Canadian Analyst Lauds Islamic Revolution as ‘A Towering Achievement’

“The Revolution is a towering achievement which should inspire and be celebrated by everyone who identifies as a Muslim, whether they came to Islam through the Shiite tradition or the Sunni tradition,” Barry Grossman said in an interview with Tasnim News Agency on the occasion of the 39th anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Following is the full text of the interview:

Tasnim: As you may know, the Iranian people toppled the US-backed Pahlavi regime 39 years ago, ending the 2,500 years of monarchic rule in the country. Since then, on February 11 each year, Iranians from every walk of life pour into the streets in their millions to commemorate the great victory of the Islamic Revolution and voice their support for the country’s establishment. The rallies held across Iran in recent years on the anniversary of the victory of the Islamic Revolution have remained in place despite some ups and downs, including economic difficulties created for the people by the US sanctions. In your opinion, what are the factors behind the people’s massive presence in the rallies and how do you see the turnout in Sunday marches?

Grossman: No doubt the massive annual crowds reflect the fact that the occasion celebrates an event unheralded in modern times; that is, an overwhelmingly peaceful mass movement coming together almost spontaneously to face down extreme opposition imposed by kuffar infiltration, with tens of millions of Iranians fearlessly rejecting the self-serving system of governance imposed on Iran by colonial bandits and demanding what has become the world’s only genuinely Islamic system of governance in the modern era. 

Bearing in mind the difficult circumstances in which the Revolution took place, I think it is fair to say that this demand by tens of millions of Iranians that the nation fully embrace Islam and Islamic governance was something which had not happened since the first Islamic State was established by Muhammad (PBUH) in Medina in 622 CE and certainly has not happened since. The Revolution is a towering achievement which should inspire and be celebrated by everyone who identifies as a Muslim, whether they came to Islam through the Shiite tradition or the Sunni tradition.

This year’s turnout was even bigger and more enthusiastic than in previous years, while those of us watching from afar hope the malcontents, infiltrators, and agents of Iran’s enemies, regardless of what their handlers and other mischief makers direct, would have the mindfulness, respect and judgment to avoid seizing this opportunity to make further political gains for Iran’s enemies in Europe, the UK, Saudi Arabia and, above all else, the USA.

Tasnim: After the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Iran has managed to stand up against the US hostility and presence in the region and insisted on its independence. Iran has also made positive impacts on some regional countries through adopting anti-imperialist policies. What are the reasons behind Iran’s increasing impact on the countries despite US pressures?

Grossman: The oppressed always respond well to genuine and righteous assistance. Every sovereign nation has the inherent right to develop alliances and advance policies regarding its relations with other nations, especially with other nations in its own region. It is, moreover, also trite that such policies may reflect concerns over what by any measure is properly considered the oppression of people in other nations based on their race, religion or lawfully exercised political convictions.  That is not to say, however, that foreign policy can ever be properly based on an ambition to infiltrate other sovereign states with a view to removing governments or otherwise directly interfering in social, economic, political, or defense matters, except perhaps in the rare circumstances that the targeted nation’s government:

1. Is convincingly and lawfully proven to have committed what can properly be considered “crimes against humanity”;

2. Is waging a belligerent and therefore unlawful war on another nation; 

3. Is, without any legitimate underlying justification on the grounds of national security, otherwise systematically oppressing a demographic within its own population-based entirely on people’s race, religion or lawfully exercised political convictions; or

4. The legitimate government of the nation in question has specifically asked the government of the intervening nation for assistance in such matters. 

Even then, the kind of response from foreign governments which is permissible must be measured by and commensurate with the underlying justification for any direct intervention.

Yet applying the principles which define the Atlantic World’s own system of international law, it has been apparent through successive waves of European colonialism and, in more recent decades, ubiquitous attempts to impose US hegemony and its self-serving corporatist ideology, that the Atlantic World alliance routinely conducts itself in a manner which instead of justifying its own foreign interventions, in fact, makes the Atlantic World a legitimate target for intervention by other nations.

By way of contrast, all available information suggests that the Islamic Republic of Iran - notwithstanding unrelenting and vague allegation by the US, its allies, and client states - has conducted its foreign policy squarely within the above-mentioned framework. In doing so, despite economic difficulties caused by entirely illegitimate sanctions imposed by the enemies of Iran, the enlightened leadership of Grand Ayatollah Khomeini and Ayatollah Khamenei, among other things, has led to Iran:

1. Providing legitimate political and a measure of economic support to other nations illegally targeted by the Atlantic World alliance;

2. Legitimately supporting the cause of Bahrain’s Shiite majority which, by any coherent measure, has long been oppressed by a puppet regime propped up by both Saudi Arabia and the USA;

3. Providing legitimate support to the regional majority but national minority in Yemen who have been relentlessly targeted by a belligerent and illegal war facilitated by UN hypocrisy and carried out by Saudi Arabia with full support from the USA and UK;

4. Providing limited assistance as requested by Syria’s elected government in the face of a contrived insurgency being executed largely by foreign fighters armed and fully supported by the Atlantic World and its client states in the region;

5. Opposing extremist elements that invoke an absurd and corrupted interpretation of Islam by entirely disregarding the legal imperatives which in no small part define both the mainstream Sunni and Shiite traditions, ostensibly to agitate using unremitting violence for the creation what they falsely portray as a new Islamic State or Caliphate, notwithstanding that most of them have little or no understanding of Islam and seem in fact to be entirely focused on profiting from being stooges in US efforts to destabilize the region through “regime change” and the attempted Balkanization of nations like Syria;

6. Championing the legitimate cause of Palestinians and provided unstinting support to forces committed to opposing Israeli aggression and territorial expansion;

7. Denouncing the ethnic cleansing of Muslim minorities in Myanmar and elsewhere; and

8. Understandably entering into limited strategic alliances with regional superpowers which also take exception to US hegemony.

Bearing all of this in mind, I would answer your question with another question: In a world dominated by US and European aggression in every aspect of modern life and enterprise, how could Iran’s unremitting commitment to justice, fairness and Islam NOT lead to an increasing and positive impact in regions where countless millions of people are violently being targeted, oppressed, and victimized by both the Atlantic World and the corrupt regimes it props up in regional client states?

Tasnim: If the Islamic Revolution had not occurred in Iran and the anti-imperialistic thinking had not spread, what would have happened then and what situation would have been created in Iran and the region?

Grossman: In a nutshell, we can be quite sure that but for Iran’s Islamic Revolution, by now Iran would have become a cheap, low budget mirror of the godless decadence and “wage slavery” which defines the USA. 

What does that mean? Well among other things, it means the vast majority of Iranians, would be living in near abject poverty, despite many working 50 hours a week in US and European owned factories to make cheap clothing and other consumables for their masters as we now see in most of Latin America, Bangladesh, Indonesia, and other many other nations. Moreover, but for the Islamic Revolution, Iran’s immense wealth in natural resources and any hope for the future would now be fully controlled by the same nations that are today committed to destroying Iran by any available means. The political and corporate establishment in those nations, it should be clear to all Iranians, are not even concerned about their own people – a near majority of which are now living in poverty - let alone about Iranians.

The American Dream, as a famous comedian once observed, is called a dream because you have to be asleep to believe it. We pray, InshAllah, that Iranian’s will never go back to sleep again. Long Live Iran’s Islamic Revolution.