K N Pandita
knp627@gmail.com
The ongoing war has brought ruin to Iran. The slogans, which the Ayatollahs deemed their jugular vein, were like “to hell with Zionists (seyhun ha be jahannam) and “Death to America” (marg bar America). These petrifying slogans became frequent that many mullahs, instead of beginning the sermon to the congregations with bismillah (in the name of Allah) began with one or the other abusive slogans against Israel and America.
Why is the Iranian theocracy lethally hostile and inimical towards the State of Israel and its people of Zionist faith? No convincing reply is forthcoming, not even from the Ayatollahs. Their physical boundaries do not meet; they are not contiguous states; their language, religion, history, geography, culture, life style etc. nothing has any commonality. Why then the hate syndrome?
Two observations can be hypothesised. First, the proselytized Iranian Islamic theologians and jurisconsults claim to be the true Musselman because they honour the Quranic injunction of hating and decimating Zionists — something which the Arabs are loath to follow. The second hypothesis is that America has been the enemy number one (shaitan-i- rajeem) or “the devil incarnate” supporting Israel because there is a majority of pro-Jewish lobby in the American Congress.
Logic does not support either of these assumptions. If, according to Shia interpretation, the Quran ordains killing of a particular community for whatever reasons, then the Allah of the Musselman is neither rahmatu’n lil alameen (blessing for two worlds) nor al rahman-al raheem (the benevolent and forgiver). Moreover, if the followers of the Shia faith really believe in the particular injunction of the Quran, why then should Iran choose to become a member of the UN and a myriad of its organizations, committees and subcommittees? Why did Iran approach the UN SC invoking the clauses of human rights and demanding the SC chastise Israel and ensure restoration of peace there? Does Iran want endorsement from the Security Council for Iranian belief of decimating a whole community with which she is at ideological discrepancy? Secondly, the US is a democratic and secular nation. The administration of that country is run according to its constitution which strictly forbids religion to interfere in state affairs. There are several hundred elected members of the American Congress who profess or do not profess a particular faith. It is not Iran’s business to make an issue of who is in majority in the US Congress and who is in minority just as no country in the world is bothered about who is in majority position in Iranian Majlis.
Iran’s argument is that Jews have grabbed Palestinian territory belonging to Muslims. But Iran forgets that the British government had previously issued the Balfour Declaration in 1917, expressing support for the establishment of a national home for the Jewish people; in Palestine.
Following World War II and the British decision to terminate the mandate, the United Nations proposed a plan to partition Palestine into separate Arab and Jewish states. On May 14, 1948, the State of Israel was proclaimed, coinciding with the end of the British Mandate. This declaration took place in Tel Aviv on the day the British mandate ended.
If it was not acceptable to Iran, she should have confronted the British government. But Teheran did not because Great Britain was a super power not be intimidated.
None of Iran’s reasons for belligerence towards Israel is supported by logic. In other words, by sticking to the illogical posture, Iran gives a right to Israel to take punitive action against spreading anti-Israel hatred and animosity among the Shia community world over. It is for Iran to decide whether the posture strengthens her image in the eyes of the international community and human rights chapters.
Iran-Israel armed clashes have been going on more often after the ouster of Shah Reza Pahlavi, and takeover of the Iranian regime by the theocratic dispensation. Some Iranian experts in the West assert that Iran never became truly Islamic. More than anybody else, the Shia theologians and jurisconsults are conscious of this reality. The simple reason is that a thousand-year-long Achaemenian and Sassanian empires of Iran had built a civilization and a nation that would not easily accept an alien civilization and culture. That is why soon after the occupation of Iran by the Arabs till date, there have been recuring revolts against the imposed culture. Although those revolts proved abortive yet they did dilute the unevenness of foreign rule while lending sustenance to the indigenous traditions.
We know that Islamic Iran’s apostolic sector has always wielded considerable influence with the working class. Yet conspicuously, that class never aspired to grab political power. But the Islamic Revolution of Iran of 1979 led by Ayatollah Khomeini is clearly distinguishable from its earlier forms. The Ayatollahs grabbed the government and after the exit of the father of the revolution, the country that had changed its nomenclature from Iran to Islamic Republic of Iran, pandered to rabid Islamism and the rule of sharia, positively incompatible with the ethos, tradition and Iranian mind’s outreach. The animus which Iran has been nursing against Israel all these years has ultimately turned counter-productive, something that had to happen at the end of the day. Iran invited its destruction by lionising the Hamas for their atrocious attack on innocent Israelis on October 7, 2025, which took a toll of more than 1200 innocent souls including women, children and infants.
The irony of fate is that a brilliant nation with glorious past and rich cultural heritage — a nation gifted by nature with intelligence, wisdom and aesthetics — should have fallen a victim to self-sponsored destruction. Not to speak of the greatness of the ancient monarchies of Achaemenians or Sassanians, even the Safavi monarchs who proclaimed Shia faith as the state faith of Iran, had treated the minorities, particularly the Jews, with justice and helped them establish their localities and habitats as in New Julfa. This locality founded in 1606 by a decree of Shah Abbas I, is one of the most enduring examples of cultural coexistence and global commerce in early modern Iran. This Armenian quarter in Isfahan became a hub where Christian faith, Persian artistry, and international trade flourished side by side. Alas! The Ayatollah rejected their glorious tradition of tolerance.
Iranian theocracy has sown the wind; she is reaping the whirlwind. In the lure of obtaining a weapon of mass destruction, the theocratic regime let its marauding Islamic revolutionary guards massacre thousands of its own citizens. The killing of many precious scientists, technocrats, bureaucrats, generals, students, doctors, lawyers and other professionals or skilled persons has immensely impoverished the Iranian society. Is this the gift of the Islamic theocracy which had ousted the monarchical rule for its sin of being secular and benign?
The worst is yet to come. It is the internal crisis knocking at the door. The religious supremo who used to issue death warnings to Israel and America day in and day out, lies buried in his grave along with almost all his close kith and kin. The notorious Revolutionary Guards are speedily isolating Iran by shooting missiles on almost all neighbouring Arab states. They are lionising themselves for shooting missiles at Saudi Arabia, Turkey and others forgetting that they are dragging Iran to an abyss of disgrace. They are forgetting that anti-regime voices are becoming stronger and the demand for change of regime has become very loud
The country’s economy stands shattered, and Iran stands isolated completely. Big powers never fight other peoples’ battle, The Islamic world is a pack of paper tigers driven by a beggar state with a nuclear bomb in hi begging scrip.
The redemption lies in Iranian enlightened class taking over the regime through mass uprising so that a truly democratic and secular regime is established. The regime of the enlightened think has to pick up courage and declare abandonment of nuclear venture. It must pledge for friendly relations with major powers of the world and refuse to fall in the lap of one or the other super power. Foremost of everything else, a democratic and secular Iran must develop cordial relations with its closest neighbours in the Gulf region abandon anti-Israel mindset and establish trade and cultural relations with as many countries as possible.
All those who have stakes in Iran should understand that it is a great nation with glorious past. Its people have tremendous potential for positive contribution in all walks of life. Iran has the potential of regaining its glory and grandeur as one of the proudest and most prosperous nation of the Asian Continent. Its oil and gas reserves should become its backbone of its economy and not a source of threat and intimidation. The world powers with vie with one another in cultivating the friendship of Iran once Iranian people declare a secular democratic dispensation as their goal.
The need of the hour is that the patriotic, liberal and democratic intellectuals and think-tank of Iran should come forward and provide proper direction to the people, political leadership and the regime. Their approach to the problem should be without anger, revenge and retribution. Their guidance and vision have to be hundred times stronger the huge stockpile of arms, missiles, drones and fighters for which the theocratic regime spent trillions of dollars, and to no purpose.
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