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Archive for July, 2009
Voice of America Program on Shiism and Government
Friday, July 17th, 2009Tags: Akbar Atari, Ayyat Jamal od-Din, Ayyat Jamaloddin, Iran, Office for Strengthening Unity, VoA, Voice of America
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Rafsanjani’s Friday Prayer
Friday, July 17th, 2009Ayatollah Rafsanjani, the Iranian clerical strongman, delivered Friday prayers as scheduled. There was a sense leading up to these prayers that everything was hanging on what he was going to say. Was he going to impose his solution on the crisis, effectively selling it out for his benefit? Was he going to stand against his political rivals and use his power and prestige as one of the few surviving early leaders of the revolution to drive them out of the political arena? We’ll return to these questions later.
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From eight in the morning, according to my relatives who were on the scene and other observers, the route to the Friday prayers was blocked, and bus after bus full of Ahmadinejad supporters was ushered in to fill the site of the prayers. According to one eyewitness, some four to five thousand basijis were packing the pavilion where the prayers were to be read. The ordinary people were only able to convene outside this site. He was not able to give the prayers for a long time because Ahmadinejad supporters kept sending “salavat,” praises to the Prophet and his pure family. He was only able to lead the prayers after one of these supporters told his comrades that Rafsanjani had been allowed to lead the prayers because he had been delegated to do this by Ayatollah Khamene’i, who occupies the position of Leader and had used this position to come down on Ahmadinejad’s side.
Mir Hosein Musavi, the supposedly defeated candidate whose followers flooded the streets after the elections in protest over widespread fraud, had promised to attend the prayers to be with the people, as had Hojjatoleslam Mehdi Karubi.
Hojjatoleslam Mehdi Karubi roughed up by plainclothesmen.
It was unclear if Sayyed Mohammad Khatami was going to appear or not. In the event, only Karubi appeared. Indeed, Karubi appeared quite late, having been detained and roughed up by members of the security forces, who knocked his turban to the ground.
Musavi’s supporters demonstrated outside the prayer site. They chanted slogans such as, “Ma ahl-e Kufa nistim/Hosein tanha bemanad!”, “We are not the people of Kufa, who would abandon Imam Hosein.” (According to the Shiite epic, the people of Kufa had invited the Imam to their city, promising to rise up against the usurping caliphate of Yazid. In the event, while he was traveling towards the city, he received the news that the people of Kufa had abandoned his cause, leaving him to his fate against the massive forces of the usurper caliph. Since then, someone who supports a cause and then abandons it to its fate is called “Kufi.”) Another slogan chanted was “Rusiah haya kon, keshvar ra raha kon.” Rusiah literally means “black-faced”, but is an idiom for someone who is disgraced. It is a reference to the Leader and plays on an older slogan from the 1999 student revolt, “Khamene’i haya kon, rahbari ra raha kon,” “Khamene’i, have some shame, leave the post of Leader.” Here it says, “Disgraced one, have some shame, leave the country.” There are some who believe that it refers to Russia, which had famously agreed to have the newly-”elected” Ahmadinejad meet its own newly-elected president Medvedev. They also cried out “Allah-o Akbar” and demanded the release of the political prisoners, both of these harkening back to the slogans of the 1979 revolution.
All streets were shut down and transportation was not running and the prayer service was not being broadcast, according to a telephone call from Tehran posted on Facebook. According to Twitter, by 10 a.m. local time, there were very big crowds in Ferdawsi, Amirabad, Valiasr, and Enghelab Square, all sites of previous demonstrations. Here is a video of the demonstration:
and in front of Tehran University:
The slogans being chanted are “Allah-o Akbar”, “Free political prisoners,” “An Iranian will die, but does not submit to tyranny,” “Death to the disgraced one [Khamene'i],” “Martyred brother, I will get back your vote,” “Government of the coup, resign, resign,” “Victory is God’s and help is nigh,” (a Koranic verse), “Death to this government of demagogues.”
Meanwhile, here is a link to what was going on in the Friday prayers pavilion, courtesy of Pedestrian. This blogger points out the irony that while the monarchist radio stations all over the world are broadcasting the Friday Prayers, the Islamic Republic’s electronic media is broadcasting everything but same. This station has been broadcasting the prayers and providing commentary. The notables in attendance in the front rows reserved for the VIPs, according to a report posted on Facebook by Siyavush Randjbar-Daemi, an Iranian journalist who writes for a number of newspapers in Italy, were “Emami Kashani, Mahmoud Doai, Hassan Rowhani, Mehdi Karroubi, Mohsen Rezai, Majid Ansari, Mohammad Reza Aref, Ali Akbar Nateq Nouri, Said Mortazavi, Mohammad Reza Bahonar.”
A tear-gas attack on a crowd gathered alongside Tehran University
The arrival of Karubi. People in the crowd are commenting that Karubi had arrived late.
Demonstrators chanting “Death to the dictator” before the Friday prayers got underway.
“Hashemi, Hashemi, if you keep quite you’re a traitor.”
More protests before Friday prayers.
“Death to oppression!”
“Death to the dictator!” In front of the Tehran Interior Ministry. “Mahsuli, Mahsuli, give us back our votes!” Mahsuli was a crony of Ahmadinejad who became a multi-millionaire and a political powerhouse thanks to Ahmadinejad. Finally, they call on the security forces for support.
Here are some chronologies of the prayer service, in both English and Persian:
http://bahmanagha.blogspot.com/2009/07/blog-post_3849.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jul/17/iran-crisis-friday-prayers
http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/17/latest-updates-on-post-election-protests-in-iran/
Here is an English translation of Rafsanjani’s Friday sermon.
Another English-language translation of the sermon, from the always interesting site Enduring America.
Yet another at Revolutionary Road, another excellent blog.
An article by the always fascinating Borzou Deragahi on the Friday prayers demonstrations, issued from Beirut.
Here is the first and second part of a photo essay on the demonstrations outside the Friday prayers.
Here is a series of videos on the demonstrations.
Here is a series of videos covering the Friday prayer service inside the pavilion.
Conclusion
The speech was neither a call for revolution nor submission. But it should be said that the overwhelming majority of his talk was directed at the Ahmadinejad government. He called for an end to the persecution of the press, an end to silencing the grumbling clergy in Qom, the freedom of prisoners arrested in the confrontations which followed the elections, and a general opening of society. It was done in the classical language of sage counsel, with plenty of references to the Koran and the lives of the Prophet and the Shiite Imams. For example, he referred to how Imam Ja`far os-Sadeq, who can be considered the first Shiite scholar, did most of his writing either in prison or having been censored by the Ummayads. This comparison of the reformists to the persecuted Shiite imam and the government to the Ummayads is pretty strong stuff.
What the practical effects of this sermon will be is hard to tell. We will have to leave that to a future post. But on the whole, it has strengthened the hand of the reformists and shown the usurping government its limitations.
Tags: Ahmadinejad, Friday prayers, Mehdi Karroubi, Mehdi Karubi, Mir Hosein Mousavi, Mir Hosein Musavi, Rafsanjani, Sayyed Mohammad Khatami
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Strike in Kurdistan in Memory of Qasemlu
Wednesday, July 15th, 2009After a month of organization, the major towns and cities of Kurdistan were shut down by a general strike on the twentieth anniversary of the assassination of Abdol-Rahman Qasemlu , the leader of the Kurdish Democratic Party of Iran (KDP (Iran)). This action was organized preceded by efforts by Kurdish activists in different cities. This is the fifth of these annual protests. Not all of them met with much success at all. The strike which was promised in 2006 was hastily converted to a three-minute black-out. And there is no visible sign of the earlier protests.
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The sources for this information is entirely from KDP (Iran) sources, and the reader should keep this in mind. However, the claims do not seem exaggerated and failure, total or partial is acknowledged, and so I find the material convincing, for want of anything better.
In Sanandaj, two thousand leaflets bearing an appeal by local “political activists and literary and cultural figures” to support this strike were distributed the day before the action. Young people strolled the town in groups of three or four wearing Kurdish clothing. The strike was fully successful in some bazaars, though left a few of the bazaars half-functioning, according to one report.
In District Three of Kurdistan (north-west of Urmia), a public meeting was held on this theme. Taxi traffic also came to a halt there, and the the government blocked telephone and internet connection with the outside.
In Urmia itself, some bazaars were almost completely closed down, while another was half-closed. In any case, traffic in the bazaars was steeply reduced. Urmia is a mixed Kurdish-Azerbaijani Turkish town, and relations between the two communities has not always been good. In the surrounding countryside, the movement has been active in the Kurdish villages. But, according to a report, the Azeris expressed their solidarity with the strike. The KDP(Iran)’s representative abroad, Shaho Hoseini, said that it was 70% successful.
The central government poured extra troops into Mahabad in order to provoke or intimidate the bazaar, but with no apparent effect. The central government poured security forces into the city to try to break the strike, resorting to breaking the shop keepers’ locks. Prominent figures in the town, including its city council, threatened to unleash a mass uprising if they security forces continued doing this, and they were forced to back off. The Kurdish Democratic Party underground poured red dye in all the fountains and pools of the city that day to symbolize the assassination.
In Baneh, not only was the bazaar completely closed, but the villagers refrained from carrying on commerce with the town. In Sardasht, the strike was completely successful. In both these cities, the Chamber of Commerce and the government organs sought to forbid the strike, but to no avail. Even the white collar workers and government functionaries took the day off, according to an interview conducted by Deutsche Welle with Shaho Hoseini, the KDP (Iran)’s representative abroad.
In Oshnaviya, the strike was completely successful or generally successful, despite threats and promises by the local repressive forces. Quotations from Dr. Qasemlu were read from the town’s mosque.
The Kurdish Democratic Party of Iran's emblem.
In Saqqez, Kurdish activists flew Kurdish flags all over the city and daubed walls Iranian Kurdistan’s national color, sky blue.
View Iranian Kurdistan in a larger map
The central government mobilized its forces and occupied the town’s squares, roads, and bazaars. Among other things, the government’s forces smashed the main locks on most of the town’s bazaar’s passages, but the strike held. In some parts of the town, the security forces fired their weapons in the air to try to panic the people. Troops were sent to the homes of another of shopkeepers and tried to intimidate them into opening the bazaar.
The strike had some impact in the largely Azerbaijani Turkish towns of Salmas, Khoy, and Maku. It had an impact as far south as Maku, where a number of largely Kurdish towns such as Paveh reported that a large part of the towns’ bazaar were closed, but the government forces were able to get the upper hand and intimidate shopkeepers into reopening their shops. In the above-mentioned interview, Shaho Hosein put its success rate in Kermanshah in general at 70% and in Paveh itself, 90%.
“All the Kurdish neighborhoods of Naqqadeh and some of the Azerbaijani Turkish parts closed their shops,” despite threats from the central government.
The
The Kurdish national flag.
strike in Rabat was completely successful, again despite pressure by the the regime’s agents in the town.
The demonstrations were organized without any explicit mention of the demonstrations over the elections which swept the Persian heartland. In his above-mentioned interview, however, Shaho Hoseini observed that the success of the current demonstrations was due to these actions:
[T]his year, the people showed greater courage. The demonstrations in Tehran and other cities in Iran have cased the people to answer the call more than the previous years. They have become more hopeful in their struggle with the current government.”
Moreover, whereas in previous years, the government was able to finger individual activists and haul them before the authorities and fine them, or exact retribution against some white collar workers by docking their pay or by revoking a shop keeper’s permission to keep his shop open, since the protests were so widespread this time, the central government’s agents were forced to tread more softly. Indeed, Mr. Hoseini’s only concern as of the day of the strike was that hot-headed young people would pour into the streets, sparking a physical confrontation with the security forces for which the KDP (Iran) did not feel itself prepared. The security forces, for their part, had learned from the demonstrations in Tehran that they had to cut or curtail communication in the region. Thus, mobiles and SMS and even landlines were interfered with. Finally, the Deutsche Welle interviewer asked about the relationship between the Kurdish people and the recent elections. He replied,
The Kurds did not participate much in the elections, and most of them boycotted them. During the previous elections, the participation in Sanandaj was 22%. If we were to assume that the level of participation in the recent elections had risen by ten or fifteen percent, that would still mean that about 65% of the people were boycotting them. Of course, if the movement which has arisen in Iran, and particularly in Tehran, were to continue, the Kurdish people must also be present in it.
Here are some videos claiming to show the extent of the strike’s success.
Tags: Abdurrahman Qasemlu, Aborrahman Qasemlu, Azerbaijan, Baneh, Iran, Khoy, Kurdish Democratic Party, Kurdistan, Mahabad, Maku, Naqqadeh, Oshnaviya, Paveh, Salmas, Sanandaj, Sardasht, Shaho Hoseini, Urmia
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The Fourth Candidate Speaks
Monday, July 13th, 2009Translator’s Introduction
Dr. Mohsen Reza’i, the fourth candidate in the recent Iranian elections, has broken his silence and issued a declaration on the current crisis. Dr. Mohsen Reza’i was most notably the head of the Revolutionary Guards. 
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In His exalted name.
To the noble Iranian nation.
Now that the electoral struggle is over, I consider it my duty to thank you, the people of Iran, for your widespread and historic participation in determining your own destiny.
Similarly, I thank all those who have accepted the programs of this humble one, which were the fruit of the labor of a group and an extensive model and based on reason and the people’s needs and rights, and voted for it, as well as those who accepted it but voted for someone else, or even those who took a glance at it for future consideration. I must also thank the religious authorities [مراجع ] and the country’s leaders, who had a clear and effective presence in these elections.
Now that the electoral bodies’ activities have come to an end, I sincerely thank all my supporters. I will stay in touch with them and will utilize their ideas and consultation in the future with the intention of advancing and developing the country. I also promise the dear Iranian nation that I have always been and always will be at its side.
Many sweet and bitter events came to pass during these elections and questions, doubts, and concerns appeared in the anxious minds of society and the leaders which must be dealt with in a more opportune occasion.
There are great lessons in these events for a nation which wants to be a model for others and to lay the basis of a new civilization. Putting these lessons into practice to build the future is of great value for building the future, capital which has been earned at a tremendous cost. For precisely this reason, we must respect these lessons and devote ourselves to them with patience so that we might adequately benefit from them in plotting the future course of Islamic Iran.
Electoral Concerns
These days, there are those who have come to me and my like and raised questions about freedom, democracy, and elections in the future. They raise their concerns. They talk about disappointment. I believe that an Islamic Republic is meaningless without religiously-sanctioned freedom and democracy, and it is for this reason that I say with certainty that these are fundamental values which are of the most important acquisitions of the Islamic Revolution and will continue strongly in the future. But there are basic questions which have been neglected and need to be considered and pondered.
First, what has caused these questions to be raised were events surrounding the presidential elections, and this has left its mark on the entire system. Elections which in any case took place alongside an epic movement of the Iranian nation reached their crescendo with a political battle within it among the candidates. This occurred on the one hand alongside the deficient organization of electoral administration and a lack of management, poor taste, etc. in executing the elections, and on the other hand, mismanagement of the demands and civil protests of the supporters, causing the political atmosphere and the social movement of the people to be overshadowed by this and head for crisis and exploitation by the West.
Second, the presidency is only a part of the government and not the whole. Alongside it is the Islamic Consultative Assembly [the Majlis, or parliament] in which the representatives of you the people are present and legislate the country’s laws and prepare its budget and supervise the government. There is also the judiciary, which is the supervising body and administration, the bureau for the administration of justice, in which any violation of the government offices is to be reported and reviewed in the courts. These bodies are firm fortresses in the defense of religiously-sanctioned liberties and democracy and the nation’s rights.
Third, and above all, is the power of the government. The leader of the system has been the defender and protector of freedom and democracy for thirty years. Is it possible that that person who has said of political obstacles, “God damn whoever says that the student must not be political,” or, resisted when faced with a change of the Constitution by which the president could serve four terms instead of three, would allow religious freedoms and democracy to be weakened? An individual who, in an age in which the left was quiet and had withdrawn from politics, told them that if they do not come onto the scene, the system and society cannot be administered with one wing and we would need to ask the political activists and leaders to form a new left, since how can one be satisfied with only one particular group or tendency being active on the country’s political scene? Can someone who has in the past protected the country’s independence during the age of reform and kept the country from heading into war with America during the past few years be ready to sacrifice the Islamic Republic for a particular group or, God forbid, for his own tendency, as some have said in their analyses? Thus, I am certain that freedoms and democracy and independence, just as in the past, will continue to be in force in our country, and all political activists, parties, and factions can and must be on the scene.
The Country’s Future
But an important issue to which I want to devote myself is Iran’s historical, regional, and international condition.
Iran’s historical condition shows that the circumstances in which we find ourselves after three hundred years in which we have opportunities which, were we to not seize them, might not come again for another three hundred years. Thus, it is a trust from all those generations that has been put in us that we must not betray. Ignoring such an historic situation and pursuing ones personal or party or factional benefits under such conditions is a great betrayal of the hundreds of millions of Iranians who will come in next three centuries.
Staying in place and digging in one’s heels under political circumstances and not entering into a higher level of growth and development, not pursuing economic and cultural and managerial evolution in the country and, in a word, imprisoning the revolution within the walls of politics and government is an unpardonable crime for which future generations will not forgive us. Today, any kind of political struggle, no matter how just it might even be, is an unpardonable sin if it were to hinder us in continuing the revolution in the economic and cultural fields, and its victors will have imposed a strategic defeat on the Iranian nation. Thus, there is no other way but unity for the sake of the continuation for the Islamic Revolution in the fields yet unconquered. Of course, it is necessary, too, that there be reforms in the political arena.
Iran’s regional and international position is also unmatched. A sea of opportunities exists for us Iranians. Not seeing them or not taking advantage of them, too, is an unpardonable crime. We need unity to utilize these historical, regional, and international opportunities. The most important unity in today’s circumstances is unity in meaning and values. Unity is a word. We must not do something to counterpose one justice to another, or the system’s republicanism against its Islamic character, or the Islamic Republic against freedom, or the system against the Islamic Revolution and keeping its continuation imprisoned in the walls of politics, or piety against morality. Continuing the current situation will draw us towards collapse. The perspective of these twenty years has given proof to our unanimity. This proof is so subtle that justice, liberty, democracy, Islam, and revolution can go alongside each other, along with development and growth and ascension.
On the other hand, we need the unity in action of both sides. Let those who erred during these past events make restitution and let those who have suffered forgive, and of course restitution will be made for the damage they have suffered. We need to return morality and values and fear of God to the political arena. We need cooperation and brotherhood. We need respect for the people and their rights. I believe that political justice is higher than economic justice. If we cannot give up our place to others and allow them to participate in the administration of the country, we have gone very much astray. We need to mobilize the country’s leaders for the country’s and society’s administration so that, with their help, we might continue the revolution in the economic and cultural fields.
Today, Iranian society and the forces supporting the Islamic Republic have suffered differences. They shower insults on the revolution’s family. Some call some members of this family the new hypocrites. Others call part of this family kharijites1 Is this not a conspiracy to turn the supporters of the system against each other and cause it to collapse from within? I believe that there is a conspiracy behind these troubles. At the height of the Islamic Republic’s power, both within Iran and in the region, at a time when Bush [sic] and the Zionists cannot accomplish anything by war and sanctions alone, they have considered blowing it up from within so that, by such means, they might begin to weaken Iran and then, with the help of new sanctions and, probably, an attack from outside, force Iran to surrender. The conspirators’ most important tool in creating trouble is to take advantage of the ignorance of some and the passions of others. In addition, strengthening deviations in the meantime plays an important role. The effect of ignorant errors and the rise of fanaticism and illogical passions plays no less a role than foreign intervention.
I believe that the continuation of the policies of some political activists will drag us backwards and face us with defeat, and has so far inflicted damage on us; and the continuation of some others will drag us downhill and injure us. The injuries both sides have inflicted can heal. If there is an urgency to cure them, we must start with healing these policies. And so, I believe that Mssrs. Mir Hosein Musavi, Ahmadinejad, Karubi, and the other political activists have nothing else to do but to sit down together for the national interest. If in the coming months, the government wants to participate in nuclear negotiations or begin negotiations with the international powers, ought it not, with the Iranian nation and with everyone’s support and cooperation, leave the negotiations with pride? Or if, in the coming months, Israel were to make an attempt against Iran, ought we not defend ourselves as one?
If today we cannot overcome passions and take our place in the age of reason, not only have we damaged ourselves, but we will have dealt the nation of Iran unforgivable wounds. The struggle to protect freedom and democracy is possible with unity and not with strife and conflict. The struggle with economic corruption is possible with unity and not with insults and abuse. Experience has shown that we must distinguish between our criticism and advice and struggles within society in order to improve it from struggles with the enemy to defend or gain our rights. In the first, one must behave with kindness and friendship and forgiveness and not with violence, but in the second case, one must be severe and merciless. Criticism and advice and political struggle in a society must be in the framework of “commanding the proper and disuading the deplorable”2 and not causing a sensation or destruction. ”Commanding the proper and disuading the deplorable” is associated with reform and unity, but strife and conflict lead to corruption and division. Why is it that our clergy and spiritual guides and scholars of Islam permitted this important religious obligation to be abandoned, or limit it to appearances, and even there, to one or two issues? If the politicians and the candidates saw the events after the elections within the framework of ”commanding the proper and disuading the deplorable” and kept the ranks of the protesters separate from the rioters or the ranks of the nation separate from those of the enemy, would the people have been insulted? Would anyone have been killed or wounded? Would the system have been insulted? Would our enemy be able to disgrace and discredit Iran and damage the system of the Islamic Republic? At an opportune time I will present a more detailed analysis of the recent events.
I believe that the current and accepted ways of criticism and the struggles of political activists in society have become a giant factory which for years has turned friends into enemies and they have been innovating and modernizing its technology every day. It produces poisonous goods and feeds them to society and diminishes friends and increases enemies and weakens enthusiasm and joy and trust and hope in the future. This factory must be closed down. This factory is, under the current circumstances, a poisonous venom for society and the Islamic system.
On the other hand, optimism about the opponents and enemies of the system has also caused great damage. Of course, creating enemies abroad should not be turned into another factory. If someone extends the hand of friendship towards the Iranian nation, one must not wound his hand, and even if someone were to be hiding a dagger behind his back, one must not extend a hand to him improperly.
Here, the wise words of the revolution’s Leader is worth mentioning: “… The people and the leaders and all the factions must be careful not to mistake friend from foe and treat the friend like an enemy, lest we mistake the enemy for a friend and the friend, in error, consider an enemy … On the other hand, a number of people must be careful not to consider the stubborn enemy to be a friend and be deceived by his words.”
To achieve a two-sided unity, there is need for cooperation of the people and the government institutions and the political activists, and the following might be a guide in this connection:
- Distinguish between the people who are protesting and discontent from counter-revolutionaries and rioters through government institutions and political activists and the people themselves, and deal with them appropriately.
- Distinguish between the protesting people and the political activists from the intervention of foreigners and their domestic agents.
- Let there be cooperation and understanding between the protesters and government institutions and let everyone cooperate in protecting the national interest and performing ones political activities.
- Let the political activists pursue their rights and those of the people through the law and let the government institutions, for their part, pursue the complaints of the people and political activists in earnest and without fear of anyone.
- Let the government institutions perform their duties in restoring order and protecting the people’s rights under the law.
- Let the Imam’s practical life and the guidance of the Leader put an end to differences (which have not been remove by the above means).
In conclusion, I sincerely ask everyone that we recognize our thirty years of sacrifice and service and that of the Iranian nation and extend the hand of brotherhood to each other and, on the other hand, protect and strengthen the enthusiasm, joy, and hope in the future in our nation. This will never be achieved except with true earnest and sincerity for national reconciliation and forgiveness from all sides and appeasing the suffering.
I will remain with you until the end of my days and sacrifice my life for dear and Islamic Iran.
July 12, 2009
Footnotes
1
2 An injunction repeatedly mentioned in the Koran. See, e.g., 3:104.
Tags: Ahmadinejad, Ali Khamenehi, Ali Khamenei, George Bush, Iran, Iranian elections, Mehdi Karroubi, Mehdi Karubi, Mir Hosein Mousavi, Mir Hosein Musavi, Mohsen Reza'i, Zionists
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