Iran-Let's learn from the post-9/11 mistake

The following is an article published in Town hall by Mohammad Mohaddessin

The ruthless killing of innocent people in Paris was a crime against humanity by any standard. It poses the same question that the world community faced after September 11, 2001: What is the proper response to terrorism carried out in the name of Islam?


The right answer would effectively end the growth of violent Islamic extremism. The wrong answer would lead to much greater threats than those created in the post-9/11 world.

In my 1993 book, Islamic Fundamentalism: The New Global Threat, I argued that although the theoretical roots of this evil phenomenon date back to the first decades of Islam, it was only after the establishment of theocracy in Iran that Islamic fundamentalism turned into the serious global threat that it is today. While the differences between Shiite and Sunni fundamentalists are minimal, they have a common major objective: establishing an “Islamic rule” for the enforcement of Sharia law.

I also argued in the book that only democratic Islam can pose the ultimate challenge to fundamentalist interpretations.

At the time, my book was cast as exaggerations by an opponent of the Iranian regime. But, after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the world saw the brutality of fundamentalism firsthand. Yet even then the US made a major strategic blunder by invading Iraq.
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Introduction of a Book: $15.34
PRODUCT DESCRIPTION
Islamic Fundamentalism
By Mohammad Mohaddessin
Islamic Fundamentalism is an affirmation of the wisdom of the Quran and the Prophet Muhammad. It describes, however, the dire effects of fundamentalism fed by the frenzy of the ayatollahs of Iran, beginning with Khomeini.
“Khomeini’s reactionary ideology is based upon ignorance and repression. When struck with the rays of awareness, it melts like snow… the struggle in Iran is between a reactionary distortion of Islam and an Islam the advocate’s awareness and freedom… in this confrontation, democratic and liberating Islam will doubtless triumph.”
---- Massoud Rajavi, The Iranian Resistance’s Leader
(called by Khomeini his “greatest enemy”)
“The author takes you inside the pillars of Khomeini’s rule, inside the ‘whys’ and ‘ways’ of the export of Islamic fundamentalism, inside the terrorist networks. It is a carefully footnoted book, and a valuable one that can be used well by scholars of the situation and by people who simply want to know more about one of the most important syndromes of our times. I know of no other study like it in terms of depth and interpretation.”
---- From the foreword by Georgie Anne Geyer
Nationally Syndicated Columninst
Mohammad Mohadessin is an veteran member of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran and, since 1993, has chaired the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran.
Mohaddessin has written extensively on political and religious issues in Iran and throughout the region. In addition to dozens of articles and essays, he has authored several books, including Democracy Betrayed, An Unethical Policy, Appeasing Tehran’s Mullahs, and Legacy of a Misguided Policy.