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Renissance in Tehran --

By Banafsheh Zand-Bonazzi & Elio Bonazzi


Renaissance in Tehran
Khomeini and Savonarola.

By Banafsheh Zand-Bonazzi & Elio Bonazzi

The mass media routinely refers to Western values, such as tolerance and secularism, in contrast to the bigotry and fundamentalism typical of non-Western cultures, thereby generating the erroneous impression that if the West weren't always immune from religious zealotry, it certainly "solved" the issue in a distant past.

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The Renaissance, for instance, is one of the crucial milestones of Western civilization, exercising a profound influence on cultural and intellectual life for centuries. While the Renaissance's achievements are common knowledge, not everybody knows, or remembers, that for several years Florence, the cultural center of the Renaissance, experienced a harsh period. Girolamo Savonarola, an influential preacher, managed to create a theocracy that bears similarities with Khomeini's Iran. Illustrious Renaissance figures, like the painter Botticelli, even bought into Savonarola's zeal; the former voluntarily burned many of his paintings in the belief that they were vain and pagan.

Savonarola, born in 1452, was a monk who hailed from an old family of Ferrara. In early 1482 he was sent by his superior to preach in Florence. His profound concern with the widespread depravity of the era established him as a powerful sermonizer at the peak of the Renaissance; he fervently lashed out at the immoral, pleasure-seeking life of the Florentines. The Medici family became his chosen target and he persistently disputed the morality of these generous patrons of the arts, culture, and the church. He blatantly attacked Lorenzo the Magnificent as the promoter of pagan art, of living frivolously, of ruling as Florence's tyrant.

He announced in prophetic terms the approaching judgment of God and the arrival of an "Avenger" who would reform Church life. The avenger was Charles VIII, king of France, who had entered Italy, and was advancing toward Florence. Savonarola's denunciation of the Medici produced its desired results: Lorenzo's son, Pietro de Medici, who was hated both for his tyranny and for his immoral life, was driven out of the city along with his family. Savonarola visited Charles in Pisa to cheer his imminent arrival in Florence. The king ushered in a new and peculiar constitution — a kind of theocratic democracy was established in Florence — based on the political and social doctrines set forth by Savonarola.

During this period, Savonarola founded a brotherhood for young people to encourage a pious, Christian lifestyle. On Sundays some of the members of this fraternity "cautioned" luxuriously dressed women to lay aside their frivolous ornaments. Thus, an actual morality police was established; these lawmen were encouraged to spy on, denounce, and accuse.

But people soon turned on Savonarola. He was initially excommunicated, then hanged, and finally burned at the stake in May 1498. He would not, however, be the last "proselytizer" who was rejected by the very populace to whom he had brought powerful spiritual renewal.

Like Savonarola, Khomeini created a theocracy based on strictly religious political and social doctrines. Like Savonarola, Khomeini did not "interfere" directly in politics and affairs of state, but his teachings and ideas were absolutely authoritative. And like Savonarola, who tried without success to lead an international convention against the Borgia pope, Khomeini tried to bring together a convention of Islamic leaders to annihilate Israel and to spread his confrontational vision of Islam.

The Basijis, the "morals police" of the Islamic republic of Iran, target women who do not observe the religious dictates of veil and dress — exactly as Savonarola's young brotherhood did in Florence.

The list of similarities between Savonarola's and Khomeini's theocracies goes on, but we will stop here for the sake of brevity.

In the more recent past, Western civilization was finally able to exorcise religious fundamentalism, and now looks back at its worst moments with shame and contrition. Secularism brought us the notion of separation between Church and State.

The fact that in the last few years European powers have helped perpetuate the Islamic republic of Iran, thereby bestowing an aura of international legitimacy on Tehran in exchange for cheap oil, gas, and copper, betrays once again the old-time colonialist policy of allowing "the natives" to do as they wish amongst themselves so long as they do not threaten the interests of the empire.

Religious fundamentalism wouldn't be tolerated in any of the European nations. Any nation attempting the fundamentalist "experiment" would immediately become a pariah, and would be economically blackballed by the other European nations. When Joerg Haider, the controversial, extreme right-wing Austrian politician, formed a coalition government where his party would have had a few ministers, the 14 member states of the EU immediately cut off all bilateral contracts with Austria, forcing Haider to resign as secretary of the party.

It is likely that the same treatment would be reserved for European nations attempting to implement religious fundamentalist policies. But Iranians are not Europeans; they are the "natives" of a distant world, one subjugated to the economic interests of a still-colonialist Europe. So, instead of applying economic, diplomatic, and political pressure to Iran in order to force secularism, EU nations have preferred to maintain the status quo, thereby exploiting the situation to their own economic advantage.

The political justification used by the Europeans to condone their dealings with the mullahs relied on the illusion that the Islamic clerics would have been able to reform the theocratic regime. That illusion has been shattered by the extremely low turnout for the national elections on February 20, a result of an organized campaign — that began back in August — by Ira



    
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