- 21 December 2009
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- 8 Comments
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- Iran Election 2009
The Significance of Today’s Events
21 December 2009 Posted By David Elliott
The hardline newspaper Kayhan reported that there were "a maximum of 5000" in the crowd mourning Montazeri's death. (h/t enduringamerica.com)
Today clearly breathed new life into Iran’s opposition movement. Opposition leaders Mehdi Karroubi and Mir Hossein Mousavi both took the risk and attended alongside countless other mourners. (Mousavi’s convoy was reportedly attacked en-route back to Tehran by plain-clothed security officials who cut off the convoy and bashed in a window of one of the cars and injured one of Mousavi’s bodyguards.)
Khamenei issued a rather insulting statement of condolence, which the NY Times reports sparked boos, chants of “we do not want rationed condolences” and “death to the dictator” from the crowd of mourners in Qum. Khamenei’s statement follows:
“We have become informed that the sublime jurisprudent Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri has departed this life. He was a competent religious authority and a prominent expert and many students attended his classes. A long portion of his life had been dedicated to the movement of the revered and great Imam (Khomeini), and he strived and suffered hardships on this path. In the last years of the Imam’s life, he (Montazeri) was faced with a difficult test. I ask Almighty God to forgive him through His mercy and to accept the hardships suffered during his life as atonement. I extend my condolences to his bereaved wife and children and ask God to bestow forgiveness and mercy upon him.”
While the Iranian government managed to successfully block BBC Persian service into Iran, another critical audience couldn’t possibly miss what happened today. One of the readers at the New York Times’ The Lede put it best:
Qom is in many ways the heart of the last Revolution (how it ended up anyway) and its aftermath. Until now, the regime has tried very very hard to isolate Qom from the protest movement. The security presence there has always been reported as very high to prevent any protests. [...] With today’s protests in Qom, and the clergy’s close-up view of it (perhaps for the first time for some of them) it will be interesting to see what the Qom clergy does in the days and weeks to come.
The next day to watch is Sunday, when two major days of mourning coincide: the day of mourning for Ayatollah Montazeri (the seventh day after his death) and the religious holiday of Ashura, which marks the martyrdom of the Imam Hossein.
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8 Responses to “The Significance of Today’s Events”
A maximum of ’5,000′? Does Pirouz the american basiji work for Kayhan newspaper? This government and its minions are beyond delusional. It’s all a vicious circle of lies and deception. They lie to others and lie to themselves to keep this shame alive for a little while longer. God willing, it will all be over soon.
(chuckles)
I get accused of that a lot, unfortunately. Just because I remain skeptical of the “rigged” election claims, give credence to the WPO Iran poll results and point out the relative strength of the pro-establishment forces over anti-establishment elements, that somehow makes me an “American basij” or a terrorist supporter or whatever. You know I’m not. You may not like what I have to say, but that’s no reason for name calling, or stating positions falsely attributed to me.
C’mon, Rob1, there’s a lot of questionable claims and reporting out there. Recall the false story of Taraneh Mousavi, and the recently published (Gooya) fake statement by members of the Artesh (armed forces) against the IRGC- just to name a couple.
My advice is a moderate approach. Keep an open mind. And maintain a level of respect for those that don’t necessarily share your (radical) viewpoint.
@Pirouz:
As I have pointed out previously, and will continue to point out, the reason readers of your comments have come to the conclusion that you must support the regime, is because many of your claims are becoming increasingly laughable to anyone who knows anything about what is going on in Iran.
It is laughable that you are skeptical about everything that supports the opposition’s claims, from polls to accounts of torture, and yet show no skepticism towards a WPO poll- a poll conducted by telephone calls from the United States, coming out of the blue, to a household in Iran, made amidst post-election conflict in which there is a presumption that phone conversations may be under surveillance by a government known to arrest, torture and kill citizens who protest against the regime. Furthermore, while I have a high opinion of the worldpublicopinion.org, the results of the WPO poll are simply not consistent with what we are seeing in Iran.
This is only one example. In general, you are overly skeptical of any anti-establishment claims, and blindly and ignorantly repeat the Iran’s governments claims without questioning them. Recall this is the same Iranian government that clearly has something to hide as demonstrated by its need to ban all foreign media from reporting on post-election protests, claims of torture and rape, and interviews with families of victims. For such a skeptical person, you sure do eat up everything the Iranian government wants people to believe.
This has, not surprisingly, left many readers to come to the conclusion that you must be a supporter of this regime. Furthermore, the hypocrisy of your selective skepticism, insults the intelligence of the reader. IMHO- this is why you are witnessing name calling (e.g. “American Basij”).
@I-A:
I disagree. It’s only the fact that I do not embrace wholeheartedly the claims of the opposition and the ongoing trend toward radicalization.
Remember, I-A, I voted Green in the June election. How many of my detractors even bothered to vote? Did you?
I’m not parroting all the government claims. The closest I come is taking into consideration a few of the counterclaims (which appear reasonable) from the June election.
If you need a punching bag against someone that provides a level of skepticism – a devil’s advocate, if you will- then so be it.
However, the same type of knee-jerk reactions by some of these commenters are getting quite tedious- wouldn’t you agree?
And remember I-A, no matter how you much you may hate hearing this, I’ve seen similar (not identical) situations like this in my lifetime right here in the USA. So accept, reject or discuss- but emotional rants and name calling? One should definitely rise above such things. Especially in commentary within a shared social group’s commentary.
Pirouz, we have seen you exhibit your “open” mind and “moderate” approach by casually dismissing everything the Green movement has done. And at the same time you pretend to have voted Green. Just like the regime, you are under the illusion that people are gullible enough to fall for your deceptions and ridiculous comparisons.
If supporting freedom of speech, freedom of press, an open democratic society and opposing government sponsored rape, torture and murder is a radical viewpoint than paint me a radical.
You deserve nothing less than namecalling. In my opinion, you are worst type of Iranian. You enjoy all the freedom western society offers yet fully support the repressive tyrannical actions of the IRI. We know people like you around here. They’re a disgrace. As soon as the regime falls, they’ll do a 180.
@Pirouz:
Again, it’s not the fact that you do not embrace wholeheartedly the claims of the opposition, rather it is that you do embrace wholeheartedly the claims of a government that is known to be dishonest and repressive. I encourage you to reflect on your previous posts, because this is something that I would argue is fairly clear from your comments.
Also, as Rob points out, how “radical” this movement is depends on the observer. The only evidence of so called radicalization that I have heard is a (suspect) claim that protestors burned a picture of Khomeni. Perhaps, this is radical in Iran, but in developed, wealthy, free and respected nations, this is not so “radical”. Neither is freedom of speech and press. This idea may seem radical to you, but many of us Iranians have high hopes for Iran.
I did vote for Mousavi for this election, but I do not see how my vote, your “detractors’” votes or yours have anything to do with this discussion. This seems to be your fall-back when backed into a corner.
I would insist that I have never treated you like a “punching bag”. I have only pointed out your rather obvious selective skepticism, and provided you with an explanation as to why you may find you run into the same kind of responses from many people.
I’m honestly not sure what “knee-jerk” reaction you are referring to. I wholeheartedly believe this movement has turned out to be much larger than anyone anticipated. That is not to say I expect a revolution in the next year, but it does provide some hope that Iran will in my lifetime come out of isolation, be respected among nations and have a leader that an educated and decent person can be proud of.
I do not mind hearing your comparisons to America. I pointed out the absurdity of your comparisons for your own sake. To be honest, I think you are trying to convince yourself more than anyone else, which is good because I really don’t think anyone else will buy it. I have a very similar feeling when I hear Ahmadinejad make similar comments. E.g. when he says, “Iran is the most free country in the world” I can not honestly believe that he believes what he is saying. Who knows, I could be wrong…
Had circumstance put Pirouz in Iran today I have no doubt he’d be riding around a moped with a fancy new helmet beating defenseless women with a stick and proceeding to stick that stick up young men’s behinds. He probably has a photo of the dictator and his little henchman ahmadi in his room.
Pirouz…this movement in Iran is not about US vs. Iran. It is completely domestic. Let it go with the America and Iran comparisons. Both countries are in different stages on a global scale.
I also do not think it is right to start doing the whole ‘i voted green, where were you’ and so on. Please do not forget that you are in the United States and away from the radical extremes and violence. It is only human to feel a little survivor’s guilt. Most of us have shown such concerns and feelings, yet you continue to show no signs of such.