Iran: A New Day?

Editor

Editor@TheIndependentDaily.com

Iran’s recent election is a once-again reminder of how poorly we Americans embrace our election process. In Iran this past week more than 80% of eligible voters exercised their right to choose amongst those candidates offered up to lead their country forward.

An excerpt from our earlier article, Explosive Politics, (available here) regarding the recent election in Pakistan:

“The 2012 General Election in America was largely decided by barely a simple majority of eligible voters: Overall about 57% of those eligible reluctantly trudged to the polls to cast their ballots, with a fairly large percentage completing Absentee ballots far earlier than the official November date.

“Blacks in America turned out slightly higher than their White racial counterparts, 66.2% of those eligible to vote versus 64.1%, much to the chagrin of Mr. Romney, and Hispanics fell far below both averaging about 44%. America’s media serving the Black population are self-congratulatory about the numbers.”

By now, if you’ve taken the time to review the many articles describing Iran’s new president, Hassan Rouhani, you know that he is likely to lead the country on a course toward reconciliation with the West, including, perhaps, attempting to rebuild some form of tacitly cooperative relationship with the United States. Our acceptance turns on many critical issues, such as Israel, Iran’s Nuclear program, and their position on what we allege as their exportation of Terrorism.

You know, too, that he is a Muslim cleric whose ideals will reflect those of the Guardian Council – the people behind the power in Iran: All very above board, no one pretends that ultimate control of Iran’s destiny rests with anyone other than the men who sit on that tribunal.

Critical Americans may see the Theocratic workings of Iran in a dim light, concluding that Iran’s system is flawed and not a representative governing body, instead resting in the words and beliefs of the Quran. That would be a naïve supposition. The Quran forms the basis of Iranian ideology just as the New Testament does in the United States: “One nation under God…”

The United States functions as a Theocracy, too, notwithstanding the myriad claims otherwise. We, like Iran, tolerate other religious views, but those views are rarely, if ever, reflected by those who occupy the highest offices in our government.

Recall GW Bush, a Fundamentalist Christian, under whom our Attorney General held every-morning prayer meetings with his staff, requiring them to kneel in prayer before setting off on doing the Lord’s business for the United States of America. GWB himself is fanatically immersed in his Christian sect devoutly believing that all those who do not share in his constructed views of Christ are worthy only of his contempt.

It was this epistemology that for him made the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan a fundamentally non-conflicted decision: Those who do not accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior are not worthy of consideration. Ergo, their loss of life means nothing from his Fundamentalist Christian perspective, a belief many Americans see as true of Islam, too.

From a recent editorial at Politics USA:

“There is a reason myriad violent extremist groups claim Christianity as their divine basis for hate and love of guns, greed, and patriotism that defines the conservative movement in America, and it is because their hate drives them to ignore Jesus Christ’s message of love, compassion, and charity that has no place in fundamentalist Christianity. In fact, the fundamentalist sect has more in common with Inquisition era Christianity with a basis in forced compliance, judgment, and punitive actions dealt out at the hands of religious leaders driven to cement their hold on power, wealth, and dominance over people.”

We concur: No single word more clearly describes the Christian-era politics of GWB than Inquisition. Only the safeguards of our Constitution prevent Burning at the Stake as the preferred method of punishment for non-believers today in America.

(More to follow -Ed)