Iranians protest the recent election results.

In the 2004 documentary Control Room, an Al Jazeera producer explains that rumor and conspiracy theory often pass for journalism in the Middle East. If a water main breaks in Damascus, he explained, the papers there will find a way to blame Israel or America. Indeed, Western observers often note how casually conspiracy theories are taken as actual truth, but the recent election in Iran shows that suspicion and whispers are not solely the province of the Middle East.

The re-election of Iran’s president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has sparked an outcry not only in Iran, but in many other countries, where the media seem quick to assume the vote was rigged. How could it be, these outlets demanded to know, that a majority of the Iranian public would re-elect an angry, right-wing demagogue, who carries little support among Iranians who live in the West an appear on CNN? The elite papers asked the same question after George W. Bush beat John Kerry in 2004. So disconnected and self-assured are these editors, that they arrogantly dismiss another inconvenient possibility: that a majority of Iranian voters actually prefer Ahmadinejad.

Too many outlets have been quick to accept the opinions of Ahmadinejad’s opponents, including Iran’s well-off, Tehran’s students, and well-to-do Iranian émigrés, who proclaim that the re-election victory was a complete fraud. If one were to listen only to these opinions, one might get a skewed view of the world. Americans living abroad overwhelmingly voted absentee for John Kerry, but the preference of jet-setting ex-pats does not a democratic majority make!

Two think-takers published their Iranian opinion poll in today’s Post proving that Ahmadinejad does command wide support throughout Iran. Furthermore, those questioned openly expressed  supposedly seditious opinions, such as the view that their government is too secretive and that the Supreme Leader should be elected. If those polled were willing to say these things to strangers on the phone, they certainly must have felt comfortable to express their presidential preferences freely.

We are not fans of Ahmadinejad, but Westerners should end their condescending disbelief and face the possibility that a majority of Iranian voters have a different view of what’s best for Iran.