At the Tikkun Daily Blog, Zach Dorfman draws attention to today’s prayer service at Tehran University, and stresses its importance:
[The day of this prayer service], I would argue, is the single most important day in Iran since the Islamofascist (and I don’t use the term flippantly) ruling clique baldly stole the June 12th presidential election, robbing the regime of any shred of legitimacy it retained, and squashing the only semi-democratic aspect of the Islamic “Republic.” [Today], Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, eminence grise, founding father of the current Iranian regime, antagonist of the detestable Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, will speak at Friday prayers. The prayers will be broadcast nationally; losing presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi will be attending, making his first public appearance in weeks. Mehdi Karroubi, another losing candidate, will be there. Former president Mohammed Khatami will be there. In other words, ever major opposition figure in Iran–Ayatollah Montazeri excepted–will be there.What will Rafsanjani say? Will he call for a new election? Address the issue in a roundabout, subtle fashion? The mere presence of all these figures at Friday prayers is a form of protest, the choice of venue a direct challenge not only to the regime but what it seeks to represent. No, it says: you are no longer the legitimate representatives of the Iranian people; your version of Islam is a perversion; the velayat e faqih has been irrevocably corrupted.
Read the full post here.