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| Axis of Evil |
| Iran coming to a boil... |
| 2002-07-11 |
| The Iranian regime has plunged into its deepest political crisis since the 1979 Islamic revolution here following the shock resignation of a prominent cleric, street protests and anti-clerical attacks. Reports on gatherings Tuesday in Tehran and other cities by thousands of people, families as well as militant young people, who defied a government ban to mark the anniversary of student unrest in July 1999 continued to fill newspapers Thursday. The demonstrations took an anti-government turn, and ended in clashes with the police and the arrest of more than 200 people. "The war has begun and it will not spare anyone, not even the clergy," political analyst Dariush Abdali said Thursday, adding that a "breach" has opened between the regime's main conservative and reformist factions. The old left hand-right hand dichotomy. It'll get worse before it gets better. Matter of fact, it is getting worse — for the ayatollahs. I like that part about the war having begun... But there were no reports Thursday morning concerning the shock resignation of the prayer leader in the central city of Isfahan, prominent Ayatollah Jalalabad Taheri, who said he was unable to continue because of the "chaotic situation" in the country. His letter raised an outcry among conservatives, who accused Taheri of having written it "under the influence of suspicious elements" in order to distract attention from the "Aghajari affair." Did, huh? What's that? Secular reformist writer and journalist Hashem Aghajari, a member of the radical Khatami-allied Organization of the Mujahedeen of the Islamic Revolution (OMIR), sparked a storm last month with an anti-clerical speech in the western town of Hamedan. He was charged with offending the clergy and barred from leaving the country after saying Muslims "should not blindly" follow religious leaders and calling for a "religious reformation" of Shiism. Well, of course they should blindly follow holy men. That's what they've been doing or years. That's how they got where they are... um... now. Wherever that is. The OMIR hit back Thursday with a fierce attack on the circle of conservative clerics in their bastion of Qom, whose Association of Studies runs Iran's Koranic schools. Accusing the association of being "at the service of the conservatives and their mercantile capitalism," OMIR secretary Mohammad Salamati called it a "political rival and not an acceptable religious body." The association had earlier alleged that the OMIR "has nothing Islamic" to it. "We say aloud that we are opposed to any despotism under the veil of religion," the OMIR said. "Mercantile capitalism?" Where'd that come from? |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |
| #1 I've said it before, and Ill say it again, Iran will fall before Iraq. It will happen soon and it will happen fast. Good work in the intel here man! |
| Posted by: frank martin 2002-07-11 17:28:02 |