A Foreign Plot. A Test of American Freedom.
Iran tried to murder activist Masih Alinejad in Brooklyn. Her case should rally Americans around our First Amendment freedoms.
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— Garry Kasparov, Chairman, Renew Democracy Initiative
Masih Alinejad is an American-Iranian women’s rights activist and journalist. She is a Frontline Fellow at the Renew Democracy Initiative, the founder of My Stealthy Freedom and United Against Gender Apartheid, and the co-founder of the World Liberty Congress.
Uriel Epshtein is the CEO of the Renew Democracy Initiative.
A lot of people throw around platitudes about loving America. But the deepest love for this country—for American liberty—comes from really understanding the alternative.
Masih Alinejad is an American-Iranian women’s rights advocate and a Frontline Fellow at the Renew Democracy Initiative (RDI). Uriel is the CEO of RDI. His parents immigrated from the Soviet Union, where his father was a political dissident.
Three years ago, the Iranian regime sent Russian mobsters to kill Masih at her Brooklyn home. She is a proud survivor, but not for lack of trying on the Islamic Republic’s part. On Wednesday, a federal judge sentenced her would-be assassins to 25 years in prison. Standing before the court just a few feet from the convicted hitmen, Masih donned a red jacket—a defiant rebuke of a dictatorship that wanted to see her bloodied.
This case is bigger than one person or one incident. Masih has been attacked by the regime before. Meanwhile, Russian intelligence services targeted Uriel in Western Europe. Too many of our colleagues share similar stories; harassed and threatened in the democratic countries that were supposed to provide them with safe haven.
There’s a fundamental principle at stake here. The US attorney put it well at Wednesday’s sentencing hearing. As he explained, the plot against Masih was so egregious because it was a foreign dictatorship’s attempt to punish an American citizen for exercising their First Amendment rights.
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America’s openness is what moved Masih to leave her life and many loved ones behind in Iran and start over. It is also what brought Uriel’s parents to these shores two decades earlier (Years ago, Uriel’s mom told him that she came to America so that she could speak without having to look over her shoulder).
The Iranian attack on Masih, the threats Uriel faced in Europe—really any threat to people’s ability to speak freely without having to worry about their safety, their freedom, or their livelihood—is an attack on one of the core promises of America.
Of course, Americans cannot and will not stand for this. As Masih fondly recalls, her neighbors in Brooklyn came together across partisan divides to support her. She knew that some of them were Republicans who had voted for Donald Trump; some were left-wing Bernie Democrats, and some were Biden Democrats. All were motivated to defend their fellow citizen’s ability to speak openly.
For Masih, the neighbors who rallied around her are only a memory now. She has had to relocate 21 times since this assassination attempt. She and her husband have been separated from their children for long periods in order to keep the family safe. Masih is alive, but to say that this ordeal has inflicted a deep emotional toll would be an understatement. Even an unsuccessful murder plot risks having a chilling effect on countless others who may now think twice before standing up.
But it doesn’t have to turn out this way. We can turn this tragedy into an engine to unite our neighbors around a strong civic identity.
There is nothing more American than dissenting, and there is nothing more un-American than a foreign power silencing a dissenter from across the sea. Hostile regimes don’t discriminate based on party ID when they threaten people on American soil. Consider Russian election interference against Democrats and an Iranian scheme to assassinate Donald Trump (incidentally, the same handler who ordered Masih’s killing is thought to also have been responsible for the operation against Trump).
The degree to which the United States protects our First Amendment liberties is unprecedented even among our peers in the Free World (just look at the free speech situation in Great Britain to get a sense of how expansive our freedoms are).
Freedom of speech, press, assembly, petition, and religion ought to be the pride of every American, regardless of their politics. Those rights, and their broad, uniquely American interpretation, can inspire love for this nation. Above all, they demand a proactive defense from our leaders regardless of where the threat originates from or whom it targets.
On the fence about becoming a paid subscriber? We have a special offer to make the decision easier for you: $49 for an annual subscription—a 30% discount—now through November 8. Paid subscribers get exclusive benefits like access to interactive Zoom calls with Garry Kasparov. Anyone who signs up as a premium subscriber by noon today (October 31) will be automatically entered to win a chess set signed by Garry Kasparov.1
More from The Next Move:
‘Dead Woman Walking—and Talking’
RDI Jay Nordlinger Senior Fellow Jay Nordlinger covers the sentencing hearing of two men hired to kill American-Iranian activist Masih Alinejad.
Facing My Would-Be Assassins
Iranian dissident and RDI Frontline Fellow Masih Alinejad: The men hired to murder me were convicted. Now the US should stand up to the regime that sent them.
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