4 - The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, January 10, 2006 OPINION c~be MiritzniiI JASON Z. PESICK Editor in Chief SUHAEL MOMIN SAM SINGER Editorial Page Editors ALISON Go Managing Editor EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN SINCE 1890 420 MAYNARD STREET ANN ARBOR, MI 48109 tothedaily@michigandaily.com NOTABLE QUOTABLE I had some leaves burning outside, so I threw (the mouse) in the fire, and the mouse was on fire and ran back at the house." - New Mexico resident Luciano Mares, 81, whose home was destroyed by afire caused by the burning mouse, as reported yesterday by the Detroit Free Press. COHN DALY THE MiCHIGAN DALY TM o Unsigned editorials reflect the official position of the Daily's editorial board. All other signed articles and illustrations represent solely the views of their author. \ "'e ,^' . ~, , .y :- Rethinking Iran and the maniac who runs it SAM SINGER SA M S CLUT obody seemed terribly sur- prised that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadine- jad used last week's news of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's debilitating stroke as k a platform to launch yet another anti-Israel invective. This one rejoiced over the impend- ing death of Prime Minister Sharon, who at this writing remains in a coma, and reassured his followers that "God willing," countless other Israeli leaders will follow. Since his unantici- pated election victory in June, Ahmadinejad has been a broken record of hate speech, anti- Semitism and poorly camouflaged military threats. His infrequent and elaborately staged public appearances usually double as recit- als for these vicious tirades and take place in receptive settings where he can comfortably brand Israel as the international community's "tumor"; where audiences agree the Jewish state should be "wiped off the map"; where instead of meeting condemnation and disgust, speeches decrying the Holocaust as "myth" find praise and applause. That Ahmadinejad couldn't muster the decency to let grief-stricken Israelis pray for their leader without interruption should come as no shock. It should, however, serve a cau- tionary purpose for U.S. and European officials who insist on viewing the Iranian hardliner through the same tactical lens with which they viewed his relatively moderate predecessor, Mohammad Khatami. Much unlike Khatami, Ahmadinejad operates with glaring contempt for international efforts to curb Iran's nuclear enrichment program and resentment rooted in a dark and fanatical religious conviction, the true contours of which few have come to terms with. As was the case with his mentor Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the spiritual architect behind the 1979 Iranian Revolution, Ahma- dinejad sees government as a tool to instill religious obedience and, if need be, as an instrument of repression. Likewise, Ahma- dinejad took office with an ambitious and divinely inspired policy agenda. At the top of his list: ushering in the Messiah. Yes, as startling as it sounds, Ahmadinejad subscribes to a branch of Shiite Islam con- vinced the return of the Messiah - and with it, the dawn of the apocalypse - is imminent. According to believers, Imam Mahdi, some- times referred to as the Savior of Times, will soon be resurrected in a mosque in southern Iran. The exact timetable for the Shiite version of Judgment Day is unclear, but syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer reports that Ahmadinejad was heard in "official meetings" saying the Imam will return within the next two years. Further complicating matters, this particular understanding of Messianic revival distances itself from the passive fatalism of other religions, holding instead that civil soci- ety (and yes, even government) can play an important function in hastening the Imam's second coming. To this end, Ahmadinejad has proven unwilling to divorce his role as a national leader from that of a religious dis- ciple. Perhaps this explains why as one of his first acts of public policy, Ahmadinejad donat- ed $17 million to the very shrine in which the long-awaited Imam is expected to return. This guy actually believes that along with com- manding a military and overseeing his various internal ministries, heralding the return of the Messiah is all in a day's work. Much to the peril of the rest of the region, Ahmadinejad's apocalyptic delusions are inexorably connected with his long-time loy- alties to violent terrorist groups like Hezbol- lah as well as to his sincere belief that Israel - both as a nation and a people - has no right to existence. Admittedly, a head of state openly hostile toward Israel is garden variety in the Middle East. One that publicly denies the Holocaust? Disturbing, but by no means astonishing. One convinced our day of reck- oning will arrive before the next Harry Potter book? That's just scary. To say that U.S. and European diplomats need to better account for Ahmadinejad's reli- gious leanings during the now-stalled nuclear negotiations is, I believe, a grave understate- ment. If the international community truly wants Iran in a cage, Western stakeholders must stop hiding from the religious motivations behind Ahmadinejad's brinksmanship. They must stop dismissing antagonism as "power projection" and look past "regional posturing" in explaining away his flagrant aggression toward Israel. Most importantly, they must not write off the unthinkable. It's time to consider the frightening possibility that this maniac isn't simply "saber-rattling" when he speaks of rubbing out the Jewish state. The textbook approaches to this type of stra- tegic engagement rely on assumptions of self- preservation and rational policy action that simply don't apply when one party believes itself divinely ordained. Coupling posi- tive incentives with veiled threats may have worked with "rogue states" like Libya and North Korea, where standard rules of engage- ment applied and it was reasonably assumed that all negotiating factions believed life as we know it would continue longer than iwo years down the road. But if this guy is even a quarter as warped as he is reported to be, Iran's hard-line govern- ment will remain the world's most volatile and unpredictable regime. This man is no states- man. He isn't even a politician. He's a self-pro- claimed apostle on a violent, wayward mission from God. Anywhere outside Tehran he'd be in a straitjacket, but as Israel's luck would have it, he happens to command an administration of revolutionary fanatics and a military less than two years away from possessing an operational nuclear weapon. Singer can be reached at singers@umich.edu. el VIEWPOINT Tackling racism, head-on A BY RAJlv PRABHAKAR I spent the bulk of my life as a minority. When I was seven years old, my family and I moved to Singapore - a country where the majority of the population is Chinese. I lived in Singapore until two years ago, when I came to this country for college. Even though I have been living in countries where I was a minority for two-thirds of my life, I had never directly encountered racism. I used to believe that racism was an archaic idea that had died out decades ago along with slavery and colo- nialism. I did not doubt that racial stereotyp- ing was widespread or that people have an innate tendency to favor those of their own race. But the idea of a person disliking some- one purely because of his race seemed too barbaric to be true in today's multicultural world. I placed more trust in the existence of Santa Claus than in the existence of people who support segregation. Unfortunately, my belief in Santa Claus was once again shattered over the past semester. Several events didn't help, such as the alleged incident where college students urinated on and hurled racial slurs at a group of Asians, or my own personal experience when I ran into some girls who did not want to stay too long in an area because "there are a lot of Arabs around here," didn't help. But those incidents were not what made me change my outlook on society. A few months ago, my friend showed me a white supremacist website. I do not want to mention its name, but suffice it to say that it is wildly popular. Its forums attract close to 35,000 visitors every day, some of whom claim to be students at our University, who openly speak out against diversity, clamor for segregation, sling racial slurs of the worst kind and proclaim that whites are genetically superior to everyone else. Posts about eugen- ics, the holocaust being a hoax and Martin Luther King Jr. being a despicable person are nothing out of the ordinary. What is more frightening is that not all the forums there are based on politics or white supremacist philosophy. Visitors frequent the forums to discuss a range of topics from homemaking to music and entertainment. To them, white supremacy is not just a topic - it's a com- munity and a way of life. It is easy to dismiss these white suprema- cists as uneducated and lacking in intel- ligence. But what frightened me the most was that the majority of them are hardly uneducated or lacking in intelligence. They are able to pen very intelligent and eloquent arguments to support their cause. They are able to cite credible statistics and evidence to back up their claims. What frightened me the most was that these people are, by most defi- nitions, smart people, and yet they are firm believers in white supremacy. These people are hardly the stereotypical hicks that come to mind when picturing racists. These people could be your neighbors, your co-workers or even the people interviewing you when you apply for jobs. Over the past semester, I realized that rac- ism has by no means been vanquished. It has simply gone underground. In today's media, saying something that is even slightly con- troversial on touchy issues often results in an enormous backlash and endless personal attacks. It is thus hardly surprising that no one dares to openly espouse white suprema- cist beliefs. This is unfortunate because the best way to tackle racism is not to censor it or to use straw-man arguments, but to fight it head-on. As much as I disagree with and personally dislike white supremacists, their arguments and beliefs should be more fairly represented in the media. I would love to see The New York Times give a columnist spot to a white supremacist just so his arguments supporting segregation and the superior- ity of the white race can be discussed and debunked by experts. As things stand right now, someone who starts developing nascent racist beliefs has no avenue through which he can openly discuss his thoughts. He never sees his beliefs dis- cussed or debated fairly in the media, either. As a result, his thoughts stay inside his head and continue to fester. One day, he might stumble across a white supremacist website where he encounters convincing, quasi-valid arguments backed up by statistics from cred- ible sources. With nothing else to dissuade him, he would end up becoming a believer in white supremacy - this is a life story that is frequently narrated by numerous white supremacists. If these same arguments were discussed in the media, more convincing counter-arguments would be brought up that can more effectively persuade people that white supremacist beliefs are flawed. I used to believe that racism doesn't exist anymore. Now I realize that it not only exists, but is all around us - it is a major problem that society needs to continue addressing. But we can't fight racism simply by being more politically correct, shouting down those who make perceived quasi-racist remarks or by censoring all racist opinions. Doing so will only drive it underground where we can't fight it at all. The best way to fight racism is by allowing people the opportunity to engage in open discourse, even if it involves sensi- tive topics. It is time to bring racism out into the open where it is at its weakest. Prabhakar is an Engineering junior and a member of the Daily's editorial board. 0 0 Editorial Board Members: Amy Anspach, Andrew Bielak, Reggie Brown, Gabrielle D'Angelo, John Davis, Whitney Dibo, Milly Dick, Sara Eber, Jesse Forester, Mara Gay, Jared Goldberg, Ashwin Jagannathan, Theresa Kennelly, Mark Kuehn, Will Kerridge, Frank Man- ley, Kirsty McNamara, Rajiv Prabhakar, Matt Rose, David Russell, Katherine Seid, Brian T .- - - - - - _ ..__,,. I