'In short, a view of the world tailor-made for conspiracy theories'

From False friends - Alliance of Leftist and Islamist leaders by Wolf-Dieter Vogel:

The stoning of adulteresses; torture carried out in the name of Allah – is this the "better world" that Hugo Chavez dreams of? The alleged election victory of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is, in any case, in the opinion of the Venezuelan leader, "very important for the peoples who are fighting for a better world." In the struggle against the "attacks of global capitalism" – by which he means the dissidents on the streets of Tehran – he has promised full solidarity with the Iranian president.

Nicaraguan head of state Daniel Ortega was also happy. By electing Ahmadinejad, he said, "the Iranian people" had chosen to "reject imperialism in all its forms."

Islamist-socialist axis

It comes as no surprise to learn that the Nicaraguan counts the Iranian amongst his friends. At the latest with their decision to ally themselves with the clergy on banning abortion, Ortega and his Sandinista Liberation Front relinquished any claim to representing emancipatory politics.

Chavez's support for Ahmadinejad has, however, caused some uncertainty in leftist circles. His "Bolivarian Revolution" has, after all, been firmly on the side of all those – women, homosexuals, lesbians – whose rights have been violated by the mullah regime.

But Chavez's friendly overtures are not really surprising. Though it has tended to be disregarded, and sometimes even had the support of his followers, the Venezuelan leader has been maintaining friendly relations with the Iranian regime for years. And this is about more than just maintaining economic cooperation or his country's membership of Opec.

Chavez, like his Bolivian counterpart Evo Morales, is regularly at pains to stress the closeness of the ties between his country and the Islamic government. During a visit to Tehran in 2005, he emphasised the "common anti-imperialist and revolutionary" virtues, and later praised Iran's struggle against "colonialism, servility and compliance."

Black and white analysis

It is, of course, their common enmity towards the USA that is unifying leftist and Islamist anti-imperialists. Their world view requires a black and white analysis that has little to do with any real and necessary criticism of the imperialistic behaviour of the major powers: for them it is about the "good" oppressed peoples' fight against their enemies, the "outsiders", who attack "their" culture, however that may be defined; the "good people" who are lied to and cheated by propaganda or other influences from "outside".

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