“All we are saying, is give peace a chance”

John Lennon will remain one of my favourite artists. He was no politician but an ordinary artist who loved life and loved peace just like the rest of us. But was Lennon addressing the Western politicians or was he telling everyone to give peace a chance? He was singing to everyone including the despots, dictators and warmongers of the rogue regimes of the world to give peace a chance.

It is a wonderful thought and it is wonderful too that we can sing to our politicians here in the West and let them know what we think. It is great that we can voice our opposition against any policies we don’t like. If we sense that our politicians are preparing for war we question them and express our concerns and we can do that without any fear of reprisals or persecution. We live in a free society and are free to think and say what we believe in. Those of us who advocate for peace are able to campaign for peace. We have mass demonstrations against war. We are able to press our politicians not to go to war even when we are under attack or the threat of being attacked is real and imminent.

However, if we really want peace we should be pressing both sides. So far, I only see the anti-war liberals active here in the West. I like to ask the anti-war liberals, why isn’t there a single voice in the Mullah’s entire system that calls for a halt in their nuclear activities to give the negotiations and peace a chance? Why isn’t there one single voice in the mullahs entire country that says let us say yes to the packages of incentives we have received so far and then we will take it from there. From their most supposedly moderates to the most conservatives; from Rafsanjani and Khatami, the darlings of the West’s liberals, to Khamenei and Ahmadinejad, the Mullahs are all saying: “nuclear technology is our absolute right!” But here I am one Iranian like many others speaking on behalf of me; my family, my friends and supporters saying halt the damned nuclear activities and give peace a chance. But I can only say this because I am sitting in my comfortable chair in a western city, safe and secure and have no fear. Still no one would listen to us. If I were in Iran I would most likely say, “nuclear technology is our absolute right!” just like the rest of the people who are opposed to the regime but would not dare speak against it.

If the Western anti-war liberals really want peace, they must call upon the Islamic regime as well to stop their training and supplying terrorists with arms and money. I like to see the anti-war campaigners to set up stalls in Iran telling Khamenei and Ahmadinejad that they should halt their nuclear activities just for a short while to give negotiations and peace a chance. I like to see the peace campaigners travel to Iran and tell the Islamic regime to give Iranians some peace. I like to see the anti-war liberals tell the mullahs: violation of human rights of Iranians is not acceptable; shutting down and censoring the media is not acceptable; flogging, amputation and stoning is not acceptable; execution of children is not acceptable; women being forced to cover themselves is not acceptable; a woman being equal to half a man is not acceptable; and segregating men and women is not acceptable. But if this is asking for too much because freedom and liberal values are luxuries that only and only belong to the Western liberal anti-war activists and peace campaigners and civil liberty activists, then I beg them to tell the Mullahs of Tehran that: their wanting to destroy Israel is not acceptable; denial of holocaust is not acceptable; developing long range missiles and nuclear bombs is not acceptable; wanting to impose sharia laws on the rest of the world is not acceptable; calling the Westerners ‘decadent infidels’ is not acceptable; and shouting “death to America” and “Death to Israel” is not acceptable.

As well as telling your politicians here in the West to negotiate with the Mullahs, which is absolutely fine, go and set up camps in Iran too. Go and tell the Mullahs, you are camping for peace. Tell the mullahs you want them to stop their nuclear activities for a short while for the sake of negotiations and peace. Tell them if they do that they will get their nuclear power station up and running a lot earlier than they could manage on their own and on top of that get all the other goodies on offer. Tell them if they behave and win the trust of the West, they might even in time be allowed to enrich their own uranium. Go on then! Why don’t you go to Iran? Are you scared? Are you scared you might get charged with espionage?

Update 29/06/2008: Iran tries spy for Israel