylum to the Shah after he was deposed by ruthless, bloodthirsty theocrats. Granted, the Shah's regime was not a model of democracy, but the glee with which the west greeted his downfall was allowed to completely obscure the fact that the west was not interested in, or did not grasp, the fact that he was being replaced by a regime that was far worse.

The west was very naive indeed about the effects of regime change in Iran, but this is far from being a new phenomenon. Some of the worst regimes in the world have resulted from regime change that was supported by general western public acclaim or at least a significant amount of naive western optimism. Regime changes for the worse have taken many forms. One example was the breakup of the Ottoman Empire. The creation of the Soviet Union was another. The regime change that led to the Mugabe regime in Zimbabwe is another. Those are just a few examples. One is being allowed to gradually take place now in western Europe, including of course, Britain, where the prevailing opinion seems to be that the influx and growth of Islam is going to be entirely harmless.

It makes me despair of western civilisation, while leading me more and more to respect the Chinese.

London Calling

...And to the Iranian people, I say tonight, You are on your own, as we are on our own, your fight for freedom, is our fight for freedom, but we shall be coming soon and when we do remember, our bombs have smiley faces on them, so when you see them run, because they don’t know the difference between the good guys and the bad guys...

And neither do we...

Welcomed back Melanie :)

Clive

Melanie, none of this surprises me in the least. For years and years, very credible people have been trying to alert us to the fact that the governments of the west have been steadily infiltrated by people who have no interest in real freedom and democracy. Actually, just the reverse. The country in which I was born and lived most of my life, Zimbabwe, has been destroyed with the complicity of U.S. and British governments. But what has happened there pales in comparison, for example, to the betrayal in the 1940's of China into the hands of the Communists by the U.S. State Department.

YAZDGERD IV

Can the last person in the country before the Islamists take over turn off the lights?!

Hysteria

but I still struggle with WHY? Why do the liberal / intelligentia in the West let (seek?) us be walked over?? Are they just deluded? Are they mentally ill? or is there actually deliberate intent at work.?

Maryam Reissi

Islamic extremists can come to this country, preach and march in our streets, yet peaceful pro-democracy activists against the theocracy in Iran are being detained and deported back to the Ayatollahs to face jail.
In four weeks time, on last Friday of Ramadan we going to witness AL Qods day,which Islamic Republic of Iran will freely march in streets of London with Khomeini's picture on the name of Palestinian,yet a young Iranian pro-democracy activists must be detained!!!
Tanks Meloney it was great post.

Terry

Where are the left wing 'refugee advocates' who serially stand up for the rights of those who hate the west and don't deserve asylum? I suspect it is they, the left who hide behind PC titles such as 'refugee advocate', who are to blame for the de facto deterioration in human rights around the globe. They are always champing at the bit to condemn democracies who generally follow due process, but ignore scum like mugabe, assad, arafat, etc. The worse the tyrant, the more the left's support for him. You only have to look at footage of the 'anti war' demos in support of sadam to see that simple truth. The left in the west have morphed into evil. They hate democracy, freedom and individual choice. They, like the islamofascist movement, are part of the enemy of civilisation that threatens us all.

Roy

They all do it! Even Churchill did it ... send good people to their death in the name of geopolitical expedience. In reality it doesn't matter one jot. It didn't make Stalin any friendlier and this will not make the mullahs any more frank, honest, or accommodating. Hard men in the west are hard to come by and when they do turn up they are lost amid the sweet soft centered lefties melting in their unremitting courtesies to their humanitarian self-righteous blindness.

Sam

Thanks for standing up for the rights of those without a voice!

Daniel Brett

The problem is that there are hundreds of genuine Iranian asylum seekers like Arash in the UK who are being treated in this shoddy manner, often denied medical treatment and at the mercy of incompetant and corrupt lawyers (the Home Office prefers bad lawyers). There are not enough column inches to devote to all cases, which include homosexuals, persecuted ethnic and religious minorities, opposition activists and people who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and got into trouble. The problem is with the UK refugee system, which is arbitrary, deeply unfair and open to corruption, and the Labour government has done little to resolve the problem in over a decade of office. What they want is to appeal to populist tabloids and deport as many people as possible, regardless of the consequences for these individuals. Often this includes making the destitute and denying them essential medical treatment, eg insulin for diabetics. I suggest a Spectator report on the atrocious treatment of asylum seeker.

Robbit

Yes, Hyteria, WHY? A great mystery. And having to put up with it is enough to drive one to hysteria. Why do they pesrist in carrying on like this? - Well, the underlying fact is that the parlour-pink left liberal establisment in the West is now totally morally and politically bankrupt. They have in fact lost every argument: ideological, social, political, economic and moral ... and yet are staggering on like zombies walking into a nightmare, and dragging the rest of us there too. How and why are we putting upwith it?

david

Think DC is going to upset you with this!

We should accept that we cannot impose democracy at the barrel of a gun,” he said in Islamabad. “We cannot drop democracy from 10,000 feet and we should not try. Put crudely, that was what was wrong with the “neo-con” approach and why I am a liberal Conservative, not a neo-Conservative.”

Interesting speech, comments.

Ignominius

The problems run very deep. Our left wing intelligentsia have long had the agenda to destroy the UK through the use of the Socialist empire known as the EU and then through multiculturalism. They pander to the muslims , lapping up every lie as truths. But the problem with the Iranian pro-democracy refugee's is not that they are being processed by people who are not themselves truly British. Most employees, and I know this from personal experience, are not second generation citizens of the UK but recent arrivals who have managed to obtain citizenship but can barely speak English and have an agenda against others coming into this country.
I've experienced this racist behaviour at first hand. Our border and Immigration policy is not being controlled by our Government but by foreign nationals who have obtained citizenship.

Mehrtash

This thread, to a degree, sums it up. It has identified the paradox, albeit hypocrisy, of the asylum policies endorsed by the UK: 'Welcome extremist radical Islamists, but get rid of pro-democratic humanists' - does one really want radical Islam to prevail?

The likes of Potkin Azarmehr is what is needed in order to identify and exercise possible avenues leading to realistic and practical solutions.

Whilst the ignorance of the masses prevails in slandering such people and calling for the bombardement of victims of oppressive governments, Azarmehr et al are striving to yield educated solutions.

The foundations of democracy is founded upon the people; therefore, 'real Iranian pro-democracy activists' actively need support from wherever they can find it.

Andy Gill

This is utter madness. We can't deport convicted terrorists because we might infringe their human rights, but we refuse asylum to an innocent pro-democracy activist who stands every chance of being publicly hanged by the mullahs.

I feel sick and angry.

Rae

Thank you so much for this post. Dissent is critical to democracy.

Elizabeth Harp

Dear Melanie,

Thank you for this article. I write from the US and I run a website for the Global Student Alliance—an organization that Arash’s brother started and to which Arash belongs. This case is disturbing on so many levels.

Arash was and is an active member of the secular pro-democracy movement in Iran, and there is no doubt what will happen should he be deported back to Iran. The fact that the US Embassy called the authorities, as astounding as it is, in my mind indicates a bigger issue than simply a generalization or mistake or some “following the book” by a clerk working at the embassy.

By this I mean, we in the West have become comfortable with taking someone’s freedom away based on nothing. We assume that it will all come out in the wash eventually. When I tell someone here about Arash’s situation the common response is, “Well…after 911…they are just being careful.” What????? This comment is always followed by an assurance that the UK will grant Arash asylum since “he has done nothing wrong.”

Those of us who follow the news of what goes on inside the Iranian borders know that right or wrong, guilt or innocence, have nothing to do with who gets hanged.

Arash Mohajerinejad lives and works in the UK. He has never looked for the UK to provide him a free ride, but instead has tirelessly worked to support himself while he remains true to his belief in a secular democratic government in Iran.

Sincerely,
Liz Harp
Global Student Alliance
http://www.studentmovements.org/
http://www.petitiononline.com/arashmoh/petition.html

logdon

Any support for Iranian dissidents has to be genuine and backed up. Look at the plight of the Kurds and Marsh Arabs after Bush Mk 1 advised uprising then left them to appalling fates. Colin Powell's snooty 'we do not get involved with internecine conflict' certainly rings hollow and arguably contributed to the lack of cooperation in Basra and Mosul during Iraq Mk 2.

Stephen Gash

There is a "No Sharia Here!" demo on 11th September outside Lambeth Palace between 18.00 - 20.00 at which Potkin has kindly said he will speak about the issues described in the article above.
We welcome speakers who wish to decribe living under sharia law.
Details of the event may be found on the SIOE website.

Mehdi K.

Thank you Melanie for supporting Arash.
US & UK government are either
"faking their war against terrorism and are shaking hands with Ayatollahs behind the curtain"
OR
"they will grant Arash his Visa/Citizenship."

Roland

Just about the only rational posting here is Daniel Brett's. The Labour government's asylum policy is indeed shameful in many ways, and is driven largely by its fear of the right-wing tabloids (eg Mel's very own Daily Mail, and the Express) who have whipped up a climate of fear and loathing of asylum seekers.

I can't see how we can pick and chose those asylum seekers who are at genuine risk, according to our own political or personal prejudices. I hope the posters here, justifiably angry about the return of Iranians to face almost certain torture and death, were similarly incensed by the recent threat to deport back to Iran the gay teeenager whose boyfriend was executed after their relationship was exposed. We cannot allow our prejudices to intervene in such extreme circumstances and that is a non-partisan point, applying to left and right.

winston

Great commentary

Arash Mohajeri-Nejad

It is such a moral boost for me and my friends when we learn of people like you who support our cause. People like you who can not be bought by the petro Dollars of the mullahs.

Thank you very much for writing this piece which undoubtedly helped my release and will encourage other Iranian dissidents.

Thank you also to Azarmehr who proves that Iranian ex-pats care for their country men