Iran Protests: Phase 2

Like many political and news junkies, I continue to follow the ongoing developments in Iran and hope they will lead to the eventual overthrow of the current Islamic dictatorship and its replacement by a truly democratic government that allows for religious freedoms. As yet, it is still difficult to know where things will possibly lead, but it does seem that there might be a slow but steady undercurrent brewing that may yet build renewed steam and lead to change. A democratic Iran not dominated by extremist Islamic clerics would change the whole political and economic game in the Middle East. It could well undermine support for the Taliban and other Islamic fundamentalist extremists and lead to pressure for reform and increased freedoms in other Islamic countries. Time has article that looks at the unfolding events. Here are some highlights:

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Phase 2 has begun. Six weeks after millions took to the streets to protest Iran's presidential election, their uprising has morphed into a feistier, more imaginative and potentially enduring campaign. The second phase plays out in a boycott of goods advertised on state-controlled television. Just try buying a certain brand of dairy product, an Iranian human-rights activist told me, and the person behind you in line is likely to whisper, "Don't buy that. It's from an advertiser."

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It includes calls to switch on every electric appliance in the house just before the evening TV news to trip up Tehran's grid. It features quickie "blitz" street demonstrations, lasting just long enough to chant "Death to the dictator!" several times but short enough to evade security forces. It involves identifying paramilitary Basij vigilantes linked to the crackdown and putting marks in green — the opposition color — or pictures of protest victims in front of their homes. It is scribbled antiregime slogans on money. And it is defiant drivers honking horns, flashing headlights and waving V signs at security forces.

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[T]heir variety and scope indicate that Iran's uprising is not a passing phenomenon like the student protests of 1999, which were quickly quashed. This time, Iranians are rising above their fears. Although embryonic, today's public resolve is reminiscent of civil disobedience in colonial India before independence or in the American Deep South in the 1960s. Mohandas Gandhi once mused that "even the most powerful cannot rule without the cooperation of the ruled." That quotation is now popular on Iranian websites.

The current uprising is nowhere near as widespread as that of 1979. Yet the activism is creating a new political space in Iran. The public is defining its own agenda, with Rafsanjani, Mousavi and other opposition figures responding to sentiment on the street rather than directing it. After meeting on July 20 with the families of people detained following the election, Mousavi warned the power structure, "You are facing something new: an awakened nation, a nation that has been born again and is here to defend its achievements." As Iran's second phase of protests takes shape, the regime's future may depend on whether it heeds that warning.

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I continue to hope that the protesters succeed and I will continue showing the green color of the protesters on this blog as a sign of support. Fareed Zakaria has an article in Newsweek that also looks at the situation in Iran and cautions that the U.S. should do nothing for the time being and allow the undercurrent of protest to grow.

Leading Iranian Clerics Defy Ayatollah

I continue to follow events in Iran with the hope that ultimately the reformists will prevail. The Islamic extremist government has shown it self to be not only dishonest but also incredible brutal. All too typically, the forces of brutality are the ones who claim to have God/Allah on their side when in fact it's the exact opposite. Fortunately, some leading clerics are gaining some backbone and resisting the stealing of the election. It is hard to say where this will lead, but it is nonetheless encouraging. The motivation for this move is unclear, although it may be a simple recognition that siding with the people is the safer approach in the longer term. Here are some highlights from the New York Times:

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The most important group of religious leaders in Iran called the disputed presidential election and the new government illegitimate on Saturday, an act of defiance against the country’s supreme leader and the most public sign of a major split in the country’s clerical establishment.

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A statement by the group, the Association of Researchers and Teachers of Qum, represents a significant, if so far symbolic, setback for the government and especially the authority of the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, whose word is supposed to be final. The government has tried to paint the opposition and its top presidential candidate, Mir Hussein Moussavi, as criminals and traitors, a strategy that now becomes more difficult — if not impossible.

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“This crack in the clerical establishment, and the fact they are siding with the people and Moussavi, in my view is the most historic crack in the 30 years of the Islamic republic,” said Abbas Milani, director of the Iranian Studies Program at Stanford University. “Remember, they are going against an election verified and sanctified by Khamenei.”

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The announcement came on a day when Mr. Moussavi released documents detailing a campaign of fraud by the current president’s supporters, and as a close associate of the supreme leader called Mr. Moussavi and former President Mohammad Khatami “foreign agents,” saying they should be treated as criminals.

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The documents, published on Mr. Moussavi’s Web site, accused supporters of the president of printing more than 20 million extra ballots before the vote and handing out cash bonuses to voters.

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The clerics’ decision to speak up again is not itself a turning point and could fizzle under pressure from the state, which has continued to threaten its critics. Some seminaries in Qum rely on the government for funds, and Ayatollah Khamenei and the man he has declared the winner of the election, incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, have powerful backers there.

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But the association’s latest statement does help Mr. Moussavi, Mr. Khatami and a former speaker of Parliament, Mehdi Karroubi, who have been the most vocal in calling the election illegitimate and who, in their attempts to force change, have been hindered by the jailing of influential backers.

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Perhaps more threatening to the supreme leader, the committee called on other clerics to join the fight against the government’s refusal to adequately reconsider the charges of voter fraud. The committee invoked powerful imagery, comparing the 20 protesters killed during demonstrations with the martyrs who died in the early days of the revolution and the war with Iraq, asking other clerics to save what it called “the dignity that was earned with the blood of tens of thousands of martyrs.”