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Iran: The Last Stand and the Beauty of Resistance

By Iqbal Suleiman

America and Israel led by the most vitriolic Islamophobes Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump launched an unlawful war of aggression against Islamic Iran. Is this to be the last stand by the Resistance Axis as the combined military might of America and Israel try to wipe out Islamic self- determination and independence from the face of the earth?  The only government in the Muslim world that does not bow down to Israel and America faces an imminent existential threat. The military odds are overwhelmingly against Iran. The Iranians knowing this refuse to bow, to beg or bend.

In the midst of the horrors of war that we are witnessing, the carnage, the shedding of innocent blood of Muslim children in a war that all the people of the world reject as unfair, unlawful and unjustifiable, there is something else that the world is currently witnessing. This is the heroic nobility of resistance.  A spirit that says we will rather fight and die than be slaves at your table.

In this darkest hour of Muslim suffering and sacrifice where American and Israeli arrogance and ruthlessness is once again unleashed against the poor Muslims of the world.  In the midst of this suffering and anguish, horror and terror, there is something delicately beautiful that touches the human heart. It is the courage and fearlessness to resist which is capturing the hearts and minds of people the world over. This is an epic moment in human history.

We saw this when the poorest of people in a ghettoes of Gaza refused to bow down, beg, and to be slaves of Israeli Zionists and instead chose to fight for their rights and freedom. It is all the more beautiful because here is the lone country, the only one that supported the people of Palestine with arms when the whole world was complicit in the Genocide and the mass slaughter of children. This country which was brought to its financial knees because of the crippling sanctions and asked to abandon their brothers in Palestine for sanctions relief but they refused to sell out and be co-opted.

Iran could be like Turkey, verbalize support for the Palestinians and denounce Israel but simultaneously have economic and political relations with Israel. Iran could be like the Gulf States, condemn Israel but have behind the scenes relations with the Israel and move towards normalisation.  Iran could be like all the white and western countries that express concern for slaughter of Palestinian children in Gaza but at the same time do nothing to resist the Genocide and continue to support Israel. If Iran behaved like any of these countries and recognized Israel, Iran will be accepted into the “International Community”.

Iran choses independence and resistance, it choses self -sacrifice in solidarity with the oppressed people of Palestine. It choses this path against all odds and there is a soulful beauty in this.

War against Iran is a war against all Muslims of the World

Islamic Iran is the final frontier of resistance to Imperialist and Zionist military aggression and the inalienable right to self-determination for all people in the Muslim World.  The Gaza Genocide has liberated the Muslim public mind from the superficial and sectarian divisions advanced by Imperialism and Zionism as well as the clownish sectarian scholars for dollars on their payroll. The eye of the Muslim street can now see with clarity that all leaders and governments in the Muslim world collaborated and were complicit in the Gaza Genocide. The one and only exception is Iran.

Israel’s unhinged barbarism has spooked its Arab allies in the region. Israel will always be first to Trump and America. Qatar had just given Trump a private jet. The Gulf States provided trillions of dollars to the American government who provided military, diplomatic and economic support to the Israeli Genocide in Gaza. Gulf regimes today surely realize the existential threat presented by Israel to their countries. When Israel bombed Qatar, the American military did nothing to defend Qatar. It was a wakeup call. With all the begging, bowing and brown nosing of these Gulf States, Trump and America made its policy succinctly clear “Israel First”. The majority of Americans are opposed to this war with Iran but Trump has gone against the will of the American people and bowed to Netanyahu, again signalling his policy of Israel First much to the dismay and anger of his America First support base.

If Iran falls, the gateway to hell opens for the Middle East because American and Israeli Hegemony will be firmly established. Israel will proceed with its expansionist settlement policy and invade other countries in pursuit of “Greater Israel”. U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee told Tucker Carlson that “Greater Israel” is justified and it is fine and good for Israel to conquer all of the Middle East.  Now everyone from the common man to Princes and Kings are starting to imagine the worst case scenario where the dirty shoes of Israeli Zionist soldiers desecrating Makka and Medina as they have repeatedly desecrated Al Aqsa.

All of the Arab and Muslim countries combined did not fire a single bullet at Israel in more than two years of Genocide. Islamic Iran under is the only country that has no economic and political relations with Israel for more than 47 years. Compare this to Ahmed Al Sharaa Al Jolani who before the sun set on his first day in power in Syria wanted to have cordial relations with Israel.

Iran has provided weapons to the oppressed people of Palestine and fired missiles and bullets at Israel. No other country has done that. Iranian leaders and civilians were martyred in the thousands as a result of Israeli military aggression. Were it not for the imposed cruel and crippling sanctions over 47 years because of Iran’s solidarity with Palestine, every Iranian will be living a decent and comfortable life. Iranians as a people have sacrificed more than any other country for the liberation of Palestine. Every sane and sober Muslim stands in solidarity with the people of Gaza but the only government in the world that supports the people of Gaza is Islamic Iran. This is why the Muslim Street sees a war with Iran as a war against all Muslims.

The Zionist Islamophobic hatred that is driving this War with Iran

In 2002, Benjamin Netanyahu whilst zealously beating the drums of war against the Muslim people of Iraq, stated that “If you take out Saddam, Saddams regime, I guarantee you, it will have enormous positive reverberations throughout the region”.

Positive reverberations? According to the Lancet journal, the war created Six hundred thousand Arab Civilian deaths. 3.9 million Refugees. Then there was the creation of Isis, the spectre of head chopping, civil strife, blood everywhere and the complete destruction of the infrastructure of Iraq. But this is exactly what Netanyahu wanted, civil strife, the exponential loss of Muslim lives and a failed state that will never be able to challenge Israel in a 100 years. Benjamin Netanyahu revels in Muslim suffering. Think about the images and sound bites a few days ago when the Islamophobic butcher of Gujarat Narendra Modi met with Netanyahu and they expressed their love and adoration for each other. Netanyahu knows fully well that Narenda Modi’s RSS is ideologically rooted in Fascism, a fascism that runs so deep that RSS goons have adorned the khaki clothing of their Nazi heroes. But because Narendra Modi hates and oppresses Muslims, he is beloved to Netanyahu who turns a blind eye to Modi’s association with fascism and anti-Semitism.  For a Bibi, an anti-semite is okay as long as he hates and kills Muslims. Netanyahu does not consider Muslims as humans which is why he encouraged the war in Iraq that killed hundreds of thousands of innocent Muslims. This is the same reason that his government refers to Palestinian as “human animals” and he led the unprecedented slaughter of children in Gaza. And on this first day of the war against Iran, at this time of writing they slaughtered 85 children in an Iranian school.

Iran is not Iraq, Libya or Syria

Islamic Iran and Ali Khamenei are not Bashar Al Assad, Saddam Hussein or Muammar Gaddafi.  Khamenei and the Islamic Revolutionary Guards will not go down without a fight to the death. Khamenei has often expressed his willingness for martyrdom and has chosen to stay in Iran and resist. He knew the war was coming and could have sought safety outside of Iran but consciously chooses not to do so.

Iran is very different from Iraq, Libya or Syria. Unlike these other countries, the Iranian Government has popular support. Whereas within the Assad’s Syria, Saddams Iraq and Gadhafi’s Libya, the security establishment and military personnel were largely professional servicemen on a payroll and loyalty was inspired by a pay check. The IRGC and the Basij are ideologically committed to the Islamic Revolution and school of Muhammad. The Basij are volunteers and they number between 800 000 to a million members.  Their allegiance cannot be bought and they are prepared to die for their faith. These revolutionaries are willing to fight to death until the last man standing. The leader and founder of the Islamic Revolution Imam Khomeini said this “We have no fear of America’s military or its economic blockade. We have God. Even if the world’s doors were shut, the doors of Gods mercy would remain open. It is bewildering that the American leadership have not given serious consideration to this issue which is the most critical aspect in a war with Iran. The Empire is now fighting a foe, the calibre of which it has hitherto never fought.

A fearless and ferocious resistance is to be encountered

This war on Iran has on its first day set the entire region on fire with Iranian missiles hitting Israel and all the American bases in the Gulf. We can expect all the oil fields in the Persian Gulf going up in flames and the closure of the Straits of Hormuz, it could very well trigger a global economic recession. More Israeli and American soldiers will return in body bags then in any of the previous wars. There is no doubt that America and Israel have superior military power. Iran of course whilst not having military parity with its enemies has developed an impressive and indigenous military capability specifically it’s missile and drone systems that can hit and hurt Israel and America in ways that they have not been hit before. However Iran’s greatest weapon is the fearlessness and faith of their fighters. There is no other national army in the world that is fearless of death and has a yearning for martyrdom like the revolutionary fighters in Islamic Iran.

These Revolutionary Guards and Basij are the devout followers of Muhammad (p.b.u.h) who was offered all the material comforts and niceties of the world in exchange to capitulate to his enemies and give up his struggle for justice but his response was reported as something to his effect “If you put the sun in my right hand and the moon in my left, I will not give up my struggle for truth and justice”. The Prophet in his response was revolutionary principled, defiant and simultaneously bringing to the attention of his enemies, the limitations of their earthly power and God’s power and authority over human affairs. America and Israel may control all the wealth and have the world’s governments in their palms but they cannot control the sun and the moon. This power is exclusively that of the Creator. For these followers of Muhammad (p.b.u.h), they will rather fight and die than to bow down to Imperialists and Zionists.

No one can predict the outcome or the duration of this war with Iran. The Americans and Israelis have initiated this war and they no doubt want a short war but history tells us that those who initiate a war most often do not determine the outcome and duration of a war.

Trump and Netanyahu often boast about how brave and courageous their soldiers are but then why are they fighting such a cowardly war? Striking at Iran from far away in the skies and not exposing their soldiers to direct military combat.  Like schoolyard bullies, they gang up as a multitude of thugs to beat up the little kid in the school yard. Each country on its own, has ten times more military power than Iran but they were scared to even fight Iran on their own but had to attack together. They will not send their soldiers onto Iranian soil to face off and go toe to toe with the Iranian Revolutionaries. Brave lions, they say of their soldiers? What type of lions are these that hide in the sky but are scared to run on the ground? If regime change is the intention, their soldiers will be forced to enter Iranian soil where many will meet their end when they face off with the Islamic Revolutionary Guards.

The Iranians have the stamina for a long war but the Americans and the Israeli don’t. The Iran- Iraq War was fought for over eight years after Saddam Hussein with the support of the West invaded Iran and used chemical weapons against the people of Iran. There is no doubt that many Iranians particularly civilians will suffer. On the first day of the War, the Americans and Israeli’s attacked a school and approximately 85 school children were slaughtered. A repeat of the Gaza genocidal playbook.  The death toll may be in the hundreds of thousands or even millions if we consider how America and Israel have conducted the Genocide in Gaza, the dirty war in Syria, and the unlawful war in Iraq and the military intervention in Libya. The results of these wars were that millions of Muslims were slaughtered with perpetual civil strife and internecine conflict. Netanyahu’s desire is the Balkanisation of Iran as he sought the Balkanisation of Syria resulting in a weak state with perpetual instability and civil strife.

Iran and the Global South

Beyond the Persian Gulf and the Muslim World, millions who are not physically part of the military Axis of Resistance will engage in nonviolent civil disobedience as an expression of resistance to Zionist and Imperialist barbarism. The symbols of Imperialism will be targeted and shut down by anti-war protesters in every neighbourhood where there is a Starbucks, Macdonald’s, Coca Cola or Pepsi outlet. The Fifa soccer world cup will be boycotted. The boycott of American products will be internationalized.

Along with honouring its indigenous freedom fighters like the great Ali Shariati, Iran honours international freedom fighters who are revered in the Global South, naming streets after Patrice Lumumba and Malcolm X.

The masses in the Global South stand in solidarity with Iran. The poor and the working class see how the poor in the Ghettoes of Gaza are supported by Iran and receive guns for free without any obligations except to fight for freedom. Justice seekers respect the principled position taken by the Iranian Revolutionary Government at its inception to cut off all ties with Apartheid South Africa and Apartheid Israel.

There is a famous saying of Imam Khomeini “Acceptance of injustice is worse than the injustice itself”. One thing you can be sure of is that the Iranians will never accept the injustice of war, it is within their DNA to resist injustice. The conscientious people of the world also refuse to accept this injustice.

The truth is that there are no winners in War. Iranians never wanted this war and this war was imposed on them. The lyrics of late Hanief “Lullabye” Ebrahim, an MK and United Democratic Front cadre wrote and sang about Apartheid colonizing violence which resonates with all of us in the Global South as we witness this unlawful Imperial war against Iran.  “Land lies quiet now, only the smoke reaches the sky from the burnt up huts, only the lament fuses the air, the dead are numbered in the morning, birds return. Speak now of the war you brought to us. You came like locusts ravaging our corn, you came like Pigs and raped the land. Let this be remembered let it be. It will be remembered it will be”

  War can never be romanticised. The outcomes of war are orphans, mass graveyards, widows, cripples, tears, poverty, instability, insecurity, suffering, anguish, trauma, mental illness, hatred, vengeance, destruction, rubble and ruins. For this reason, any human being with a conscience should take a stand against this unlawful and Islamophobic war on Iran.

We have a duty and responsibility to take a stand against this injustice and barbarism.  To boycott all American and Israeli products. Not just today and tomorrow but for many years to come and until Palestine is liberated.

There is a beauty in this Muhammadi masculinity to stand up for truth and justice, for the small guy, to fight for the most downtrodden people of Gaza and refuse to abandon them even when your own life is threatened. This type of sacrificing solidarity, not the mere expression of words but the willingness to sacrifice everything and face off with the most powerful Empire and Genocidal Regional Power. Whether the Islamic Government wins this war or not, there is a victory that they have today registered in the minds of the people of the world and that is the beauty of Resistance.

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