Most commendably, he stated that "killers who go among others and kill others in acts of terror, if they identify themselves with Islam, they are lying. You Muslims who live in the United States should be representatives of enlightenment and don't allow those who create this Islamophobia to speak for the religion.”
Laudable speechifying, and we especially note the inclusion of the Iranian word for “enlightenment,” which, in its capital "E" meaning, is the very remedy Islam’s misrepresentatives require.
Yet, given his successor’s recent effort to crackdown on liberal and secular profs at Iran’s universities, one wonders how he managed to represent his liberal agenda here.
One also wonders what the monomaniacal Ahmadinejad is cogitating in his behind-the-curtain Iago moments. What, a defeated rival feted in Washington, while I, a pariah, scheme unloved?
Could Khatami’s trip be part of the obvious efforts by the crafty mullahs at home to obfuscate whether Iran is a nation of nuclear malefactors who need the West to apply the remedial lessons of sanctions?
Unavoidable suspicion aside, let’s toss a congratulatory turban high in Khatami's honor.
Then we shall wait to see what the future brings, which, inevitably, is hung with question marks, trembling in time’s uncertain winds.
About The Author
Tom Attea, humorist and creator of http://NewsLaugh.com, has had six shows produced Off-Broadway. Critics have called his writing "delightfully funny," "witty," with "great humor and ebullience" and "good, genuine laughs."
