Elections — indeed the democratic process itself — shape countries, culture, and the future, no matter what their outcome.
The results of the hotly disputed Iranian elections are still in question. The meaning of the peaceful protests, the riots, and the reaction of the government is still unclear. But what many in the world are now seeing clearly for the first time is a cultural and generational shift that demands something new for their own country and a different kind of engagement with their world.
I continue to be moved by the images of people in the streets, many of them young, as they protest and march to ensure that their votes are counted. Some of my younger staff members are following updates from protesters their age all day on twitter in real time. They read within minutes their global peers’ concerns for missing friends who have not yet returned from the marches, desperate searches for doctors to tend wounds inflicted by riot police, and growing concerns that the government would track their cell phones and end their online protests. They have quickly formed relationships with those half a world away and feel a deep sense of loss when a young person whose updates they had been following are suddenly stopped, their account gone dark.
There are reports of mass kidnappings from universities and rumors of student organizers being killed. As I watch events continue to unfold, I realize with great concern and cautious optimism that the last time I felt this hope, excitement, and concern was in the days preceding the Tiananmen Square Massacre. The signals are strong and the opportunities they portend are hopeful. But, no matter whom this election eventually installs into office, this democratic process will shape the country, the culture, and the future of the Middle East and the world.
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neuro_nurse
Does the repressiveness of the current regime justify the Shah's brutality?
Your comment is utterly naïve.
neuro_nurse
Most of the U.S. expatriate workers in Iran in the 70s were, in some way or another, there to support the Iranian military - including my father.
john316
Welcome back.
During the mid-70s, our kids took swimming lessons at the Submarine Base pool and we met several Iranian sailors who were training to operate the diesel-electric submarines that our government was selling to Iran.
KJMacari
I hope that Mr. Wallis and the Sojourners Community recall their responses to Iran back in the middle and late Seventies. It seemed like every issue was a propaganda rant against the Shah and his security group, SAVAK. Has life in Iran been any better under the 30 years of theocratic tyranny? I would like for Mr. Wallis and his team to publicly repent of their naive views of the Seventies concerning Iran and admit that they were wrong in their approach. Whatever happens with the Iranian situation now, the Christian Left and Right must be more discerning and much more humbl in its claims to be "God's Politics
KJMacari
I hope that Mr. Wallis and the Sojourners Community recall their responses to Iran back in the middle and late Seventies. It seemed like every issue was a propaganda rant against the Shah and his security group, SAVAK. Has life in Iran been any better under the 30 years of theocratic tyranny? I would like for Mr. Wallis and his team to publicly repent of their naive views of the Seventies concerning Iran and admit that they were wrong in their approach. Whatever happens with the Iranian situation now, the Christian Left and Right must be more discerning and much more humblin its claims to be "God's Politics
neuro_nurse
Most Americans have never stepped outside of their comfort zone and seen our country the way those outside of it do.
JamesM
Most will not see your point-- after all, America can do no wrong in their book.
neuro_nurse
Very cool!
My family and I visited Shiraz and Persepolis the summer we lived in Iran but otherwise, I didn't get a chance to travel around the country.
Despite what some people may assume, I would love to go back someday.
eurotony
I spent part of the summer of 1971 (the year of celebrations for the 2500th anniversary of the "Persian Empire") there, travelling with a group of college friends. We spent most of our time in Isfahan, but we also visited Tabriz, Tehran, Kermanshah, Shiraz (briefly), and Reza'iyeh (which I think has returned to its pre-Pahlavi name, Urmia). Some of us were primarily interested in ancient history, others in the Safavid legacy in Isfahan and Shiraz. We were also in touch with members of the Christian minorities (Anglicans as well as the older immigrants from Armenia and the aboriginal Chaldeans).
The Christian take on the Shah was, to say the least, interesting!
I lived there from December 1977 to January 1979. My father worked for Lockheed. I was a high school student at Tehran American School.
eurotony
Neuro_nurse is right on just about every count. I too spent some time in Iran before the Revolution and can vouch for what he says. The Shah's regime was repressive and hated. The present regime seems to have long since fallen into the same bad habits - but is using Shia Islam as a cloak, much in the same way as other regimes in other parts of the world have used Christianity of one sort or another as a cloak for behaviour which falls far short of the glory of God.
neuro_nurse
I've been asked to come out of retirement and comment on this thread.
First, as a Catholic, I don’t believe that Islam is evil. We believe that Muslims worship the same God that we do.
Second, let’s remember that there would have not been a revolution against the Shah and everything that followed it if the U.S. had not sent the CIA into Iran in 1953 to overthrow the DEMOCRATICALLY ELECTED prime minister, Mohammed Mossadegh (Operation Ajax – look it up).
I lived in Tehran in 1978 – I watched the motorcade carrying Jimmy Carter travel up Pahlavi Avenue. Carter had little, if any, influence on the revolution and subsequent overthrow of the Shah – Iranians, very justifiably, HATED the Shah. He was a dictator of the worst stripe (try to keep that in mind). The CIA trained the SAVAK, the Shah’s secret police, in methods of torture. Iranians (as well as U.S. expatriates living in Iran at the time) were terrified of the SAVAK. People disappeared for publicly criticizing the Shah.
The outcome of this election should not have been unexpected. The current regime is despotic and repressive and will hold on to power for as long as it can.
With that in mind, I think we should remain hopeful for Iran’s future. The fact that there are Iranians who are now bold enough to protest against the current regime may be an indicator that its days are numbered.
Peace.
JamesM
Sojo never had any love for the Iranian regime. It just never assumed that war was the answer. No need to adjust and there is certainly no need for humility when Sojo wasn't prideful to begin with.
That's not a good comparison because there's also a war within Islam itself. The division between the Sunni and Shi'a sects, each of which sees the other as apostate, are so vast that they will probably blow each other up before they do it to anyone else. Iran, of course, is mostly Shi'a but much of the Arab world is Sunni (bin Laden fits into the latter category).
Actually, Iran's problems with the U.S. go back to the Eisenhower years, when in 1953 we overthrew a democratically-elected government and installed the shah; Carter just happened to be the unlucky guy on the watch when the revolution happened.
TheLastTemplar
I think your comparing our 13-14th century bad stuff to their modern day bad stuff. Osama discribed them best "In the West you embrace LIFE, here we embrace death".
oldersixties
We are only seeing what the Iraq governmental press coverage is allowing us to see and hearing the rhetoric that they want us to hear. The clerics still hold sway in the country and are primarily the puppets of the clerics. President jimmy Carter stood aloft in this same instance and this is what we are reaping. I sometimes feel that we tend to see all adherents to any religious group and mindless victims. When religion and polics start mingling and intertwining their stories.....something gets lost and we end up with nationalistic religion.....I believe that their are scores of Christians in Iran who are influencing the non-violent underground movement. We have had 4 muslim converts to Christianity in the past year.... and one convert is going back to Iran as a believer.....
What you say about Islam, I repeat, under certain circumstances can also be said about us. See, you're comparing our "good stuff" with their "bad stuff"; however, any religion if given enough power can become corrupt because, frankly, we still at times act under the old sin nature. How do you thus know that a "Western" version of Christianity won't go the same way? Besides, what you're saying about Islam generally isn't necessarily true; in the aftermath of 9/11 I interviewed a number of Muslims from India who certainly rejected terrorism.
