U.S. President Donald Trump pulling out of the Iranian nuclear deal was the beginning of a new era – one in which America's appeasement of the mullahs' regime has come to an end. The question remains: How can the U.S. continue to curb the Iranian and other Islamist threats across the Muslim world? The answer lies in steps the U.S. must take to support minority dissidents.
According to Foreign Policy, Iran's ethnic minorities make up roughly 40% to 50% of the population. They include Turkish speaking Azeris, Kurds, Ahwazi Arabs, Balochs, Armenians, Turkmens and Lurs. Each of these minorities also have their own unique grievances against the Iranian regime. In addition, Iran also has numerous religious minorities such as Jews, Christians, Zoroastrians, etc. who are treated like second-class citizens. Groups like the Baha'is are not even granted basic human rights. Indeed, it is better to be a Shiite Muslim foreigner in Iran than an Iranian Baha'i.
If America took a stance in favor of helping these Iranian ethnic and religious minority groups, the Iranian regime would be even further cut down to size.
A good first step for stopping Iranian aggression is to help minority dissidents both in Iran and in countries that are friendly to Iran. According to the BBC, Kurdish dissident Ramin Hossein-Panahi, whom the regime accuses of being a member of the Komala Party of Iranian Kurdistan and taking up arms against the government, was on death row until the Iranian regime faced intense international pressure. As a result, though he is still sitting in prison, his execution has been delayed. Nevertheless, his life is still very much in danger for, according to the Voice of America, the Iranian regime already rejected the appeal of his death sentence, and it is feared that he will be executed now that Ramadan is over. If the West continues to pressure Iran to release him, he could one day be a free man.
According to Iran Human Rights, Hossein-Panahi's human rights were violated from day one. His family received no information about his fate or whereabouts for four months after his arrest. To add insult to injury, three of his relatives were arrested after seeking information about his whereabouts. There are reports that he was tortured and was denied medical treatment for injuries he received during his imprisonment after he was beaten with cables. In addition, he was only allowed one visit with his lawyer between his arrest and the trial, and no family visits were permitted. Kurdish rebel Mohammed Alizadeh stated in an exclusive interview that his family claims he was never involved in an armed dispute as the Iranian regime claims and that the charges were merely revenge for his family's political activities.
It would be nice if President Trump spoke out against his imminent execution and the oppression faced by other minority dissidents both inside Iran and in Muslim countries friendly to the Iranian regime as part of his policy of being tough on Iran. It should not be just about their nuclear program, ballistic missile program and the terror the regime is spreading throughout the Middle East and the entire world. It should also be about the terror that the Iranian regime is committing against its own citizens, for a regime that does not care about its own people obviously won't care about others.
Iran is not the only Muslim country that oppresses its minorities. In recent years in the wake of the ISIS threat, minorities like the Yezidis and the Christians have been ethnically cleansed from Iraq and Syria, both countries heavily under the grip of the Iranian regime. Despite the fall of ISIS, these minority groups in both Iraq and Syria continue to suffer. In Afrin, Syria, there have been reports that the minorities are being forcefully converted to Islam after Turkey and its allies took control of the area. In Mount Sinjar, Sheikh Mirza Ismail reported that very few Yezidi temples have been rebuilt and not many are helping the Yezidis to rebuild their lives after experiencing a horrific genocide. And they are not the only ones. In recent years, Druze have also been forcefully converted and massacred by radical Islamists, and there are reports that the Druze in the Afrin region also fear for their future after Turkey took control of the area.
Unfortunately, the persecution of religious minorities extends beyond the Middle East to other countries in the Muslim world. According to Shipan Kumer Basu, president of the World Hindu Struggle Committee; Rabindranath Ghosh, founder and president of Bangladesh Minority Watch, had his home recently demolished: "He is a known advocate who seeks to help the persecuted Hindu, Christian, Buddhist, atheist and non-Muslim tribal minorities in Bangladesh. He also seeks to help secular Muslims. So far, none of the perpetrators have been arrested and no compensation has been paid to the family."
However, because Bangladesh does not have a nuclear program or a leadership that threatens anyone beyond its own citizens, not many are paying attention to the oppression of minorities there. This should change – any human rights violations targeting minorities should matter.
Furthermore, the blossoming of ties between Iran and the Sheikh Hasina government in Bangladesh in the wake of the nuclear deal demonstrates how regimes that harm minorities reinforce one another. It is time for this facade to crumble. It is time for the West to take a stance against the oppression of minorities across the Islamic world.
