I often see people attributing the following statement to the late Christopher Hitchens on the topic of Iran:

“As for that benighted country, I wouldn’t shed a tear if it was wiped off the face of this earth.”

This occurs across social media, in comment threads and in news articles.

Now, It would be untrue to claim that Christopher Hitchens never engaged in hawkish rhetoric from time to time, but given that Hitchens had also visited Iran, spoke fondly of it and voiced his solidarity with the Iranian people – I remained unconvinced with the authenticity of this particular quote.

Every attempt to identify a primary source led me back to a book called ‘Unhitched’ by Richard Seymour. This book is what one typically refers to as a ‘Hatchet Job’. Here is the quote as it appears in Seymour’s book (p92):

…when Hitchens was speaking in Madison, Wisconsin, he was asked a question about Iran. His answer shocked even the conservatives in the audience: ‘As for that benighted country, I wouldn’t shed a tear if it was wiped off the face of this earth’. That these barbaric vocables were uttered by someone ostensibly interested in the advancement of humanity, in solidarity and civilization, is by no means novel.

A footnote cites the following source: ‘51. Tariq Ali, interview by author, 3 January 2012’.

It appears then, that Tariq Ali told the author that Hitchens had said this about Iran. So, even though the author directly reports Hitchens as saying these words as a matter of fact – the footnote reveals that the author was actually making this claim based on what someone else had told him Hitchens had said. Still following? That ‘someone else’ also happens to be a debate opponent and critic of Christopher Hitchens.

I made these observations in a previous blog post and was happy enough with my findings to write this off as ‘hearsay’ as a result. But it gets worse. Prompted by my blog, one of my readers decided they would reach out to Tariq Ali via email to ask for further details, then pass those details on to me.

Rather than behave like a complete hack and simply tell you what I know because some guy asked some guy and then told me what the guy said, I reached out to Tariq Ali myself for direct confirmation. Here is our correspondence in full:

From: Stephen Knight

Date: Tuesday 05 January 2016

To: Tariq Ali

Subject: Hitchens Iran Quote

Hi Tariq,

I hope you’re well. I’m a blogger/podcaster.

I was wondering if you’d be so kind as to clear up a curiosity of mine? I’ve been trying to discern the origin of this Christopher Hitchens quote on Iran:

“As for that benighted country, I wouldn’t shed a tear if it was wiped off the face of this earth.”

In the book ‘Unhitched’, a footnote names you as the source of this information.

A reader/listener has just informed me that you were told this by someone else, rather than hearing Hitchens say it directly. Is this correct?

Would it please be possible to clarify with a response that you would be happy for me to publish on my blog?

It would be most appreciated,

Stephen

From: Tariq Ali

Date: Tuesday 05 January 2016

To: Stephen Knight

Subject: Re: Hitchens Iran Quote

I spoke at the same venue in Madison a week later and many former Hitchens fans were staggered at what he had said and withj [sic] only a few hecklers. I assume it was recorded as most of his stuff was…

There we have it. Tariq Ali hears this from a nameless ‘source’ at a venue Hitchens spoke at previously. A venue, which was at the time, absent of one Christopher Hitchens. Not only was this reported years after Hitchens was alleged to have said it, it also comes third hand, anonymously.

In summary, this quote came from a guy who told a guy he heard some people say Hitchens said something once. Needless to say, no footage of Hitchens saying these words has surfaced (to my knowledge).

Keep in mind, Seymour considers this to be the entry level diligence required when publicly painting someone as a genocidal maniac. Well, I once heard some guy say that he was told by some other guy that Richard Seymour once boasted about his upskirt photo collection. Maybe I’ll put that it in a book one day.

Stephen Knight is host of The #GSPodcast. You can listen to The Godless Spellchecker Podcast here, and support it by becoming a patron here.

Like this: Like Loading...