Posted on 06/18/2009 5:05:25 PM PDT by forkinsocket
Given the turmoil unfolding around him, the soothing call for peace and harmony seemed to belong to an alien planet. But if Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, sensed anything untoward in his words, he didn't show it.
"Everybody should be patient," he told a televised gathering yesterday evening convened to discuss last week's disputed presidential election. "Tolerance is very difficult, whether for he who has won, or the one who is defeated. Increase the capacity for defeat in yourself."
Khamenei's entrance into the centre of the crisis triggered by the biggest mass protests since the 1979 revolution seemed to convey two things:
• With the Islamic republic facing its biggest internal crisis in its 30-year existence, he, rather than the president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is in charge.
• Whatever impressions the earlier concession of a partial recount may have given, Khamenei was sticking with Ahmadinejad, whom he insisted on calling "the elected president".
Both issues are critical. Increasingly, for those in rival camps, the contest is no longer about the deeply divisive person of Ahmadinejad, however compelling he might be.
Large segments of the crowds who have gathered to protest against the result see Khamenei rather than Ahmadinejad as their true adversary.
While chants of "death to the dictator" might be ambiguous in their target, there is no doubt about another popularly-used slogan: "Seiyed Ali Pinochet, Chile Iran nemishe" (Seiyed Ali Pinochet, Iran won't become Chile).
For his part, in backing Ahmadinejad so staunchly, Khamenei has abandoned whatever pretence remained that his position was that of an impartial religious arbiter in whom all could invest reasonable hopes of justice.
Some observers have long believed that Khamenei has seen Ahmadinejad as an extension of his own power.
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
HINT: Start burning the Mosques and you will be on your way to a solution.
You said — HINT: Start burning the Mosques and you will be on your way to a solution.
—
Well, I’ll agree to that — that it’s *Islam* and the people slavish acquiescence to it and Sharia law that is the problem.
Dump Islam, get rid of all the mosques and get Islam out of Iran, and you won’t have to be concerned about fair elections.
There’s no such thing as fair elections in Islam. Islam looks at elections as an evil thing to Allah. And if the people maintain their persistence in supporting Islam, they will *continue* to be oppressed by Islam...
Hmm... When we see the photos of the triumphant upraised joined hands of Ahmadinejad and Mousavi and alongside the dead body of Khamenei, everyone in the world will know exactly what time it is in Iran, and in the Middle East. It took three to depose Khruschev, but just deposing Khamenei will not work, he will have to be killed.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2274073/posts?page=9#9
(With apologies to B. Kliban)
Mullahs eating jelly rolls,
Mullahs cheating at the polls,
Mullahs beating down the proles,
Mullahs with their heads on poles.
It will be interesting to see what happens when Kamenei gives his friday sermon, and then the meeting held with the candidates is held this Saturday.
“It will be interesting to see what happens when Kamenei gives his friday sermon, and then the meeting held with the candidates is held this Saturday.”
I still think this is going to play out similarly to the Romanian Revolution in 1989. The parallels are striking.
I doubt that Mr. Kliban would mind (he's been dead for years).
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.