Re: On Islamic radicalism and the left by Don Hamerquist
On Aug 17, 2006, at 11:51 AM, Michael Hoover wrote:
That’s true of a lot of the left’s reaction to the Iranian revolution in 1979 (both the Iranian and Western left) - Val Moghadam’s 1987 article in New Left Review goes into this in detail. Doug <<<<<>>>>>
widespread iranian opposition to the shah produced a broad-based coalition of social forces whose political and religious differences were blurred in the heady days of revolutionary victory (such blurring is common in almost all such instances)…
One of Moghadam’s points is that the blurring was greatly promoted by
a rigid anti-imperialism - i.e., anyone who was anti-American had to
be good. Consequently, both the Iranian and Western left were blinded
to the dangers of the clerics. You see that error being repeated in
certain quarters today.
Doug