WHO'S THE F....NG LIAR, HERE, EH?

Much has been made of Iranian president's evasiveness in answering questions about anti-gay laws in Iran, and the treatment of women. Several journalists have used these topics as an excuse to dismiss everything he said as 'mendacious'. There are two serious problems with this approach. First it allows these journalists to behave as if the West has always been friendly to gays- an obvious lie since homosexuals suffered decades of persecution with extreme prejudice including savage beatings in some cases or suicide in others. Secondly, it allows them to ignore the real and valid allegations Ahmadinejad made about the terrorism and war-criminal acts of the West, particularly the US and UK.

There is therefore plenty of mendacity in the way Western journalists have reported Ahmadinejad's speeches. Brobdingnagian mendacity in fact. As an article in the Star recently stated, 2 gays were executed in Iran in 2005 under harsh laws, but the community of gays by and large functions without persecution so long as they stay closeted and don't become activists demanding rights. The principal privation that
Iranian gays seem to suffer then, is they cannot hold Gay Pride marches as in the West. Is that really a big deal? And how long did Western gays have to suffer and fight before they acquired this privilege?

Secondly - women's rights. Yes Iran is an Islamic country and behind the West in this respect. But the West's record once again on this subject is hardly laudatory, as women suffered exploitation and inequality (in some respects they still do) for ages before the Suffragists and Feminists changed the societal dynamic so far that now extreme misandrous (male-hating) feminist ideology is sacrosanct in Western society.

The high and mighty in the West must have an unbelievable amount of feminist 'skeletons' in their closets to have capitulated so cravenly to every extreme feminist demand, even in the face of contradictory evidence and protest from moderate feminists who have argued in vain that male-female relations are too complex to be adjudicated in the 'male aggressor, female victim' mold. And male academics who have tried to publish research contradicting feminist ideology have been ostracized, persecuted and marginalized. No wonder the Western media finds it profitable and safe to pay homage to feminist ideology rather than male-female realities.

Now on to the bigger mendacities of omission by the Western media. Journalists attacking Ahmadinejad's statements (not actions) should note the duplicitous, imperialist and frequently genocidal actions of their own governments, which the Iranian president politely tried to bring to the world's attention. They should mention the long-standing history of imperialist interference in the Middle East and other parts of the third world.

The Sykes-Pikot treaty, the CIA coup to remove Mossadegh and install the brutal Shah in Iran, the deceit and complicity of Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan in providing massive WMD to Saddam Hussein to wage war against Iran, the denial of Palestinian rights, the US's occupation of Iraq and their killing of 650,000 Iraqi civilians - these are all truths that the Western media doesn't want to mention.

Hence their focus on some things Ahmadinejad allegedly said, instead of what their societies and governments did. Academics who have tried to publish similar views in America, and even former leaders such as Jimmy Carter, have seen themselves ostracized. The West does not want to hear the truth about its own crimes.

Hence the media's refusal to report the fact that Ahmadinejad's views on Israel are supported by many Jewish groups opposed to Zionism and that the leaders of such groups actually met Ahmadinejad during his visit to New York as a gesture of support...... now that simply cannot be reported, can it?

The West and its media are guilty of far greater mendacity than they accuse Ahmadinejad of, and much, much, much else besides.

Harinder Jadwani