Revy
23rd June 2009, 02:05
Note: This is a short excerpt from an interview (http://www.marxists.org/archive/hekmat-mansoor/1999/06/scene.htm) with the the late Iranian communist Mansoor Hekmat, ten years ago, in June 1999. I thought it would be relevant to what is happening now.
Question: Iran is a polarised society as far as Islam is concerned, that is both the Islamists and anti-Islamists are active. How do you view the confrontation between these two camps? Do you think there is a renaissance in progress in Iran?
Mansoor Hekmat: I think what is happening in Iran is a massive social hatred of Islam which has accumulated in the vast majority of the population; its pressure is increasing day by day and this will very soon break the dams. It will tear the chains and turn Iran, which has been the seat of reactionary Islamic rule for over twenty years, into one of the centres of struggle against the reactionary Islamic movement in the region. I am sure of this. I think that the intellectual, philosophical and ideological struggle which has not occurred in Iran historically, will perhaps this time take place because of the political situation through people’s political action. That is, an anti-Islamic offensive by people who have experienced 20 years of reactionary Islamic rule in this country and all the crimes committed for Islam and in the name of Islam.
The hatred against Islam is historically unprecedented. As one of your listeners said, mullahs would at one time come and get paid to read religious sermons and go. They had a role in society. But when they come to the fore, organise society based on their views, turn their internal moralities into external laws for all to observe and we see all of their filth everywhere, then it’s not possible just to permit them to go back into their previous hole. When the wave sets off and people’s anti-Islamic offensive begins, then Islam cannot retreat to its position and stance of two decades ago. It is highly probable that people will take all of these away from them. Could this be called a renaissance? I believe that one aspect and problem on this question is whether this political and emotional hatred of Islam is accompanied with a deep intellectual fight which will dissect the foundations of this religion and religious thought in general and expose and criticise it in all of its aspects including Orientals, patriarchy, rightlessness of children, etc.
This critique must be advanced by the social ideologues in each era. We don’t see this. Consequently, the movement against Islam in the first instance will be a mass popular movement against the political-social expression of Islam, but to what extent this will be accompanied by a deep ideological critique which next generations can capitalise on to move beyond the religious-superstitious era, we will have to wait and see what happens in practice. It is clear that the rise of the anti-Islamic wave will certainly have with it its own ideologues but we are not currently witnessing such a phenomenon. What we are witnessing, apart from the Worker-communist Party of Iran (WPI) and some well thinking individuals, is that a majority of those who want to get rid of the Islamic Republic and think that they are ‘being clever’, which is in fact a kind of ‘provincial cleverness’ is that if we encourage a ‘good mullah’ in opposition to a ‘bad mullah’, this is considered progress. Then we set another mullah against Khatami and then another one until eventually one day we tell the last one that you don’t have to be a mullah. This is a kind of so-called politicking and deceiving history, which has never been successful in history.
It is sad to see intellectuals, poets, writers and politicians who are party to this political farce; I believe they are an obstacle to the transparency of the future struggle. I think all of them will be isolated. Anyone who compromises with any aspect of Islam or the Islamic Republic will be asked to respond to the people tomorrow. I think that in Iran those who are rear guards in society are called intellectuals. The bright and freethinkers must be sought among the generation who is involved in a life struggle and goes and sets up a satellite dish on the roof and risks arrest in order to know what the world is saying. S/he is the real intellectual of that country. The ‘intellectuals’ are the rear-guards who have set up intellectual shops for themselves; it is really sad. Today, we are missing someone who will challenge the roots of Islam and criticise Islam in the same manner as Sadegh Hedayat and Ali Dashty. Whoever does this at this juncture will become a historical personality more than anyone else in the intellectual history of this country and will become the banner of intellectual and moral struggle of the people of Iran against Islam and Islamism for hundreds of years. This seat is vacant. Consequently, today this is purely a political conflict. How far this political wave can stabilise people’s anti-Islamic advance is debatable. I would not call it a renaissance but I think that Islam will suffer a major defeat in this country.
(My comments: It is interesting that Hekmat said this 10 years exactly before the current uprising. Hekmat predicted that the Iranian regime would suffer from a fatal blow, which would create a political vacuum to be filled with the struggle of progressive, and most importantly, socialist and workers' movements in the Middle East. Hekmat also in his writings argued that the rise of "political Islam" could not have happened without the support and actions of the US/UK in the region, and that Islamism and imperialism were linked, and the struggle to defeat both was interconnected. What we are witnessing in Iran could have consequences beyond Iranian borders, if it is the workers and people of Iran who win, and are not co-opted by bourgeois or mullahs or both in an attempt to pacify their anger and revolution against the regime which has oppressed them for 30 years.)
Question: Iran is a polarised society as far as Islam is concerned, that is both the Islamists and anti-Islamists are active. How do you view the confrontation between these two camps? Do you think there is a renaissance in progress in Iran?
Mansoor Hekmat: I think what is happening in Iran is a massive social hatred of Islam which has accumulated in the vast majority of the population; its pressure is increasing day by day and this will very soon break the dams. It will tear the chains and turn Iran, which has been the seat of reactionary Islamic rule for over twenty years, into one of the centres of struggle against the reactionary Islamic movement in the region. I am sure of this. I think that the intellectual, philosophical and ideological struggle which has not occurred in Iran historically, will perhaps this time take place because of the political situation through people’s political action. That is, an anti-Islamic offensive by people who have experienced 20 years of reactionary Islamic rule in this country and all the crimes committed for Islam and in the name of Islam.
The hatred against Islam is historically unprecedented. As one of your listeners said, mullahs would at one time come and get paid to read religious sermons and go. They had a role in society. But when they come to the fore, organise society based on their views, turn their internal moralities into external laws for all to observe and we see all of their filth everywhere, then it’s not possible just to permit them to go back into their previous hole. When the wave sets off and people’s anti-Islamic offensive begins, then Islam cannot retreat to its position and stance of two decades ago. It is highly probable that people will take all of these away from them. Could this be called a renaissance? I believe that one aspect and problem on this question is whether this political and emotional hatred of Islam is accompanied with a deep intellectual fight which will dissect the foundations of this religion and religious thought in general and expose and criticise it in all of its aspects including Orientals, patriarchy, rightlessness of children, etc.
This critique must be advanced by the social ideologues in each era. We don’t see this. Consequently, the movement against Islam in the first instance will be a mass popular movement against the political-social expression of Islam, but to what extent this will be accompanied by a deep ideological critique which next generations can capitalise on to move beyond the religious-superstitious era, we will have to wait and see what happens in practice. It is clear that the rise of the anti-Islamic wave will certainly have with it its own ideologues but we are not currently witnessing such a phenomenon. What we are witnessing, apart from the Worker-communist Party of Iran (WPI) and some well thinking individuals, is that a majority of those who want to get rid of the Islamic Republic and think that they are ‘being clever’, which is in fact a kind of ‘provincial cleverness’ is that if we encourage a ‘good mullah’ in opposition to a ‘bad mullah’, this is considered progress. Then we set another mullah against Khatami and then another one until eventually one day we tell the last one that you don’t have to be a mullah. This is a kind of so-called politicking and deceiving history, which has never been successful in history.
It is sad to see intellectuals, poets, writers and politicians who are party to this political farce; I believe they are an obstacle to the transparency of the future struggle. I think all of them will be isolated. Anyone who compromises with any aspect of Islam or the Islamic Republic will be asked to respond to the people tomorrow. I think that in Iran those who are rear guards in society are called intellectuals. The bright and freethinkers must be sought among the generation who is involved in a life struggle and goes and sets up a satellite dish on the roof and risks arrest in order to know what the world is saying. S/he is the real intellectual of that country. The ‘intellectuals’ are the rear-guards who have set up intellectual shops for themselves; it is really sad. Today, we are missing someone who will challenge the roots of Islam and criticise Islam in the same manner as Sadegh Hedayat and Ali Dashty. Whoever does this at this juncture will become a historical personality more than anyone else in the intellectual history of this country and will become the banner of intellectual and moral struggle of the people of Iran against Islam and Islamism for hundreds of years. This seat is vacant. Consequently, today this is purely a political conflict. How far this political wave can stabilise people’s anti-Islamic advance is debatable. I would not call it a renaissance but I think that Islam will suffer a major defeat in this country.
(My comments: It is interesting that Hekmat said this 10 years exactly before the current uprising. Hekmat predicted that the Iranian regime would suffer from a fatal blow, which would create a political vacuum to be filled with the struggle of progressive, and most importantly, socialist and workers' movements in the Middle East. Hekmat also in his writings argued that the rise of "political Islam" could not have happened without the support and actions of the US/UK in the region, and that Islamism and imperialism were linked, and the struggle to defeat both was interconnected. What we are witnessing in Iran could have consequences beyond Iranian borders, if it is the workers and people of Iran who win, and are not co-opted by bourgeois or mullahs or both in an attempt to pacify their anger and revolution against the regime which has oppressed them for 30 years.)