Middle-east Arab News Opinion | Asharq Al-awsat

Iran: A self-review! | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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Some Iranian media outlets, particularly those with ties to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corp [IRGC], strongly attacked the speech given by Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi at the opening ceremony of the Non-Aligned Movement summit in Tehran.

This attack is being launched from two directions, namely a political direction and a sectarian one.

The political attack has focused on objecting to Dr. Mursi’s description of the rule in Syria as “oppressive”, and that supporting the Syrian youth to rid themselves of the tyrant is a “moral obligation”. This attack is against the harsh but completely legitimate descriptions of the Syrian regime put forward by the Egyptian president.

Dr. Mursi’s attack during the opening ceremony of the Non-Aligned Movement summit was said to have “spoilt the mood” and was viewed as “political marketing”. However in reality, the Iranians were seeking to carry out this political marketing themselves by utilizing the summit to gain some reflected glory for the struggling Tehran regime.

The heavy fire thrown by the Egyptian president at Syria was akin to a political slap in the face of Iran, which is desperately defending its Syrian ally.

If Dr. Mursi’s statements on the Syrian issue were the source of political embarrassment for Iran, then the manner in which he began his speech, making reference to the Prophet Muhammad, and his companions Abu Bakr, Omar, Othman and Ali, served as a tremendous source of sectarian embarrassment.

The Egyptian president, who represents the largest Arab Sunni country in the Middle East, wanted to clearly and unequivocally state that he was not ashamed of praising the rightly-guarded caliphs and Prophet’s companions, and that he does not accept any denigration of them, bringing a 1,400 year-old controversy into the spotlight once more.

The manner in which Dr. Mursi began his speech has placed the Iranian decision-makers in an embarrassing position. In addition to this, it brought attention to Iran’s iron grip over its official media outlets, which do not publish any criticism or objection to the massacres being carried out by the al-Assad regime. State media also failed to relay Mursi’s praise for Abu Bakr, Omar, Osman and Ali, may God be pleased with them; portraying the Tehran regime as if it is a relic from the stone age!

Iran has created a delusional world around itself, based on the theory that the entire world is conspiring against Tehran and that Iran is the true victim. This world is based on the delusion that everybody else is wrong and that Iran is right; that all the Sunnis are wrong and only Iran is correct, historically, jurisprudentially and doctrinally. This is a logic that is doomed to fail historically.

The Iranian decision makers must conduct a self-review, reviewing their own political, security and sectarian trends. Iran must look at the world in a manner that is not Persian-centric, sectarian or delusional.