Political Islam: Culture or Ideology
By Azar Majedi - 22.01.2003 22:57
WPI Briefing Number 92, Weekly of the Worker-communist Party of Iran
The below is the speech given by Azar Majedi at the Stockholm conference on honour killings and oppression of women during 17-19 January 2003.
11 September brought the cruel and brutal capacity of political Islam to the attention of the world. Before that for two decades, we the first hand victims of political Islam exposed its reactionary and oppressive nature relentlessly, told the world of countless attacks on human rights, women's rights, of murders and torture committed by this movement. Our stories, our accounts, our witnesses were at best brushed aside by resorting to the racist concept of cultural relativism.
What is cultural relativism? Cultural relativism is a fancy name for racism because it justifies two sets of values, rights and privileges for human beings according to a subjective, arbitrary concept, such as culture. To put it bluntly, according to this concept, because of my birthplace, I should enjoy fewer rights relative to a woman born in Sweden, England, or France. I should be content with my second-class status, because I was born in a country, which is under the rule of Islam and because a reactionary, misogynist government is in power. It goes even further making the second generation living in Europe also victim of this racist policy. They too are discriminated against because of the birthplace of their parents.
The defenders of cultural relativism have told us repeatedly that we have to respect our so-called culture, our so-called religion and silently and respectfully accept the fate they have assigned to us. We are told that all this brutality, deprivation, oppression is our culture - that we should be subjected to the most brutal form of misogyny, to sexual apartheid, to lashing and stoning, because it is dictated by our culture. I always wonder: is that what they think of us? Do these people think we belong to a nation of masochists? Do they think we like to practice 'our culture' not out of free will but by being subjected to imprisonment, torture, lashing, hanging and stoning?
Have you ever asked yourself: if this is people's culture, which has been chosen freely, and practiced voluntarily, why is such a sophisticated system of oppression necessary? Why are Islamic states and brutal dictatorships imposed upon people? Why do Islamist groups resort to terror, as a matter of fact their only method is terrorism? Have you ever asked yourself why in Islamist communities women are so rightless? Why are they kept in their place by the threat of knife, acid, beatings, and honour killings? The ones who dare to question this rule and the so-called culture are punished by the 'brave' men of their families, and the silent majority suffers alone? These are some very simple but valid questions that we have to answer, that ee have the moral obligation to answer.
Political Islam and Terror: Terror has always been the main weapon of political Islam. This force has committed countless crimes both where they are in power, like the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Mujahedin and the Taliban in Afghanistan, in the Sudan, and in Saudi Arabia, and where they are in opposition, as in Algeria, Pakistan, and Egypt. Terrorising the population is the policy and strategy of political Islam for seizing power.
11 September and its aftermath thrust political Islam and Islamic terrorism onto the centre stage of world politics. In its present form and shape, political Islam as a powerful force in the mainstream of political conflicts in the Middle East, is a product of the West and in particular the USA. For twenty odd years the USA and West reared political Islam as a weapon in the Cold War and against the rise of communism and the Left in the region. The Islamic Republic was created by the West and unleashed on the Iranian people in the heat of a great revolution seeking to bring about freedom and justice. The Mujahedin and Taliban were the direct products of the US. All the Islamic governments in Saudi Arabia and sheikdoms could not survive the resentment of the people without the support of the West. They are the direct results of Western support. The policy of the US vis-à-vis Israel and Palestine is another cause of the growth of political Islam. And the threat of war against Iraq and a decade of ongoing war and sanctions have created a fertile ground for political Islam to take advantage of the justified resentment against this aggression to its benefit.
The West has offered this movement abundant financial, moral, and military support in order to enable it to shift from the margins of society to the mainstream. By now everyone knows how Bin Laden and the Taliban came to power and gained political influence. It is a commonly known fact that they were the products of Western governments and the US.
The result of this reactionary policy has been the victimization of generations of people in the region. It is just recently that their terrorist attacks have penetrated the West. As long as they were tearing apart the people of the region, these monsters had the backing of the West. As long as the victims of their ferocious terrorism were the people of the region, the West kept quiet about their atrocities. No films were being shown then by the media about the Islamists' crimes against the people and women of Afghanistan. No news was being broadcast on the barbarism of the Islamic regime in Iran. There was silence on stonings. But this terrorism did not remain confined to that region. It paid a home visit to the West too.
Women are the first victims of political Islam and Islamic terrorist gangs. Sexual apartheid, stoning, compulsory Islamic veiling and stripping women of all rights are the fruits of this reactionary movement. Political Islam must be relegated to its rightful place, to the margins of the societies it has been tearing apart. It must also be subdued in the Islamist communities in the West by upholding the basic principles of freedom and equality, by respecting women's rights and its universal nature, by upholding children's rights and secularism.
Going back to the issue of culture, I must emphasise that this is not the culture of the people living in the Middle East or so-called Moslem countries; this is actually the culture and politics being forced upon these people by the West spearheaded by the US. The dominant culture in any given society is the culture of the dominant system.
But suppose, only suppose that this assumption were true, and these atrocities were part of the culture of a given people, My question is: is this sufficient reason for turning away and staying indifferent to what seems, to be our so-called culture - brutal, discrimination, sexism? Does the word culture sanctify any form of brutality, oppression, violence and discrimination? Why is it that the concept of culture is so glorified, that it overshadows any sense of justice, liberation, and human rights? These questions too, must be answered. All freedom loving, decent human beings with any sense of devotion to justice, equality and freedom must find the right answers.
Our movement has upheld progressive, libertarian and egalitarian values. To us a culture that is oppressive, that degrades women, advocates inequality, violence, misogyny, that promotes sexual apartheid has no sanctity, is not glorified and must be changed. This is our response, this is our struggle. Secularism is part and parcel of this culture.
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