[](/sites/default/files/uploads/2013/07/iran12n-1-web.jpg)In less than a week, on August 3rd, the Iranian people will bid farewell to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who will be replaced by Hassan Rouhani, another regime-insider. The mainstream perception, and the argument supported by many analysts, is that next week will mark the end of Ahmadinejad’s political career. This argument is inaccurate due to the fact that the clerics and political figures in Iran’s gilded circle routinely continue their anti-Western, anti-U.S., and anti-Semitic statements and policies either through regime politics or behind the geopolitical and media scenes.
Ahmadinejad himself publicly stated that he does not intend to retire from politics after leaving office. As a result, Ahmadinejad and his anti-Semitic, incendiary, and inflammatory beliefs will continue to guide and shape Iran’s policies. In addition, according to the laws of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ahmadinejad can even run for presidency again in four years and win the votes of the hardliners, Basij, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps, and the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Furthermore, president-elect Hassan Rouhani – an insider and founding father of Iran’s repressive theocratic regime who is well-known for being a “wolf in sheep’s clothing” – will continue Ahmadinejad’s policies.
Yet, it is crucial to reflect on Ahmadinejad’s eight years in office and presidential legacy, as some of Ahmadinejad’s most incendiary, anti-Semitic, inflammatory and provocative policies are a strong representation of the beliefs, policies, and political stance of the Iranian regime:
The list of Ahmadinejad’s anti-Semitic, incendiary, and Islamist remarks and beliefs go on. However, there are also domestic repressive policies. In addition to the aforementioned foreign policies, Ahmadinejad strengthened the power of the Basij, Iran’s militia organization, the intelligence Etela’at, the “moral” police, and Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps by passing more rigid, constraining, and Sharia-based laws. Freedom of speech, press, and assembly were completely confined under Ahmadinejad’s eight years of presidency. The number of political prisoners exponentially increased, more journalists and activists were arrested, the extent of torture, rape, discrimination and executions heightened (according to Human Rights Watch), and oppositional newspapers were shut down.
Ahmadinejad is also notorious for his denial of human rights – such as when he denied that a gay population existed in Iran – turning him into one of the most ridiculed presidents of his time. In a speech at Columbia University in New York, September 2007, Ahmadinejad claimed, “In Iran, we don’t have homosexuals like in your country … In Iran we do not have this phenomenon. I don’t know who’s told you that we have this.”
The crucial point is that – although some liberals would argue that the aforementioned beliefs are only limited to Iran’s hardliners – these ideologies are strongly held across the Islamic Republic of Iran’s political spectrum, including by moderates, reformists, and centrists. Any political figure or party that wishes to survive in Iran’s theocratic politics and any political party or figure that is allowed to hold positions in Iran has already proved their loyalty to and support for the regime’s fundamental anti-American, anti-Semitic, and Sharia law-based beliefs.
Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: Click here.
Leave a Reply