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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Democracy after elections may encourage change in Iran — Kadivar

2005-02-05

A successful transition to democracy in Iraq would increase pressure for change in Iran, a leading Iranian clerical dissident said on Wednesday. Mohsen Kadivar, whose views have earned him time in jail, also urged Iraq not to follow the Iranian model of granting ultimate power to a senior cleric. "I think the Iraqis can make what we wanted to create but were unsuccessful: a real Islamic Republic," he said in an interview. "By that I mean a republic with Islamic values, democracy with Islamic values ... (where) the clergy has no special rights."

It seems to have been done in Kurdistan. Maybe it'll work in Iraq as a whole...

"If they have a good government with Islamic democracy and without any special or divine rights for the clergy, the Iranian government won't be able to justify its situation to the Iranian citizens," the 45-year-old philosophy professor added.

Which is why they're determined it's going to fail...

His views echoed those of Iran's leading clerical dissident Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, who told Reuters last month that Iraq should learn from Iran's experience and not allow clerics to take a political role for which they are unqualified. After the Islamic revolution toppled the US-backed Shah in 1979 Iran erred by adopting the system of velayat-e faqih, or "rule of the Islamic jurisprudent," whereby a senior cleric, or supreme leader, was accorded ultimate power over all state matters, Kadivar said. "We replaced a kingdom with an Islamic kingdom," he said.

Goddammit. Every time I get on a role, expounding on how Islam is incapable of anything but rule by holy men and convoluted, self-contradictory logic, we have a day like today: Bahraini women demonstrating for their rights, Egyptians demonstrating against hereditary rule, the Kuwaitis on a serious Bad Guy hunt, the Kurds making the pseudosecular Turks look like conniving, brutal bastards, and Danish imams telling the Hizbis to piss off. Then we have this guy pop up, taking his life in his hands to express his opinions, and the opinions actually make sense and hold out hope for Iran, of all places. Good luck to him, and I will now attempt to return to my practice of actually thinking, rather than just reacting to the continuous steam of hackneyed cupidity and vitriol that's the normal day in the Muddle East.

Posted by:Fred

#10 All I can tell you Frank G is look at that sheite hole Oakland. The state had to step in a run the bankrupt school system, It's the home of "ebonics" and Jerry Brown is the Mayor. Most people wearing Raiders jerseys are gang bangers, live in the Bario or getto. Tribalism at work.

Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom 2005-02-05 1:14:24 PM

#9 lol

Posted by: Frank G 2005-02-05 12:05:39 PM

#8 You know Pappenheimers, I know Pfaffelhubers. I like to think we're the best kind of snob: those who are justified.

Posted by: trailing wife 2005-02-05 12:02:19 PM

#7 no tribalism? You've never seen an Oakland Raider home game, huh?

Posted by: Frank G 2005-02-05 11:53:47 AM

#6 TW, I am not sure I am, if so, so be it, but considering that I lived in Europe for the first 30 years of my life, is it unreasonable to accept that I know my pappenheimers? :-)

Posted by: Sobiesky 2005-02-05 9:11:01 AM

#5 Sobiesky, dear, you are such a New World snob! (Me, too, but dont't tell anyone)

Posted by: trailing wife 2005-02-05 8:55:59 AM

#4 ...Europe. They still are very class based societiesSPoD, I would add: "...while they don't have much class to flaunt."

Posted by: Sobiesky 2005-02-05 3:20:31 AM

#3 The reason the western world has advanced is because we have got rid of the tribalism . Every place the tribalist mentality flourishes is backwards and steeped in ignorance.
The US is the ultimate anti tribalist society. We are anti tribalism and pretty much anti class. That is why we are so far ahead of Europe. They still are very class based societies.

Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom 2005-02-05 3:13:34 AM

#2 11A5S - Amen. Tribalism as a major root cause for grief (from corruption to jihadi support networks) is certainly spot-on, IMHO. One guy can make an entire region either a sanctuary - or a hotzone - as happened in this story yesterday - the only positive thing I've seen about tribes in years. Hell, I think all of Africa can be added to the M.E. as proof of your point. Being from the wrong side of the river, from one bend to the next, seems to be grounds for murder.

Posted by: .com 2005-02-05 1:14:28 AM

#1 Three years ago, as Rantburg and other sites really started disseminating information about Salafism, and before knowledge of it entered the mainstream, I Googled "wahabi" and came up with three or four pages of nothing but anti-wahabi websites (mostly Sufi and Shia would be my guess).

Shiite theologians had actually done a lot of work to try and reconcile Islam with modernity before the Shah fell. Even Khomeini's son has taken that position.

Most Germans and Japanese behaved pretty well after we rooted out the Nazis and militarists. Of course the Muslim world has other problems.

I think that besides Islam, the other real problem in the Middle East is the herd mentality. What tipped me off was the opinion polls. Results would keep coming back in the high 90's. No population is that homogenous in thought. When the pollsters arrive, _someone_ (mullah/sheikh/mukhabarat -- you pick) is putting the word out on the street to answer in such and such a way. We have to break the tribes. Only then does change come.

Posted by: 11A5S 2005-02-05 1:00:12 AM

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