Guilty men, toxic ideologies responsible for the Iranian genocide

The ongoing genocide in Iran continues unabated, sparking numerous questions that the so-called guardians of global conscience refuse to address. The sporadic rants by the US President Donald Trump are just noise, given that while holding the world’s most powerful office, he is more of a brash dealmaker in a rush than a serious politician, let alone an astute statesman.

On January 17 last, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ominously confirmed that “several thousand people” have died during this month’s anti-government protests, marking his first admission of the deadly scale of the uprising.

What are unarmed Iranians risking everything for? To simply live freely and dress as they choose. It is a fight for basic human rights. Every day, hundreds are falling to bullets-caught in a relentless pursuit of freedoms that are taken for granted in every civilised society, including ours.

Why have the voices that erupt in fury over Muslim deaths in Gaza fallen into shocking silence when Muslims are killed in Iran? Why is the ‘Ummah’, the global Muslim community, hiding? Is it because the oppressor wears a turban, robes, or a skull cap-symbols of religious authority?

What kind of twisted moral alchemy allows the killing of non-Muslims-and even fellow Muslims-in the name of Islam without provoking worldwide outrage?

What explains the deafening silence of those crusaders who cheered regime changes in Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Bangladesh, and now seek to repeat these fraught experiments in India every now and then? They stay silent. Why?

Where are the women’s rights activists of the Left in India, usually zealous on such matters? Why are there no candle marches or protest parades at Jantar Mantar or Mandi House in Delhi? So far, the outrage has been muted, half-hearted, and ideologically calibrated.

There are two main reasons for the left-liberal shushed reaction to the tragic events in Iran.

One: Iran’s ongoing suffering diverts attention from the usual targets-derisively called ‘fascist Hindu zealots’ (mainly of RSS vintage), ‘war-mongering Zionists’, or the ‘American bullies’-who are often blamed for any violence against Muslims worldwide, even without evidence.

The macabre drama unfolding in Iran also reveals the dark side of Islam in a graphic manner. Muslims are being slaughtered at the instance of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei-recognised as an Islamic icon in his country and among the Shia sect of Muslims worldwide.

It is embarrassing for the left-liberals. They cannot explain Iran’s massacres by repeating the usual excuse that the perpetrators are committing these inhumane crimes in the name of Islam because they do not know its ‘true spirit’. If an Ayatollah does not understand Islam, then who does?

The second reason: the ruthless Islamic Ayatollah regime, responsible for the ongoing mayhem in Iran, was born and ensconced in power in Tehran with the active support of the Communists. It is difficult to disown one’s child. Hence, this hush.

Nevertheless, what Trump is doing in this barbaric game is a sad joke-heartless theatrics. If Trump truly cared about ending Iran’s savage theocracy and protecting innocent lives, why is he cosying up to Pakistan?

Both Islamic nations are two sides of the same coin. Forget non-Muslims-just like in Iran, Muslim dissidents in Pakistan are crushed across Balochistan, Sindh, Punjab, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Pakistan’s dictator, Asim Munir, responsible for the bloodletting, is one of Trump’s favourite sidekicks.

One cannot help but wonder who bears responsibility for Iran’s current suffering. Nearly five decades ago, under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi’s rule, the top echelons of Iranian society and the middle class, mostly living in urban areas, were modern, and women lived as they chose. The monarch, though autocratic, promoted women’s education and granted them the right to vote. Liberal values were gradually seeping into rural areas, which were still largely conservative.

The Islamic clergy was riled by the transformation underway in Iran and appealed to the population’s fundamentalist Islamic instincts, forced into hibernation by the Shah’s despotic regime. The war cry, ‘Islam in danger’, galvanised the Iranian masses, who rallied around Islamic clerics in massive numbers.

The intellectual heft of this medieval campaign was provided by the Communists. These groups-including Marxist-oriented parties like the Tudeh Party, Iran’s official Communist Party, as well as the Organisation of Iranian People’s Fedai Guerrillas and other socialist factions-actively participated in protests, strikes, and anti-Shah campaigns.

During the Iranian Revolution, ‘Allahu Akbar’ became a shared rallying cry used not only by Islamist supporters of Ayatollah Khamenei but also by leftist and other anti-Shah groups. The Left was piggybacking on the massive Islamic upsurge and had unleashed a genie that it soon lost control of.

The Iranian Revolution reached its climax in 1979 with the abdication of the Shah’s monarchy. The Communist-Islamic clergy combine mobilised ordinary Iranians, liberals, women’s groups, and workers, promising to liberate them from the Shah’s authoritarian rule and usher in utopia. What followed was a classic case of falling from a frying pan into a nuclear inferno. By the early 1980s, the Islamic Republic launched a broader ‘Cultural Revolution’ aimed at purging “non-Islamic elements” from public institutions, universities, and political life. Women were excluded from public spaces, and highly discriminatory laws were enacted against them.

Several groups of Islamic guards, or morality police, have since been tasked with monitoring compliance with Islamic dress codes (hijab) and social behaviour in public spaces. Iran soon slid back into a medieval era.

The story of Iran’s transformation from a modern to a medieval society is strikingly similar to what India experienced not too long ago. Because of the Islamist-Communist combine, one-third of India, too, lapsed into a regressive Islamic system in 1947.

It is one of the most consequential yet understudied aspects of India’s recent history. Thirty-two years later, in 1979, Communists in Iran also played a catalytic role in pushing unsuspecting masses into an inextricable Islamic trap.

The post-Partition histories of Pakistan and, later, Bangladesh offer a stark empirical test of the ideological premises underlying Pakistan’s creation. Hindus, Sikhs, Christians, Buddhists, and heterodox Muslim sects have experienced sustained legal, demographic, and social marginalisation, while women have been increasingly subjected to state-sanctioned Islamic controls.

Equally painful is Pakistan’s Sunni-Shia violence. A state founded on religious identity proved incapable of managing Islam’s doctrinal diversity. As in Iran, sectarian militancy, often fuelled by political interests or theological considerations, has led to chronic instability and large-scale loss of life. Radical Islamists, backed by the Left, have been plotting to recreate the chaos of India’s 1947 Partition and Iran’s 1979 upheaval, misusing the liberties that a democratic system offers. This is how the script usually works. The Left sets the stage and builds a narrative for mischief. Then Islamists take over and force their regressive agenda on a hapless population. It is serialised teamwork. Remember Shaheen Bagh (2019-2020) and the so-called farmers’ protests (2020-21)?

Using the same script and toolkit, this time the outcome defied expectations. Civil society must stay alert, as these relentless dark forces are unlikely to back down easily.

The writer is an eminent columnist, former Chairman of the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC), and the author of ‘Tryst with Ayodhya: Decolonisation of India’ and ‘Narrative ka Mayajaal’; views are personal