Re: Western Mythology: What is the West really fighting?

Description: The West should be fighting extremist ideology.

Question: What is the West really fighting?

Transcript: The way should be . . . should be fighting fundamentalist ideology. Whether they are doing it or not is another story. First of all I think well partly if you are dealing with someone like Osama bin Laden, then I know that the fight is military. Apart from that it shouldn’t be. You know I was very much against the war in Iraq before it happened, apart from the fact that I had lived in Iran and I knew how disastrous it will be for my country, which it was. Because the most extreme elements of the system got into Iraq, and they also got to suppress the Iranian people far more. And every time you talked about democracy they say you’re an American stooge. So for us we paid a price. But I think if the West doesn’t understand that what the fundamentalists are afraid of is the culture of democracy, what is it that they object to? Freedom of women; freedom of expression; freedom of minorities; freedom of culture; all of these is what Osama bin Laden is saying – calling the west decadent the way Stalin used to call the West decadent for these issues. So these are your strong points. If you’re fighting, you fight with culture. You fight with ideology. If you’re fighting with people who torture their own people and others, you don’t do the same thing. So the West I feel should be very careful about not becoming cynical of its own values. What threatens the West is partly radical Islam or radical Islam; partly the fear of terror. But the most threat to the West is cynicism about its own values and principles. And that I think is what threatens the West.

Question: What is the biggest Western myth?

Transcript: Well because of this polarization, first of all the same way that people keep talking about what is genuine authentic Islam, you’ll find this in America nowadays. Who is the authentic American? You know will the authentic American please stand up? (Chuckles) The myth of . . . And it is the most, again, simplified mythology – like they talk about values. Mr. Huckabee talks about family values and American values. Was American values always values against gays? I mean that is how this country was founded – we’re fighting women’s rights and gay rights? Or was American values based on life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. I felt that if you wanted to use a great American myth, you use the myth that this is a country based on an impossibility. This is a country that came here and said we’ll create something that has not existed. So it is a country of the future in a sense. And it is a country where . . . That is why it allows people like me to still come and make the same claims. You know that I can do something I could never do. And these are American values for me. To reduce it to this disgusting talk that American values are about protecting our children from, you know, gays and lesbians and . . . I’m sorry I keep saying that, but that keeps coming up to my mind as something so narrow and just disturbing, you know. And by the way I tell Americans – and I was saying that last night actually at the meeting – if Americans feel that it is beneath their dignity . . . that water boarding and censorship in this country hurts their values, why don’t they think that this hurts my values as a Persian? Why don’t they think . . . Some people on the left, why don’t they think they should support human rights of Iranians, or Afghanis, or Iraqis right now? How many people on the left are coming out and saying Iraqi women cannot leave home? If they leave home without their veil they will be killed. Iraqi minorities are killed. The street where Iraqis have their bookstores has gone up in flames. Why don’t they support the Iranian women who are right now asking for one million signatures against the repressive laws in Iran? Why don’t they . . . Why do they ask President Bush to condemn Saudi Arabia, but they don’t come out against Saudi Arabia in the streets? You know these are the questions that I think the myth of the West . . . If you guys have those values you talk about, why aren’t you concerned about connecting your values to others? Why is it that coming to me – it’s my culture to . . . to wear the veil; but it is not your culture because Harriett Beecher Stowe, when she was fighting, they were telling her that Bible says that a woman’s place is at home. Those women in the 19th century were not ______________, and they were called blue stockings in . . . as a derogatory term. Elizabeth Cady Stanton did not live to see women gain the rights to vote, which was only in 1924. It’s not still 100 years, you know. So . . . I’m sorry. Am I going . . .? You can always edit this. So what I’m saying about these mythologies is depending on whose mythologies you choose. I choose the Declaration of Independence myth. And I think the wonderful thing about America . . . People keep saying we have a woman and an African-American now running for presidency; but think that we say that with surprise, which means that’s . . . It’s no surprise to me. Why shouldn’t a woman or an African-American be the candidate for the greatest democracy in the world? But we have come a long way, but not long enough to begin with. And the second thing is that the best thing about this country is that it can change. It can stretch its laws so the woman in 19th century who had to stay at home in the 21st century can run for the highest office; so a man who in 19th century would be working in the fields as a slave can now become the president of this country. Martin Luther King’s dream was not just a dream. This is the myth that I’m after, and that is why sometimes I think Obama is giving us the right message.

Recorded on: 2/22/08