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Iranian immigrants protest in U.S. streets
The Washington Times ^ | June 21, 2009 | Suad Jafarzadeh

Posted on 06/20/2009 8:12:54 PM PDT by Eric Blair 2084

With Iranians demonstrating daily to protest their disputed presidential election, the Iranian-American community has also taken to the streets in major U.S. cities, including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Boston and Washington.

Sheida Jafari was among several hundred Iranian-Americans who gathered last week in front of a Washington office that houses the Iranian Interests Section to protest what they viewed as rigged election results that gave a landslide victory to incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad over challenger Mir Hossein Mousavi.

"For me, it's more about showing my solidarity with all my friends in Iran, my family in Iran, everyone who has to live under a regime that prevents them from living their lives freely," she said.

The Iranian-American community is estimated at more than 1 million. Many Iranians immigrated to the United States following the 1979 Islamic revolution; some came to escape the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war; others moved here in pursuit of economic opportunities and education.

Despite differences in political views, the community seems united in its concern for the fate of Iranians back home.

Pouya Gharehdaghi said he wished he could be in Iran right now.

"It's my brothers and sisters - literally, it is my family," he said. "They're in the streets, and I wish I could be with them."

Mr. Gharehdaghi said he moved to the United States as a teenager and recently returned to Iran to work with the children of Afghan refugees and to produce a documentary.

For Iranian-Americans, the scenes of massive protests in the streets of Tehran evoke powerful memories.

"I remember going to all the parts of the city, and I can only imagine that what's going on in those same streets right now," said Ms. Jafari, a designer who spent a year in Tehran recently.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: boston; chicago; dc; houston; iran; iranianamericans; losangeles; nyc
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Much like my family and others, these people came to America believing that we stood for freedom.

This would have been a great moment in history, if we didn't have a POTUS who thinks he can change dictators, autocrats and authoritarians by dazzling them with his self perceived brilliance as one of them.

1 posted on 06/20/2009 8:12:54 PM PDT by Eric Blair 2084
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To: Eric Blair 2084

....so much for his “apology tour:”????


2 posted on 06/20/2009 8:17:01 PM PDT by Justeggsactly
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To: Eric Blair 2084

Meanwhile, we got 40 year old punks skateboarding down the hallways of The White House.


3 posted on 06/20/2009 8:26:58 PM PDT by Texas Eagle (If it wasn't for double-standards, Liberals would have no standards at all. -- Texas Eagle)
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To: Texas Eagle

Can be expected when an immature man-child is in charge.


4 posted on 06/20/2009 8:30:20 PM PDT by doc1019
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To: doc1019
Can be expected when an immature man-child is in charge.

Sad but true.

5 posted on 06/20/2009 8:31:38 PM PDT by Texas Eagle (If it wasn't for double-standards, Liberals would have no standards at all. -- Texas Eagle)
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To: Eric Blair 2084

Yada, yada about freedom for inanians. How do they feel about the existence of Israel. That’s what I want to axe these expatriates.


6 posted on 06/20/2009 8:32:38 PM PDT by Migraine (Diversity is great... ...until it happens to YOU.)
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To: Migraine
Iranian Americans are one of the wealthiest ethnic groups in the United States, and are overwhelmingly secular in outlook. Many of them are also Jewish (Kings Park, NY and Beverly Hills, CA having the largest % of Iranian Americans in the country, many of whom are Jewish).
7 posted on 06/20/2009 8:35:15 PM PDT by Clemenza (Remember our Korean War Veterans)
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To: doc1019

” when an immature man-child is in charge.”

You’d think eight years of Clinton would be enough to teach America never to make such a mistake again/s


8 posted on 06/20/2009 8:35:58 PM PDT by Frank_2001
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To: Migraine

They have some retarded pre-conceived notions. Nothing that a couple of decades in America and a culture of freedom can’t cure. Provided that they want to assimilate and become like us.


9 posted on 06/20/2009 8:37:09 PM PDT by Eric Blair 2084 (Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms shouldn't be a federal agency...it should be a convenience store.)
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To: Clemenza

Well, if they can say from the heart, “Live and let live vis a vis Israel”, then I am 100% in their camp.


10 posted on 06/20/2009 8:37:57 PM PDT by Migraine (Diversity is great... ...until it happens to YOU.)
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To: Clemenza

Good point. There are a lot of ethnic minorities from the Arab world here.


11 posted on 06/20/2009 8:40:25 PM PDT by Eric Blair 2084 (Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms shouldn't be a federal agency...it should be a convenience store.)
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To: Clemenza

Good point. There are a lot of ethnic minorities from the Arab world here.


12 posted on 06/20/2009 8:40:47 PM PDT by Eric Blair 2084 (Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms shouldn't be a federal agency...it should be a convenience store.)
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To: Frank_2001

You would think. However, do to white guilt, Obama was elected … despite his Democrat credentials. Now we, and the rest of the world, are paying.


13 posted on 06/20/2009 8:41:25 PM PDT by doc1019
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To: Eric Blair 2084

The CIA and Mossad need to do whatever they possibly can to help ovethrow the Islamic regime, and replace it with a more Turkey-like secular state.


14 posted on 06/20/2009 8:42:06 PM PDT by FreepShop1
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To: Clemenza

Over 600 Iranians rallied in San Diego the other day
and several hundred more today.


15 posted on 06/20/2009 8:47:18 PM PDT by SoCalPol (Reagan Republican for Palin 2012)
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To: FreepShop1
We have US forces just a few miles away. I'm not advocating this in a public forum.....but what if, strictly by accident of course....a few military assault rifles and armaments accidentally ended up in the hands of the Persian freedom fighters? They fell off the back of a truck. Whoops.

What if the schoolyard bullies in the basijis got punched back in the face? Any American kid like me knows what happens when you punch the bully in the snout. He goes home and cries to his mommy. They don't know what to do when the target hits back.

16 posted on 06/20/2009 8:52:46 PM PDT by Eric Blair 2084 (Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms shouldn't be a federal agency...it should be a convenience store.)
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To: FreepShop1

Turkey-like secular state
///////////////
Not anymore. It needs to be free of islam. We can’t make another Iraqi Constitutional mistake of allowing the mandating of Islam being the Official religion and “No Law shall contradict ISLAM”.

IF IT AIN’T FREE OF ISLAM, IT AIN’T FREE.


17 posted on 06/20/2009 8:54:01 PM PDT by TomasUSMC ( FIGHT LIKE WW2, FINISH LIKE WW2. FIGHT LIKE NAM, FINISH LIKE NAM)
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To: FreepShop1

Too bad they didn’t do enough to keep the previous one 30 years ago!


18 posted on 06/20/2009 9:02:37 PM PDT by Shadow44
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To: TomasUSMC

FWIW, my parents are Christians who escaped an Islamic country because of the persecution. I don’t think that natural born Americans (unlike Hussein Obama) know the half of it.

They have no idea how lucky they are to live in this great country. They just bitch and moan because they don’t have enough gubmint cheese.

The ROP is a tyrant.


19 posted on 06/20/2009 9:05:28 PM PDT by Eric Blair 2084 (Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms shouldn't be a federal agency...it should be a convenience store.)
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To: Clemenza

Good reply


20 posted on 06/20/2009 9:13:39 PM PDT by FARS
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