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Pedro Gonçalves

Iran's Steely Chief Cleric Steps Forward - washingtonpost.com - 0 views

www.washingtonpost.com/...AR2009061903596.html

Iran Ali Khamenei Hossein Montazeri Ruhollah Khomeini Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Basij Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani

shared by Pedro Gonçalves on 22 Jun 09 - Cached
  • The grand ayatollah widely expected to follow him, Hossein Ali Montazeri, lost his place by expressing revulsion at violence committed in the name of the revolution. if ( show_doubleclick_ad && ( adTemplate & INLINE_ARTICLE_AD ) == INLINE_ARTICLE_AD && inlineAdGraf ) { placeAd('ARTICLE',commercialNode,20,'inline=y;',true) ; } "I surely would follow you up to the entrance of hell," Montazeri wrote to his mentor, Khomeini, in 1988, when political prisoners were being hanged by the hundreds each day. "But I am not ready to follow you in."
  • Khamenei, now 69, was the overwhelming choice of a conservative clerical establishment that -- with his white beard, black turban and name just a few vowels away from his mentor's -- he tends to blend right into. Only a mid-ranking cleric at the time of his selection, Khamenei was immediately promoted to ayatollah. That move, analysts say, was immensely significant, instantly introducing practical politics into a religious hierarchy grounded for centuries exclusively in scholarship
  • "Whether true or not, Khamenei has long believed that the U.S. is bent on regime change in Tehran, not via force but via a soft or velvet revolution," said Karim Sadjadpour, an analyst at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "For the last 20 years, I imagine he goes to sleep at night and wakes up every morning mistrusting both outside powers and his own population. In that type of atmosphere of fear and mistrust, he's relied on the intelligence, security and military forces much more than the clergy."
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  • Around Khamenei's neck yesterday was the simple plaid kerchief worn by the Revolutionary Guard Corps, the military organization that, unlike the regular army, reports directly to the supreme leader.
  • "There's a question in my mind whether Khamenei is calling the shots or whether the Revolutionary Guards are calling the shots
  • President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who sat cross-legged in the front row at prayers yesterday, emerged from both the Revolutionary Guards and the Basij, the largely working-class, volunteer organization that is part paramilitary, part social welfare. Khamenei has nurtured both groups as constituencies and instruments of social control independent of the clergy. "Khamenei depends on them almost entirely,'' Sick said of the Basiji. "He is in no position to contradict them or take exception to their wishes. They are very conservative and want to protect the system as it is."
  • Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, two-time president of Iran, current head of two major councils and, not least, the cleric historians say worked hardest to ensure that Khamenei succeeded Khomeini
  • Rafsanjani's absence from "possibly the most important speech by any top leader in the past 30 years strikes me as really significant."
Pedro Gonçalves

Foreign Policy: The Battle for Qom's Hearts and Minds - 0 views

www.foreignpolicy.com/...cms.php

Iran Hossein Montazeri Iranian Revolutionary Guards Basij Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

shared by Pedro Gonçalves on 22 Jun 09 - Cached
  • clerics like Montazeri believe that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his protégé, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, use a distorted interpretation of Shiite theology for their own political ends. As a result, they believe Iran has become an un-Islamic, militarized state where Islamic militias repress the Iranian population in the name of God. There is another fact unknown to those unfamiliar with Iran: The youth are actually fond of some of the clerics, and shout their names at their demonstrations.
  • Khamenei's has, in turn, granted enormous power to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and the basij, the Islamic militias under their command
  • This is not to say that the majority of clerics oppose Ahmadinejad and Khamenei. It is likely that the clerics are split, and even those who do not support Khamenei and Ahmadinejad might be unwilling to say so in public for a variety of reasons, including the fact that clerics rely on the state to some degree to fund their seminaries
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  • its chairman, Ayatollah Mahdavi Kani, openly announced their support for Ahmandinejad.
Pedro Gonçalves

The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan - 0 views

andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/...h-montazeri-takes-a-stand.html

Iran Iran Elections 2009 Hossein Montazeri

shared by Pedro Gonçalves on 22 Jun 09 - Cached
  • Declaring results that no one in their right mind can believe, and despite all the evidence of crafted results, and to counter people protestations, in front of the eyes of the same nation who carried the weight of a revolution and 8 years of war, in front of the eyes of local and foreign reporters, attacked the children of the people with astonishing violence. And now they are attempting a purge, arresting intellectuals, political opponents and Scientifics.
  • I ask the police and army personals not to “sell their religion”, and beware that receiving orders will not excuse them before god.
Pedro Gonçalves

Iranian Regime Critic Mohsen Kadivar: 'This Iranian Form of Theocracy Has Failed' - SPI... - 0 views

www.spiegel.de/...0,1518,633517,00.html

Iran Iran Elections 2009 Qom Mohsen Kadivar Ali Khamenei Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

shared by Pedro Gonçalves on 01 Jul 09 - Cached
  • Kadivar: This Iranian form of theocracy has failed. The rights of the Iranian peoples are trampled upon and my homeland is heading towards a military dictatorship. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad behaves like an Iranian Taliban. The supreme leader, Mr. Ali Khamenei, has tied his fate to that of Ahmadinejad, a great moral, but also political mistake.
  • Kadivar: The people call "Allahu Akbar" from the rooftops. They carry signs asking "Where has my vote gone?" The protesters don't want to rebel against everything, but they do want justice and they do want fair elections. He who refuses those demands risks a civil war.
  • Kadivar: I admit that some young people are oriented towards the West. But one should not give too much weight to that. The majority of my compatriots would not want a complete separation of state and religion. Neither would I. Iran is a country with Islamic traditions and values. More than 90 percent of our citizens are Muslims.
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  • Kadivar: Above all, stands justice and the fulfillment of the will of the people. Under the rule of Ali, our first Shiite imam, there were no political prisoners, non-violent protests were permitted and critical comment even invited. One must not betray those values. SPIEGEL: And Khamenei and Ahmadinejad did? Kadivar: Yes. I plead for a truly Islamic and democratic state, a state that respects human dignity and does not refuse the rights of women, a state where people can freely elect their religious and secular leaders.
  • Mr. Khamenei is not that charismatic and he is currently in the process of destroying the tie of justice between the religious leaders and the people. When he, together with Ahmadinejad, speaks about foreign countries being behind the protests in Iran, he very much reminds me of the king (the Shah). He used the same arguments and could not recognize that he was witnessing a national and democratic protest movement of his own people. Towards the end, the shah only thought of holding up his regime. Today, Mr. Khamenei does not think any differently.
  • I can even imagine that Mr. Hashemi Rafsanjani as head of the Assembly of Experts might actually invite the religious leader to the assembly for a frank discussion. Theoretically, he could even dismiss Khamenei. Then Ahmadinejad would fall too. SPIEGEL: But for that to happen, the majority of the grand ayatollahs would have to oppose the two. Kadivar: Among the grand ayatollahs in Qum, the resentment towards Ahmadinejad's arrogance is growing. Only one of the 12 has congratulated him so far. Several, including my most revered teacher Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, who is greatly venerated in the whole country, spoke out sharply against the election fraud.
Pedro Gonçalves

BBC NEWS | Middle East | Protests in Iran capital 'halted' - 0 views

news.bbc.co.uk/...8116025.stm

Iran Iran Elections 2009 Iran Guardian Council Mehdi Karroubi Mohsen Rezaei

shared by Pedro Gonçalves on 24 Jun 09 - Cached
  • One of the three defeated candidates, Mohsen Rezai, a conservative, has now withdrawn his complaint about the poll. Barack Obama has condemned the "unjust" violence used against protesters.
  • The US president's comments came as the UK expelled two Iranian diplomats in response to the expulsion of two of its own officials from Tehran.
  • The Iranian authorities have accused Britain and the US of trying to destabilise the country, something they have denied.
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  • Earlier on Tuesday, the opposition was told by Iran's Guardian Council, the legislative body for elections, that the presidential election result would not be annulled. Guardian Council spokesman Abbas Ali Kadkhoda'i said there had been "no major fraud or breach in the election". But Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei later agreed to extend by five days the amount of time allowed to examine complaints of electoral fraud.
  • Mohsen Rezai, who is a former leader of the Revolutionary Guards, said he had withdrawn his complaints about the vote in the interests of Iran's national security. "I see it as my responsibility to encourage myself and others to control the current situation," Mr Rezai was quoted as saying in a letter to the Guardian Council.
  • The remaining two candidates have called for the elections to be re-run, amid claims of vote tampering. Opposition candidate Mehdi Karroubi has urged Iranians to mourn for dead protesters on Thursday. His call echoed an earlier one from cleric Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri for three days of national mourning for those killed in the street protests.
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