tagged w/ Guardian Council
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The passing of an Iranian cleric has led to a new surge of opposition protesting in the Iranian city of Qom. Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri was one of the top clerics of Shia Islam and has been a key voice criticizing the regime in Tehran. He died in his sleep Saturday. Tehran Bureau has a fantastic obituary tracing his involvement in the movement that brought down the Shah through his opposition to Khamenei's role as Supreme Leader.
Montazeri's burial in Qom has attracted mourners from around the country and as more and more people have gathered, the event has turned more and more into an opposition protest against the regime.
The New York Times Lede Blog has been collecting mourning videos coming out of Qom and elsewhere in the country.
Thanks to the reader who wrote to explain that the chant heard in this clip — “aza, azast emrooz, rooze azast emrooz, rahbar sabz iran pish khodast emrooz” — means, “mourning, there’s mourning, there’s mourning today; today is the day of mourning, the leader of Green Iran is with God today.” The reader explains, “While Montazeri was not considered the leader of the Green Movement, this points to him as the spiritual head of the Greens.”
Despite the best efforts of the Iranian regime to defuse opposition protests, they seem to be unstoppable. Perhaps not in the same sizes as the demonstrations in June and July, but the fact that the opposition continues to use big events like this as a platform for protest shows its stubborn tenacity in the face of violence and media clampdowns.
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- Senegalese just want to work - Global Citizen YearThe passing of an Iranian cleric has led to a new surge of opposition protesting in... more
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Newsweek reports that Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei will be the last Supreme Leader of the country, ever. Khamenei is only the second Supreme Leader the country has ever had, the first being Khomeini. His successor has proven to be less successful at being the most powerful voice in the country according to the clerical leadership.
From Newsweek:
Khamenei's response to the massive election demonstrations this past summer reaffirmed a longstanding but secretive belief among a majority of Iran's religious teachers and scholars: supreme clerical rule, no matter who is at the helm, can lead only to despotism and should be abolished. There can be no absolute power because, as Khamenei showed, men are fallible. It's well enough understood outside Iran that those clerics have found common cause with the street demonstrators; what the rest of the world hasn't realized yet is that they also want Khamenei gone.
The Supreme Leader will hold the position until he dies at which point the decision to eliminate the title could be made. Whether or not the standing theocratic order will be around that long is an entirely different question. The street protests continue sporadically and Neda Agha Soltan continues to be a powerful global symbol of the Iranian regime's brutality (as we saw on the blog recently: Neda's boyfriend speaks after escaping Iran).
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When demonstrators took to the streets after Iran's disputed Presidential election, many of them were students. That's why, as Iran's universities opened back up to students this week, many expected widespread student demonstrations.
The NY Times Lede Blog links to this great first-person video walking along with protests at Tehran University.
The Lede Blog also links to an essay with a great look at the threat posed to the Iranian regime by students, specifically by their learning of humanities: "Why is the Islamic Republic Afraid of the Humanities?"
As for the other big Iran story: potential threats to the regime's reputation from abroad. As news from the US is that Obama is preparing to set up a new round of sanctions, Tehran announced today that it will allow inspectors from the IAEA to come in and take a look around the Qom facility revealed last week. What will they find? A facility for purely civilian use? More roadblocks? We'll see...
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New York may see a taste of Tehran this week as Iranians from around the world descend on the city to protest Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. This isn't the first time Ahmadinejad has attracted protests in New York (and once a hilarious music video by Andy Samberg), but it will be the first opportunity for the world's #iranelection protestors to confront him outside of the Islamic Republic.
The Wall St Journal has a story about Iranians preparing for a big showdown:
The New York protests are expected to be the largest gathering of Iranians in exile since the early days of the Islamic Revolution. In 1977, nearly ten thousand people gathered in Washington to oppose Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi's visit to the White House. That rally became a turning point in the revolution, showing that the Shah was on shaky ground at home.
The Lede Blog from the NY Times has a good round up of where things stand thus far in Iran, and what the protestors will be yelling about.
Anybody out there in NY? Outside of how bad the traffic is with the General Assembly in town, any specific encounters with Iranian protests?
Brief (past) encounters with Ahmadinejad:
- A student's perspective on Ahmadinejad's controversial visit to Columbia University: Iran Invades Columbia (Video)
- And Current's Supernews on that same visit: Oh That MahmoudNew York may see a taste of Tehran this week as Iranians from around the world descend... more
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Today is Qods Day in Iran, an annual anti-Israel holiday (sic). As people were expected to already be out in the streets, opposition leaders saw an opportunity to serve Iran's leaders another round of demonstrations.
Anti-Israel Rallies in Iran: Raw Video
It's been nearly three months since the controversial elections in Tehran set the streets afire and for the most part things look to have settled down. The US media's focused on DC and #iranelection is mostly out of the trending topics on Twitter. But these protests are a strong reminder that anti-Ahmadinejad sentiments are still brewing.
Meanwhile, the US is about to sit down and talk with Iran in October. The Obama Administration promised dialogue with Iran, no matter who its leaders were, and they seem to be delivering on that promise. But is it worth talking? Will this regime last? Do talks with the West help to further legitimize them?
Comment over here.
Some other great images from today's protests.
Iran: Underneath the Headlines, our hour special on the Iran electionToday is Qods Day in Iran, an annual anti-Israel holiday (sic). As people were... more
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Iran's Guardian Council, tasked with deciding whether or not to annul the election results decided today that the election results will stand. Meanwhile, judicial authorities are saying they're going to set up separate courts for arrested demonstrators. So it looks like Iran's government isn't going to back down.
Will it work? Will the government be able to quell protests?
It looks unlikely - and that may be in no small part thanks to the much-viewed video of the death of Neda Agha-Soltan. (You can watch the video over here if you haven't seen it - but be warned it's very disturbing.)
Neda has become a rallying cry for protesters and their supporters worldwide. The #neda hashtag on Twitter is more and more being used alongside #iranelection (still the top trending term on Twitter). And a string of sites and tribute videos have popped up (for example: weareallneda.com).
Who is Neda? The LA Times has a nice long profile of her, reporting she was 26 and not an activist.
What will her death ultimately mean? In the face of today's news that Iran's government seems unwilling to back down - Neda's death could be the rallying cry for a long, long period of protest.
Time magazine points out that: "The cycles of mourning in Shi'ite Islam actually provide a schedule for political combat — a way to generate or revive momentum. Shi'ite Muslims mourn their dead on the third, seventh and 40th days after a death, and these commemorations are a pivotal part of Iran's rich history. During the revolution, the pattern of confrontations between the Shah's security forces and the revolutionaries often played out in 40-day cycles."
So despite the news today, Iran might not be settling down anytime soon.Iran's Guardian Council, tasked with deciding whether or not to annul the... more
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The passing of an Iranian cleric has led to a new surge of opposition protesting in the Iranian city of Qom. Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri was one of the top clerics of Shia Islam and has been a key voice criticizing the regime in Tehran. He died in his sleep Saturday. Tehran Bureau has a fantastic obituary tracing his involvement in the movement that brought down the Shah through his opposition to Khamenei's role as Supreme Leader.
Montazeri's burial in Qom has attracted mourners from around the country and as more and more people have gathered, the event has turned more and more into an opposition protest against the regime.
The New York Times Lede Blog has been collecting mourning videos coming out of Qom and elsewhere in the country:
'Thanks to the reader who wrote to explain that the chant heard in this clip — “aza, azast emrooz, rooze azast emrooz, rahbar sabz iran pish khodast emrooz” — means, “mourning, there’s mourning, there’s mourning today; today is the day of mourning, the leader of Green Iran is with God today.” The reader explains, “While Montazeri was not considered the leader of the Green Movement, this points to him as the spiritual head of the Greens.”'
Despite the best efforts of the Iranian regime to defuse opposition protests, they seem to be unstoppable. Perhaps not in the same sizes as the demonstrations in June and July, but the fact that the opposition continues to use big events like this as a platform for protest shows its stubborn tenacity in the face of violence and media clampdowns.
FROM THE CURRENT NEWS BLOG: http://blogs.current.com/news/2009/12/21/iranian-spirital-leader-montazeri-dies-opposition-protests-at-his-funeral/
TEHRAN BUREAU OBIT: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/tehranbureau/2009/12/grand-ayatollah-hossein-ali-montazeri-1922-2009.html
LEDE BLOG POST: http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/21/updates-on-dissident-clerics-funeral-in-iran/The passing of an Iranian cleric has led to a new surge of opposition protesting in... more
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Newsweek reports that Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei will be the last Supreme Leader of the country, ever. Khamenei is only the second Supreme Leader the country has ever had, the first being Khomeini. His successor has proven to be less successful at being the most powerful voice in the country according to the clerical leadership.
From Newsweek:
"Khamenei's response to the massive election demonstrations this past summer reaffirmed a longstanding but secretive belief among a majority of Iran's religious teachers and scholars: supreme clerical rule, no matter who is at the helm, can lead only to despotism and should be abolished. There can be no absolute power because, as Khamenei showed, men are fallible. It's well enough understood outside Iran that those clerics have found common cause with the street demonstrators; what the rest of the world hasn't realized yet is that they also want Khamenei gone."
The Supreme Leader will hold the position until he dies at which point the decision to eliminate the title could be made. Whether or not the standing theocratic order will be around that long is an entirely different question. The street protests continue sporadically and Neda Agha Soltan continues to be a powerful global symbol of the Iranian regime's brutality (as we saw on the blog recently: Neda's boyfriend speaks after escaping Iran).
FROM THE NEWS BLOG:
http://blogs.current.com/news/2009/11/18/the-last-supreme-leader-of-iran/
SOURCES: http://www.newsweek.com/id/223345Newsweek reports that Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei will be the last... more
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