WISH LIST

jasonrobardas jaan

As much as I hate this bunch and the Islamists they do have one point. Aftabeh is a good thing :-) I am telling you dude, my wife keeps taking mine to water the plants; a most irritating habbit.

What a sorry bunch of Islamic loser bygone apologists

I know some of this bunch better than others. However they are all traitors and Islamists. The idiot  Abdolali Bazargan gives lectures trashing pre-Islam Iran. I heard his lies about how Sassanian kings "claimed to be khoda (god)"; conveniently leaving out the fact that "khoda" in Middle Persian meant king not god.

The rest are Sage-zard and are Bardaer-Shogal. 

We don't need them. They are bygones; had their chances and blew it. Now they are scrambling to save the idea of an Islamic Republic lite. Anyone who listens to this bunch truly deserves a replay of Islamic Republic. 

Anyone who had a hand in creating the Islamic fiasco should be ignored. The last thing we need is these guys.  They should go back to reading thier communist and Islamist discredited papers.

The main issue here is

the abolition of Velayate faghih and a secular system.  No matter what Soroush suggests.  Okay, a referandum on that may make sense.  Re-election under the powers of velayate faghih is meaningless.  How long should we flirt with the Islamists and play by their rules.   

Mehrban

When it really comes down to it, we are too timid

People on the Streets of Tehran have screamed for Jomhooriyeh Irani and have asked for the abolition of the Velayat Faghih.  Here we are behind our keyboards ready to sell them out to the likes of Soroush in the name of compromise. 

No to reform , Yes to democracy

   Everyone of these western influenced islamists are by nature reactionary .  Let me give you an example : I was watching Abdolali Bazargan on one of his shows . He was asked why Mohammad married a nine year old? This was his asnwer " This is what was ( Az nazare farhangi marsoom )   culturaly acceptable back then .

    Is'nt a prophet supposed to be an iconoclast ? rather than folowing  the abominable wrong sick tradition of marrying a baby girl ?  Are 'nt Moslems supposed to follow sunna ( his lifestyle) , What kind of role model was he?

     On another occasion , in another show he was talking about Chahe Jammaran ( the well named jammaran in which Emmame Zaman is hidden) and likening it to the black holes the space . He was desperately legitimizing it through modern science .

    Each one of these fellows beleive in "creation" rather than " evolution" and beleive that aftabeh( water container used for toilets in islamic countries ) is the most fantastic quintessetial invention of the human history .

    Let us be careful who we folllow . We experienced reform before and saw the result with Khatami the smiling Akhoond .

eroonman

Toothless demands are useless

I have 10 demands that I would like to make to Angelina Jolie, but you don't see me making them do you? These 10 demands by failed self professed but not endorsed disidents, are toothless (Rhymes with useless) I agree with JJ the government will laugh at this top 10 list louder than Letterman's.

I can hear them now;

5-Stooges: "Number 1, we want..."

Khamenei: "SO what?"

5-Stooges: "Number 2, we want..."

Khamenei: "SO what?"

5-Stooges: "Number 3, we want..."

Khamenei: "SO what?"

etc. etc. etc.

You Can't Always Get What You Want, (But you will almost always get what you deserve.)

Setareh

Demand #1 gives the original pre-approved candidates, Mousavi and Karoubi an unfair advantage in a re-election. They have effectively been campaigning since last June, whereas IRI's non-approved candidates never had a chance to organize a campaign, gather support, and make their case to the Iranian electorate. So to be fair, the timeline for the re-election proposal would have to include at least six months of open campaigning by alternative candidates. I would like to see more detail  from the drafters of this list of demands to trust that they have really thought things through. Can they elaborate, for example, on how a candidate can logically run on a platform of regime change!! And how is this not a call to revolution?

Of course we want unity, but first we need to see these intellectuals demonstrate their intellect. In the interest of unity I will add that  "avoiding the issue," as jj puts it is intellectual laziness more than deception.

"Legislate change"...???!!!

I admire your optimism Setareh jan.

I fight against Khamenie & AN- but I will always fight for VF

Don't be so naive to think that if people are upset with AN and Khamenie they would want to end Velayate Faqih.

Heck, many in Iran who are against Khamenie are the ones that also hate AN, Ahmad Khatami, Jannati & Ayat. Yazdi, Ayat Hamadani, Ayat Makarem Shirazi & Ayat. Almol Hoda.

But don't confuse that with hate for Velayate Faqih.

Velayate Faqih is a system.  Khamenie has overstayed his welcome.  That doesn;t mean that the system should be eliminated.

Velayate Faqih is a great system that will preserve the dignity of Iranians in Iran.  However, the future Faqih must be elected by a Council and should only play a supervisory role somewhat similar to Sistani's role

please remember what I said!

I want to remind everyone not to forget what I said: "The demands are largely rhetorical no one believes that they will be granted however their power does not lie in their practicality but rather in the fact that they can unite us under a wish list! Give us those demands and surely we will change the regime I say! This is why I want to make a call for unity, not that I possess any political weight but as an Iranian mother who has never belonged to any political organization or party and who is desperately thirsty for her children to see a free Iran. Everyone whether Monarchist, MKO, left, center or right, reformist or revolutionary should unite under the lucid democratic demands set forth by the five expatriate intellectuals!"

I also said that if we are given these rights then we can legislate change. for the record: I am an atheist. I do not want a velayat faghih and am secular. I do firmly hold that people should be given a chance to change and that we should forgive people their past.

I consider myself a victim of this regime. I want it to fall. Yet I think we should agree to a set of demands like this one that will open the way for democracy. again I don't think this should be a seen as a statement of truce only as a game plan that would unite us in our efforts to bring democracy to Iran. this is not the place or time to draw a new constitution. we have no real charismatic leader. we need badly to agree to join forces.

The demands certainly should not be taken as anything that anyone thinks will be granted. we have not had anything near these ten demands in our entire history. we are being plowed to death we need to agree to a minimum set of demands so that we can turn to each other and say yes you and I agree on these lets get on with trying to get them. thank you for reading me. also it is easy to sit in front of your pc's and say lengesh kon. we have to realize we are up to brutal zealots armed to the teeth and feeling entirely justified in conducting a thorough blood bath!

There is so much wrong,

There is so much wrong, ethically and logically to trust these cast of characters to unpack here, Can't we find decent people with integrity in diaspora?

Unity is a very generic term. It happens when there is

commonality of understanding, that includes understanding of differences and disagreements to be resolved by future referenda and vote. As for Iranians deciding, that is what will happen, regardless of these conversations or projection on who is reading or listening to what. The assumption is we are part of that nation and community. So these conversations are like any other happening anywhere else in Iranian community out of love and concern so no need to call it prescription writing or putting it down.

These Posts Show We Are United

This is a small sample but it shows we are united against Jomhuri Eslami and a complete end to them.  No compromise.

 Most of you are not in Iran but people here want a complete change, but the microphones are in front of the  reformists.

But the strength is in the people.  No thanks reformists, we got fooled once already by Khatami and crew.

See you 22 bahman at 7 Tir Sq.

We are all pontificating

We are all guilty of pontificating from afar. That much is certain. However, we can't be expected to not express our opinions since that is the only thing we can do on IC.

JJ is right

Avoiding the mention of velayat-e faqih is what I meant by a don't-ask-don't-tell policy.

Anyways, even a staight-forward, bold position against the veleyat-e faqih is just a beginning. We need to hear -- and be convinced of -- a heck of a lot more than that...

Unlike most other

Unlike most other commentators here, I agree with a call for unity and here is why:

I too, like to see Veliate Faghih dissolved and justice brought up to these monsters. I also don't trust or support any of those who have been connected to the system, including Mousavi. But I also realize that people on the street of Iranian cities are shouting his name and for the most part are behind him.

So, I am thinking if he or any of the five can bring freedom to Iran, then the people thru their newly found freedom of expression and assembly among other 8-9 things, can decide what sort of government they want. We can't ignore the fact that many of them still believe in Islam and are Moslem. I personally hope and wish they would not choose a form of government that religion has any power or influence in it.

Unless the few of us on IC think that we should decide for the Iranians what sort of a government they should have. Siamack just wrote a great piece just for us, expats.

Mehrdad

We might be a very religious

We might be a very religious society but at the same time we understand logic. Given enough information and access to the outside world we will know that we need to move beyond Islam if we are to survive and prosper as a nation in the 21 century. Even a hardcore basiji is willing to entertain reform when given accuarte information about the real world....

When the starting point are these crooks, then whatever

demand will be twisted because that is the expertise of this group and the like leading to the kind of elections we have seen for the past 30. Albeit, the 'softer' Khomeini version. Their revered 'true' leader of the IRR and islamic utopia. Here is Khomeini 'the soft one' speak and mindset: //www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNwbbnNE7kk

Yazdi link is a good indication of how successful a pure peace movement will be, and how IRR will deal with it.

Avoiding the issue

Chuck Hamilton, I for one did read the 10th demand. Theoretically, that would mean an end to velayate faghih. However, by deliberately avoiding any mention of velayate faghih or Khamenei throughout the letter is a telling sign that these intellectuals are not prepared to confront the Supreme Leader or the concept of theocracy in a direct, explicit and meaningful way.

Do not be manipulated by NSA

Do not be manipulated by NSA Or state department. They see Iranians as religious zombies who don't deserve any better than what they have.

thanks but NO thanks

Fool me once, shame on you

Fool me twice, shame on me

Some of you commenting have

Some of you commenting have either not read the entire list or do not realize that number 10 -- "All top ranked positions become elected ones with limited terms." -- necessarily means an end to velayat faqih.

  Mesbah Yazdi's latest

Mesbah Yazdi's latest speech. Do you think this man is going to listen to anybody's demands??

//www.kayhannews.ir/881016/14.htm#other1401

Reality.

If the protests turn violent - which they are, There is going to be a revolution not a reformal.

We need proper CHANGE

we need to remove this government from its current statis. Why should we reform such a regime which is just backward on its basis - we need to start fresh. Take the IR out of iran and then we can work on biulding a better democratic nation.

 Remember freedom and democracy does'nt go too well with the sharia law.

Lets start with NORMAL, DESCENT, PROGRESSIVE people

to represent us based on a solid secular CONSTITUTION. Those in picture of this blog are neither intellectuals nor descent or normal. Islamic Intellectualism is an oxymoron.

Kiosk has described them and their IRR brethren in a new song I just posted.  //iranian.com/main/blog/oktaby/kiosk

OKtaby

We've gone beyond demands, people in Iran are smarter than this

When we had this last election I was skeptic about the outcome, then the people in Iran demonstrated that they are smarter than all this and they can use the election as an instrument to bring about a bigger change. They have gone beyond Mr Musavi and reforms, people demand a regime change, so the ten demands are old hat.

The supreme leader stucture and the gaurdians have to go, a free election supervised under UN with no Supreme leader, no hand picking. This will not happen with this regime so they have to be brought down with a general strike and then we can have that election. To avoid squabbling and violence amogst the opposition in future, we need to form a democratic structure now hence people like me have been calling for a safe zone type structure called "International Iranian Council" with elected representative and not exclusive ( i.e. a monachist, and a secular republican, reformist Green stand side by side ) and the future election will decide what kind of system we will have. This structure has to be democratic with elected representatives all the way. It is either an IIC type solution or someone from Mr Rafsanjani's camp will go and negotiate a reformist solution on everyone's behalf, your call people ( all of you who live in the land of the free and do not exercise your rights!).

a step in the right direction

Revolution 2.0?

Maybe, it is hard to tell. I don't like any of these people, especially a man like Soroush who closed down the universities of a country for 3 years, while he was deciding what we young people should be allowed to study and protect us from ourselves. How can such a Pol Pot like approach be advocated by an enlightened person?

And yes, JJ and others are right- they do not address the root problem here- the velayat faqih and religion mixed with politics.

I would definitely like a "Bill of Rights" and the other demands- separation of clergy from power, etc. to be added in there, as well as more than these 5 people be represented here. No secularists or non Islamic intellectuals are in this group and that is bad.

But I will say this- every Iranian should ask today- how much blood and suffering do you advocate to be paid for each additional demand you want to add here? Especially since that blood and suffering will be most likely paid by young innocent Iranians in Iran, and probably none of the people here.

A follow on question to that becomes, "if these 10 demands are met, will the other ones be attainable through peaceful means"? If the answer is no, then these demands are clearly not enough, even in this context.

Contemplate these questions carefully as the answers are not straightforward.

I have contemplated them, and as a result I agree with Dariush's stance.  But everyone must think independently and reach their own conclusions- this is the first step of being a citizen, which is the first step of attaining democracy.

I just wish that the opposition in 1979 was 1/10 as "cautious" as the opposition today. Today we have a government way worse than the one in 1979, and an opposition which is way less stupid, and not nearly as centralized. This combination is encouraging.

The young Iranians today will correct the stupid mistakes of their parents generation, and unfortunately at a high cost. Those who made these mistakes in 1979 (including the 5 men in these pictures) should hold their head quite low when they see the children of Iran go out and suffer like they do. I hope they are happy with the mess they got us into.

-Fair