Ayatollah Khamenei speaking on CNN right now

[JI7]

he sounds a lot like the Republicans during the Bush years. if you question Bush you are with the Terrorists.

Khamenei's whole thing is if you question the results or wahtever else they say you are against Islam, Iran etc.

also, there are no women around . it's a huge gathering of Men only.

[saigon68]

1. imagine if this Divinely Appointed NUT JOB had the Hydrogen Bomb

This is why separation of church and state is fundamental to Liberty

[armyowalgreens]

2. Separation of church and state directly contradicts most religious teachings...

If Gods law is the supreme law of the land, why would you follow another law that contradicts gods law?

The only way to stop religious infiltration is to eliminate religion. I don't mean by force, but hopefully through education and time.

[saigon68]

15. And that is WHY there is no Liberty in Totalitarian Iran today

Definition below for those who missed a Civics course in Jr. High School


Totalitarianism (or totalitarian rule) is a political system that strives to regulate nearly every aspect of public and private life. Totalitarian regimes or movements maintain themselves in political power by means of an official all-embracing ideology and propaganda disseminated through the state-controlled mass media, a single party that controls the state, personality cults, control over the economy, regulation and restriction of free discussion and criticism, the use of mass surveillance, and widespread use of state terrorism.


ESPECIALLY THOSE WHO maintain themselves in political power by means of an official all-embracing ideology and propaganda disseminated through the state-controlled mass media

APPARENTLY THO---- Democracy rears its ugly head every now and then-- and when voting or other individual self determination threatens the status quo, a Coup, or some other crushing of Liberty occurs. See Hungary 1956, Prague 1968, Tiananmen Square 1989.

[dipsydoodle]

3. Men and women are separate in prayer halls.

That's their way which you may not have known.

[JI7]

6. but i'm not seeing the women at all and he is giving a political speech

women protested alongside men against the results and in many cases they led them.

[dipsydoodle]

7. Maybe just a difference between

Mousavi's middle class and student supporters compared with the majority of the population who are poor working class living below the poverty line.

[JI7]

8. lack of rights for women is one of the things that lead/keep people in

poverty.

and even if the women are separate, im not seeing them anywhere.

[dipsydoodle]

9. If that building is currently being treated as a prayer hall

then they may be out of sight or not there at all. Search "women in Islamic prayer halls" etc for background.

The customs of their religion is not for us to judge.

[JI7]

11. why not ?

[cali]

13. codswallop. I will speak out against religious fundamentalism

in whatever religion it rears its ugly head.

[dipsydoodle]

18. I said their customs - nothing else.

There are not many women rabbis and I'm not aware of there ever having been a female Archbishop of Canterbury or Pope come to that.

Do you want to speak out those too issues too ?

[cali]

22. huh? talk about red herrings. you sure are munching down on them.

No, I'm under no obligation to respect or keep silent about opression, whether its tarted up in religious garb or not. FGM is a custom and often defended as a religious custom. Persecuting gay people is often a religious custom. Fuck respecting that crap. And there happen to be lots of women rabbis- just looked it up. They are almost entirely in the Reform and Conservative branches of Judaism, but they aren't at all uncommon. As for Catholisism, yeah, I think it's treatment of women re serving in the priesthood sucks, but it's hardly the same thing as the opression of women in too many Islamic countries.

[Selatius]

4. One day, he will push the people of Iran too far.

What if the protesters refuse to disperse?

Is he going to call out the tanks and soldiers like it's Tiananmen Square 1989 all over again?

[SoCalDem]

10. He more or less said pretty much that very thing.

Bastard..

[ejpoeta]

24. they made a good point on rachel maddow last night. even though they have tried

to have a media blackout, they haven't been able to cut off the internet. people around the world can see what's going on. and they call themselves a democracy.... they don't want to be seen as anything else. if there were no one seeing it, they probably would have come down on the protestors hard by now. But on the other hand, at some point them doing such a thing would just incite something and they know it. They don't want an actual uprising, which this isn't so far.

[IranianDemocrat]

5. Khamenei just made a brilliant political gamble.

He apologized to Hashemi Rafsanjani on behalf of Ahmadinejad because Ahmadinejad was a harsh critic of Rafsanjani's and badmouthed his policies during his presidency as the reasons behind Iran's economic decline as opposed to his own policies. He did this to essentially drive a wedge between the supporters of Mousavi and the supporters of Rafsanjani who will most likely stay home after this speech is over with a satisfying apology.

[TomClash]

16. Not much of a "revolution" then . . .

. . . if a mere apology sends droves of people home.

[IranianDemocrat]

17. exactly

the demonstrators in the street that are out there for Rafsanjani are merely there because of the negativity that ahmadinejad spewed toward rafsanjani during the campaign, and what they BELIEVED was the supreme leaders complicity in such diatribe. Now that Khamenei apologized on behalf of ahmadinejad and PRAISED rafsanjani as a great revolutionary and such in his speech, he appeases the Rafsanjani protesters and leaves the mousavi protesters in the street.

[JI7]

12. now going on about the zionists

[JI7]

14. did this asshole just bring up David Koresh and how the evil Clintons killed them ?

said the Clinton administration burned them alive

[GoesTo11]

19. He's finally letting some video out of Iran!

Well, selectively, but this is a start.

[dipsydoodle]

25. Might help explain

why some news teams were allowed to remain but not others. Some needed to be there for the necessary links to get it broadcast live..

[WeDidIt]

20. He went hardline

Things are going to really heat up now.

[sufrommich]

21. How did all of those men in the audience know exactly

what to chant (in unison) and when? They also all seemed to cry (at the end) as if on cue.

[ejpoeta]

23. yeah, i didn't quite get what he was saying. he was all over the place.

but i heard something about don't question things without proof or something. and you should take it up with the proper places. wtf. they called the election like an hour after the polls closed. how can you trust that!! I don't want anyone to get hurt, but I don't want them to give up either. It seems like the people in charge just don't want to budge at all. he talked about future elections and people trusting them. I can't believe it.

[SpiralHawk]

26. OMG - he is just repeating Republicon Homelander talking points

With the names changed to protect the guilty.

[Douglas Carpenter]

27. It is hard to say how this is going to play out in the near future

It would be extremely risky for Mousavi to directly challenge the authority of the Supreme Leader. That would be a bit like Al Gore calling on the masses to over turn the U.S. Supreme Court following the 2000 election that sealed the Presidency for George W. Bush.

One must also keep in mind that this is a movement for greater freedom, democracy, human rights and for less corruption. But it is NOT a movement to overthrow the Islamic Republic. It would be a very small minority point of view that would have that agenda even if a larger - but still a minority would privately wish for that. Even those who would ideally want to replace the Islamic Republic with a more secularized system realize that seriously attempting to carry out such an agenda would almost certainly mean civil war with a lot of bloodshed and a most uncertain outcome.

The next few days will reveal whether or not the mass protests continue. It could go either way, I suppose.

Either way this does weaken to some extent the political authority of Ahmadinejad and calls into greater question the integrity and moral authority of Supreme Leader Ali Khatamei. In the long term this will have repercussions for the future.