Today is the anniversary of the 1979 Iranian Revolution, and its being marked in Iran by celebrations and protests. It’s critical to emphasize that the Green Revolution isn’t about western style democracy, but reclaiming the religious mantle of 1979 from the present regime. In that sense its less a revolution and more a reform.
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Even a majority of admitted Mousavi supporters believe the Iranian election was legitimate and Ahmadinejad is the rightful president of Iran!
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I take vigorous exception to the idea that Ali Moussavi’s death in Iran is symbolic of Imam Husain’s martyrdom or that there’s any parallel between the Green Revolution and the events at Karbala.
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good grief: Iranian officials have confiscated Shirin Ebadi’s Nobel peace Prize. Pathetic, and verging on shirk if you ask me…
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Is Ayatollah Khamenei dead or in a coma?
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Shams al-Nahar
There are rallies in 105 cities tomorrow in support of the Green Wave.
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Shams al-Nahar
Ayatollah scorecard from the excellent Tehran Bureau.
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Shams al-Nahar
Khamenei remains defiant.
He has lost the people, and lost Qom, as Rafi’s speech made evident.
As long as Khamenei retains control of the army, he can hold on.
But can he keep the army? -
Shams al-Nahar
Via my commenter Mitch, the true interpretation of Rafi’s speech.
A taste.
Commentator spin after a big political speech is customary. So here’s an unbiased interpretation of some paraphrased Rafsanjani statements. Any disagreement with the interpretation below is a sign of bias. This inclewds objections to mis-spellings.
“Salaam O aleikom. Kheili Motshakker az shoma.”
Translation: The only reason I am here is because Ayatollah Khamenei is now a lame duck Supreme Leader. I am effectivley the new Supreme Leader. This is because the lame duck Supreme Leader has failed to maintain unity in this republic, and people need me to clean up his mess.“Don’t ever think of the people as being weak.”
Translation: Because Allah will help the people kick your ass.“Why would the Koran swear to the Pen? What is so sacred about the mere pen?”
Translation: Our written constitution is sacred; follow the law, because Allah’s Evin is a lot worse than the earthly one. By the way, it is perfectly Islamic to go after the violators of our constitutionally given rights and box their ears fullest extent of the law.“You can’t put ignorant people at the same level as knowledgeable people.” Translation: An ignorant Baseej beating a university student isn’t what Islam intended.
“The Prophet made sure no person’s rights were violated in his domain.” Translation: Rulers who conspire to cheat in elections are not following the path of the Islam.
“Hours before his death, the Prophet came to the pulpit and asked people to speak up if he had wronged anyone, so he could address the injustice.”
Translation: Khamenei, you are old and sick; ‘fess up before it is too late.“The Prophet created unity.”
Translation:Unity does not spontaneously appear; it takes a wise leader to bring it about. Khamenei, you are a miserable failure.Read the whole thing.
I’ll add one thing…..20. “Free the prisoners.” No Translation necessary; this is exactly what Rafsanjani said.
Free the prisoners or else on July 30 (the 40 day mourning for martyr Neda Agha Sultan) Evin will become the Bastille.
I think the sub-text of Rafi’s whole sermon is “I have turned Qom, you are done.”
The locus of power has shifted. -
Shams al-Nahar
The Future Belongs to Andrew Sullivan.
And to Nico Pitney.
A lowly blogger gets called out for a question in the stultifyingly rigid hierarchy of a WH presser.Give meh heresy or give meh death.
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Shams al-Nahar
Captain
EdStupid brays that “Regime Declares Rafsanjani An Enemy!” on the front page of the Vast Intellectual Wasteland of HotAir. Actually the regime is silent right now, and Shariatmadari is just floating a trial balloon to see if they can get any traction to takedown Rafi.
Here is an antidote to the plague of stupid that sites like HotAir spread, the excellent Reza Aslan.Perhaps the most intriguing part of the sermon came when Rafsanjani hinted that progress has been made in his attempts to come up with some kind of compromise with the regime over the election crisis, though he remained elusive about what that could possibly entail. “I have some suggestions,” he said, in an oblique reference to his work behind the scenes with Iran’s power brokers. “I have spoken to some members of the Expediency Council and the Assembly of Experts about them, too.”
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POMED has a Rafsanjani roundup, especially these photos, which include the assault on Karroubi.
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we now have a translation of Rafsanjani’s sermon with reaction video and more. One of many excerpts that struck me:
f we do not have the votes of the people behind us, we will have nothing. The guardian council, the expediency council, EVERYONE gets their legitimacy from the vote of the people.
Without Islam, without a republic, we have nothing. Ali [Imam Ali, the prophet's successor] waited 19 years until the people came for him.
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Rafsanjani’s big sermon will likely happen around 3-4am EST – here’s what to expect. #IranElection
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I have a lengthy roundup post about the Islamic flavor of the Iranian reform movement. It’s also worth digging out some ancient blogsphere history as regards to Iran – I actually speculated about the potential for reform in Iran years ago, noting that the biggest threat to the present regime was indeed a mass nonviolent protest movement within the framework of Islam – and invoked verse 2:256 from the Qur'an. As far back as 2002, the blogsphere had an Open Letter to Iran which I also posted to my blog in both Farsi and English. The path that Iran is on right now is not conceptually new, just untried. It's about time.
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Haroon Moghul’s unstated point: even a Green Iran will get bombed by Israel at some point.
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Two questions worth asking: What if the Green Revolution fails? And what if it succeeds?
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“We are all neocons now” — neocon
“We are all #Neda” — Iran -
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Tehran is Karbala, now. #IranElection #Neda
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At Daily Kos, an Iranian-American’s discussion about the #IranElection with his father, just returned from Tehran.
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It bears repeating that Obama’s silence on Iran is golden. That doesn’t mean that the Administration is doing nothing, though…
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Ayatollah vs Ayatollah in Iran.
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Incredible photo of a protest in Esfahan’s Naghshe Jahan Square – posted to twitter #iranelection
(click to enlarge)
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Iran and the Prime Directive: It’s wise of Obama not to get involved in the internal political process of the Iranian regime, and let the reform movement assert itself without being tainted by association with the Great Satan. Of course conservatives are already tarring Obama to score political points over it.
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razib, murtad fitri
#iranelection other links? as predictive matter i’m pessimistic. it seems most overthrows of authoritarian regimes occur when you get a relatively “soft” person leading the regime for whatever reason, or, someone with a vested interest in maintaining institutional integrity of the sociey. thoughts?
