Tohir Solomons

Dr. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad – Iran’s new president

Posted on the July 1st, 2005 under Uncategorized by Tohir

Reading through the news on BBC, there was paragraph that caught my attention. It was a summary of newspapers response to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s victory in the Iranian election – Muslim press ponders Iran poll.

Egypt’s Al-Akhbar newspaper had the following to say:

With, Dr Ahmadinejad’s victory, US expectations have collapsed… The new president is likely to face problems because the supreme leader of the Islamic revolution named [defeated candidate] Ali Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani to head the order protection council, a very significant post which controls all the country’s policies, particularly foreign policy. This will tie the hands of the new president in making decisions.

Apart from recognizing that Rafsanjani still has an influential role despite his loss, it speaks of Doctor Ahmadinejad. This was the first time I came across this form of address and respect to Dr. Ahmadinejad. The best we heard from the Western newspapers was ‘conservative hardline Tehran mayor’.

But this is indicative of Western attempts to undermine their opposition. We never heard of Dr Abdul Aziz Rantisi but Hamas militant leader, Aziz Rantisi. The same goes with Dr Mahmoud Zahar.

Muslim leaders are undermined and disrespected for ulterior reasons. It is up to Muslims to uphold their leaders and show them the respect the West intentionally refuses to give them.