Published on Jan 2, 2018
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In 2009, Iran was swept by demonstrations, just as it is now. But at that time, the protesters were shouting “Allahu akbar,” and there was no indication that they wanted anything but reform of the Islamic regime, not the end of the regime itself. This time, however, the protesters have been chanting: “We don’t want an Islamic Republic!” “Clerics shame on you, let go of our country!” Some have even chanted: “Reza Shah, bless your soul!”What has changed? Donald Trump.Reza Shah was the Shah of Iran from 1925 to 1941 and the father of Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, the Shah who was overthrown in the Islamic Revolution in 1979. Reza Shah admired Turkey’s Kemal Ataturk and set Iran on a similar path of Westernization and secularization. In chanting this, the protesters are emphasizing that they do not just want economic reforms, as has been the line of the establishment media in the West. Nor do they want an Islamic Republic that is less corrupt. They don’t want an Islamic Republic at all.Now why would Trump have anything to do with this? Because he has been singular among the leaders of the world, and the Presidents of the United States since 1989, in demonstrating his readiness to stand up to violent intimidation. President Trump has already made it clear in so many ways, most notably by recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Clinton, Bush, and Obama all spoke about Jerusalem being the capital of Israel, but backed off from recognizing the fact as official U.S. policy, for fear that Muslims would riot and kill innocent people, and that such a recognition would jeopardize the chimerical and fruitless “peace process.”So should terrorists decide where our embassy should be? Trump was not willing to concede this point. And when one man shows that bullies can be confronted and stood down by people with courage, others are inspired to make the same kind of stand. This new Iranian uprising came just weeks after Trump’s Jerusalem announcement, after the threatened rage and riots of Muslims worldwide in response to that announcement proved to be largely a fizzle.Is it a coincidence that the Iranian people have stood up to the forces of jihad intimidation just after the President did so? Maybe. But if so, it’s a marvelous one, and in either case it’s illustrative of the power of courage in an age of cowardice.For here again, even if the Iranian freedom movement has nothing to do with Trump, it is certain that these demonstrations would already be over, and may never have begun, if Hillary Clinton were President of the United States right now. Confronted with those 2009 demonstrations that did not go as far or demand as much, Barack Obama betrayed the demonstrators to every grisly fate that the mullahs could devise for them in their torture chambers. Bent on concluding the disastrous nuclear deal that lined their oppressors’ pockets with billions and set the world on a path to a catastrophic nuclear attack, Obama ensured that the U.S. government didn’t lift a finger or offer a word of support for the protesters, even as they were being gunned down in the streets.But now the man who is setting the tone is a different man. Trump has come out strongly in favor of the protesters, tweeting: “Many reports of peaceful protests by Iranian citizens fed up with regime’s corruption & its squandering of the nation’s wealth to fund terrorism abroad. Iranian govt should respect their people’s rights, including right to express themselves. The world is watching!”In a similar vein, State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert said: “Iran’s leaders have turned a wealthy country with a rich history and culture into an economically depleted rogue state whose chief exports are violence, bloodshed, and chaos. As President Trump has said, the longest-suffering victims of Iran’s leaders are Iran’s own people.” Press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders added: “There are many reports of peaceful protests by Iranian citizens fed up with the regime’s corruption and its squandering of the nation’s wealth to fund terrorism abroad. The Iranian government should respect their people’s rights, including their right to express themselves.”For the people of Iran, with help from Donald Trump, this could just possibly be the dawning of a new era of freedom. Even if the regime remains in power this time, it has been shaken to its core. It cannot afford to be as openly repressive and bloodthirsty as the Chinese at Tienanmen Square. Not, we can hope, with Donald Trump in the White House.
As the protests continue in Iranian cities for the fifth day in a row, clashes between the security forces and the protesters led to the rise of the death toll to 17.According to information received by the Al Arabiya, five protesters were killed in the city of Qahdregan, the province of Isfahan, central Iran.According to some reformist and fundamentalist news sources, the clashes occurred when protesters tried to break into the city hall’s building….Some unconfirmed reports published by sites close to former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad say that the number of people killed in the city are two men from the Revolutionary Guard.Given the previous death toll from Iranian protesters according to official statistics, the number of the lost protestors has risen to 17.
In his new message for the World Day of Peace, Pope Francis has denounced those who question the wisdom of mass migration, accusing them of demagoguery and promoting xenophobia.Those who decry “the risks posed to national security or the high cost of welcoming new arrivals,” are guilty of “demeaning the human dignity due to all as sons and daughters of God,” Francis said in the New Year’s message.To resort to such “rhetoric,” the Pope continued, people “are sowing violence, racial discrimination and xenophobia, which are matters of great concern for all those concerned for the safety of every human being.”The Catholic Church celebrates the World Day of Peace each year on New Year’s day, when it also commemorates the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God. In his annual message for the Day of Peace, the Pope opted once again to underscore the plight of migrants and refugees, as he has on several occasions recently.Migrants are men and women, children and elderly people, “who are searching for somewhere to live in peace,” Francis said, and in order to find that peace, “they are willing to risk their lives on a journey that is often long and perilous, to endure hardships and suffering, and to encounter fences and walls built to keep them far from their goal.”“In a spirit of compassion, let us embrace all those fleeing from war and hunger, or forced by discrimination, persecution, poverty and environmental degradation to leave their homelands,” he said.The Pope also outlined his theory regarding the causes of the mass migration that is affecting Europe and other parts of the world.People migrate principally because they desire a better life, and often in an effort “to leave behind the ‘hopelessness’ of an unpromising future,” the Pope said. There has also been “a tragic rise in the number of migrants seeking to flee from the growing poverty caused by environmental degradation,” he added.The Pope also gingerly addressed the thorny topic of illegal immigration, suggesting it was out of the ordinary and motivated by extreme circumstances.While most people emigrate legally, “through regular channels,” Francis said, some “take different routes, mainly out of desperation, when their own countries offer neither safety nor opportunity, and every legal pathway appears impractical, blocked or too slow.”The Pope did not say how he thought nations should deal with illegal immigrants, but he did suggest that mass migration itself may be a net benefit for nations.While some consider global migration to be a “threat,” Francis said, “I ask you to view it with confidence as an opportunity to build peace.”…