When did you first hear about this "uprising" in Iran? Be honest. I heard about it when a bunch of drunken Iranian soccer fans were arrested in Teheran. So essentially the hooligans are upset because they can't party! No doubt there are some who really want to be free and I'm sure they were whispering about it long before the soccer incident, but you've got to know they don't have the numbers to make it happen.
A few weeks after the soccer arrests we started to hear all the fiery rhetoric coming from Iran's universities about freedom and democracy. Freedom this, democracy that.
It ain't sincere, my friend. Freedom and democracy are anathema to a muslim, moderate or no. Believing that a muslim wants people to be free is like believing my dog wants grapefruit for dinner.
This generation is for us because they want to party. The next generation isn't because we're the Great Satan. Who cares? They're all muslims and once in power neither faction will lift a finger to put an end to terrorism. One will actively support it while the other will turn a blind eye to it, just as all those hundreds of thousands of freedom-loving Iranians abroad during the hostage crisis went mute. You're dreaming if you think otherwise.
Now a Shah, ruling with an iron fist . . . That's what the Iranians deserve.
So what's your opposition to secular, reformist student protesters, then? They're not going to abandon Islam overnight, but reducing it from the state power to a private faith is a huge step. If they want to party, fuel that desire. Lapsed muslims are infinitely preferable to fundamentalists.
Once they get their hands on McDonalds, cable modems, and miniskirts, they won't go back. If they want to drink alcohol and watch porn, good for them. Their society is tired of Sharia, and longs to be western and free.
'Being Muslim' is a self afflicted social disorder they're pretty well tired of at the grassroots level, hence the demonstrations. Freedom and strict Islam may be incompatible, but human nature favors freedom, and will invariably win if the choice presents itself.