Global Politician – Events in Iraq have created the illusion that the country is in the midst of a civil war, and split down sectarian lines. Shiites and Sunnis, who traditionally lived in peace with one another, are now hostages to death squads looking to exploit the country’s power vacuum in an effort to push forth an extremist plan to dominate the region. At the surface, it is easy to be deceived by the notion that this is a Shiite vs. Sunni conflict. However, it is becoming more evident that Iraq has become the battle ground between secular democratic forces and Iranian sponsored extremists espousing the establishment of a fundamentalist theocracy based on the Iranian model.
With propaganda, weapons, funds, and slogans such as "liberating Jerusalem via Karbala", the Iranian regime has been working diligently (for nearly three decades) to export its "Islamic" revolution to Iraq. With this specific aim, Ayatollah Khomeini created Mr. Abdul Aziz Hakim’s Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) and its military wing the Badr Brigades. Ironically, Iran’s current supreme leader, Ali Khamenei was then tasked with writing the council’s manifesto. Iran’s current judiciary chief, Ayatollah Shahroudi, served as its chairman in the 1980’s.
Almost immediately after the fall of Saddam Hussein, SCIRI officials and Badr militiamen along with thousands of Iranian intelligence agents crossed into Iraq usurping control of local and provincial municipalities. Armed with an extremist ideology and weapons supplied by Iran’s mullahs, the Badr Brigades put on Iraqi police uniforms and infiltrated the interior ministry, ultimately taking control. To Iraqis, it is no coincidence that many of the heinous kidnappings and murders taking place in Iraq today are being perpetrated by men wearing those same police uniforms who travel in interior ministry vehicles.
Under the cover of a sectarian war and through their proxies, the mullahs in Iran are brutally and systematically silencing democratic forces in Iraq. The latest of these victims is Ms. Amereh Abdul Karim Al Aqabi, president of the Iraqi Women Syndicate and a fierce opponent of the Iranian regime’s meddling in Iraq. Outspoken critics of the Iranian regime like Mohammad Qassem Ahmed Al Bayati, governor of Soleiman Bak, Abdul Rahim Nassrallah, head of the National Justice and Progress party, the brother of Iraqi Vice President Tareq al Hashemi, and the prominent Shiite cleric Ayatollah Mohammad Moussawi Qasemi have also fallen victim to the Iranian regime’s drive to eliminate its opponents in Iraq.
These brave patriots never wavered in the face of the brutal campaign perpetuated by the Iranian regime. This campaign is systematically terrorizing the population in an attempt to sow discord amongst the traditionally tolerant people of Iraq. Iran’s Qods Forces are using every resource at their disposal to silence the voices struggling for democracy in Iraq in much the same manner as that witnessed in Iran.
As ominous as the situation looks today, there is hope. Iraqis have displayed courage and determination in their struggle for democracy. However arduous the struggle, they are determined to defeat Iran’s extremist rulers and their aspiration for a fundamentalist caliphate spanning from Iran to Lebanon. Over 5.2 million Iraqis signed a declaration in 2006 demanding an end to the regime’s meddling in Iraqi affairs and exhibited support for democratic change in Iran. With informed guidance from Iran’s most formidable democratic opposition movement based in Iraq (The People’s Mojahedin of Iran (MEK)), an anti-fundamentalist coalition has been formed by Iraqis to counter the infiltration of Iranian sponsored extremists into Iraqi government and society.
President Bush correctly stated in his State of the Union Address, that for the extremists, "Chaos is their greatest ally.And out of chaos in Iraq would emerge an emboldened enemy." By fomenting chaos throughout the region, the mullahs hope to break the resolve of the international community in confronting their aspirations of acquiring a nuclear bomb, and establishing hegemony over the region. Defeat in this instance would be a tragedy for the region and a catastrophe for the world community. Democracy in Iraq will not succeed without democratic change in Iran.
Shahab Sariri is a human rights activist and the Vice-President of the National Coalition of Pro-Democracy Advocates (www.ncpda.com).