the west always asked when would the moderates rise up in the islamic world. and i guess the only answer to that was when americans decided to kick out "their" glorified extremists. first, lebanon now possibly iran- wow the world is an incredible place!!!
A win by Mousavi would be an incredible turn of events in Iran, especially after the Lebanon election just a few days ago. Most people have ignored or failed to notice a very strong liberal undercurrent in Iranian society, pushing for modernization and more tolerance. That's why I've always felt a military operation directed against the country would be counterproductive, as it would only vindicate their mentally unbalanced leader and stifle the changes in perspective that are occurring. The best policy was always to maintain strong economic sanctions and allow Ahmadinejad to dig his own political grave. The news of a very high voter turnout leads me to believe that Mousavi will win this one. And I'm hoping his attempts to shift power from the clergy back to the presidential office will be the first step to stopping the persecution of Baha'is and moving away from repressive Sharia laws.
the theocrates have their power embedded, in fact, they streamline the candidates in the election to weed out any "undesirables". and mousavi has been prime minister before so the idea that his win would represent "velvet revolution" is a little presumptuous for my liking. to be perfectly honest- i think we need to let the now aging "revolutionaries" die out and empower the civilian admin to reel back in the powers of the revolutionary guard. however, in the world of symbolism- this means another win for the good guys!!!
My post came out sounded far more optimistic than I wanted it to. We won't see the demise of Iranian theocracy from this election win. Not with a significant percentage of the population behind religious law and the Iranian military firmly behind the clergy. But things like privatizing and loosening restrictions upon the media, and protecting the voice of Iranian women are the kinds of steps that create a more aware and demanding populace.
true. going back to the west's insistence of moderates challenging their repressive regimes- i want to turn your attention to: http://en.qantara.de/webcom/show_article.php/_c-476/_nr-815/i.html the revolution will not be televised, no, it will proceed in anonymity gaining traction along the way amongst the most courageous of god's creatures as well as the most forgotten
Thanks for link, man. I didn't know there was a such strong tradition of separating politics and religion within Islam.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/13/world/middleeast/13iran.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&hp as i suspected- there seems to be some irregularities or maybe the little guys populist (redistributive) economic strategies actually worked. maybe if i was relying on a pension as my sole source of income and islamic fascists raised my pension, i might be loyal as well to my fascist donors. i think we really need to empower the moderate clerics, they might be our only chance at getting to the moral highground in iran.
