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@Revolution: Taking a Page from Khomeini's Playbook
Today, effective solidarity actions are definitely in order, and not simply from politicians and diplomats. Social entrepreneurs are ideally positioned now to step up, with individuals and grassroots networks able to move more nimbly than governments. Activists can, for instance, provide proxies to help Iranians circumvent the censors’ blocking of sites.
Outsiders can also pressure and hinder the regime’s censors. On Twitter, for instance, activists launched a worldwide call for people to change their Twitter location and time zone to Tehran. Not simply an act of solidarity, the move makes it much harder for Iranian censors to search for genuine local “tweets” as part of their crackdown.
Some observers worry that offering solidarity simply means empowering Mousavi or Rafsanjani. But the ruling clerical establishment that has ruled Iran for decades is clearly fractured as never before. There exists enough momentum and dissident to potentially open up Iran and help Iranians from within undo the repressive apparatus Khomeini installed.
Unlike in Khomeini’s revolution, not one leader and one clear political ideology is championed. This is a feature, not a bug, increasing the chances of a freer outcome rather than simply replacing one dogmatic system for another.
For the first time in decades, the very people who fueled a popular uprising and understand its power are facing a mass of semi-organized outrage and defiance. The real question is whether a popular pro-Iran movement will emerge in the West to support protesters, pressure the regime, and compel Western leaders to act. In the meantime, Khomeini’s own techniques have been revived to confront the regime he founded—and the world is watching, if not yet acting.
Nasser Weddady and Jesse Sage direct the Hamsa civil-rights initiative of the American Islamic Congress. They have organized numerous training seminars on civil-rights reform and nonviolent direct activism for young Middle Easterners. Weddady's coverage of the Iran protests can be found on Twitter via @weddady.
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Lloyd Grove is editor at large for The Daily Beast. He is also a frequent contributor to New York magazine and was a contributing editor for Condé Nast Portfolio. He wrote a gossip column for the New York Daily News from 2003 to 2006. Prior to that, he wrote the Reliable Source column for the Washington Post, where he spent 23 years covering politics, the media, and other subjects.
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Lee Siegel has written about culture and politics and is the author of three books: Falling Upwards: Essays in Defense of the Imagination; Not Remotely Controlled: Notes on Television; and, most recently, Against the Machine: Being Human in the Age of the Electronic Mob. In 2002, he received a National Magazine Award for reviews and criticism.
God is good, all the time. Good will prevail. Evil will perish.
I is so sad to see civilians being beaten by police. The US has the same kind of behavior in its past and good prevails.
Thank you.
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