Le mouvement libéral et ses échecs en Iran

Résumé du document

How did the movement originally gain momentum and what were its main objectives? What factors led to its demise ?

Extraits

[...] While their action may or may not have been religiously motivated, they did not attempt to give any explicitly religious content to it. The beliefs of its principal leaders notwithstanding, the NRM' s main function was to keep alive Nationalism, not to advance Islam. Their Islamic activism had been motivated by their fear of communist and Baha'i inroads into Iranian youth, and this religious activism gradually converged with their political involvement in the National Movement to produce the LMI. It was against this liberal nationalism that the Islamic clerics had to wage a vigorous campaign in 1979-81. [...]

[...] Khamenei's leadership has been declared to be against "deviation, liberalism, and American-influenced leftists" since his inaugural address in 1981. The Iranian revolution is at large tied to the Shia view of history and society. Shiites have, since the early sixteenth century, searched for recognition and predominance in the Muslim world. Yet, the overwhelming majority of Muslim countries are Sunni that fear or despise Shiism. And although many Sunni Muslims share Iran's hostility towards the West, they do not seem disposed to enter into a coordinate foreign policy with Iran. [...]

[...] Other people who pass themselves off as nationalists are also taking part in the creation of the "National Front" along with Mossadegh. They include: former deputy Dr. Begai, who sharply criticized the government in the Majlis; Nariman, famous in the past for his sympathies toward the Americans; Amir Alai, a relative of Qavam's; Khalili and Senjabi, who are connected with the British and hostile to the USSR. The makeup of the organizers of the "National Front" give reason to think that: 1. Mossadegh's group primarily pursues the goal of getting deputy's seats in the Majlis. [...]

[...] Contrary to the previous leaders, Mossadegh wanted the nation to be active and get down to business. In "Occidentosis: A plague from the West", Jala Al-i Ahmad typically argues for this type of reflexion stating that Iran had failed to master the industrial revolution and the era of the machine. He also qualifies Iranian people as alien to themselves. In 1953, the Central Intelligence Agency in conjunction with British and Iranian affiliates, led a coup in Iran that toppled the democratically elected Prime Minister, Dr. [...]

[...] For in every revolution lies the failure of the previous ones, one should examine the inherent inadequacy in any given liberal nationalist movement before discussing its repeated failure in Iran from the 1950s to the 1980s. The goals of a liberal-nationalist party are the pursuit of economic freedom and national sovereignty. If by definition Liberalism is worldwide, its nationalist counterpart imposes more moderate economic openness to promote social conservatism. National-liberalism is an ideal for it does not exist by itself in concrete political society. However, it identifies a combination of accession to Global Capitalism and reproduction of the national ideological perimeter. It is first and foremost contradictory and its paradoxical expression exacerbates identity particularisms. [...]