Iranian Civil Unrest

[Ezekiel8]

Civil Unrest in Iran

‘Death to the Dictator! Death to Rouhani!’: Thousands Protest the Government in Iran

Thousands of protesters in Iran attack the president | Daily Mail Online

I've been following this one for a few hours today. Very interesting developments in Iran that are not being carried by mainstream media. Apparently there are significant demonstrations happening in Iran with protestors denouncing the government. The situation seems to be in the eastern portions of the country, with only smaller demonstrations in Tehran. Though the demonstrations are somewhat violent. Possible revolution, or possible failure like the 2009 Green "Revolution"?

Some points to consider from the articles:

-Demonstrators are calling for "Death to Rouhani" (the President of Iran) whom ironically came to power largely as a reaction to the 2009 Green Revolution.

-Demonstrators also seem to be blaming the mullahs, this is significant as typically their protests at the most only reach the non-theological political caste.

-Demonstrators are smaller but more violent than the 2009 Green Revolution. Reports of them throwing rocks at officials and taunting mullahs openly.

-Demonstrators are divided with no real central message. Grievances range from economic hardships, prolonged Iranian military involvement in Syria, Lebanon, and "Palestine", corruption, Persian identity vs Iranian identity, and a divided political atmosphere along conservative and liberal lines.

-The response from the government is mixed. Rouhani and his "moderate" faction rather than typically scapegoat Western intervention like his predecessors, is blaming the conservative factions in Iran of formenting unrest against his "secular government." Ayatollah Khamenei has uncharacteristically not spoken out against the protests or urged them to end yet.

-So far not much of a crackdown yet with only 52 people reportedly arrested by Iran's state media.

-Demonstrations are mostly in the eastern part of the country, namely the city of Mashhad, but have begun spreading to other cities. (Map in the Dailymail article).

(Edits on grammatical and spelling errors)

 

[tanakh]

If there is a radical change in Iran one effect could be to screw up all the Political and Prophetic pundits predictions. They would have to find another Bogyman state to target.

 

[mj007]

Yes lets hope and pray that good comes out of it, not war or opportunist false flags as some hope for in the violence of their minds.

 

[trofimus]

Oh no, not another muslim revolution.

There really need to be some stable countries in the middle east.

 

[Billyd]

You might want to look at the size of the pro government demonstrations in Tehran today. Nothing's going to change there.

 

[Lucy-Pevensie]

 

[oldethennew]

yes, why we could very well make our country whole, we have instead decided
to dole-out' our people's inheritance to other, cheaper countries for the sake of
mammon...guess Jesus got kicked to the curb,..

 

[Ezekiel8]

A little bit of an update to this story:

Former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is ‘arrested' | Daily Mail Online

Some key points to consider:

-Protests are still on-going.

-Pro-government demonstrations are taking place blaming foreign intervention for the earlier anti-government protests

-Former President Ahmadinejad has been placed under house arrest for criticizing the government of current President Rouhani (whom replaced him.) He was arrested during a visit to the city of Busehehr.

-Ahmadinejad is a conservative while Rouhani is a secularist. Ahmadinejad's comments and also his arrest display the continued conservative/liberal ideological split that is at the heart of the unrest in Iran.

-The Iranian Parliament held a closed door session today to discuss the week-long unrest.

-Current known number of people killed so far is 21. Hundreds of people have now been arrested.

 

[Ellsworth1943]

Could it be the those in power (the government) have started this uprising for their onw benefit.

 

[Ezekiel8]

Could it be the those in power (the government) have started this uprising for their onw benefit.

Well I personally think they began spontaneously due to the price hikes, but I would say that indeed it has morphed into a situation like that. The problem here with that is two fold and the conservative/liberal split within Iran goes right to the heart of that equation. The government of Iran is comprised of two competing factions now, the Islamic Shia conservatives which are headed by the mullahs and their Supreme Leader Khamenei and the secularist liberal faction headed by the day-to-day government and their President Rouhani.

Ahmadinejad's arrest is very interesting to this end because it displays this split very clearly. The conservatives blame the secularists for being weak, mismanaging the government, dealing with the West, and forsaking their traditional allies in the region. Mindful the protests began with chants of Death to Rouhani.

The secularists blame the conservatives for being too oppressive, for the crackdown, and for giving too much economic and military support to Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine in the face of domestic economic woe. Mindful the protests have turned to chants of Death to Khamenei, Ahmadinejad's arrest could be viewed as something of a scapegoat by allowing the arrest of a major conservative and former President.

It will be interesting to see how this situation progresses. I think with a fractured political split of this nature that either both will end up getting thrown out (though I view this as unlikely) or that if the protests can be suppressed one will quietly replace the other (in this scenario Rouhani being the more likely to get replaced.)

(Edits on spelling and grammar and formatting.)

 

[Ellsworth1943]

Well I personally think they began spontaneously due to the price hikes, but I would say that indeed it has morphed into a situation like that. The problem here with that is two fold and the conservative/liberal split within Iran goes right to the heart of that equation. The government of Iran is comprised of two competing factions now, the Islamic Shia conservatives which are headed by the mullahs and their Supreme Leader Khamenei and the secularist liberal faction headed by the day-to-day government and their President Rouhani.

Ahmadinejad's arrest is very interesting to this end because it displays this split very clearly. The conservatives blame the secularists for being weak, mismanaging the government, dealing with the West, and forsaking their traditional allies in the region. Mindful the protests began with chants of Death to Rouhani.

The secularists blame the conservatives for being too oppressive, for the crackdown, and for giving too much economic and military support to Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine in the face of domestic economic woe. Mindful the protests have turned to chants of Death to Khamenei, Ahmadinejad's arrest could be viewed as something of a scapegoat by allowing the arrest of a major conservative and former President.

It will be interesting to see how this situation progresses. I think with a fractured political split of this nature that either both will end up getting thrown out (though I view this as unlikely) or that if the protests can be suppresses one will quietly replace the other (in this scenario Rouhani being the more likely to get replaced.)

In the end the people will lose.

 

[Ezekiel8]

In the end the people will lose.

Maybe, but one could also say they lost well back in 1979 when they chose an Islamic government for themselves.

 

[Ellsworth1943]

Maybe, but one could also say they lost well back in 1979 when they chose an Islamic government for themselves.

They lost when they rejected Christ for Islam.

 

[Ezekiel8]

They lost when they rejected Christ for Islam.

I certainly agree.

I suppose then we will just have to keep an eye on this situation and see what way the Lord takes it. I note that it is very interesting that this situation happened very quickly after the recent UN resolution to condemn Israel and America (the most Christian nation on earth) and that the UN resolution was championed largely by both the conservative and liberal factions of Iran, and then bragged about by their leaders as if it were some victory, but alas, it seems it became their snare.

 

[Ellsworth1943]

I certainly agree.

I suppose then we will just have to keep an eye on this situation and see what way the Lord takes it. I note that it is very interesting that this situation happened very quickly after the recent UN resolution to condemn Israel and America (the most Christian nation on earth) and that the UN resolution was championed largely by both the conservative and liberal factions of Iran, and then bragged about by their leaders as if it were some victory, but alas, it seems it became their snare.

This will be a very interesting year.
Israel will celebrate 70 years on May 18.