[Olog-hai]

No, Mossadegh was never elected. Being “elected” by the members of government is an appointment. It’s not even “democratic”.

So when has it been okay to be a socialist so long as one is not an Islamist?

[Cronos]

1. Mossadegh was elected to the Majlis(parliament) continuously by democratic vote, from 1906
2. He was voted PM by the members of parliament -- just as the UK PM is

so he was not "elected by the members of governement" -- rather he was voted to parliament by the people and then elected to government by the representatives

Next -- so you acknowledge you were wrong to call him an Islamist?

He was a socialist, yes, and he would have been better than the Ayatollahs or communists. You take the lesser of two evils -- when the Brits got him out, their actions of taking out a democratically elected leader led to the destabilisation that brought in the Ayatollahs