Thursday 17 February 2011

Green Valentine's Day Turns Red


The Green tide of relentless protesting for freedom in Iran filled the Iranian streets once again on Valentine’s Day (25 Bahman). As the raging revolutions came to an ease to the west in Tunisia and Egypt, the world stood by with abated breath as the courageous youth of Iran commenced their movement once more since the 2009 presidential elections protests. Protestors were filmed tearing down and burning posters of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei amidst their chants of ‘Mubarak, Ben Ali, now it’s time for Seyed Ali’ (the Supreme Leader).

However, the protests did not come without its courageous martyrs, for the Iranian government forces opened fire on the unarmed people once again. Sane Zhaleh was the first martyr of Monday's protests to be reported. He was a Sunni Kurdish student studying at Tehran Arts Faculty. The IRI regime fabricated the pitiful case that Zhaleh was killed by Mujahedeen (MKO) operatives during the protests. This is a ridiculous notion given for the last thirty years the regime has claimed the MKO is dead and buried, yet they are somehow operating today in Iran. They had argued the same pathetic line where Neda Agha Soltan's murder was concerned. Preposterous.

Mohamad Mokhtari is the second confirmed protestor shot dead in the protests. He was shot in the shoulder, and though he was still walking for a while after he was shot, because he wasn't taken to hospital soon enough, he had bled to death. Sense the irony, given his last Facebook status update read: “Almighty God! Let me die standing up, for I despise lying low in humiliation”.

Disturbing unconfirmed reports and footage reveal that both Mokhtari’s and Zhaleh’s body was forcefully taken away by the paramilitary Basiji and plain clothes agents, after they forced their way through the crowds attending the respective funerals. Furthermore, it is apparent that the Iranian regime exercises their intolerance towards foreign press and their cameras when the people are demonstrating their contempt for the tyrants - there is no Iranian equivalent of ‘Tahrir Square’, at least for CNN, BBC, etc. Therefore, the only way the authentic footage is sent to the rest of the world is through ‘YouTube’, filmed by the brave protestors in Iran on their camera-phones.

Another display of the Iranian government's brutal hypocrisy is embodied in their calls for Mubarak of Egypt to deal with the protestors in a human manner, whereas, both during the 2009 Iranian protests, and the recent 25th Bahman/Valentine’s Day protests the people in Iran were attacked with lethal force by the very same Iranian government.

In a speech delivered by opposition leader Mehdi Karroubi on Tuesday 15th February 2011, he condemned the killings of Zhaleh and Mokhtari as “brutal and inhumane act[s]”. He warned the IRI government “to remove the cotton balls from their ears and hear the voices of the people before it is too late. Violent acts and opposition to the demands of the people will only work for so long. Avoid the fate of other governments and learn from the people.”

Karroubi urged the IRI authorities to “Free political prisoners and remove your suffocating hands from the throats of independent newspapers and media outlets. Remain faithful to the promise and covenant you have made with the people known as the Constitution”.

However, let us not forget that Karroubi still demonstrates his allegiance to the IRI system, as he further expressed “I remain faithful to the promise and covenant I made with the people and their demands, to the ideals of Imam Khomeini and the Islamic Revolution of 1979” It was the very same Khomeini who had thousands of political prisoners summarily executed and buried in mass graves in 1988; just as it was the same Khomeini who ordered the war crime of using child soldiers to walk the mine-fields in order to clear the mines during the Iran-Iraq war.

The former Iranian Prime Minister, and now opposition 'leader' Mir-Hossein Mousavi, who was complicit in the 1988 massacre of thousands of political detainees in Iran, also gave a speech on February 15th, 2011 in Tehran. Whilst congratulating the Iranian people for their ‘victorious’ protests on Valentine’s Day, and expressing his condolences for the martyred protestors, Mousavi re-iterated a very troubling understanding:

“The Green Movement has always maintained its...values and main goal has always been to revive the ideals and aspirations of Imam Khomeini (founder of the Islamic Republic) and the Islamic Revolution and to support the various demands of the noble nation of Iran in its quest for freedom”.

This is the same Imam Khomeini who called for the spread of Islam throughout the world, even if it be at the gross expense of Iran, the country that he was allegedly empowered to protect and rule after the 1979 revolution; the same Khomeini who legalized sexual activities with infants so long as “one does not penetrate”. The very same Khomeini who introduced mandatory covering of the hair for women, and demoted them to second class citizen rights in his then newly established ‘Islamic’ Constitution, Civil and Penal Code.

Nevertheless, the people in Iran are demonstrating courage by marching into the tyrant’s bullets as they protest for their freedom; with or without ‘reformist’ Mousavi, they will take their freedom.

5 comments:

  1. I agree with you, Mehrtash, about Moussavi. But what makes you believe that the movement in Egypt is anything but a repeat of 1979? If it were not, why would Khamenei, Hamas and Hezbollah have so enthusiastically praised it? Who was it that violently attacked all those buildings, police stations, prisons etc., blowing things up, fighting armed battles with police, and setting free Hezbollah, Hamas and Brotherhood terror prisoners, if not terrorist squads? In what kind of secular movement does EVERYONE prostrate themselves in prayer at a political rally? When did that happen -- even once -- during 2009-2010 in Iran? What kind of secular crowd mass rapes a woman, as happened to Lara Logan? What kind of secular crowd has Yusuf Al-Qaradawi addressing them at their Friday prayer sermon in Tahrir Square? (Not to mention HAVING such a prayer sermon?!) Al Ahram writes: "According to OnIslam.net, Al-Qaradawi was invited to give the sermon by youth activists grateful for his support of the revolution to oust the ruling regime." What kind of secular youth activists are these, who invite him? The West has done it again, Mehrtash, installing an Islamist clerical fascist regime as the safest form of neocolonialsim, and damn the inhabitants and everyone else in the world. This will be a very very terrible thing for the Iranian people, because these forces -- the Brotherhood and their Mufti, Al-Qaradawi, are the closest allies of Khamenei.

    Jared Israel
    Emperor's Clothes
    tenc.net

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  2. Just to add a point: the reason Mousavi and Karubi said that Khameini would be a hypocrite if he did not let them march in support of Egypt was that they, like Khameini, see Egypt as moving towards a sunni version of the IRI, and since they are, they say, the authentic leaders of the IRI, naturally they should have the right to support it. Which does not invalidate the heroic efforts of Iranians on Feb. 14, but in this very complicated struggle I for one support the chants that do NOT include support for the overthrow of Mubarak -- the people who chanted Marg bar Khamenei. Mubarak has many faults, but he supported the replacement of the IRI with a secular state. Why should Iranians cheer his destruction BY THEIR DEADLY ENEMIES?

    Jared

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  3. You're totally on the money there.

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  4. No revolution is perfect. When there are large crowds of people you can hardly talk about perfection of aspiration and ideas, and even incidents like the one with Lara Logan happen, but they do not reflect everybody. She was by the way rescued by a group of women and soldiers, which of course you wouldn't mention cos' it doesn't fit your story of islamofascist protesters. Yes, 'religious' mistakes are already happening, such as the (re)introduction of blasphemy laws, but the fact that Egyptians as Muslims or Christians had prayers in Tahrir Square, I really do not have a problem with. You can agree or disagree with religion, (I hate it by the way) but there is no need to villainize religious people as long as they participate in peaceful worship. These people are Muslims (or Christians or atheists...). And why shouldn't they pray together? It's a unifying moment and they literally lived on Tahrir Square. They didn't just go there now and then...
    And I see absolutely nothing wrong with Iranians supporting the ousting of Mubarak. Thank God they did. Thank God they are not so egocentric to only care about their short term interest like Israel and the USA who wanted that dictator to stay. In the long term his departure and the departure of all dictators will be far more beneficial to all people. I was at the Egyptian protests here in London seven times. I always went with my 'green stuff' to express the support of both movements. I received nothing but welcome from the Egyptian protesters. They were taking pictures of my sign, and saying that it's good that I'm supporting the people of Iran.
    If there is a problem with secularism it's in the green movement. After all this time it fails to find a leader less questionable than the above mentioned two. And yes, they are as Mehrtash has described them. So why do the people go risk their lives for them??? WHY???

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  5. Anonymous - I have not vilified religion nor its followers. However, I do vilify those who breach laws, especially those who violate religious laws in the name of God, such as the government of the IRI.

    The devil has no right to criticise his demon for being evil, when the devil is far worse. The same applies in the case of the Iranian government's hypocritical call for the Egyptian authorities to treat the protesters humanely when they murder, rape, torture and illegally detain protesters in Iran. A classic case of 'the pot calling the kettle black'.

    Let it needlessly be expressed that we both agree on the issue of the Green Movement's choice of 'leadership' - the two are former criminals pending justice...However, if I had a better solution to the problem I would not be here writing about it, but rather striving to promote it.

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