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Islamic fundamentalism became front-page news after Sept. 11. There certainly had been plenty of warning, although nobody could have predicted the precise way in which terrorists would get the West’s attention. Few would have listened anyway.
by Melvin Rhodes
Parviz Radji was the Iranian ambassador to London in the years leading up to the overthrow of the shah in January 1979, a few weeks before British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher came to office. Before that, Mrs. Thatcher was the leader of the opposition Conservative Party.
In his book In the Service of the Peacock Throne, Mr. Radji recounts a dinner with Mrs. Thatcher before a visit she was to make to Tehran, capital of Iran. The account from his diary entry of Wednesday, April 26, 1978, reads: "I try to impress Mrs. Thatcher with my analysis of the Iranian/Middle Eastern situation but I suspect that I somehow fail. There is, to be sure, ‘perfect understanding,’ to use the hackneyed diplomatic phrase, on such subjects as the dangers of world communist expansionism, the need for strong defenses, and a firm hand in dealing with terrorism. But on less clear-cut issues, such as the rise of Islamic fundamentalism and its anti-Western bias, I don’t believe I retain her interest" (1983, p. 172, emphasis added).
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