NorthOfNorth wrote on Jun 4^th, 2009 at 7:33pm:

So it seems that moderate muslims don't last long in muslim world.

THE Iranian Supreme Leader, assailed by some of his country's most prominent clerics and detested by millions of his ordinary citizens, has received a boost from an unlikely quarter: Joe Biden.

One day after the US Vice-President said that the US would not stop Israel bombing Iran's nuclear plants, Ayatollah Khamenei launched a fierce attack on "meddling" Western leaders, designed to rally his fractured people.

"We warn the leaders of those countries trying to take advantage of the situation: beware! The Iranian nation will react," the Ayatollah declared in a televised speech yesterday.

"The leaders of arrogant countries, the nosy meddlers in the affairs of the Islamic Republic, must know that even if the Iranian people have their differences, when your enemies get involved, the people ... will become a firm fist against you."

Tehran has backed the warning with action against foreign interests in Iran: a locally hired employee at the British Embassy, Hossein Rossam, has been arrested and faces charges of threatening Iranian national security.

Yesterday the French Foreign Minister confirmed that a French woman academic had been arrested last week on spying charges.

Ayatollah Khamenei said that interventionist comments by outside countries would have a "negative impact" on future relations with Iran; a not-so-veiled threat at a time when the West is anxious to resume negotiations to halt the Islamic Republic's nuclear program.

In recent days a succession of powerful clerics - the Grand Ayatollahs Yousof Sanei, Hossein Ali Montazeri and Jalaleddin Taheri, the former President Mohammed Khatami and the defeated presidential candidate Mehdi Karoubi - have openly challenged the Supreme Leader by refusing to accept the re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

On Saturday the influential Association of Researchers and Teachers of Qom challenged the "victory" over Mir Hossein Mousavi. Yesterday the association's leader, Grand Ayatollah Hossein Mousavi Tabrizi, urged Mr Mousavi to form a political party to fight for justice. Analysts expect more clerics to speak out now they have been given a lead.

Plenty of hardline clerics still back Ayatollah Khamenei and Mr Ahmadinejad, and they control key bodies such as the Guardian Council - but the dissident clerics do matter.

Many were close to the late Ayatollah Khomeini, father of the Islamic Republic, and have impeccable revolutionary credentials. They can mobilise hundreds of thousands of followers. Their statements raise the morale of the battered opposition and further erode Ayatollah Khamenei's legitimacy.

"This is the first time so many clerics have refused to accept the leader's word," said one Iranian analyst. "His legitimacy has been destroyed, and he either has to rule by force alone or lose face and back down."

Ayatollah Khamenei, 69, was President from 1981 to 1989, and was the compromise candidate to succeed Khomeini when the Supreme Leader died in 1989. He has increasingly allied himself with hardliners and backed Mr Ahmadinejad in the presidential election of 2005 in the hope that he could be easily controlled.

"The Supreme Leader is supposed to remain above the political fray, but Mr Khamenei has shown himself to be partisan - at considerable cost to his office and himself," said the analyst.

..............As the nuclear politics played out in Italy, Iran experienced another night of unrest on the streets of Tehran as protesters continued to challenge the regime over last month's disputed presidential election.

As darkness fell on baking, dust-shrouded Tehran yesterday, riot police and Basiji militiamen used batons, gun butts and teargas to beat back thousands of protesters converging on the city centre.

"The security presence was massive. It was like a military occupation," one witness said. "They were clubbing the hell out of people."

It was a victory of sorts for the demonstrators, however. Male and female, some quite old, they came armed with nothing more than a burning sense of injustice.

They defied the risk of injury and the possibility of arrest, incarceration and torture.

They did this to show the world their resistance to Iran's brutal government has not been extinguished, they said.

"We went today to show them we are still here and are not going away and they can't talk or scare us away. And we'll be back every time there is an occasion to commemorate or when we're asked to," said Maryam, a young female office worker nursing an arm injured by a baton blow.

"We want to be heard. We are not going to let the regime ignore us," said Ahmad, a young man in his twenties.

The demonstrations were the first since the massive street protests that followed Iran's widely dispute presidential election were suppressed nearly two weeks ago.

The rallies were called to mark the 10th anniversary of the student uprising that erupted in 1999 when hundreds of Basiji stormed the University of Tehran after a demonstration by reformists.

That uprising was the most serious challenge the regime had faced since the Islamic Republic was founded in 1979, but it is dwarfed by the turmoil that has engulfed Iran since President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad defeated Mir Hossein Mousavi in what the opposition insists was a rigged election. The regime did its best to prevent fresh manifestations of public anger yesterday. It took advantage of the dust storms that have smothered the capital this week to close universities, offices and businesses, and to encourage people to leave the city.

Officials shut down the text-messaging system, and the Governor of Tehran, Morteza Tamadon, warned that demonstrations inspired by "anti-revolutionary networks" would be "trampled under the feet" of the security forces. But the demonstrators came anyway - not in the massive numbers of the earlier protests, and not with the banners or camera phones that would make them instant targets, but with even greater courage.

They were cowed neither by the regime's brutality nor by the security agents filming them so they could be identified later. They held their hands aloft in victory signs. They chanted "Death to the dictator" and "Ahmadi be ashamed and let go of the country", and "Don't be afraid, we're all together".
From all directions, they sought to converge on Enghelab Square and the university, but witnesses said security forces on foot or motorbikes charged any group of more than a few hundred. The demonstrators would retreat, regroup and be attacked again.

Foreign journalists have been banned from Iran, but witnesses said clashes continued after dark. Rubbish skips were set ablaze and the centre of Tehran reeked of teargas. Police fired guns into the air. Basiji took the registration numbers of cars that sounded their horns to show support for the opposition, or hit the vehicles with batons, but they could not silence the protest with physical force alone.
"The demonstrators made a moral point. They told the government in no uncertain terms they are still there and not going away," said an Iranian analyst who witnessed the mayhem.

The millions of Iranians who no longer dare to demonstrate have not gone away either. They are channelling their anger into a campaign of civil disobedience. Apart from shouting "God is great" from their rooftops every night, they have started writing Mr Mousavi's name on banknotes, boycotting government banks and goods advertised on state television and turning on all their electrical appliances at the same time to try to overload the electricity grid.

Mr Mousavi is seeking to form a political movement to challenge the regime. This week, he joined former president Mohammed Khatami and Mehdi Karoubi, another defeated presidential candidate, to issue their first joint statement demanding an end to the security crackdown and the release of all detainees.
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Those protesting are just a small minority of pro-Western youth, who are 'rebelling' by naively carrying out the commands of Iran's enemy.

It’s hard to believe with Islamist political parties on the decline in popularity around the Middle East, that in Iran there was such a massive swing in favour of Ahmadinejad.

highly respected Association of Teachers and Researchers of Qom, the members of which could hardly be characterised as Western lackeys, that declared the election a sham

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You're really not very clued up on the ME are you?

Hamas in Palestine, MB in Egypt, AK in Turkey, the signs of 'Islamist poilitical party' victories are all over the place.

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Well if they're 'highly respected', then they must be the final arbiters on the legitimacy of the election...

I have yet to see one single shred of evidence brought forth for why anyone thinks the election was a sham. About the only conclusion I can come to is "It's a sham because they didn't elect the guy we (the west) wanted". Can you give any other evidence on why you think it is a sham? Or are you solely basing your claims on the statements of a single teachers association? (backed up of course with the persistent claims in Western media).