Posted on 06/05/2005 5:10:47 PM PDT by freedom44
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Free Inquiry
March 15, 2005. Tehran. Somewhere, a Qur'an is burning. It is Tchahr Shanbe Souri, the traditional Persian fire festival, and in major cities throughout the country Iranians are turning the celebration-denounced as pagan by the ruling clerics-into a protest. There are reports of revelers chanting "Down with the Islamic Republic" and casting Islamist literature and even scripture into bonfires.1 Government militia respond brutally, and violent clashes with demonstrators continue into the night.
The episode is not isolated but appears to be part of a trend in which large numbers of Iranians are taking to the streets, as they did in July 1999, October 2001, November 2002, and July 2003. During the fire festival of 2000, so many bushes were set ablaze that the pilot of an Air France plane attempting to land in Tehran changed course, thinking that a revolution had begun in Iran. The pilot may have been right.
Twenty-six years ago, 98 percent of Iranians voted in favor of Ayatollah Khomeini's referendum calling for an Islamic republic. Today, half the population is between the ages of fourteen and twenty-five. They were not even born at the time of the revolution. An August 2002 telephone public-opinion poll found that only 19 percent of Iranians supported a politically active clergy, while 68 percent said their family's financial situation had gotten worse since the Islamic Revolution of 1979.2 An overwhelming majority favor a new referendum, which asks simply: theocracy or democracy?
As in 1979, university students are at the forefront of the fundamental shifts now underway in Iranian society. The election of President Mohammad Khatami in 1997 on a platform of reform gave them fresh hope. Throughout the 1990s, they organized under the auspices of a national umbrella group, the Office of Consolidation Unity, or OCU. But by 2004, Khatami's initiatives were stalled, and most student activists had come to regard the reformist program as a sham.
"The theocratic regime is nonreformable," says Aryo B. Pirouznia, coordinator of the Student Movement Coordination Committee for Democracy in Iran or SMCCDI, a Texas-based network of activists inside and outside Iran. According to Pirouznia, SMCCDI represents the orientation of the current generation of activists: pro-Western, media-savvy, anti-"reformist," and explicitly secularist.
The most effective way the outside world can help the democratic movement in Iran is by publicizing the Iranian people's grievances and their yearning and struggles for freedom. The world's media need to focus on our peaceful resistance to establish basic human rights. TV coverage, not bullets and tanks, will end Iran's theocracy and bring democracy and tolerance to the Middle East.
A Daily Briefing of Major News Stories on Iran:
Go Revolution!!!
I'll assume this news is accurate. Either way, it is only a matter of time. Those Mullahs are doomed in the long run, and they know it. Of course to get this stuff publicized in the L/MSM would be like pulling teeth. They can't advertise anything that in any way makes GWB look like he knew what he was doing when he decided to go into Iraq.
Join Us At Today's Iranian Alert Thread – The Most Underreported Story Of The Year!
"If you want on or off this Iran ping list, Freepmail DoctorZin”
After following your postings I am begining to think that the doom for the terrorists (aka Islamofascists) will be their own hatred for each others sects. The problem with hate is that it is a disease that evendually infects the total soul.
Iranian women walk past the electoral posters in Tehran. For the past 26 years, Iran's ruling clerics have been at pains to keep women under wraps and away from the risk of 'Westoxication'(AFP/Behrouz Mehri)
Iranians are bunch of Pork lovers, Mullah haters!
I don't know what you're talking about. Your theory is that the lesser of two evils, but that's not the case whatsoever. The Iranian people according to many who have visited the country are the most pro-US people in the region, if not the entire world - not to be compared as a lesser of as to the Iranian government. Two totally different mentality.
Our blogosphere campaign is growing. More slowly than I would like, but we are picking up steam. This weekend we had a brief mention by MSNBC, Andrew Sullivan noticed us, and many bloggers have begun to spread the news.Here are a few other news items you may have missed.
We have not yet heard from some of the major bloggers that have supported us in the past. I assume this is due to a perceived lull in the news coverage in Iran prior to the June 17th elections. But if you are a reader of these blogs and notice they have yet to join, you might send them a note asking them to consider it.
On a more humorous note... READ MORE
To read today’s thread click here.
Join Us At Today's Iranian Alert Thread – The Most Underreported Story Of The Year!
"If you want on or off this Iran ping list, Freepmail DoctorZin”
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