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epporsimuoveI need to do this post. You do not need to read it, but I need to post it.
I decided a few days ago to do a primer into what was going on in Iran for people who were confused. Then, I didn't. I don't know why; I was busy and focused on something else. I thought it would be resolved quickly.
Well, all of those excuses are gone now. Well, not gone, but worthless. People are dying and being tortured. I can not, will not sit idly by and be complicit in my silence. This is not quite what I had meant to post, but for now it will do.
To begin, let's get our terminology straight.
Arab: A person or country that speaks the Arabic language. Iran's national language is Persian; therefore, Iran is not Arabic. Its people are not Arabs.
Muslim: A person who follows the teaching of the Prophet Mohammad and the tenets of Islam.
Middle Easterner: Someone from the Middle East, a region that roughly extends from Turkey (also not Arabic) south to Egypt and west to Algeria/Morrocco, depending on who you ask.
Right now, most of what we know coming out of Iran is from the Iranians, utilizing social networking sites like Twitter, Flickr, and Youtube. Obviously, I am not an expert on what is going on, so I am going to provide a lot of links and a little commentary.
On Friday, 19 June 2009, thousands of Iranians waited in line to vote in the presidential election. The Iranian government in very complicated; it consists of both a religious authority (where most of the power is held) and a non religious authority in which the highest power is the president. See this link for a graph of the political structure.
The president of Iran is the highest office which the people elect. This year, that power was taken away from them. The current president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was projected to lose to reform candidate Hossein Mousavi. When the vote was counted, the world was shocked to discover the landslide re-election of Ahmadinejad. Now, honestly, had the election been closer instead of the reported 68% majority vote, in areas Ahmadinejad was not favoured, likely the reformers would have conceded. However, many said there was simply no way the incumbent managed to get that large of a majority. People began peacefully protesting the results of the election. Mousavi called for a revote. Over the weekend, Ayatollah Khomeini said there would be the possibility of a recount; however, Mousavi's followers and Mousavi himself called for a revote. Now, the accusations of fraud have even more evidence to back them up. In some areas of the country, Ahmadinejad recieved 141% of the vote. Source 1, 2, and 3. In spite of the evidence of fraud, or at least the possibility of fraud, some Ahmandinejad supporters claim that the opposition simply underestimated the popularity of the incumbent in the poorer parts of the country; areas which were supposedly not reflected in the pre-election polling. Source.
Now thing have gotten violent. Incredibly violent. Despite the fact that the protests have been peaceful, see Rachel Maddow's clip of the protests. the protests are largely silent; when the Basij (volunteer paramilitary force) arrive, the protesters simply sit down, silently, in the street. Yesterday, a young woman named Neda was killed; the reports of her death are conflicting, but it was in response to the protests. A search on youtube finds numerous videos like this one (WARNING!, very graphic), of protesters being shot by police and military forces. Despite all of the warnings from the Iranian government that protesters will be shot, they continue to peacefully gather in protest of the election.
On Tuesday, which is today in Iran, opposition leaders have called for a general strike. The whole country, ground to a halt. What will happen next? No one knows. There are numerous places to go for up-to-the-date information on what is happening in Iran.
HuffingtonPost's LJ
Live thread on ontd_p
ETA:Updated ontd-p live!thread.
@StopAhmadi
This post was drawn from: one-hoopy-frood, much more eloquent than I am and with pictures incorporated and more links. Also,erinptah made a musical mix with lots of links which I highly recommend.
I will probably be updating this as events progress. I highly recommend![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
irony_rocks' post on what you can do to help.
Stay Informed. Stay Aware. Speak Out.
I decided a few days ago to do a primer into what was going on in Iran for people who were confused. Then, I didn't. I don't know why; I was busy and focused on something else. I thought it would be resolved quickly.
Well, all of those excuses are gone now. Well, not gone, but worthless. People are dying and being tortured. I can not, will not sit idly by and be complicit in my silence. This is not quite what I had meant to post, but for now it will do.
To begin, let's get our terminology straight.
Arab: A person or country that speaks the Arabic language. Iran's national language is Persian; therefore, Iran is not Arabic. Its people are not Arabs.
Muslim: A person who follows the teaching of the Prophet Mohammad and the tenets of Islam.
Middle Easterner: Someone from the Middle East, a region that roughly extends from Turkey (also not Arabic) south to Egypt and west to Algeria/Morrocco, depending on who you ask.
Right now, most of what we know coming out of Iran is from the Iranians, utilizing social networking sites like Twitter, Flickr, and Youtube. Obviously, I am not an expert on what is going on, so I am going to provide a lot of links and a little commentary.
On Friday, 19 June 2009, thousands of Iranians waited in line to vote in the presidential election. The Iranian government in very complicated; it consists of both a religious authority (where most of the power is held) and a non religious authority in which the highest power is the president. See this link for a graph of the political structure.
The president of Iran is the highest office which the people elect. This year, that power was taken away from them. The current president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was projected to lose to reform candidate Hossein Mousavi. When the vote was counted, the world was shocked to discover the landslide re-election of Ahmadinejad. Now, honestly, had the election been closer instead of the reported 68% majority vote, in areas Ahmadinejad was not favoured, likely the reformers would have conceded. However, many said there was simply no way the incumbent managed to get that large of a majority. People began peacefully protesting the results of the election. Mousavi called for a revote. Over the weekend, Ayatollah Khomeini said there would be the possibility of a recount; however, Mousavi's followers and Mousavi himself called for a revote. Now, the accusations of fraud have even more evidence to back them up. In some areas of the country, Ahmadinejad recieved 141% of the vote. Source 1, 2, and 3. In spite of the evidence of fraud, or at least the possibility of fraud, some Ahmandinejad supporters claim that the opposition simply underestimated the popularity of the incumbent in the poorer parts of the country; areas which were supposedly not reflected in the pre-election polling. Source.
Now thing have gotten violent. Incredibly violent. Despite the fact that the protests have been peaceful, see Rachel Maddow's clip of the protests. the protests are largely silent; when the Basij (volunteer paramilitary force) arrive, the protesters simply sit down, silently, in the street. Yesterday, a young woman named Neda was killed; the reports of her death are conflicting, but it was in response to the protests. A search on youtube finds numerous videos like this one (WARNING!, very graphic), of protesters being shot by police and military forces. Despite all of the warnings from the Iranian government that protesters will be shot, they continue to peacefully gather in protest of the election.
On Tuesday, which is today in Iran, opposition leaders have called for a general strike. The whole country, ground to a halt. What will happen next? No one knows. There are numerous places to go for up-to-the-date information on what is happening in Iran.
HuffingtonPost's LJ
Live thread on ontd_p
ETA:Updated ontd-p live!thread.
@StopAhmadi
This post was drawn from: one-hoopy-frood, much more eloquent than I am and with pictures incorporated and more links. Also,
erinptah made a musical mix with lots of links which I highly recommend. I will probably be updating this as events progress. I highly recommend
irony_rocks' post on what you can do to help. Stay Informed. Stay Aware. Speak Out.
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Date: 2009-06-23 02:28 am (UTC)(no subject)
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