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Iranian Theocracy about to fall?
I was just perusing the BBC site for a quick look at today's news (since sunday afternoon is a hard time to catch news on TV here) and foud this article which intruiged me:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3127350.stm
(Here is the text of the article so people who are too lazy to click a link might actually read the text)
| quote: |
By Sadeq Saba
BBC regional analyst
Iran's leading dissident cleric, Grand Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri, has said the seizure of the American embassy in Tehran after the Islamic Revolution in 1980 was wrong.
This is the first time that a prominent leader of the Iranian revolution has made such an admission.
Ayatollah Montazeri, who was once designated as Ayatollah Khomeini's successor, called for an immediate resumption of relations with Washington.
The ayatollah, who was released from five years of house arrest in January, made the comments in an interview with a foreign newspaper.
Former leader Ayatollah Khomeini once described the seizure of the American embassy in Tehran as Iran's second revolution. But now his closest ally calls the move a big mistake.
Source of friction
This is a significant revision of the events of the Islamic Revolution.
It is widely believed that the occupation of the US diplomatic mission is the root cause of the continuing hostility between Tehran and Washington.
Ayatollah Montazeri has urged the Iranian Government to resume ties with the US and also criticised Iran's President Mohammad Khatami, for failing to fulfil his promises.
Mr Khatami's inaction, the ayatollah went on to say, has disappointed the Iranian people.
Ayatollah Montazeri, who is in his early 80s, said the people have every right to choose their rulers and criticise their action.
He pointed out that even the prophet Mohammad did not establish his rule before being accepted by his people.
The ayatollah attacked the existence of political prisoners in Iran and said Islam was against putting pressure on people for expressing their views.
This is Ayatollah Montazeri's second attack on the Iranian leadership in recent days. Last week, in his first public speech in six years, the ayatollah said most people in Iran were dissatisfied with their current rulers, and called for the issue to be put to the vote. |
I have been seeing over the past couple of years a relatively steady stream of reports that leads me to believe that the current theocracy in Iran is getting closer to the end of it's life.
Reports come out of fairly high up clerics saying that the theocracy is wrong and of students at Tehran University protesting on the streets. These show at least some credible evidence that the general populace of Iran is not necessarily supportive of the regime. They did, after all, elect a man who was reputed to be a reformer to the presidency. Add into that the fact that some 70% of Iran's population is under 30 making them either too young to have participated in the revolution or born after it, and you get an interesting phenomenon (I think).
I think it will be interesting to watch over the next year or so to see what happens.
I just wanted to start a thread about something a little different than the current batch and was interested to see a certain few people's thoughts on the subject.
Discuss at your leisure 
MrS
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-"Reality" is the only word in the language that should always be used in quotes.
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