Last week, Akbar Ganji received the annual award from Rights and Democracy [1] (or International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development), a Canadian government-funded organisation which is known to be the Canadian version [2] of the American National Endowment for Democracy.

In his speech, he openly called for Western government's support to spread democracy and human rights in Iran, according to the Persian version of his speech [3], published by Dutch-funded 'pro-democracy' projects, Rooz Online and Radio Zamaneh.

The award was given to him by Saad Eddin Ebrahim [4] one of the most avid supporters of the now-defunct Neo-conservative plans to spread democracy in the Middle East, who has also been the director of Rights and Democracy and now sits on its board of directors [5]. (Ibrahim was previously the director of the American Islamic Congress [6] and is still on its board, is on the advisory committee of the Journal of Democracy [7], published by the National Endowment for Democracy, and is exclusively represented [8] by Benador Association. See where else he is or has been serving [9].)

The award was supposed to be given to Ibrahim. But according to Janice Stein, the chair of the Rights and Democracy board that also include Mr. Ibrahim, decided to award Ganji instead of Ibrahim. (Source: Rooz Online [10])

Before handing the award to Ganji, Ibrahim praised Ganji and talked about the many similarities between himself and Ganji. Ironically, among other things, both men have been previously praised and supported by George W. Bush. When Ibrahim was arrested and eventually found guilty and sentenced to seven years of hard labour by the Egyptian state, Bush suspended a $150m aid package to Egypt [11], as a result of the verdict. He later met Bush in a 'democracy' conference in Prague in 2006 and recalled Bush telling him [12]: "So don’t lose hope. We are supporting you, and we are with you."

Akbar Ganji, too, while spending the last months of his sentence in 2005, enjoyed Bush's unprecedented and firm support. "Mr. Ganji, please know that as you stand for your own liberty, America stands with you," he said in a statement published by the White House [13]. How do you think one should interpret all this? Ganji has increasingly become outspoken against military attack and sanctions against Iran and I personally admire him for his courage to do so.

But one has to be quite naive not to see the obvious contradictions between his anti-war and anti-sanction stance and his justification and calls for foreign intervention in Iran with the usual pretext of 'human rights' and 'democracy'. (Interestingly enough, Ibrahim calls for Western help [14] toward democratization in the Arab world in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece.)

To me, Akbar Ganji's opposition to Bush and his administration's hardline stance against Iran doesn't mean he is in principle against foreign intervention. In fact, in his own words 'Western governments' should 'support human rights and democracy in Iran,' and that is exactly what the American Democrats think too.

Just wait and see how, with a change of administration in the forthcoming U.S. elections, Ganji and similar figures (such as Shirin Ebadi, Abbas Milani, Ali Afshari, etc.) would become proponents of the new policy toward Iran which, according to a friend, would try to buy the Iranian revolution, rather than bombing it.