February 17, 2007
Iran faces problems with terrorism
When we hear the words “terrorism” and “Iran” the first association is usually Iran’s state-sponsored terrorist program. Since the establishment of the Islamic Republic in 1979, Iran has been one of the world’s chief sponsors of terrorism. In the 1980s, the Iranian government sponsored bombings in Kuwait and kidnappings of Westerners in Lebanon. In the 1990s, Iran bankrolled the Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia. More recently, Tehran has been funneling cash and weapons to Shiite militias in Iraq.
However, Iran also has terrorist woes of its own. In the past several days, there have been several bombings in Iran, including a bomb blast a girl’s school.
Iran’s chief terrorist threat comes from two chief sources: Sunni groups, and Marxist-Islamic group called the MEK.
Certain Sunni groups hate Iran’s Shiite clerical government, and would like to replace it with a Sunni regime (an unlikely proposition given Iran’s overwhelmingly Shiite population.) This is just one more chapter in the long and bloody war between Shiite Islam and Sunni Islam.
The MEK, or Mujahedeen-e Khalq, blends Marxism and Islam. This group has a founding premise that is almost as fanciful as the idea of a Sunni regime in Iran. Marxism has had very limited success in the Muslim Middle East. From 1967 to 1990, there was a Marxist Arab state called South Yemen. And one of Saddam’s predecessors, General Qasim, flirted with his own version of neo-Communism in Iraq during the late 1950s.
But these are the exceptions which prove the rule. Marxism promote atheism and undermines traditional social units like the family---which make it incompatible with Islam for obvious reasons.
The MEK dates back to the days of the Shah, when it was just one more opposition group within Iran. The group was expelled from Iran after the Ayatollah Khoemeini took power in 1979.
Notes:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/02/16/iran.bombing/index.html