An Opportunity For The Youth Of Tehran
Many lovers of Western Civilization have all but given up hope that we can avoid a catastrophic conflict with Islam over the future course of world history.
That doesn’t mean, however, that we should let opportunities for rapprochement die out because there’s “no way” we can ever reason with any of the adherents of The Religion Of Peace.
As John Tabin illustrates in his December 20th article about the death of Iranian opposition leader Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri (Grand Ayatollah Montazeri, R.I.P., Amspec Blog), the demise of the enemy of our enemy might indeed create a sliver of hope for the youth of Tehran to further weaken the hideous Iranian regime.
Tabin reminds us that Montazeri was always “deeply inconvenient” to the hard-line clerics who make up the ruling body of the harshly theocratic state:
“Until 1989, when he objected to the execution of thousands of government opponents and thus had a falling out with Ruhollah Khomenei, he was seen as next in line to be Supreme Leader (the job, of course, went to Ali Khamenei, despite his being an Ayatollah of the non-”Grand” variety and therefore outranked by Montazeri). Montazeri spent the next two decades criticizing the regime, sometimes from under house arrest, and was a supporter of the opposition movement that drew protestors to the streets of Iran in the wake of the obviously fraudulent election results earlier this year.”
Montazeri’s expiration is yet another reminder to demonstrating students (and others) that the deck is stacked against them. Although it is impossible to guess what effect this might have on efforts to topple the Mullahs, there is some evidence that, for those born after the Islamic Revolution of 1979, a different version of Islam is being clamored for.
Stay tuned. Riot police began to gather in the holy city of Qum today, the site of Montazeri’s funeral, and there were rallies in Tehran. Since God keeps his own counsel, we have no way of knowing what his plans are for the fabled Persian Empire.
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