Signs of Bravery - Fighting Radical Islam

Two recent stories highlight citizens engaged in behaviors that, taken on their own, are unlikely to have a dramatic impact on the rest of their community.  However, at the same time, they represent feats of bravery that, in tandem with similar acts by others, have the power, over time, of helping affect cataclysmic shifts in their societies. In Tehran, lawyer Mohamed Mostafei is representing 30 of Iran’s 135 underage citizens on death row.  He was quoting in a recent Wall Street Journal describing his work, saying, "We defend and protect victims whom the law does not protect." According to the same article in the Journal, human rights have been deteriorating under the regime of Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who is up for re-election this month. 

In the past few years, reform-minded newspapers and magazines have been shut one by one. In May, one such paper published by another presidential candidate, Mir Hossein Mousavi, lived for only one day before a court ordered it to shut.

Mr. Mostofaie has not been deterred by the clampdown.

As for Mr. Mostafaei, he is responding to the pressure with unconventional means of advocacy. He recruited Iranian movie stars to campaign for his cause, although in November the judiciary subpoenaed the stars and warned them to stay away from publicly campaigning against juvenile executions.  He also runs a blog that tracks human-rights cases. And this past summer, Mr. Mostafaei made a documentary about juveniles on death row.

Regardless of the national outcome of his efforts, he has already made a giant difference in the lives of the families of those he has defended, and in the lives of those he has saved; people who will go on to make their own impacts in their communities over the course of their lives. Elsewhere, in nearby Pakistan, there was a recent demonstration against the Taliban in Islamabad.   A short drive away, a war was being fought by government forces against the group in the Swat Valley.  New York Times writes how the region was recently controlled by them, where they imposed their harsh interpretation of Islamic law on the people living there.   The Los Angeles Times notes how remarkable it is that the protest is happening at all.

While pundits and social critics quite freely attack extremism from the relative safety of Pakistani television studios or opinion pages, hitting the streets, where you're vulnerable to a real attack, is rarer

What we see in both instances are normal citizens taking steps to try and transform their societies, through whatever means are at their disposal, whether that be through peaceful protest, as in the Pakistan demonstration, or through a private and public battle with the judiciary, as is being waged by Mostafaei in Iran.