Iranian Regime Hails New Islamic Middle East Taking Shape
Posted by Jim Hoft on Friday, January 28, 2011, 5:55 AM
The Tehran Times welcomed the protests in rival Egypt.
The Iranian prayer leader today Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami hailed the new Islamic Middle East that is taking shape. The radical prayer leader said the recent developments in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, and other Arab states echo the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Mehr News reported:
Tehran Friday Prayer Leader has said that the United States’ dream of creating a new Middle East under its domination did not come true and a new Middle East, based on Islamic principles, is taking shape.
The remarks by Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami were made in reference to the unrest which has gripped certain Arab countries including Tunisia and Egypt.
Tunisian President Zine El Abidine’s government fell on January 14 after weeks of bloody protests over unemployment and high food prices.
The spirit of Tunisia also engulfed Egypt, one of the United States’ closest Middles East allies, where police fought with thousands of Egyptians who defied a government ban on Wednesday to protest against President Hosni Mubarak’s 30-year rule.
Ayatollah Khatami told worshippers at the Tehran University campus, “Today, an Islamic Middle East is taking shape and this is a new Middle East which is based on Islam, religion, and religious democracy.”
He added that former U.S. secretary of state Condoleezza Rice had assumed a new Middle East would be created in favor of the U.S. and the Zionist regime.
Rice first introduced the term “New Middle East” to the world during the war between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon in 2006.
“It is time for a new Middle East. It is time to say to those that don’t want a different kind of Middle East that we will prevail. They will not,” she said…
…Ayatollah Khatami also said that the recent developments in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, and other Arab states echo the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
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PJ commented:
“echo the 1979 Islamic Revolution”
Obama and his elites are the only people who don’t seem to understand that. Or maybe they are in favor of more theocracies?
bg commented:
++
i would not use the MSM news as bird cage liner, why would i trust their
propaganda aimed at turning US against supporting Egyptians fighting to
gain their freedom.. hell=O??
damn, we are so f’n gullible.. gah!!
==
CNL commented:
Of course Obama will favor the theocracies. Carter called Khomeini a man of peace, Obama will follow suit. The media will supress all info on the mass murdering purges to follow.
CNL commented:
Fighting for freedom? That’s not what they’ll get if they support mullahs.
rbosque commented:
Seems like the only ones that stand to gain from all this Chaos are the Iranians. Big money says they are behind it.
Muffin commented:
OH. Is that what’s happening? Silly me, I thought the Egyptian people were pushing for more freedom, not less.
Guess I’m wrong.
Has someone informed Obama about the unrest in Egypt yet, or is he still being briefed on the oil spill?
StandUp4Chuck commented:
They are going to love the peace loving harmonious theocracy of Islam. Freedom and tolerance abounds for everyone!
bg commented:
++
Tunisia country profile
French colonial rule ended in 1956, and Tunisia was led for three decades by Habib Bourguiba, who advanced secular ideas. These included emancipation for women – women’s rights in Tunisia are among the most advanced in the Arab world – the abolition of polygamy and compulsory free education.
[..]
Political violence was rare until recently, but militant Islamists have become an issue of concern for the authorities. A suicide bomb attack on an historic synagogue in the resort of Djerba in 2002 killed 21 people and led to a dramatic drop in tourist numbers.
A dozen suspected Islamists were killed in shoot-outs with security forces in and around Tunis at the end of 2006 and the beginning of 2007. Lawyers say hundreds of people were arrested on suspicion of links with terrorist groups since 2003, when the authorities gained new powers of arrest.
Violent repression of protests over unemployment and lack of political freedom in the winter of 2010-2011 left dozens of people dead. But popular street protests continued and President Ben Ali went into exile in January 2011, his prime minister taking charge.]
After Tunisia: Arab writers reflect
click on interactive map locale / click on read more..
albeit more & more difficult to access truthful
info these days, try doing your own research..
==
CNL commented:
Iranians were allegedly “fighting for freedom” against the Shah and Savak, the did not get freedom, did they? Do you think the Islamic Brotherhood will be an advocate for “freedom” or for an islamist state?
CNL commented:
Does anyone believe this will turn out well for women or ethnic and religious minorities?
Ipso Facto commented:
Where is the real press? Where is the honest commentary?
From Tunisia to Lebanon, to Egypt to Yemen, this is a total US foreign policy disaster to have all this going on at the same time. This is all attributable to our weak, milquetoast president and his inept and ineffective team of lassie-faire foreign policy dreamers like Hillary Clinton. All of these incidents are due to a failure on our part, because in being so “un-dismissive”, we weren’t doing the meaningful work behind the scenes to keep the temperature down.
World unrest of this magnitude, that brings fundamental Islamist regimes to so many places will not bode well for us. For one thing, this will now make it very difficult to nearly impossible for us to keep track of the new terrorism which will inevitably be arise from these places.
History will mark this as a time when a weak to non-existent US foreign policy allowed a key part of the world to become a lot more dangerous and a significant incubator of terrorism that will eventually find it was to our shores.
CNL commented:
Obama is worse than milquetoast, he will support the theocracy as legitimate. He did not support unrest in Iran, but hails these “protesters”
bg commented:
++
Ayatollah Khatami told worshippers at the Tehran University campus,
“Today, an Islamic Middle East is taking shape and this is a new Middle
East which is based on Islam, religion, and religious democracy.”
He added that former U.S. secretary of state Condoleezza Rice had
assumed a new Middle East would be created in favor of the U.S.
and the Zionist regime.
Rice first introduced the term “New Middle East” to the world
during the war between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon in 2006.
“It is time for a new Middle East. It is time to say to those that don’t want
a different kind of Middle East that we will prevail. They will not,” she said…
have to hand it to them, they certainly ace at manipulating misperception..
note where the “quotation marks are”, and where the MSM interjects it’s
“prop” via aiming what he said as being connected to what Rice stated..
damn they’re good!!
==
PJ commented:
Of course, the masses are fighting for freedom, but the “man behind the curtain” is Iran and the Brotherhood. Just like in Iran and in Russia in the 20th century, the masterminds will take over from the idealists at the first sign of weakness.
A friend of mine told me he knew some Iranian Communists back in the day. The new regime invited them back in 1979 to be part of the New Regime. They were all machine gunned to death as they stepped out onto the tarmac.
bg commented:
++
via #8 link..
After Tunisia: Nouri Gana on Tunisia
[Tunisia changed the Arab world; Arab dictators and kings alike know it. They are afraid that what happened in Tunisia could happen to them. Several Arab governments have already taken rapid measures to contain ongoing or potential protests. Several others are conspiring to tarnish the Tunisian exemplar and retard, if not derail altogether, its progress. They know the power of what happened in Tunisia: an entire people marching united, civilly and non-violently, calling proudly and loudly with one voice, "Ben Ali, out" before they delivered the final knockout: "Game over." They know that freedom is contagious. The more they realise that they are living on borrowed time, the more desperate they become and the more despairing their measures.]
so far my opinion lies in the ‘Bush did it’ realm, iow: albeit is going to be
a bumpy ride, the pangs of FREEDOM are taking over the long enslaved middle easterners human spirit..
==
bg commented:
++
PJ #15
oh yes, they’re not only waiting to fill the void, but they’re doing their
damndest to take over the motivation behind the protests, and judging
from some of the comments, once again, it’s working.. btw, it’s working
here better than anywhere, problem is, “we the stupid” are a few dec’s
behind on the “news”.. gah!!
==
Trish commented:
Holy smokes batman, do you people (Obama administration, Hilary, Liberal Media) need the bat signal to get the implications of a fortified islamic region there????
bg commented:
++
Trish #18
why should they, they certainly don’t get it here..
==
bg commented:
++
via #8 link..
After Tunisia: Hisham Matar on Egypt
[He was a law student at Cairo University – this was the late 1980s. His mother was trying to convince him not to attend one of the caged demonstrations permitted only inside the walls of the university. Since as far back as I can remember, security trucks packed with armed, mostly illiterate young men stood permanently parked beside the university wall under a line of eucalyptus trees. Aymen was shot with a rubber bullet at close range. He died instantly.
[..]
She was right. In fact, all the demonstrations then had an air of
futility about them. They all felt like a waste of time. Until now.
The current demonstrations in Cairo, Alexandria, Ismailia, Suez, Shebein Al Kom and other Egyptian towns and cities are not only notable for their scale, but also for their ambition and energy. There is something jubilant about the crowds, a new confidence. Although it is too soon to say whether the events in Tunisia will result in a just, accountable and democratic government in that country, it is clear that the fact that a peaceful revolt has managed to overthrow a 23-year dictatorship in less than a month has restored Arab dignity and hope. Tunisians have altered the political landscape, as well as the landscape of the imagination for the whole region.]
btw, who do you people think Egypts SWAT team is working for??
==
Joanne commented:
Who are the Egyptians wanting to fill the void if their President is ousted. If Egyptians want freedom, they better have people ready to step into the void, because the Muslim Brotherhood certainly does, and then Egypt will wish for their ‘former’ President back in comparison.
greenfairie commented:
With Hezbollah pretty much in control of Lebanon, and with Tunisia, Yemen, Egypt, and now Jordan starting to rebel against their pro-Western autocrats, we’re looking at 1979 on steroids. NOT GOOD.
bg commented:
++
okay, here we go..
via #8 link..
After Tunisia: Tamim Al-Barghouti on Palestine
[As I write, demonstrations rage in the streets of Cairo: everyone knows that if they stay at home, they will be compromising the safety of those in the streets, as well as their own freedom. Cairo knows and Cairo moves. Ramallah worries that an empowered Cairo means an empowered Gaza, and Tel Aviv and Washington know that instead of just Iran, they will now have to worry about Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt and Palestine all at once.]
think abut that statement, i mean, worried Gazan Islamists will be
empowered?? would not that mean, that if the protests are via
“fundamentalists”, that they are against “fundamentalist” Islamic
aka: Salafi, Ikwan, Wahhabi, etc.. rule??
==
bg commented:
++
via #8 link..
After Tunisia: Robin Yassin-Kassab on Syria
[Certain developments illustrate why Hosni Mubarak's regime will be harder to dislodge than Ben Ali's in Tunisia. Trade unionists have been at the forefront of Tunisian change; in Egypt the state's co-opted Egyptian Trade Union Federation has ordered its branch heads to suppress protests. And the country's largest opposition party – the Muslim Brotherhood – has so far played a negligible role. When the regime, predictably, blamed the Brotherhood for organising the protests, the Brotherhood quickly proclaimed its innocence. Indeed, events seem to have taken the Brothers by surprise. It may be that the leadership has gambled on regime survival, either for pragmatic reasons or because what Brotherhood ideologues consider the "Islamisation" of society to be proceeding smoothly under the status quo. But the demonstrations have been bigger than anyone expected. Interestingly, al-Azhar clerics, often tools of the regime, have ruled that protests are not counter to Islamic precepts.
Revolutionary momentum is still carrying Tunisia, where journalists have taken over the media, and now it's rolling through Egypt. If the coming days show sustained and spreading protest, the crack that has appeared in Egypt's order will rapidly expand. The west is bracing itself. Another fait accompli, this time in the Arab world's most populous nation, on Palestine's border, would be a nakba for western control. So the American administration is immediately speaking of Mubarak's "opportunity . . . to implement political, economic and social reforms to respond to the legitimate needs and interests of the Egyptian people". The phrase "managed change" is uttered. You can be sure America's managers are hard at work. What they have to lose in Egypt is as incalculable as what the Egyptian people have to gain.]
when looking for truth, albeit subject to change, there is
nothing like research, cionstant, never ending, research..
==
bg commented:
++
re: #24
whoa, did this ever stick out like a sore thumb..
[Where his father engineered a Stalinist personality cult, mild-mannered
Bashar al-Assad enjoys a reasonable level of genuine popularity. Much is
made of his low-security visits to theatres and ice cream parlours.]
and imho, the following is good summary/advise..
[We are seeing in Tunisia a democratisation that didn't require religious mobilisation, foreign invasion, or colours coded in Washington. This revolution is the result of a mass popular movement focused on straightforward, practical demands that everybody can understand, whether they're religiously observant or lax, Christian or Muslim, Sunni or Shia. Lessons will be learned, in Syria and elsewhere. In future years, the regime would be well-advised to proceed with great flexibility.]
Amen..
==
Contessa61 commented:
Eygptians are fighting for freedom against an autocractic government. Be careful what you wish for.
Soon your women will be hidden in your houses with burkas over their bodies.
GOOD commented:
The Obama vacuum at work.
bg commented:
++
Ipso Facto #12
great post..
however.. i believe this is the opportunistic crisis the IslaMarxist Obama
Administration has been hoping would emerge, ergo, change his future as
Caliph in Chief..
on the other hand, i believe the people truly want to live in FREEDOM and
nothing is going to deter them, the days of the “Islamic State” are over..
unless of course we drink the kool aid via our MSM
& “one hand clapping” leaders like B Hussein O..
==
Dave-O commented:
Mr. Above-My-Pay-Grade and “I Vote Present” and his merry band of buffooning blowhards (Clinton, Biden, et al.) are sending incredibly schizophrenic messages about this entire affair. But can anyone reasonably be surprised by this? It’s what we’ve all come to expect. He is weak, indecisive, and an empty suit, and everyone on this entire planet now knows this. [Can you imagine a bit different response from a Secretary of State John Bolton?] And anyways, why should Zippy bother himself with messy foreign affairs when he is busy planning his next vacation and, moreover, he has a reelection campaign to worry about? Relax everyone! The country is in the very best of hands. What could possibly go wrong?
Joanne commented:
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2011/01/28/amb-john-bolton-democracy-coming-eygpt/
Everyone needs to read this about the demonstrations in Egypt.
bg commented:
++
Obama’s response..
==
bg commented:
++
problem is, just as these protests suppodely came out of the blue.. so has an awful lot of assumptions.. meantime, and albeit the MB could very well step on an take over the movement so to speak, no one has presented any proof of the Muslim Brotherhood initiating this protest, not to mention their denial, which is not at all like them, ergo, i truly don’t believe we are hearing the true narrative so to speak, aka: the reality of the situation..
==
Peggy commented:
I was happy for the Tunsians. And I have a lot of sympathy for the Egyptians who live under a despot who is not above using force against his own people.
But beyond that, I am just not sure how I feel about what is happening in Egypt. Will the Islamists take control? They are probably better prepared than anyone else. What does that mean for the U.S.? Israel?
I hate Mubarek and I hate hoping even a little bit that Eygpt stays stable if that means that he gets to stay. But I am really worried what kind of worms are spilling out of that can right now.
And what about the Christians. They have had a hard time under Murbarek but under Islamists, they WILL be cleansed just like every other place in the ME under Islamist control. We could see the last major population of Christians disappear like all the rest.
If only I could celebrate this. Instead I am just holding my breath.
bg commented:
++
i want to know why EVERYONE jumped on the Muslim Brotherhood narrative
when they denied it from the get go.. what would be the sense to that??
they never have before, hence, if the entire Middle East is on the verge of
going CALIPHATE, they would not only be boasting about it, but demanding
much more along with making threats.. it’s just not adding up so to speak..
sorry, i’m just having hard time reconciling the
more than obvious contrasts presented here..
==
bg commented:
++
via #8 link..
After Tunisia: Joumana Haddad on Lebanon
[This silence is a metaphor for the state of things in Lebanon today.
Expectations have also disappeared. And with them many of the foreign
funds that were being invested in the country's numerous projects. Other
things that are swiftly disappearing are a joy in life, faith in tomorrow and
the strength to tell ourselves that in spite of everything, "it will be OK".
What remains? The terror, the uncertainty, the threats, the
divisions, and the more and more imposing threat of a new civil war.
You do not live in Beirut: you survive it. And the Tunisian dream seems so
far out of our reach. David has beaten Goliath with a stone. But if the sling
is in the hands of Goliath, what can one do?
It has been days since the sound of bulldozers woke me up. But you won't
see me rejoicing. I am sad. So sad that I am thinking about writing a poem
about the sound of bulldozers – the sound of hope.]
if you’re still thinking that sort of despair can’t happen here, think again..
==
bg commented:
++
via #8 link..
After Tunisia: Alaa Abd El Fatah on Egypt
[The Arab world has not been as stagnant nor as apathetic as is widely claimed. This week's events in Egypt, while unusual in their scale, are a continuation of a movement that can be traced back through my whole lifetime: from anti-Gulf war protests in the early 90s to protests against IMF structural adjustments in the late 90s, to second intifada solidarity in 2001, massive anti-war protests in 2003, the pro-democracy Kefaya movement of 2004-06, wildcat strikes nationwide in 2006-08, the struggle for a minimum wage in 2008-09 and the anti-torture protests of 2010. The organisers and leaders have been active and involved for at least five to 10 years now.
However, the events in Tunisia not only injected a new hope and inspired tens of thousands of new protesters to participate, they spread the word "revolution". Since the decline of the Kefaya movement – the unofficial name for the Egyptian Movement for Change – common wisdom dictated that activists should focus on economic issues, such as the minimum wage, and the daily humiliations faced by ordinary Egyptians, or on justice for victims of torture such as Khaled Said. So the organisers of the 25 January protest, while inspired by Tunisia, stuck to this formula, only to be overwhelmed by tens of thousands of previously unpoliticised people spontaneously chanting, "The people want the regime to go down" (or rather the people will bring down the regime) – a crude, very rhythmic and totally new slogan that emerged from the ranks of the uninitiated, not the experienced activists.]
it’s sounding more & more like an ObamAlinsky Piven revolution.. *sigh*
==
bg commented:
++
re: #36
but then again, they don’t differ by much these days..
==
bg commented:
++
re: #36
duh.. i screwed that up royaly, the violence is being waged against them,
not the other way around.. just hope it’s not a preminiti0n or whatever..
==
K~Bob commented:
They told me the jihadi movement would only grow if I voted for John McCain. And they were right!
Thanks, Barak! You’ve managed to make Jimmy Carter look like Theodore freaking Roosevelt, by comparison.
Kevin B commented:
When does the American Embassy hostage crisis begin?
bg commented:
++
via #8 link..
After Tunisia: Raja Shehadeh on Palestine
[Many of the regimes that have become entrenched in the Arab countries
whose people are now rebelling justified the repression of their people on
the grounds that they were engaged on behalf of the Palestinians in the
war against Israel. Yet once the police state is entrenched it no longer
needs to justify or explain anything. It criminalises opposition and uses
brutal force to quell it. It speaks with the voice of the gun and controls
through instilling a fear of arrest and torture.
Palestine aspired to be different. We wanted to create the first truly democratic Arab state. Our intifada, about which the youth across the Arab world heard, might have been an inspiration to many of those demonstrating in the streets of Tunisia and Egypt. We believed it would produce the new liberated Arab man and woman. It would create new forms of democratic government and relations based on the rule of law. But a free Palestine was deemed a threat to other repressive states and they all, along with Israel, conspired not to allow it to be born.
Now we watch the people in Tunisia and Egypt demonstrate against their
police states while, closer to home, we are witnessing the creation, slowly
but surely, of a police state of our own. The irony is that while others may
be dismantling theirs, ours is being created even before we have a fully
fledged state.]
regardless of the facts, irony is, i honestly believe
we are headed in the same direction under BHO..
==
bg commented:
++
via #8 link..
After Tunisia: Mourid Barghouti on Palestine
["Nothing goes off suddenly; even the earthquakes set in
motion from the depth of the earth to the rooftops of villages."
This line from a poem I had written two decades ago jumped into my mind
when the youth of Tunisia turned their ruler from a mighty dictator into a
frightened rat looking for a place to hide and, in a month of civilian protests,
managed to change history.
As I write these words now, images are coming from Cairo where the
anti-Mubarak demonstrators are waving the Tunisian flag and chanting
the most famous line of Tunisian poetry: "When the people decide to
live, destiny will obey and chains will be broken."
[..]
For the past century or so every ingredient of political life has been faked,
sovereignty is not sovereignty, parliament is not parliament, law is not law,
and the opposition parties are as corrupt and wasted as the ruling party.
Even independence, since colonial forces handed power to local dictators,
was not independence.
What happened in the Tunisian revolution is valuable for the modern history
of the region, but equally important are two elements that were absent: no
opposition party, including the Islamists, could claim sole credit for it; and
the army could not redirect its energies to bring about a coup. [more @ link]
i believe they see our reflection when they look into their mirrors..
==
RichieRich commented:
Good for them! In a week they’ll be free to sell their organs to survive,just like they do in Iran!!!Thes filthy animals are throwing out one represive regime for an even more represive regime!
The president of Iran wasn’t so gung-ho about Democracy a year or two ago when his secret police were murdering, kidnapping,imprisoning, and raping (both men and women) the democratic young people of Iran when they had their peaceful protests!!
Viva la revolution!
May the fleas of a thousand camels infest the abundant hair of his many wives!
Lickem my Salam!