Khalid Islambuli and Iran: Martyr or Terrorist?

 

 Before Hosni Mubarak, the current Pharoah governing Egypt since 1981, Anwar Saadat was the president of Egypt. Extremely popular in the West for his peace-making efforts with Israel in the late 1970s, many of Egypt’s neighbors were not fond of his bold moves, which they viewed as hypocritical and saw him as sleeping with the enemy. When optimistic and idealistic young movers of the Islamic revolution kicked the Shah out of Iran and claimed Iran as a modern Islamic Republic, relations between Egypt and Iran quickly deteriorated to breaking point. Previously, Saadat was good friends with the Shah and his family, and the two countries enjoyed excellent relations – when the Shah passed away from illness, his remains were sent back to Egypt, where he was buried in the same mausoleum and mosque and an important Sufi saint, Imam al-Rifa’i, in central Cairo.

In 1981, at a military ceremony, Anwar Saadat was assassinate by a young member of a budding terrorist organization, Islamic Jihad. Despite their differences, Egyptians mourned his death and the government has been careful to preserve his reputation until this day. The young assassin, Khalid Islambuli was quickly apprehended and was put to his death, receiving the death penalty for murdering the president of the state. Meanwhile, the government of the Iranian Islamic Republic embraced what they saw as Islambuli’s brave act of putting to death an oppressor, Saadat. His legacy was celebrated and they viewed him as a hero, fighting against the secular Egyptian government that worked so hard to appease the Israelis, while neglecting Islamic beliefs and doctrine. The Iranian government went so far as to name a main thoroughfare in central Tehran after Islambuli, naming it “Khiyaban Shahid Sarvan Khalid Islambuli,” which can literally be translated as “the Street of the Martyr, Officer Khalid Islambuli.” Not only did they name the street after Islambuli, but they also labeled him as a martyr  - when in reality he was killed after being judge guilty for the terrible crime he committed – and as an officer – as if the terrorist group, Islamic Jihad, were some sort of recognized and legitimate army. Kind of the equivalent of having a street in France, called Usama Bin Laden, as a way to insult the US.

Anyway, I have been told that the name of the street has changed in the past according to the state of Iranian-Egyptian relations, although some people I knew told me the name had been changed to something more respectful. I visited the street in July 2010 and found the name of Islambuli was still there…

A View of Khalid Islambuli Street - A Modern Thoroughfare in Central Tehran