For years, European leaders have presented themselves as the world's moral conscience. They have lectured others about democracy, human rights and the rule of law. Yet when faced with one of the world's most brutal regimes, those lofty principles seem to disappear.
A recent article from Gatestone Institute highlights a disturbing contradiction. While the Iranian regime continues to execute protesters, torture political prisoners, suppress women, sponsor terrorism and arm Russia, Europe's response remains one of diplomatic engagement, cautious statements and ongoing trade.
Contrast that with the speed and ferocity with which many European governments condemn Israel whenever it defends itself against terrorist organisations. One situation generates endless resolutions, investigations and moral outrage. The other receives little more than expressions of "grave concern."
Forgotten Victims
The greatest victims of this policy are not Western governments. They are the ordinary people of Iran.
These are the young women who removed their hijabs knowing they could be beaten or killed.
These are the students who marched for freedom.
These are the journalists, dissidents and political prisoners who dared to challenge a regime that has ruled through fear for decades.
Many have paid with their liberty. Many have paid with their lives.
Yet while these courageous Iranians risk everything in the hope that the democratic world would stand beside them, Europe continues to treat their oppressors as legitimate diplomatic partners. Iranian embassies remain open across Europe, trade continues, and normal diplomatic relations persist despite the regime's extensive record of executions, terrorism and repression.
Whatever Happened to "Never Again"?
Europe likes to remember those who resisted fascism during the Second World War.
It rightly celebrates those who fought Nazi tyranny, honours the heroes of the Cold War who resisted Soviet oppression, and praises those who stood against communist dictatorships throughout Eastern Europe.
Those struggles were once seen as universal battles between freedom and tyranny.
Why is Iran different?
Why are today's freedom fighters apparently less deserving of support?
If Europe's leaders genuinely believe in human rights, surely those rights belong to Iranian women, students and political prisoners just as much as they belonged to dissidents behind the Iron Curtain.
The Moral Confusion of Modern Europe
One cannot help wondering what has changed.
Is Europe simply exhausted after decades of international crises?
Has economic dependence clouded moral judgement?
Or has mass immigration from parts of the Islamic world altered the political calculations of many European governments?
These are uncomfortable questions, but they are legitimate ones.
Large-scale immigration from countries where political and religious attitudes often differ significantly from Europe's traditional liberal values has changed the political landscape in many nations. Politicians increasingly find themselves balancing foreign policy decisions against domestic electoral considerations.
That does not mean immigrants as a whole share the views of the Iranian regime or support extremism. Many fled precisely because they rejected such oppression. But it is reasonable to ask whether concerns about community tensions, electoral politics and accusations of "Islamophobia" have made some governments less willing to confront Islamist regimes with the moral clarity they once showed toward other dictatorships.
Whether or not that is the explanation, the result is the same: an oppressive regime receives accommodation instead of sustained pressure, while its victims are left to face imprisonment and execution largely alone.
History Will Pass Its Own Judgment
History rarely judges nations by their speeches.
It judges them by whom they stood beside when courage was required.
The brave people filling Iran's prisons today will one day be remembered in much the same way as the dissidents who challenged Soviet communism or those who resisted fascism.
When that day comes, Europe will have to answer a difficult question.
Did it stand with the victims...
...or with the regime that murdered them?
For all its rhetoric about human rights and democracy, Europe's actions increasingly suggest that commercial interests and diplomatic convenience have taken precedence over moral leadership.
That is not merely a failure of foreign policy.
It is a failure of conscience.
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