The Unconstitutional Un-Islamic Republic of Iran

Let there be no compulsion in religion. Truth stands out Clear from Error. Whoever rejects evil and believes in God has grasped the most Trustworthy Handhold, that never breaks, and God hears and knows all things. ~ The Qur'an. Al Baqarah (The Cow), 2:256

It doesn't take an Islamic scholar to see that the so-called Islamic Republic of Iran is anything but, especially today. With increasing accounts of rape, torture, forced confessions, and judicial proceedings lacking even a semblance of due process, the Iranian government is quickly losing any credibility it had left, including any legitimate claim to Islam.

The same regime that once offered to send election observers to the United States after George W. Bush lost the popular vote and won the presidency is now refusing international observers of any variety, including journalists and human rights activists.

The Iranian people have witnessed this kind of hypocrisy first hand for over 30 years, and they are finally ready to call the regime out on it publicly, even if that means getting beaten, arrested, tortured, tear-gassed, unlawfully tried before a kangaroo court or murdered in the process.

In calling the "Islamic" Republic out on its duplicitous double standards, the opposition movement is using the Islam it finds in Qur'anic verses such as the one above to combat the mockery of Islam that has plagued Iran since 1979.

While the Islamic Revolution may have begun with a solid liberation theology, it quickly discarded that theology and the legitimacy that came with it when it began to force its distorted version of Islam onto the Iranian people. As a result, it has been the allegedly Islamic Republic of Iran itself that has best proven the point that Islam requires a secular state to thrive.

Islamic legal scholar Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na'im asserts in his book Islam and the Secular State: "In order to be a Muslim by conviction and free choice, which is the only way one can be a Muslim, I need a secular state."

So too, the Iranian people need a secular state, and at last, today, they are demanding it. They are doing so, moreover, with a level of creativity and resourcefulness all their own.

The chants of Allah-u Akbar (God is Great) from Iranian rooftops are neither an accident nor a novelty. They date back to the Islamic Revolution and serve as a call for unity and a reminder that no matter how much the government tries to suppress the people, it cannot defy their will and expect to maintain power. Nor can it succeed against the will of the Divine.

Today, the so-called Islamic Republic of Iran is taking its standard hypocrisy to a new level. Not only is the regime violating the basic tenets of Islam and disgracing the faith by claiming it as a justification for wholly ungodly and un-Islamic acts, it is also violating its own Constitution in doing so.

The regime's crackdown on demonstrators and unlawful arrests are in clear violation of Articles 26, 27, and 39 of the current Iranian Constitution, which respectively guarantee a right to free association, free assembly, and a respect for the dignity of arrested individuals. Likewise, the most recent show trials also violate Iranians' rights to counsel and a presumption of innocence under the 35th and 37th Articles of the Constitution. And all this says nothing of the regime's flagrant violations of Article 38, which explicitly prohibits torture and forced confessions.

In short, rule of law, like peace of mind, is hard to come by in Iran today. Like a mirage, it continues to evade us. But necessity is indeed the mother of invention, and as Ishmael tapped his foot in the middle of the Arabian desert to bring rise to the sacred Well of Zamzam, so too, the Iranian people are marching their feet to the drum of democracy, tapping into a massive wellspring of hope.

With their minds, their souls and their feet, Iranians are building the foundations for a new nation: one where rule of law, peace of mind, freedom of religion and hope will reign supreme and one where the only supreme leader will be the will of the people themselves.

Follow Melody Moezzi on Twitter: www.twitter.com/MelodyMoezzi

Comments

[leutenizer]

Long gone are the calls for Democracy and freedom. The reality is that The Greens living within their own closed circuit internet connections have made themselves to believe that their condidate was destined to win. When it did not happen, and their reality shattered, the disbelief led to anger and lies. Unwilling to listen to reason, and the unavailibility of one within their communities has led them to a healthy dose of manufactured facts as they continue to preach to their own choire.
When tens of thousands poured onto the streets of Tehran (and Tehran alone), we all agreed the numbers were probable. Unopposed, the estimates ballooned to hundreds of thousands, until finally their numbers were exagerated without any debate, to 10 million. Now, a few unsubstanciated cases of rape, is being called a "systematic rape' of all prisoners.
They no longer need reason, evidence, or any shame to manufacturing their self serving facts. I long for the day when Green bloggers speak of all Iranians of all ages being "systematically" raped, and the number of Greens has mushroomed to 10 billion- OR is that too obvious of a lie, even for the Greens.
I find it sad that a time that there is much to be critical about the IR, and relying on universal messages of hope, this is where the debate has been allowed to degenerate.

[wereeverywhere]

The IRI drags journalists from their homes to jaila nd has a media clampdown because it's terrified of the truth getting out. The IRI clubs and kills protesters and jails political and cultural dissidents. Nothing new here except for the scale of its endeavors. Your entire post is upside down and your charges against the protesters so ludicrous as to be beyond response.

[oxi]

Evidence please from neutral sources and not from Western nations...

[Abdulameer]

Melody Moezzi knows a lot more about Islam than the Islamic scholars and religious authorities who have devoted their lives to the study of Islam. She knows much more about Islam than all the imams and Moslem advocacy organizations such as CAIR which assert that Islam is a complete way of life with no distinction between personal life and civic life.Melod­y knows more about Islam than Ayatollah Khomeini who is revered to this day by a hundred million Moslems. Khomeini said: "Those who know nothing of Islam pretend that Islam counsels against war. ...Islam says: Kill all the unbelievers just as they would kill you all! ... Islam says: Kill them, put them to the sword and scatter their armies.... People cannot be made obedient except with the sword! The sword is the key to Paradise, which can be opened only for the Holy Warriors! There are hundreds of other Koranic psalms and Hadiths urging Muslims to value war and to fight." Surely, Melody Moezzi knows more about Islam than Abul Maududi, the most widely read and respected Islamic thinker of the 20th Century, who said: "Islam wishes to destroy all States and Governments anywhere on the face of the earth which are opposed to the ideology and programme of Islam regardless of the country or the Nation which rules it. The purpose of Islam is to set up a State on the basis of its own ideology and programme,­.."

[oxi]

"The regime's crackdown on demonstrators and unlawful arrests are in clear violation of Articles 26, 27, and 39 of the current Iranian Constitution, which respectively guarantee a right to free association, free assembly, and a respect for the dignity of arrested individual­s."

Your going to care about Iran's constitution while the U.S. ignores theirs?

4th Amdendement covers warentless wiretapping and spying on U.S. citizens without a warrent...

8th Amendement covers the wonderful torture the U.S. has been conducting around the globe, funny how not on U.S. soil because it is against U.S. law to torture someone...

Hmmm Iraq and Afghanistan have yet to be declared wars by Congress as the U.S. Constitution states...

The U.S. has told the world to ignore your Constitution and conduct business as you wish, Iran is simply following the U.S. lead and you know it!!!

[Thabor]

If we are so horrible how can you excuse someone for following us? The failure of others to live up to their ideals or obligations is no excuse for others to do the same. And that aside everyday there are people here fighting to recover the precious rights which were discarded in favor of a false sense of security during the Bush administration.

[wereeverywhere]

You know about as much about the CIA as you do IRI. IRI has been busy imprisoning and abusing political dissidents since 1979, they didn't learn this trick from BushCo. And do you really think that Iranians are so backwards that they wouldn't revolt against the theocrats?

[oxi]

The U.S. brought the Sha back in power which led to the chain of events that led to the uprising in 1979 and what we have today. The U.S. plays a major role in shaping the powers to be in Iran...

[Khirad]

How about the argument that the velayat-e-faqih is itself of dubious legitimacy? Or that Khomeini slipped in his own version of the Constitution against the original wishes of the broader movement which overthrew the Shah and foreign powers in the first place?

Nevertheless, it is beyond argument that they have trampled on their own Constitution -- excepting for the fact that they allowed themselves an out in vague clauses such as in article 26 stipulating that all these rights are forfeited if believed to be going against the "Islamic standards" of the state -- the ruling clerics of course being the interpreters of what is deemed "Islamic" and against whom to remain vigilant.

[wereeverywhere]

What a clause article 26 is as its almost infinitely malleable by the ruling bodies. Good observations all around and I see your reading on Iran has not been in vain.

[Chuck Denk]

Thank you Melody. Keep the information flowing.

As far as (mis)interpreting the Qur'an, the Bible, the Bhagavad Gita or any other religious text goes, there is rather common behavior among those with ulterior motives. They will always try to twist the logic behind the words to support their own perverse desires to the detriment of those who would prefer to not be subjucated.

[theubermensch]

Well, if the U.S didn't install a dictator prior to the revolution perhaps this wouldn't have happened. The U.S. sticking its nose in other people's business, along with installing ruthless dictators and the aftermath to follow has done the world and those countries well.

[MARNIE2]

ISLAMIC REGIME[ GOVT. ] ARE NOTHING BUT SHARKS ! MEN W/ BLACK-HEARTS ! they show the world their True HEART ! SHAMEFUL & SOULLESS TO DO THOSE ATROCIITYS ON THEIR OWN PEOPLE ! *** HEART-BRAKING TO HEAR OF THEIR LIFE STRUGGLES !

[anti-tazi]

Urgent Action:

Please sign the petition:

Maziar Bahari’s wife
Paola Gourley, whose husband, a Newsweek journalist Maziar Bahari, is held as a political prisoner

Rachel Maddow show:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96OSrbr95yk&feature=player_embedded


Free Maziar Bahari:

http://freemaziarbahari.org/

[wereeverywhere]

Try this link to sign the online petition to free Maziar Bahari:

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/free_maziar_bahari/

Free the political prisoners and free Iran.

[Melody Moezzi - Huffpost Blogger]

Thank you so much for this link "we're everywhere­." Indeed we are everywhere­--increasi­ng by the day. They cannot imprison us all. They cannot silence us all. And especially for those of us who are Iranians not currently living in Iran or under any other equally oppressive regime, to remain silent in the face of what is going on is not simply unfortunate, it is indefensible.

Indifference to evil has led to far more injustice and suffering in the world than its active pursuit ever has. It is those of us who sit by without speaking up who will be most to blame if things do not change in Iran. And if Iranians inside of the country are willing to risk their lives to fight for a free Iran, then the least the rest of us can do is spread their message around the world and let them know that we support them. We must make sure they know that they are not forgotten. Fear will get us nowhere, and thank God, I see that fear lessening as the days pass and the opposition grows. Again, thanks for posting the link.

[Khirad]

Yes, I saw this too. Journalists in Iran have a habit of getting in mysterious accidents - in and out of prison - let us be wary.

[shimimishi]

You seem to have forgotten that the same lovely Quran you quote also says:
"[5.33] The punishment of those who wage war against Allah and His apostle and strive to make mischief in the land is only this, that they should be murdered or crucified or their hands and their feet should be cut off on opposite sides or they should be imprisoned; this shall be as a disgrace for them in this world, and in the hereafter they shall have a grievous chastiseme­nt."
Before bringing wild excuses and explanations to satisfy your own common sense and understanding of Islam and Quran, please do acknowledge the fact that the political elite who are butchering our youth in Iran are also in fact following this very same text, I know you may derive many different interpretations of ANY text, not just the Quran, but just as your personal interpretation might seem valid to you, so do theirs. The fact remains that the "text" is the actual problem, and not the various interpretations of it...a very simple fact lost in all the political circus...

[blutigeroo]

If you take a quote out of context then there is room for personal interpretation. If you look at in in the context of the verse before in and after it as well as the Surah, then there is no room for personal interpretation; its meaning is crystal clear.
. It comes directly after a verse prohibiting murder and likening the unjust murder of a single individual to the slaughter of humanity. The Qur’an purposefully describes the gravity of the sin before describing the punishment. The crime of murder and spreading mischief in the land are waging war against the Prophet. The verse also explains how waging war against God’s prophet is tantamount to waging war against Our Creator Himself.
In other words the Quran says: Acts of aggression, which are viewed by the Shari’ah (Islamic law) as an act of war against the laws and the creatures of God, are punishable under Sharia. It also points out that the punishment in the herafter is worse than any punishment on Earth.
Also notice the or between the punishments. This points to the fact that a court of law will decide the actual punishment depending on the enormity of the crime, how many times it has been committed etc? Did you know Islam introduced the concept of a formal judicial system?
Lastly the following verse of 5:34 states that punsihment will not be given to those who sincerely repent.

[roksob]

Wouldn't it be wonderful if Iran could have really fair elections like us and get representatives who do what big business tells them to do.

[altohone]

Let's hope a peaceful revolution replaces what is occuring.

Should one occur, and Wall St. is happy with the results, Iranians won't be.

[blutigeroo]

Yes, lets hope for peace.