Khatami's visit to Harvard

Governor's got it wrong on Khatami
By Kaveh Afrasiabi | Boston Globe: September 7, 2006

IRAN'S FORMER PRESIDENT, Mohammad Khatami, is scheduled to deliver a lecture this weekend at Harvard University on the topic of ``ethics of tolerance in the age of violence," but Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney has criticized Khatami as a ``terrorist" undeserving of the state's security protection during his brief visit.

Romney may have put himself in the national limelight by taking a stand against Khatami, but he is wrong on several accounts.

First, Khatami has been lavishly praised by various world leaders -- including the late Pope John Paul II, former president of Germany Johannes Rau, theologian Hans Kung, and UN Secretary General Kofi Annan -- for his role in initiating the idea of ``dialogue among civilizations."

Calling for ``replacing hostility and confrontation with discourse and understanding," Khatami unveiled this idea in his address to the General Assembly in September 1998. Following his advice, the UN adopted the year 2001 as the Year of Dialogue Among Civilizations and promoted activities aimed ``to strengthen solidarity, respect, and tolerance" in the world.

Far from a cliche or a bygone agenda, both the UN and UNESCO have continued with their efforts in promoting the idea of dialogue. In 2005, Annan appointed Khatami as a member of a high-calibered group of notables called ``Alliance of Civilizations."

To ignore the significance of Khatami's message of tolerance and reciprocal understanding and call him a terrorist, as Romney has done, is an unjustified affront that overlooks Khatami's other legacy as the first Muslim leader who forecefully condemned the ``barbaric" atrocities in New York on Sept. 11, 2001.

Khatami has also spoken against the ``myth of Holocaust" rhetoric from Iran's current president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and has called the Holocaust a ``tragic historical reality."

A former minister of culture who was forced to resign in 1992 because of his moderate sensibility, Khatami has a remarkable record as president of Iran for eight years. Sure, he did not have much power and was constantly under siege by the more militant factions. However, he did his best to advance the cause of civil society in Iran, by promoting free press, women's rights, and the like.

In retrospect, the ``failure" of reform movement in Iran had much to do with the post-9/11 Iranian security paranoia caused by President Bush's interventionist policies in the region, causing a hard-line backlash against Khatami's perceived politics of appeasement, vis-à-vis the United States. However, Khatami is increasingly playing a leading role in resurrecting the reform movement by setting aside his previous misgivings to get directly involved in party politics -- a good sign for the future of Iran's faction-ridden politics and the prospects for next rounds of parliamentary and presidential elections in Iran.

Finally, in his current tour of the United States, Khatami has reminded people that his administration agreed to suspend the uranium enrichment program and has called for a more conciliatory approach by Iran's nuclear negotiation team. This has caused vehement criticism by militants in Iran, with some calling for his ``defrocking" upon his return.

Unfortunately, Romney's one-dimensional assessment of Khatami, ignoring the protean value of Khatami's message of tolerance and cross-cultural understanding, puts him in company with the voices of intolerance who wish to silence Khatami. Romney may want to take a cue from Khatami's observation: ``The political translation of Dialogue Among Civilizations would mean that culture, morality, and art must prevail over politics."

Khatami deserves a hero's welcome by the governor.

Kaveh Afrasiabi is a former consultant to the UN's Program of Dialogue Among Civilizations and director of the organization Global Interfaith Peace.