After a long absence from leading Friday prayer, Rafsanjani is supposed to lead it again on July 17. Due to his support of the reformists, and in reaction to the Supreme Leader’s Friday June 19 speech, in which he declared the election valid and threatened the reformists and even the public at large, the reformists have decided to turn the upcoming Friday prayer ceremony into a show of support for Mousavi and Rafsanjani.
Mousavi’s official Facebook page has called for a massive turnout for the upcoming Friday prayer. (It is believed that this has been called for by Rafsanjani himself.) Supporters of Mousavi have asked people to attend the Friday prayer in large numbers — at least a million strong. It has announced that both Mousavi and former president Mohammad Khatami, a strong supporter of Mousavi who has accused the current government of staging a “velvet coup” against the vote of the people, will attend the prayers.
Note that whenever the Supreme Leader leads the Friday prayers, it is obligatory for all the important political figures and leaders to attend the prayers. But neither Rafsanjani, Khatami, Mahdi Karroubi nor Mousavi attended Friday prayers on June 19. Thus, the presence of Khatami, Karroubi and other reformist leaders in a Friday prayer led by Rafsanjani is expected to have enormous symbolic meaning.
The reformists also hope that the Friday prayer will signal to both hard-liners and the world that the democratic movement is n… >>>
