Are the Protesters Trying to Bring Down the Iranian Regime? (Video)

The regime is NOT going to collapse. And that's not the goal of the vast majority of those marching Tehran's streets.

This is not about ending the Islamic Revolution, it's about getting back to it. For all his talk of returning it to its roots, Ahmadinejad's slow crawl from a de facto dictatorship to a de jure one is a shift away from the Revolution, which was, let's not forget, first and foremost about getting rid of the dictatorial and tyrannical Shah, not about Islam and that state.

Moussavi has made clear that the people are behind him not for his sake, but for the sake of the Republic that they love. Likewise, the emerging ritual of standing at windows, balconies, and rooftops at around 10pm and shouting "Allah-o-akbar" is a call of hope for the idealism of 1979 -- hardly a time an anti-Islamic Republic of Iran movement would look to. I think it's the most moving thing to come out of the whole ordeal so far:

Check out Trita Parsi's article on the same subject here on Time Magazine's website.

This post originally appeared here on Mondoweiss.

Comments

[JackWhistle]

Regardless of what they want the religious involvement to be, they want more democracy as well(me thinks). I wasn't aware that wanting to keep an Islamic leadership was tantamount to wanting their current supreme leader as well.

[AngelaQuattrano]

It's the difference between a brutal dictatorship led by a despotic puppet of the West and a brutal dictatorship led by despotic theocratics. Huge difference. I guess.

[jamis]

The Shah was before I was born, too bad they replaced a real life despot for a fictional one (god)...so­rry for them.
So long as they are tied to clerics and ancient boogyman laws, they will always be screwed

Poor Persia.. what happened to you?

[SGTShem]

Regardless of what their goal is, it needs to be aired and showed heavily all around the world. It's up to the people to decide whether they want 2 get rid of the islamo- fascist tyrants. Tyrannical Shah??? Don't drink the kool-aid!