The leaders of Iran’s opposition movement sent an open letter of protest to the country’s highest religious authorities on Saturday, complaining that the state had used “illegal, immoral and irreligious methods” in the crackdown following last month’s disputed presidential election and calling for the release of hundreds of people arrested since.
Archive | July, 2009
Global protests condemn Iran crackdown
Demonstrators flocked to the streets of cities around the world on Saturday, including in Canada, to demand Iran’s rulers end the persecution and imprisonment of opposition activists following the country’s disputed presidential election.
Large events were held in Stockholm, Berlin, Paris, Amsterdam and London, while in Toronto, cyclists, marchers and others planning a 24-hour hunger strike gathered outside the Ontario legislature bearing billowing red flags and lime green placards calling for Iranians’ human rights to be respected.
Iran’s Power Brokers
On February 1, 1979, Khomeini returned to Iran from France, accompanied by various supporters and western media personalities like Peter Jennings. Millions showed up at the airport to welcome him.
On the airplane returning to Iran, Peter Jennings asked him, “What do you feel in returning to Iran?”
Khomeini did not express any elation. His foreboding reply was, “Hichi.” Hichi is the Farsi word for, Nothing.
It was probably at this moment that some in Iran started to question what they were getting themselves into. Iranians are fiercely proud of their 2500 years of history and heritage. Hichi, is simply not acceptable as the feeling that most of them have towards their national and cultural identity.
Little did most Iranians know what Khomeini’s return would herald. A dark era had begun.
Khamenei and Ahmadinejad undermine each other over VP pick
Sometimes, when reading the words various leaders, you can almost feel an undercurrent to what they really meant to say. I had one of these moments when I read the following quote from President-select Mahmoud Ahmadinejad recently (source: Reuters): “They [arrogant western powers] should wait as a new wave of revolutionary thinking … from the [...]
Ahmadinejad defies ayatollah on vice president
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad finds himself under increasing pressure from Iranian hard-liners who appear eager to reap political rewards after leading a weeks-long crackdown on supporters of opposition figure Mir-Hossein Mousavi, who say vote fraud was responsible for Ahmadinejad’s victory.
Islamic Guards Emerge as Key Power Bloc in Splintered Iran
From its origin 30 years ago as an ideologically driven militia force serving Islamic revolutionary leaders, the corps has grown to assume an increasingly assertive role in virtually every aspect of Iranian society.
And its aggressive drive to silence dissenting views has led many political analysts to describe the events surrounding the June 12 presidential election as a military coup.
Plain-clothed vigilantes and police shooting protestors
Warning: This video is very disturbing We do not know exactly when this video was shot, but it is most likely sometime after Ayatollah Rafsanjani’s Friday prayer sermon and subsequent protests. [youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tY3Px9YGCF4& 285 234]
Video: Plain-clothes vigilantes and police shooting protestors in Iran
It’s not yet clear when this video was taken, but we are checking up on this. However, what is clear is that it is during the recent uprising in Iran against the fraudulent election that took place. Here you see what looks like uniformed police and plain-clothed vigilantes “working” side-by-side to shoot innocent protestors. There [...]
Ayatollah warns against helping Iran’s enemies
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned senior officials on Monday not to help Tehran’s enemies after two former presidents expressed defiant opposition to the result of June’s disputed presidential poll.
Clashes erupted between police and reformist protesters for the first time in weeks in Tehran on Friday after former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani declared the Islamic Republic in crisis and said there were doubts about the election result.
Iran’s Tragic Joke
So the line I take away from the important Friday sermon of Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the two-time former president who believes that the Islamic Republic’s future lies in compromise rather than endless confrontation, is this one: “We shouldn’t let our enemies laugh at us because we’ve imprisoned our own people.”
Report: Iran opposition candidate blasts ‘clear lies’
“How do they try to say that they do not confront people violently or to blame others? All of this took place in front of people’s eyes,” Karrubi told supporters, according to Aftab. “They kill the youth in front of people’s eyes and then say that they didn’t have firearms. As a member of this system, I am embarrassed of these thoughtless and clear lies.”
Thirty-six army officers arrested in Iran over protest plan
The Iranian army has arrested 36 officers who planned to attend last week’s Friday prayer sermon by former president Hashemi Rafsanjani in their military uniforms as an act of political defiance, according to Farsi-language websites.
The officers intended the gesture to show solidarity with the demonstrations against last month’s presidential election result, which was won by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad but which has been clouded by allegations of mass fraud.
Ex-President in Iran Seeks Referendum on Leaders
Mr. Khatami’s comments amounted to a bold challenge to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has dismissed the opposition’s claims that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s landslide victory on June 12 was rigged, and has ordered protesters to accept it.
Live-blogging Iran Uprising (July 17, 2009)
6:50 AM Eastern Time How can I sleep. So much information coming in. I am not going to format them. The following are raw tweets from twitter. How to read them: Each line is a message from someone on twitter. If you see “RT from Iran” that means that I Re-Tweeted or re-sent someone’s message [...]
Dawn of the Age of Justice
The people have not sat idly by, and in the past month a clear distinction has been made between the people on one-side, and the regime on the other. The world has seen the people’s aspirations for freedom, and their bravery in the face of terror and the tyranny of a false theocracy. The world has also seen the last shred of legitimacy that the government of Iran may have held disappear to reveal what can be safely described as a government structured like a mafia that sees itself as God’s representative on earth with the right to butcher its own people. It can’t be more clear than that.
The price has been paid in blood by the Iranian people. And blood has been spilled across every facet of Iranian society.
The New Democrats: An intellectual history of the Green Wave
What we are witnessing right now in the streets of Tehran is, first and foremost, a political battle for the future of the Iranian state. But closely linked to this political fight is also an old theological dispute about the nature of Shiism–a dispute that has been roiling Iran for more than a century.
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