DELHI: Mumbai’s sea-facing Islam Gymkhana Club is no match for the expansive Azadi Square in Tehran But last week, during the 33rd anniversary celebrations of the Islamic Revolution in Iran, the speeches heard at the club’s auditorium could well have been relayed straight from Azadi Square Punctuated with powerful poetry — part of Shia culture since the fateful martyrdom of the Prophet’s grandson Imam Hussain at Karbala, Iraq, in the 7th century — the stirring speeches hailed Iran as the answer to the “usurpers of power in the West”.Iran is home to 40% of the world’s 18 crore Shias. For many Indian Muslims, especially the country’s 3.5 crore Shias, Iran and its leader Ahmadinejad symbolize the David who is ready to take on Goliath. Despite years of Western sanctions, many Muslims believe that Iran alone can thwart America’s hegemony in West Asia and keep Israel under control.Often, the language used against the US and Israel by Muslim groups is vituperative, the tone strident. “An attack on Iran will be tantamount to an attack on the entire Muslim world,” says senior Shia cleric Maulana Zaheer Abbas Rizvi. He adds that Muslims are not against all Jews, but only hate the Zionists who have displaced Palestinians from their own home land. A powerful speaker, Maulana Rizvi, like other Muslim clerics both Shia and Sunni, often cites the Koran to assert that even Allah is displeased with the Jews.How might this sentiment impact India’s options? Moderate Muslim scholars say New Delhi will have to walk a tightrope as the West ups the ante against Iran “India showed maturity when it did not approve of sanctions against Iran. It didn’t endorse the Israeli accusation that Iran and the Hezbollah were behind the terror attack on Israeli embassy staff in Delhi. We cannot have double standards and India has certainly said it very clearly,” says Akhtarul Wasey, who teaches Islamic Studies at Jamia Millia Islamia.After the America-led war in Afghanistan and Iraq, Muslims predictably see Iran as the next target. Many even think the Delhi attack was part of an Israeli con spiracy to shore up support for an assault on Iran’s nuclear installa tions. “Mossad is capable of carry ing out such attacks. They could have done it to sabotage India’s friendship with Iran,” says Maula na Rizvi, who is also secretary of the All India Shia Muslim Person al Law Board.No one, of course, knows how much the Indian Shias’ support for Iran will influence New Delhi’s Te hran policy. “I welcome India’s pru dence to keep its friendship with Iran intact despite American pres sure,” says ex-MP Akhtar Hassan Rizvi, a prominent Shia leader who also heads educational institutions in Mumbai. “Iran has a right to lead a life of respect.” Ahmadinejad will be happy to hear that.