Ali Lakani provided a great link of Hadi Ghafari’s speech against Khamenei in the following news link:
http://iranian.com/main/news/2009/06/27-2
The speech is fantastic except that Mr. Ghafaris arguments are standing on its head:
1. Much to his chagrin, it is not a “particular vali faghih” that people dislike, it is the institution of “velayat faghih” that with maturity of democracy, and the revolution becoming well established in its path, is losing its raison d’etre.
2. People “pech pech” when he walks because he’s a cleric, not because they associate him with a non-ammameh wearing president, Ahmadinejad.
3. If people stop “pech pech” around him, it is because of his “V” sign which at the moment they find a sign of “revolt against the system,” not because they find him in one religious camp they like against the other religious camp that they dislike!
4. Even a top reformist like Karroobi gets pathetically little votes compared to Mousavi or Ahmadinejad not because the election was rigged, but because “Ammameh” is getting out of fashion!
In short:
Islamic Revolution was an anti-colonial revolution with an “Islamic facade,” as clergy historically have been in the forefront of such anti-colonial fights together with the intelligentsia. The original stage of Iranian anti-colonial awakening, the Constitutional Revolution, had similar clergy participation. Its next stage, the oil nationalization era was again similar, with people like Ayatollah Kashani as one of its symbols. That one had the national front facade of Mosadeq, whereas the 1978-9 revolution had the Islamic facade as Khomeini who was THE unifying figure of the revolution, although Khomeini appointed the National front Bazargan as its first official head of government.
People like Mr. Ghafari have their arguments backward because they incorrectly believe that the revolution was about Islam! He doesn’t recognize that it was an anti-colonial revolution about independence and “JOMHOURI.” “ISLAM” was its facade; the important ingredient which could unify people of wildly different strata to propel the revolution.
As the ideals of Iranian revolution, democracy, freedom, and independence are reaching a more mature stage, the need for Islam is fading rapidly. Yet, the anti-colonial aspirations of Iranians are still very alive in this stage as well. Absent from the discussion of “Iran experts” on TV these days, is the fact that 94% of all Iranians from both Ahmadinejad and Mousavi camps, are unified in their anti-colonial demand for Iran’s right to nuclear energy, while they are struggling for more internal freedom. This is a welcome phase of maturation of democracy in Iran exemplified by the open and critical debate among powerful clergy presented in this link; itself a consequence of the healthy fracture that opened up in the presidential debates. This link sounds like the parliamentary sessions in the UK or US congress! It even reflects a healthier divide than US congress which on some issues (like Israeli ones) they act uniformly like a bunch of sheep led by AIPAC! This link is a perfect reflection of the healthy stage that Iranian democracy is reaching; the stage where the institution of “velayat faghih is becoming redundant,” much to Mr. Ghafari’s upcoming disappointment!!
Completely opposite to what some “experts” analyze the present situation in Iran, it is NOT the rise of dictatorship by eradication of “Jomhouri” from “jomhouri Islami,” rather it is the NATURAL fading of “Islamic” from the “jomhouri Islami!”
