Rival Rallies Turn Violent in Tehran

[struggle4progress]

Source: Washington Post

Protest Is Opposition's Largest in 2 Months
By Thomas Erdbrink
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, September 19, 2009

... Pro-government demonstrators attempted to attack two opposition leaders, former president Mohammad Khatami and former prime minister Mir Hossein Mousavi, at separate protest sites in Tehran, but both escaped unharmed, news agencies and opposition Web sites reported. Two other senior opposition figures, including influential Shiite Muslim cleric and former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, also appeared at the protests in a rare show of defiance against Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who had warned the opposition not to disrupt Quds Day, the annual day of public support for Palestinians.

More than 100,000 opposition supporters took to the streets in Tehran, and similar demonstrations were reported in several other Iranian cities. Although the protesters were outnumbered by government supporters observing Quds Day, it was the largest opposition turnout since mid-July, when protests against Ahmadinejad's disputed victory in the June 12 presidential election ran into a fierce government crackdown.

In a speech at Friday prayers, Ahmadinejad denounced Israel and the West, questioned whether the Holocaust had occurred and charged that it was a pretext for occupying Palestinian land.

The competing demonstrations turned violent after security forces intervened in the afternoon, and riots erupted at several locations in downtown Tehran, the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency reported ...

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/18/AR2009091800497.html?hpid=sec-world

[Selatius]

1. One day, their brutal dictatorship will be brought down and destroyed.

I can't wait for the day when Iranian citizens bring that regime down.

[Warpy]

3. Unfortunately, violent revolutions rarely turn out well

which is something we tend to forget in the US because we got lucky.

Think of the French Reign of Terror and the way the Communist Revolution morphed back into an oligarchy, with the peasants laboring on collectivized farms for the party instead of the aristocrats.

Hell, think of Iran's last revolution, one that started out as secular with a push toward democratic socialism and ended up as a brutal theocracy.

I hope they can manage to make it stick this time, but I'm not terribly hopeful that a violent overthrow will accomplish much. The best outcome would be a shakeup in the Council of Experts with Khamenei taking early retirement, possibly in a villa outside the country, and more liberal clergy taking over. The very best of all would be to rewrite their constitution and give the people a say in which clergy are elected to the council and for limited terms.

Peaceful revolutions with the threat of violence just under the surface generally work out better than violent ones. Fear can motivate bad governments to do the right thing, but once the worst happens, slick characters with charisma have a habit of taking them over and subverting them.

[maddezmom]

2. AP: Iran detains several after Friday protests

Iran detains several after Friday protests
(AP) – 1 hour ago

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran's official news agency says police detained several protesters after Friday's massive demonstrations.

The spokesman of Tehran police department Colonel Mahdi Ahmadi said Saturday that "several" people were detained for throwing rocks at police and setting motorcycles on fire, according to IRNA.

No exact number was given for the detentions.

On Friday thousands of anti-government protesters staged counter-demonstrations to the official pro-Palestinian rallies of Jerusalem day.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ixeFBxfLzaSjs8Mb8cuFmtPOT6-wD9AQB8780