Where is NOW?

Although I believe that the correct posture of the Obama administration in the current Iranian crisis is circumspection, I believe it is high time for private citizens to voice their support for the currents of change in Iran.

In particular, I have observed with interest that it is women, particularly young women that appear to be at the center of this nascent movement. Women are defying the regime, marching in the streets, chanting, pushing back their head scarves, sporting the green markings signifying the movement. As I noted in my previous posting, the demonstrations are about much more than which stooge of the mullahs gets to be president. It is about giving voice to the people, and in particular, women. In watching some of the video that has made in out of Tehran, I saw young women bravely absorbing the thuds of the batons, being kicked, shoved and brutally pummeled by the thugs that run this government. These women want a voice. They want to be educated. They want to be full and equal citizens. I read “Reading Lolita in Tehran” a couple of years ago. It highlighted this sick and decrepit society that forces young women into hiding so they can read the world’s great literature. It is a pathological system that permits women to be stoned and beaten for being out with a man alone.

Yet, where is NOW? Where is Susan Sarandon? Where is Barbara Streisand? Where is Anita Hill? Where are all these folks? I went to the NOW website today. There are little stories about reproductive rights, discrimination and the murder of Dr. Tiller. That is all fine. Women are being beaten in the streets of Tehran today and there is not one word on the NOW website in support of these women. The misogynist Iranian regime will deprive women of THE RIGHT TO READ A BOOK, let alone permit women to exercise reproductive rights. And yet the silence from the feminist left in this country is deafening.

Well, this bald, fat, middle aged white conservative stands with you today, ladies. You deserve a future. You deserve a voice. You deserve to have the freedom to be educated, to be with who you want to be with, and to be full participants in your society. And I hope you get it. It’s a shame that your sisters here don’t share the outrage with me.

Hope and Change

Watching the news that has come out of Tehran has been intriguing to me. Not since the protests of 20 years ago at Tiananmen Square have I felt such a glimmer of hope for a people as I do now. Iran is not simply a country—it is a civilization suffocating under the rule of the clerical tyrants that have been in charge for 30 years. I see the prosperous, progressive society it could become. Unfortunately, the most likely outcome is that it will end as it did in China, precisely 20 years ago, with the regime resorting to naked force to silence the people. But I do hold out a glimmer of hope, and if there is any hope at all, we must stay out of it.

In this instance, President Obama is doing precisely the right thing--- say as little as possible. His remarks have been carefully restrained and circumspect. He has been careful not to be seen as taking sides. And his foreign policy team has been careful not to be seen as tilting one way or the other.

Unfortunately, John McCain has been railing that Obama has abandoned fundamental principles about human rights. Hogwash. What McCain simply doesn’t understand is that the mullahs have made a career out of vilifying the Great Satan. They need to demonize us. Any overt interfering and taking sides will give them exactly the excuse they need to exert force against their own people. We shouldn’t be cheerleading anybody. Obama is entirely correct when he says that, “Although there is amazing ferment taking place in Iran, the difference between Ahmadinejad and Mousavi in terms of their actual positions may not be as great as advertised.”

I have been (and undoubtedly will continue to be) critical of Obama’s approach on many economic and foreign policy issues. But on this particular day on this particular issue, I’m glad that Obama, not McCain is at the helm. McCain does not understand that the protests are not about a particular candidate. The protests are about an Iranian people that want a voice in their own future. The mullahs are dying for us to pick a side. If there is any hope that now or in the near future for a second Iranian revolution, we must be silent.

Making Progress

I’ve been following President Obama’s “Muslim Outreach” program with a high degree of interest as I believe that reducing the tension between Islam and the West is one of the single dominant themes of our time. I admit I have been pretty skeptical since Obama’s opening act included a Grand Apologia in front of European audiences and a fawning videotape sent to the mullahs in Iran, purportedly designed to open dialogue with them.

But I have to say, I give Obama’s Cairo speech this week a B. He appears to be making some progress. At least he didn’t bow to any Saudi kings on this trip, apologize directly for America’s misbehavior, or completely throw the Israelis under the bus. And I give him credit for at least explicitly putting forward the checklist of items that will need to be tackled if there is to be peaceful coexistence between the West and Islam.

And while he should be congratulated for identifying the issues that cause friction between Islam and the West, his approach will fail unless it contains two key elements that are essential in relationship: reciprocity and accountability.

It is all fine, well and good to attempt to come to some sort of rapprochement with Islamic nations, and to take affirmative steps to achieve that. But such unilateral steps will be futile unless the Islamic world wants to take similar steps. Obama commented that “some in my country… view Islam as inevitably hostile not only to America and Western countries, but also to human rights.” Islam needs to demonstrate concretely that this view is incorrect. But Islamic leaders were strangely silent following 9/11 and the murder of Theo Van Gogh. They took no steps to assist when their Arab brethren were being ruthlessly slaughtered in Bosnia and Iraq. Muslim protesters only come out when their sensibilities are offended by cartoon depictions of Allah with a bomb in his turban or when people like Geert Wilders observe the connection between Islam and violence.

It is fine for Obama to try to improve the West’s image with the Islamic world, but the Islamic world has a way to go in improving its image with the West. To many in the West, Islam conjures up images of extreme violence, intolerance, tyranny, opposition to scientific progress, and misogyny. These images did not arise out of thin air—they are based on the experiences observed by the West. If the Islamic world continues to embrace intolerance, violence and tyranny, no rapprochement with the West will be possible unless the West chooses to accede to these elements of their society. So while I applaud an effort undertaken to reach out to the Islamic world, the Islamic world must reciprocate and it must reciprocate by forcefully denouncing those elements of its society and culture which are an anathema to the West.

The second issue I have with Obama’s approach is accountability. While he stopped short of blaming America, he attributed the problems in the Middle East to, “tension that has been fed by colonialism that denied rights and opportunities to many Muslims, and a Cold War in which Muslims were too often treated as proxies without regard to their own aspirations.” In other words, Muslims are historical victims. And this is the biggest reason why I remain skeptical of the Obama approach. Victim hood of white colonialism remains hardwired in the DNA of the Democratic platform, both domestically and internationally. We will make no progress until the Muslim peoples reject victim hood and take responsibility for their own societies and outcomes. By casting them as victims, Obama is perpetuating their own powerlessness vis-à-vis their purported oppressors whether it is the Israelis or, more accurately, their own political and religious tyrants that enslave them.

I applaud Obama’s efforts to bridge the gap between the Muslim societies of the Middle East and the West. I agree that George Bush could not have given this speech. But real relationships are based on reciprocity and accountability and thus far Obama has been reluctant to demand either from the Islamic world.