Are the Iranian Protests for Democracy?

Are the Iranian Protests for Democracy?

The supporters of Mir Hossein Mousavi, the defeated presidential candidate for the Islamic Republic of Iran, yesterday wore black instead of their traditional green to mourn for the deaths of eight supporters. The regime is already jailing opponents, blocking media of communications, and intimidating possible dissenters. The biggest protests to rock Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, which overthrew the US-led tyrant known as the Shah of Iran, raise the following questions:

1) Are the protests about preserving the theocratic legacy of the Islamic Republic of Iran?

2) Are the protests about seeking to overthrow the Islamic Republic and institute a system of governance based on Western traditions consisting of the rule of law, human rights, respect for minorities, gender equality, and the separation of church and state?

3) Is it an exercise of co-optation designed to show the West that Iran is democratic?

4) Is Iran currently on the precipice between authoritarianism and democracy, and which force is ultimately more powerful in civil society and the state?

5) Can Mousavi really be a democrat if as Prime Minister he helped to create genocidal anti-Semites like Hezbollah back in the early 1980s?

6) Will the Council of Guardians, the supreme body in Iran politically under the Supreme Leader Khamenei, ultimately win the day and "order" be restored?

7) If the Council of Guardians prevails, will democracy take a backseat in Iran to nuclear war cries with Israel, Holocaust denial, and confrontation with the US?

8) Would the victory of Mousavi really change the poor constitutional and political reality for Iran's beleaguered Jewish, Christian, Bahai, and other minorities?

Don't get me wrong. The votes of Mousavi supporters should be properly counted. The brave people of Iran should be venerated for confronting an autocratic regime, which cannot even properly cover up its corrupt voting mechanisms! To get answers to some of these aforementioned questions, see the following interview with a Jewish Iranian activist, Frank Nikbakht (photo above), who is based in southern California:

http://www.jewishjournal.com/iranianamericanjews/item/qa_iranian_jewish_expert_nikabkht_sheds_light_on_irans_elections/

Tamir Bar-On