The Ayatollah’s Foot Soldiers march through London
In August 1979, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini consecrated the last Friday of Ramadan as ‘Al-Quds Day’: ‘a universal day to support the oppressed against the oppressor’. This was to be an annual worldwide rally ‘to proclaim the international solidarity of Muslims in support of the legitimate rights of the Muslim people of Palestine’ (Sahifa-y Nur, Vol.8: 229).
The event is well known as an anti-Semitic circus act. Indeed, at yesterday’s march ‘Zionists’ were even blamed for the Grenfell calamity. The irony of thuggish anti-Semites vociferously proclaiming their anti-racism was not lost on the cognitively alert.
Equally significant, however, is the parade’s radical Khomeinist sectarianism. Flown proudly were the flags of Hezbollah: a quasi-fascist Lebanese paramilitary corps currently engaged in the industrial murder of Sunni Arabs in Syria. With arm gestures akin to the Nazi salute, the demonstrators intermittently chanted ‘Hezbollah, Nasrallah!’ and ‘Khomeini! Khomeini!’
Recent developments in Syria make this especially disturbing. At this very moment, Hezbollah forces, in partnership with other Iranian-controlled Shia militias from Iraq (Harakat al Nujaba) and Afghanistan (Liwa Fatemiyoun), are marauding the city of Daraa, where the Syrian Revolution was born in 2011.
Intriguingly, however, the war in Syria was met with conspicuous silence, with neither the organisers nor demonstrators mentioning the military campaign. This was presumably a deliberate ploy to maintain a degree of unity amidst an otherwise Shia Islamist spectacle.
Related to the affirmation of the Islamic Republic of Iran was the denunciation of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Placards were held aloft blending the faces of King Salman and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, castigating both as the betrayers of Palestine. Following recent news of Israeli material support for Syrian rebel groups in the Golan Heights, it was frequently alleged that ‘Israel and ISIS are the same, the only difference is the name!’
This fits into a wider pattern of Iranian state propaganda. Firstly, it homogenises the entire Syrian opposition as Islamic State terrorists. Secondly, it alleges a conspiratorial alliance between ‘Riyadh and Tel Aviv’ — also known in Assadist/Khomeinist circles as ‘Zio-Wahhabism’. Thirdly, it bolsters the Iranian claim to authentic ownership of the Palestinian struggle, particularly as Gulf States have aligned de facto with Israel against Tehran.
The Qatar crisis has intensified the Hezbollah-Iran-Hamas alliance. Palestinian newspaper Al Quds reported last Thursday that the deputy chairman of Hamas’s political bureau, Musa Abu Marzouk, privately met with Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah. Hamas’ foreign relations chief, Osama Hamdan, has also announced that a delegation, headed by Ismail Haniyeh, will soon visit Iran.
Thus, Al Quds day is not only an exhibition of radical anti-Zionism, but a theatrical performance of Iranian political design.
A parade which features explicit racial incitement and sectarian militarism raises challenging questions concerning the legal limits of free speech. Firstly, it is remarkable that anti-Semitic exhortation is given police protection through Oxford Street. Secondly, it highlights a hole in extant anti-terror legislation. While the military wing of Hezbollah is proscribed in the UK, those adorning Hezbollah garb conveniently stapled themselves with leaflets expressing their solidarity with the political wing. This technicality is surely falsified by reality.
As Karl Popper astutely argued, ‘Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them.’
