By Secunder Kermani

‘Western double standards’ is a phrase often bandied around political debate concerning the Muslim world – normally, and quite rightly, in reference to Israel, whose transgressions would provoke far more outrage were they perpetrated by any other country. But many of those who so loudly decry Western double standards are themselves guilty of the very same sin.

A prime example is the recent repression of anti-government protesters in Iran following Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s disputed presidential election victory. I’ve spent the last few months producing an exclusive story for Channel 4 News exposing the systematic rape of young male protesters by the security forces, based on damning evidence from a former member of the ultra-conservative Basij militia.

If such allegations were made in Palestine or Iraq, with young Muslim men being raped by American or Israeli forces, there would be uproar in the Muslim world. Even the rumour of such events would provoke a veritable tidal wave of fury – and rightly so.

But where is that level of furious indignation now? Why isn’t it being directed against the Iranian government?

This isn’t even a question of electoral fraud – I have no conclusive evidence to prove whether vote rigging took place or not. This is a story about the gross violations of fundamental human rights, of the vile and degrading torture of innocent teenagers who dared to express their opposition to the government.

And what’s more, it’s being perpetrated by people who claim to be enforcing pure Islamic law.

Surely this hypocrisy should enrage those same protesters who are so vocal in their condemnation of Israeli atrocities in Palestine, who call for foreign troops to leave Iraq and Afghanistan, who were so incensed by the images from Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib?

Yet it seems not.

Muslim groups have expressed cautious concern at best about human rights abuses in the country, but have for the most part ignored them, sweeping them under the carpet like a dirty secret. The same can be said of the leftist groups who have so nobly taken it upon themselves to defend Muslim lands from Western imperialism.

Why?

Perhaps it’s because debate on Iran is always framed through the paradigms of international conflicts.

Ahmadinejad = Anti-West/Israel = Good.

It seems the Iranian people have been sacrificed at the altar of anti-Americanism by those who should logically be standing up for their rights.

But there seems a tangible reluctance among Muslims to condemn anyone else with even a Muslim name.

Internal abuses in the Muslim world are brushed over in favour of loud posturing against Western imperialism and its bloody effects.

Guantanamo Bay was a prime example – far greater abuses and injustices are committed every second of every day in prisons across the Muslim world, yet the thousands of wrongly imprisoned and tortured prisoners, both political and non-political, fail to attract anywhere near the amount of sympathy from Muslims across the world, including Britain, as for Gitmo inmates.

There is in fact a tendency to deny any abuses allegedly committed by other Muslims. Just witness the conspiracy theories sweeping Pakistan, where despite the Taliban loudly and proudly claiming responsibility for the wave of suicide bombings, people are convinced they are the work of Indian/Israeli/American/Blackwater agents.

Similarly, many Muslims have gravitated towards the Iranian government’s official stance that the protesters have been stirred up by Western agents, and the allegations of abuse mere fabrications.

Few leftist groups have been anywhere near as forthright in their condemnation of the Iranian government as they have of American actions elsewhere in the world. And depressingly some rank and file activists seem to have adopted the Press TV line of claiming the unrest has all been whipped up by the BBC. For them too:

Ahmadinejad = Anti-West/Israel = Good.

It is time to move beyond such simplistic black and white views of the world. Condemning the shocking abuses perpetrated by the Iranian regime on protesters in no way softens equally valid criticism of Israeli apartheid and American selfishness. It is indeed refreshing to see a leader stand up to Israel – but this shouldn’t be at the cost of the blood of internal dissenters.

It is time that the Iranian people, victims of horrific torture, received the support they deserve from the Muslim and wider world. It is time that if anything, Muslims condemn those who have perpetrated such abuses even more strongly than they have the Israelis and Americans, as these rapes have been carried out in the name of upholding an Islamic Republic. And it’s time that leftist groups in the UK and elsewhere made their stance on the issue clear. Loud, vocal condemnation of the Iranian government’s treatment of protesters would be a good start.