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Iran Update: The Supreme Leader Speaks

Friday, June 19, 2009

Nazila Fathi of the New York Times discusses the latest from Iran, including the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei declaration that there was not massive fraud in last week's election.

Guests:

Nazila Fathi

Comments [2]

seth

Thank God John "Bomb Bomb Bomb Bomb Bomb Iran" isn't President. His ignorant, pathetic attacks against Obama for not issuing "stronger" statements criticizing the Iranian govt show that he's an unstable hothead.

I'm not convinced that Mousavi is a fan of the Federalist Papers who wants to create a Western syle representaive form of govt.

Once again, Republicans McCain, Cantor, etc shoot from the hip when they haven't got a clue what they're talking about.

I despise Khameni and Ahmadinejad and would love to see them in prison but let's not delude ourselves that Mousavi is Jefferson Smith.

Jun. 19 2009 11:23 AM
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Buzzie

Americans and Europeans have been misreading Iran for 30 years. Even after the shah fell, the myth has survived that a mass movement of people exists demanding liberalization — a movement that if encouraged by the West eventually would form a majority and rule the country. We call this outlook “iPod liberalism,” the idea that anyone who listens to rock ‘n’ roll on an iPod, writes blogs and knows what it means to Twitter must be an enthusiastic supporter of Western liberalism. Even more significantly, this outlook fails to recognize that iPod owners represent a small minority in Iran — a country that is poor, pious and content on the whole with the revolution forged 30 years ago.

They are the ones who can speak to Westerners, and they are the ones willing to speak to Westerners. And these people give Westerners a wildly distorted view of Iran. They can create the impression that a fantastic liberalization is at hand — but not when you realize that iPod-owning Anglophones are not exactly the majority in Iran.

Jun. 19 2009 10:43 AM
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