Mr. President. Charity Begins at Home!

Rooz Online:

In his speech at the UN in New York last week, Mr. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran's new president called for the establishment of democracy, justice and love of human beings.

Traditionally the United Nations' World Summit is a good venue for leaders of countries to speak of peace, justice and ethics. The reality is that such speeches, especially when they do not offer specifics or a clear agenda, are not taken seriously outside the UN headquarters. In other words, the speaker will make a mockery of himself if his country has a practical record of not respecting the peaceful recommendations the speaker is advocating.

Therefore, one should expect that by prescribing love, justice and democracy to the world community, the Iranian president, as the representative of his country at the United Nation, has already achieved the same in his motherland. But nothing is further from the truth.

In his calls for respecting democracy, one can question Mr. Ahmadinejad's readiness to be tolerant of his government’s critics. One can also ask whether he would defend individual rights and ensure that people are not prosecuted, investigated by intelligence agents, and subjected to discrimination and arrest if they question officials and their policies.

In order to test Mr. President's sense of justice, one can also judge him to see if he is ready to provide and defend women’s equal rights that should equal those of men. Does the Iranian president believe that the rights that women enjoy or do not have in Iran today are indicative of justice in Iran? READ MORE

Finally, one should ask the Iranian President whether he considers the critics of the Iranian government to be "human beings" or not. And since he proclaims and preaches human love to mankind, is he ready to fight with those who violate human rights of citizens who question officials and the government? If the President is so in love with humanity will he make any effort to release human beings such as Akbar Ganji from prison who have ended up there because of their free conscious?

Mr. Ahmadinejad's trip to meet other leaders will most likely be his only foreign trip of this kind. But the international community will judge the motives and seriousness of his words and calls by looking at how he responds to the situation in his own country.