It’s the Iranian Constitution, Stupid by BILL SIEGEL
http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/its-the-iranian-constitution-stupid
Announcing the November 24th agreement between Iran and the P5 plus 1, President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry repeatedly touted that the world is now safer. As Neville Chamberlain, ridiculed by Adolph Hitler as “that silly old man,” eventually found out, it was the leadership, not the piece of paper, that determined his country’s fate. The same applies to today’s Iranian regime.
There is, however, one piece of paper that should be trusted for what it says- the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran, including its expository preamble. It is beyond perplexing that among the “expert” analyses and media reports about Iran, there is rarely any exploration of the principles that underlie the Islamic Republic’s policies.
The preamble of the 1979 (as amended in 1989) Constitution recaps the roots of the Iranian Revolution. It cites that previous revolutionary attempts to defeat the “despotic rule” of the Shah’s White Revolution backed by “world imperialism” failed because they lacked an ideological basis and Islamic nature. Those prior periods produced a “streamline motive” for “militant and committed Muslims both within the country and abroad” (italics added). The subsequent takeover by the Ayatollah Khomeini institutionalized the initiation of the “process of intellectual and ideological evolution towards the final goal, i.e. movement towards Allah.” Its mission is to “realize the ideological objectives of the movement and to create conditions conducive to the development of man in accordance with the noble and universal values of Islam.”
The document references the cries of the people for “Independence! Freedom! Islamic Government!” These words, used differently here than in the West, reference the desire to be independent of non-Islamic rule and to be free to pursue the path of Allah. As the preamble states, “the Constitution will strive with other Islamic and popular movements to prepare the way for the formation of a single world community (in accordance with the Koranic verse ‘This your community is a single community, and I am your Lord, so worship Me’ [21:92]), and to assure the continuation of the struggle for the liberation of all deprived and oppressed peoples in the world..”
The Iranian regime is dedicated to these principles and, ultimately, to establish a worldwide Islamic community which is the ultimate goal of its expression of Islam. While our diplomats and media “experts” try to cast at least some members of the regime, such as newly elected President Hassan Rouhani and negotiating partner Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, as “moderates” and “pragmatics,” the Constitution demonstrates there is an Islamic foundation for all the regime does. Failure to recognize this ideological framework in a nuclear age will likely lead to even greater calamity than Chamberlain helped facilitate.
And as Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have become the primary stewards of the nation’s economy, we must look at the provisions within the Constitution that underlie its foundation. The preamble states, “In the formation and equipping of the country’s defence forces, due attention must be paid to faith and ideology as the basic criteria. Accordingly, the Army of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps are to be organized in conformity with this goal, and they will be responsible not only for guarding and preserving the frontiers of the country, but also for fulfilling the ideological mission of jihad in God’s way; that is, extending the sovereignty of God’s law throughout the world (this in accordance with the Koranic verse ‘Prepare against them whatever force you are able to muster, and strings of horses, striking fear into the enemy of God and your enemy, and others besides them'[8:60])”(italics added).
Note that the goal is global- the worldwide extension of jihad. The preamble states, “With due attention to the Islamic content of the Iranian Revolution, the Constitution provides the necessary basis for ensuring the continuation of the Revolution at home and abroad” (italics added).Guarding the Revolution is as offensive as it is defensive. Later, in Article 150, the Revolutionary Guards are tasked with “guarding the revolution and its achievements.” Any notion that this unit will transform into a more cooperative Westernized organization is wishful thinking. Against whom are they guarding? The forces of “imperialism” and “foreign domination” which in all cases refers to the US. Note also that, contrary to those Muslims apologists who argue that Koranic verses should interpreted solely as guidance for the historical events in Mohammad’s time period, this Constitution uses these verses timelessly, to apply to today’s events as well as the future.
This global reach is further claimed in the Article 3 stated goal of “framing the foreign policy of the country on the basis of Islamic criteria, fraternal commitment to all Muslims, and unsparing support to the freedom fighters of the world.” Article 11 cites the Koranic verse, “This your community is a single community, and I am your Lord, so worship Me” [21:92] and continues that the government “must constantly strive to bring about the political, economic, and cultural unity of the Islamic world.”
Further, the preamble states that the Constitution was framed “with the hope that this century will witness the establishment of a universal holy government and the downfall of all others” (italics added). While the goal was not reached by the end of the 20th Century, the regime and its nuclear program can only be seen as actively trying to make up for lost time.
The General Principles section states that the Islamic Republic is based on belief, in part, in “the return to God in the Hereafter, and the constructive role of this belief in the course of man’s ascent towards God.” This reflects the Twelver Ja’fari Shiite school’s (designated as the “official” and “eternally immutable” religion and principles of Iran in Article 12) desire to witness the return of the Twelfth Imam and is consistent with the claim of many that the key movers in the regime, including Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, believe that it is their duty to bring about the chaos necessary to cause the Imam to come forward out of his current Occultation. While the office of President is powerful, all branches of the government function “under the supervision of the absolute religious Leader and the Leadership of the Ummah…”
It is also important to note that a catalytic event to most Islamic concepts concerning the return of the Mahdi (read for these purposes Messiah) is that the last Jew is killed. Based on a famous Hadith of Mohammad, this notion is thoroughly consistent with the hatred of Jews deeply entrenched throughout the Koran, Islamic law and primary teachings throughout Islamic history. The constant call for the destruction of Israel and the Jews is not simple ranting to please some presumed fanatical Iranian domestic audience. (Much of that domestic population allegedly seeks a civilized relationship with the West and Israel). Rather, it represents a critical foundational goal of the principles institutionalized throughout the Constitution. The Jews, along with Israel and the imperialist US are necessary foes critical to the structure of this ideology for there must be enemies that account for the delay in reaching a worldwide Islamic community. Failure to recognize it as such only more dangerously entrenches the West’s willful blindness.
While the negotiations between the West and Iran focus on how many centrifuges, if any, should be allowed to spin, to what degree uranium may be enriched, what portion of plutonium reactors can be left operative and so forth, the glaring principles that motivate the regime are overlooked. To be clear, the US is at war with the Islamic Republic and has been for over three decades. This is not because it chooses to be but because the regime has declared it so and has acted to the best of its relative power to prosecute that war. The US recently has been able to avert its eyes, in part because a cowardly liberal press has repeatedly declared it “war weary” so often that polls regurgitate the ingested narrative in an endless loop. Consequently, the public “conversation” has narrowed the scope of alternatives considered to range between some agreement such as the November 24th interim arrangement and military action to bomb nuclear sites. Narrower yet, while Obama asserts that “all options are on the table,” he clearly will never seat himself at that end of the table. Still, even successful bombing will only yield temporary relief.
Meanwhile, the regime understands that there is nothing it can extract today through negotiation that it will not be able to obtain with exponentially more once it acquires nuclear weapons- other than the time necessary to complete those weapons. Nuclear weapons will uniquely empower the regime to “guard” and globally “extend” its revolution and seek the “downfall of all others” as its Constitution instructs. Due to in part to Western negligence and weakness, the regime has been fortunate to come so close to its goal. It will not forfeit this opportunity to substantially advance its foundational ideological pursuit.
Instead, not only must this regime be prevented at all costs from obtaining nuclear weapons, it must be dismantled along with its Constitution. Whether we face it now or not, regime change, preferably through some peaceful internal political process, is ultimately the only appropriate policy. “Expert” references to “containment” and “mutually assured destruction” ultimately amount to surrender on our part. As the Constitution shows, it is the ideology and mission, not the weapons, which truly threaten.
Unfortunately, Obama appears to be moving in precisely the opposite direction. The only regimes he seeks to dismantle, besides the sanctions regime that forced Iran into negotiations in the first place, are those of our former allies such as Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak. He now seems destined to turn Iran into his critical ally (as he has done with the Muslim Brotherhood), while concurrently turning our key allies into foes. Simultaneously, Obama is neutering critical ally Israel by making an Israeli raid on Iranian nuclear sites nearly impossible, politically and practicably, to execute. Worse, as the Jerusalem Post’s Caroline Glick has pointed out, Obama appears headed toward pressuring Israel to accept a destructive agreement on a Palestinian state and, down the road, to disclose and forfeit any nuclear arsenal it might possess.
There is no margin for error left in preventing the regime’s pursuit of nuclear weapons. Anything short of fighting this war and bringing about the end of the leadership of the Islamic Republic along with its system of government will lead to global disaster as this regime, empowered with nuclear weapons, will have the edge in fulfilling the goals and Islamic principles which bred its Constitution. Just as the West ignored Hitler’s Mein Kampf as well as the writings of other 20th Century totalitarian and terrorist leaders that thoroughly outlined future intentions, shame on us if we do not thoroughly absorb the threat as stated so clearly in this document.
Bill Siegel is the author of The Control Factor – Our Struggle to See the True Threat published by Hamilton Books.
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