Taking sides in Iranian election

Lively debate at the least.

Thank you for this article, it is certainly food for thought.

I hope the people of Iran get their freedom back, from the invaders.

Reports of results announced before vote counted, or even cast in many districts and in the country. sounds pretty suspicious to me.

and yeah, I know Moussavi is suspect. but people can change. maybe.

The problem is the rulers would not allow many to run for the election. threats and attempts at assassination discouraged many others.

"The problem is the rulers would not allow many to run for the election. threats and attempts at assassination discouraged many others."

The Guardian Council in Iran supervises the election and they accept or refuse candidates. I really wonder where you read "threats and attempts at assassination". See a list for example here.

I wouldn't say I'm taking sides in the election, as such. The side I support is that of evading and opposing censorship and communication controls wherever they occur.

I could not care less whether the Iranian people elected Ahmadinejad or Moussavi. But all in all, if a government attempts to strangle its citizen's electronic access rights, then I will cheerfully take the side of circumventing that. I'm currently setting up a web proxy.

Good article and good point.

Today, Amy Kelogg on Fox said that Mousavi had "morphed". I don't remember the details of the evidence.

What does interest me is that Mousavi doesn't want the "morality police" running around checking on haircuts and the rest. I would guess that this feeling was behind the great support from university students for Mousavi. 

How we treat our own citizens, friends and family, tells us what kind of person we are dealing with. So, if the morality police issue is one that supports Mousavi, perhaps it is fair to infer that there is more light on his side.

Certainly it is difficult to support Ahmadinejad at all.

At some point all this will come to a head with a confrontation with the mullahs themselves who are responsible for the mis-count, whether Mousavi has won or lost the election.

Transparency leads to accountability and reduces the power of elites, and that is really what this protest is about. Transparency doesn't exist and therefore trust cannot exist, while the mullahs exercise power as narcissistic patriarchs "who know better".

The trust and mutual regard at the basis of society is called "the body of Christ" in the Christian tradition, or agape, brotherly love in the Greek philosophic tradition. Right now, there big table for sharing bread, celebrating the brotherhood of Iran, has been overthrown. 

Only real healing will produce real unity for Iran as a civil society. Pseudo-solutions will not do, yet, short of a revolution that denies the mullahs their power, I don't see a way for this situation to be truly resolved.

I don't side with either of the presidential candidates, I side with the people. And from what I've seen, people are being slaughtered en masse by the Iranian "security" forces. Being familiar with police brutality from personal and 2nd hand experiences (to a much lesser degree, admitted), I don't care which one the people are gathering for. The State should not use it's monopole on violence to try and silence them.

And yes, I do and will support any uprising against government, even if I may not always support the means of that uprising.

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