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Allah O Akbar

I've never been a religious or even a particularly spiritual person, but it's incredibly difficult not to be moved by the the piously-inspired, peaceful protests in Iran this week. However, the jury is out on whether the momentum can be sustained.

This is because regardless of faith or ideology, the struggle for basic human rights is not something to split hairs over. The election in Iran may or not be a sham, but what is absolutely fact is that a new generation of people in Iran (60% are under the age of 28) don’t remember the Iranian Revolution and don’t understand why such a cosmopolitan people have such a limited democracy. Frustrations have been building for years, as reformist presidents have been elected but whose policies have failed to gain the approval of the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, an unelected mullah whom has almost limitless power.

With the results of the 2009 election in dispute, supporters of the moderate and reform candidates Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi feel as if the only semblance of democracy that they had been clinging to was taken from them as well, a coup of sorts for the clerical establishment and Revolutionary Guard against the people of Iran.

This new generation of Iranians, in addition to many elders of the revolution whom do not remember the vision of Ayatollah Khomeini (the founding father of the Islamic Republic of Iran, not to be confused with the current leader, Khamenei) having anything to do with tyrannical rule over the Iranian people. These protests are more than Mousavi or Karroubi now. Mousavi and Karroubi want the election annulled and a new one held, but so many of these people seem to be yearning for more than just that vague semblance of democracy.

The last time there was revolution in Iran, cries were heard from the rooftops of Tehran and other cities throughout the country. These were cries of “Allah O Akbar” or “God is Great,” historically a rallying cry for Muslims when suffering oppression and injustice. Cries of “Allah O Akbar” are a peaceful protest, a reminder to any despotic regime that no man is greater than another, that only a higher power can claim the right to choose the destiny of men and women on Earth.

Unlike many of the young countries in the Arab world, Iran has at least a brief history of democratic self-governance, and a population who yearns for better ties with the West and democratic reform. This is why a second revolution, if it gets to that point, could lead to the first fully democratic Muslim nation in the Middle East with a government chosen by its own people (and not by American armed forces). While it’s not an Arab country, Iran is the biggest financial supporter of both Shi’a Arab Hamas in the Palestinian territories and Hezbollah in Syria and Lebanon, major destabilizing forces in the Middle East.

Warning, mini-history lesson: For those of you unfamiliar with the democratically-elected Mohammed Mosaddeq, the CIA and MI6 instigated his overthrow because Mosaddeq planned to nationalize Iranian oil assets, a position far too left on the ideological spectrum during the Cold War. This led to the pro-Western Shah being re-installed, and who after nearly 27 years of dictatorial rule, was overthrown himself in what we now call the Islamic Revolution.

Today is Saturday, June 20th in Iran and Ayatollah Khomeini has signaled that he is prepared to brutally crack down on any more protests. Many young Iranians last night sent goodbye letters, preparing friends and relatives in the event they don’t make it back to their homes today. Like their revolutionary counterparts in 1979, these Iranians only seek freedom in the country they so desperately love. They don’t seek to tear Iran apart, only to re-gain the freedom to have their voices heard in their own government.

The foundation of the Islamic Republic is cracking. If even after Khamenei’s warning, Mousavi’s “Sea of Green” can continue to march in overwhelming numbers in the face of what is now sure to be brutal oppression, they may just win the Iranian people more than new elections.

Update: Poetry in the night. This brought tears to my eyes. Absolutely haunting.