Human rights activist Dr. Saad Ibrahim says the Iranian regime has begun a slide from power, and urges Americans to build bridges with pro-democracy Iranians.
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The Sept. 9 program at Drew was a joint initiative of the Drew University Center on Religion, Culture & Conflict; Jewish Federation of Central New Jersey Jewish Community Relations Council; the Community Relations Committee of United Jewish Communities of MetroWest NJ; United Against Nuclear Iran; the Human Rights Institute of Kean University; American Jewish Committee of New Jersey; the Global Association of Holocaust/Genocide Educators; and the American Association of University Women.
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September 16, 2009
Despite their urgent concern about a nuclear-armed Iran, panelists at a meeting at Drew University on Sept. 9 opened a window of optimism.
They agreed that although some three months after the contested elections that returned President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to power his regime continues to oppress all opposition, change is coming.
And if such change ushers in a freer and more democratic Iran, its leaders might just abandon their nuclear ambitions.
“The regime’s legitimacy has been cracked beyond repair,” said Egyptian-born sociologist and human rights activist Dr. Saad Eddin Ibrahim. “Nothing can restore it to the standing it enjoyed before.”
Iranian writer Amir Fakhravar, secretary general of the Confederation of Iranian Students and president of the Iranian Enterprise Institute, said the Revolutionary Guard, which controls virtually all aspects of Iranian society, has reached the limits of its power.
“People are still protesting and they can’t stop it,” he said.
The two men were speaking at a program titled Post-Election Iran: What’s Next? at Drew University in Madison.
The event was hosted by Drew’s Center on Religion, Culture and Conflict and the Community Relations Committee of United Jewish Communities of MetroWest NJ, in partnership with the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Central NJ, and various other organizations (see sidebar), all members of the Stop Iran Coalition.
Fakhravar and Ibrahim were joined on the panel by Ambassador Kristen Silverberg, the United States ambassador to the European Union during the previous administration, and Renee Redman, a civil rights attorney and executive director of the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center.
The speakers described recent allegations of human rights atrocities in Iran and addressed the need to block Iran’s march toward developing nuclear weapons.
One source of hope, they agreed, lies in the struggle going on between the mullahs who dominate the country. They said such internal conflict could signal a shift with far-reaching significance.
Ibrahim described the 1979 revolution that overthrew the shah as the first time in Islam’s 1,400-year history that the clergy had taken political power. It showed the region and the world the mobilizing power of militant religionists. “The region would never be the same again,” he said. It led to the rise of groups like Al Qaida, Hamas, and Hizbullah.
Now, 30 years later, there is potential for a resurgence of democracy. “For the first time, we’re seeing that the clerics are divided,” he said. “They are echoing what the Western-educated liberals are saying. And once that elite is divided, it is the beginning of the countdown.”
Ibrahim and Fakhravar differed over strategy. Fakhravar expressed regret that President Barack Obama has expressed a willingness to talk to the current regime. “You don’t talk to dictators or terrorists,” he said.
He said it was imperative that the international community bring to bear whatever leverage it can to weaken the Tehran regime, including “hard sanctions.” Ordinary Iranians — the young especially, who, he said, are very pro-American — would willingly suffer the economic price if sanctions could bring them “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
‘Build bridges’
On the other hand, Ibrahim, currently the Wallerstein distinguished visiting professor at Drew, said that the Arab world was not eager to line up behind the United States on the nuclear issue because of Israel’s own nuclear status. Attacking Iran on that issue could bring out a deep-seated nationalism among its citizens.
Ultimately Israel will do what is in its own interests, Ibrahim said, and that might garner much international support — but not among Arab countries.
“Unless you plan to denuclearize the entire Middle East, they don’t find it acceptable to pick on Iran,” he said.
He urged “civil society in the United States” to “build bridges with civil society in Iran, and build moral support” for change.
Both Redman and Silverberg called for pressure on the Iranian government. Silverberg, who served in various capacities in the George W. Bush White House and with the reconstruction of Iraq, said concern about Iran united Democrats and Republicans. Some 15,000 people have joined the group to which she belongs, United Against A Nuclear Iran, which is headed by senior people from both the Bush and Obama administrations. “There is no issue with greater long-term implications than nuclear proliferation,” she said, “especially when it involves terrorism-sponsoring regimes.”
An audience member asked Silverberg how, given the discredited claims over Iraq’s weapons capacity, one could separate fact from fiction when it comes to Iran. She replied that reports by the International Atomic Energy Agency, not disputed by Iran, suggest an accumulation there of enriched uranium. What is in dispute is whether it is for domestic energy or weapons, and how much time the international community would have to respond should the latter prove true.
Silverberg did note that Iran refused nuclear energy assistance from Russia and hid information from the IAEA for years and has also developed ballistic missiles with a range of 2,400 miles, casting doubt on the country’s honesty regarding its peaceful, domestic intentions.
Melanie Gorelick, associate director of the MetroWest CRC, described the program at Drew as “part of an ongoing initiative that the CRC is engaged in with an informal coalition of diverse organizations in New Jersey to stay educated and active on the issue of Iran from both a human rights and a nuclear proliferation perspective.
“The program underscored that the time to put strong pressure on Iran is now. Iran cannot be allowed by the international community to continue to rapidly advance its nuclear enrichment program.”
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