The Iranian regime has always dreaded fun. Western music is banned. Unchaperoned boys & girls together is banned. Women showing an ankle or some hair is banned, as is rental of bicycles to the ladies. The color green is banned, whether it’s the green in the flag behind Ahmadinejad on national tv, or, even though Flynt Leverett denies it, the green stripes on street curbs in Tehran. And even Rafsanjani’s face is banned. The news editor of the official news agency IRNA has forbidden publication of Rafsanjani’s photo, and “the publishing of any images of programs that include the head of the Expediency Council is also prohibited.”
That will be very bad news to the former president, who loves to see his name and face in lights. But there is no shortage of such photos, and IRNA has only made itself look ridiculous. But then again, looking ridiculous is all the rage at the highest levels of the Islamic Republic.
Now comes Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei with his latest joyless fatwa to forbid celebration of the fire ritual that Persians have celebrated for thousands of years. It’s scheduled for Tuesday (Planet-Iran will liveblog it), and Khamenei is nervous. For one thing, it isn’t Islamic, so it doesn’t pass religious muster (although the Islamic Republic not only does not prohibit, but actually requires celebration of secular events that bolster its nationalistic chest-thumping, such as “Jerusalem Day” or the anniversary of the 1979 revolution). But what really matters to Khamenei and his ilk is that it would permit large numbers of Iranians to demonstrate their contempt for the Islamic Republic. Green leader Mir Hossein Mousavi says so explicitly, and his nervy wife piles on, calling the regime “illegitimate,” and saying that victory is at hand.
Khamenei’s forces continue their campaign of random terror, alternating executions and arrests with releases and paroles. Perhaps they are looking for just the right quantum of evil, in order to silence the opposition. Perhaps the internal debate among Khamenei and his comrades swings back and forth. Perhaps it is a reflection of internal confusion and the leader’s inability to make basic decisions. I incline toward the last but who knows?
Tomorrow’s celebrations–or their absence–will give us yet another snapshot of what the Soviets loved to call “the correlation of forces,” the order of battle in the ongoing war between tyranny and freedom inside Iran. We will also see the extent of the West’s fecklessness. But there’s really no doubt of that, is there? No doubt Obama et al think of the Iranian people the same way they think about the Israelis: annoying ingrates who pigheadedly insist on being independent instead of nicely getting in line with the marching orders from White House HQ.
UPDATE: Thanks to Instapundit and Planet-Iran for linking.
UPDATE 2: Big demonstrations all over the country, including something that undoubtedly sent chills down the spine of Khamenei: dancing in the streets. Banafsheh has lots of videos. So does Homylafayette.
I think you are wrong about the way Obama sees the Iranians. I think he sees the Iranian dictators that parade as religious as peers and equals. I think he looks forward to their having a nuclear bomb and putting America in its place. Obama calls for no Jews in parts of Jerusalem; Obama demands a terror state like Iran be established on the West Bank/Gaza even as America is fighting the exact same type people in Iraq/Afghan. The West Bank/Gaza voted for the terrorist…The Obama has now started a new intifada and Obama is dancing like the Gazan’s did on 9/11. Something is also rotten outside Denmark!
“…No doubt Obama et al think of the Iranian people the same way they think about the Israelis: annoying ingrates who pigheadedly insist on being independent instead of nicely getting in line with the marching orders from White House HQ…”
I seem to recall the same accusation levied against Ahmed Chalabi. Which just goes to show the lack of originality, when it comes to oppressors.
Now comes Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei with his latest joyless fatwa to forbid celebration of the fire ritual that Persians have celebrated for thousands of years.
Oooh. Obama and AlGore should support this ban. Just think how much global warming the carbon footprint of this ritual can wreak havoc.
Dear Mr. Ledeen, I heard yours and Mr. Leveretts debate and am convinced that he knows as little as you do on Irans future. I sit squarely in your corner and also wait for something, anything to happen in Iran. Sadly, our present mis-administration will miss all of it. Keep up the great work.
Who is this Ooooooboooma you speak of???
Long live free Persia.
The Iranian Green Movement, about which Churchill would have said of President Obama’s administration, this is not their finest hour.
hope Michael Ledeen lives long enough to see the tyrants hang
And actually farting in toilet is banned by the regime, farting in toilet is a taboo an we should consider and concern not farting with big noise!!! because we maybe execute by the mullah’s with this sin!
One hour into the Atlantic Council debate between Dr. Ledeen and Mr. Leverette, and there is still no mention of the nature of the Iranian form of governance. Dr. Ledeen mentioned “the nature of the regime,” but then failed to define what that nature is.
What is so surprising about this is Dr. Ledeen’s international fame for his expertise on Fascism. All arguments grounded upon an expert scholar’s analysis of the theofascist form of governance in Iran easily trump all of Mr. Lynette’s arguments for a U.S. policy of engagement with Iran. There is no rebuttal possible against such a reputable expertise, so the immediate question is, WHY is no one discussing the nature of Iranian governance?
Does Dr. Ledeen, with his expertise, believe that Iranian governance is actually NOT an evolved form of Fascism? How else can it be explained that the best argument available against Mr. Leverett was never introduced? And if Dr. Ledeen does actually believe Iranian governance is not an evolved form of Fascism, then why the special anxiety for another Islamic country becoming nuclear-armed, since we have back-pedalled for Pakistan, India, and North Korea?
The “nature” of the Iranian regime assures that all negotiations made in a sincere effort at peace will fail. The “nature” of the Iranian regime assures that once negotiations fail, sanctions will then fail. And once sanctions fail–and they will–then ‘containment’ will be attempted, as Kennan had us implement against the Soviet Union. But the “nature” of the Iranian regime will assure the failure to contain it. No one ever has ever contained the two variants of Fascism in Christian Europe. ‘Engaging’ a form of Fascism has always been a world-wide war in self-defense…a war to the death.
By the way–the successful ‘containment’ of the Soviet Union cost 91,000 American lives. If we are unwilling or unable to accurately desginate the Iranian governance as an evolved form of Fascism when we are spoon-fed the opportunity to do so, then sanctions or containment or support for Iranian democratic revolution will be equally ineffective because they all will fail the American public will not support it.
I think Obama continues to be underestimated, as he has been since he started running for president. He absolutely empathizes with the Greens and is being careful not to sabotage their efforts. All his actions up till now show that dating back to when the state dept asked Twitter to postpone maintenance and the VOICE act and the desires and pushes for smart sanctions. Also people forget that he and Hillary Clinton are students of Martin Luther King, Jr. Civil Right are part of what makes these two tick!
IIRC, this is an annual ritual:
1. Supreme Council bans fire celebration as un-Islamic
2. Anti-government types celebrate anyway to stick their thumb in the SC eye
3. SC goons hit the streets to hit the celebrants
4. US media ignore the whole thing
stalin wasn’t all that popular, either. And, he took shelter in the kremlin, where he then never, ever left. Until khrushchev came in and put his foot on the the tube leading oxygen into stalin’s nose. (We just never ever get to see the truth in history books.) Just ‘disappearances.’ And, wipe-outs.
Meanwhile, 51% of iran’s population isn’t persian. THEY ARE TURKS! And, yes, the last election was held and all the votes tossed before they got counted.
Is it a matter of time? Sure. But it’s an unpleasant environment, with education on a back burner. And, probably 30% of the ‘yoots’ unemployed.
carol herman, thanks for writing. however i think stalin was very popular, and 51% of iranians are not persians, but not mostly turks. they’re various things (including azeris, kurds, balouch, lur…)
The Soviet Union outlawed Nouruz (Navroz, in the local spelling) in Central Asia. It offered no credible reason (the USSR was anti-religion, but Nouruz is not religious … which is the ostensible reason the mullahs are against it), but the law was implacable. The Uzbek food writer Karim Makhmudov secretly videotaped the production of sumalak, the special holiday food, because he feared the knowledge might be lost.
When the Soviet regime fell, one of first acts of the new Uzbek government was to lift the restriction and put up banners reading “Have a happy Navroz!”
Love to read you, as usual Mr Ledeen. You find THE BEST terms to put truth in image!
…WEST’S FECKLESSNESS***…love it.Thank you.
“… No doubt Obama et al think of the Iranian people the same way they think about the Israelis:
Annoying ingrates who pigheadedly insist on being independent instead of nicely getting in line with the marching orders from White House HQ.”
Mr. Ledeen, I’m sure you realize (but I want it pointed out), that your point-on description of how O & his own view Israelis & Iranians is ALSO how he views Americans. 2012 cannot come fast enough.
agreed
Obama might like the idea of Greens but he could not care less. The media coverage of the celebrations shows an obvious biased against Greens. Including their exclusion from the Mainstream media since a week after the election up to and including fire celebration. This blackout has been daily and includes everything from rape, murder, torture and death and prison sentences for Iran’s best and brightest. Iranians are dug in for the long fight against this mafia/regime and it’s been a few months since they realized that Obama (he is with us) really just a pawn against them as showed with nuclear negotiations and the upcoming sanctions. In addition the right wingers in Israel (majority) and USA (minority) will do their utmost to ensure it won’t be long before the bombs will fall to once and for all finish the greens and ensure an evil entity for our military industrial complex to “contain” and “fight”. Basically we need to keep the profits up. Each “smart” bomb is worth quite a few million dollars if you may!
Fascism thrives when not confronted or appeased. Such is the case in Iran. The Thugocracy will stay in power as long as the rest of the world stands by and does nothing. Sanctions are a laughable alternative. Armed Violent resistance, with the West providing the “small Arms” would quickly bring the regime down.
As long as Obama is President of the United States, the thugs stay in power. If we elect a President willing to HELP the Greens (and that means more than just giving them “Comms” to communicate) then the Thugocracy disappears. The Greens need arms.
Western countries should punish western companies, like Siemens and Nokia that are helping the tyrannical regime block communications and to track communications leading to identification, apprehension, torture and killing of Greens.
Michael, did you see the list of companies compiled by the NY Times which show involvement
in Iran?
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/03/06/world/iran-sanctions.html
It isn’t only about thugs in government.
Dear Michael, during the ancient times, the religion played an important part in the lives of the people and many different types of gods were worshipped, although today there is no religious significance attached to celebration of the fire ritual in Iran. during the ancient civilizations, the people believed that nature was closely related to the world of the supernatural where a hundreds of gods associated to nature were believed to exist. They used to be thought to incentive to life. Most of civilizations had more than one god such as (gods of sun “Re, Ra” was the ancient Egyptian sun god, and water, moon and Gods of love and beauty as “Venus” in the time of Roman reign”. for example, the sun was a major aspect of the ancient Egyptians symbols and hieroglyphs.
So will the Arabs were worshipped idolatry before coming of Islam. They worshipped innumerable Gods and goddesses, and that Allah(الله)most probably (Al-Lat) who was one of the many Gods in Arabian Peninsula. Among them were (Al-Lat, Al-Uzza, and Manat) who were goddesses and were looked upon as daughters of Allah along with male Gods like Hubal (Baal).
However, Gods are still worshipped in other parts of the world today as well, for instance, Indians today, who believe in Hinduism, still worship Hindu gods.
So, the Iranians were able to preserve their ancient traditions that have survived the advent of Islam. This kind of celebrations in Iran, it is merely a ancient Persian tradition and a secular festival where that Persians have celebrated for centuries!!! And though today comes Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei with his latest joyless fatwa to forbid celebration in a Persian ancient tradition.
Jassem Othman, was/Syrian, the land of holocaust, Poland.
I uh, uh, let me be clear, so uh, that there’s no mistake, uh the, uh Iran uh, thing or place, uh whichever it is, uh, is not something that I uh, have been following uh, at all. It uh, would be above my, uh, pay grade to uh, uh, comment about uh, it.
OsamaHusseinIslamObama 2012′
(the terrorist-Uighur-ACORN-media choice)
-It’s never too early to campaign-
It seems to me that there is enough general disgust with the regime (students, labor, middle class, general urban population) to have a major popular revolt succeed.
However missing are:
- support from the business sector (I think a lot it may be controlled indirectly or directly by the Revolutionary Guards)
- neutrality during a major protest in the Revolutionary Guards
- a public and bitter split between the Prez and the Supreme Leader
the revolt might even succeed if only two of these emerged
this has been true for months now,
Mr. Ledeen: I am from Iran and I just talked to my sister earlier today and asked about Charshenbe soori. the same ritiual the a..holes in Iran calling unislamic. my sister siad that there were hundreds of thousands of people on the street until early hours of the morning!! Iwas so happy! thoses f…ing a…holes are not going to be able to kill a 3000 year old tradition! nor anytime soon.
as for Obama: I ask you this: what did president Bush accomplish with a … holes in Iran that president Obama has not?
as for President Oboma betraying Israel: Israel betrayed us by embrassing our VP and showing thier true face.. they are not intrested in peace…
As long as Obama is President of the United States, the thugs stay in power. If we elect a President willing to HELP the Greens (and that means more than just giving them “Comms” to communicate) then the Thugocracy disappears. The Greens need arms.
The problem with western world from religious preachers to politicians they not have anything good to say about the people in Mesopotamian (Middle East). They are all in agreement to punish them collectively even they are getting all natural resources from there.
I wrote the book of the “Return of the Medes”, I am preaching an establishment for an “Iranian Economic Union” from Pakistan to Turkey and from Kurdistan to former Soviet Union countries with independent for each nations and sub-nations within the proposed Economic Union.
Why western world are not treating Iranian people from that geographical regions like they treated Western Europe after World War II.
May be President Obama is going to support my idea to solve the problem instead of starting another War.
Long live peace and equality for the people around the World.
Stop hatred and wars please.