The Iranian Revolution itself contains a lesson for modern progressives: once Islamist leaders gained power, they brutally repressed and killed thousands of their Iranian Marxist co-revolutionaries in their quest for authoritarian theocracy. aggression,” promising further escalation until the withdrawal of American forces from Muslim lands, and criticizing American cultural values and U.S. support for Israel. The Ayatollah regime certainly has not missed that the young Western social media audience is Israel-critical, as surveys have shown. Yet, historically, Iranian Islamists appeased the Left when convenient – beginning with their union with Iranian Marxists aimed at toppling the Shah before its Islamic Revolution of 1979. To Said, presenting a theoretical counter-narrative to the critique of the Iranian Revolution took precedence over actually coming to terms with Khomeini’s regime of terror and its extremist root ideology.

Source: New York Times June 16, 2024 07:46 UTC