I recently made a remark about taking the Islamic out of the Islamic Republic. That caused some criticism and even offense. It pays to be specific.
If you read Mousavi’s latest statement, you will see that he goes to great lengths to emphasize that he and his supporters have absolutely no intention of taking the Islamic out of the Islamic Republic. In fact, quite to the contrary, Mousavi argues that it is more Islamic to treat the voters with respect than it is to make up fake election returns. And that is all fine and dandy. But, the truth is that the Mousavi supporters are in the streets chanting ‘death to the dictator.’ And the dictator, in this example, is the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ali Khamenei. The situation has morphed, whether Mousavi likes it or not, into a revolutionary situation.
Now, it’s true that Mousavi’s supporters represent a broad and deep swath of Iranian society and that most of them probably are motivated less by the idea of upsetting the Iranian Constitution than by the idea of abiding by it. Moreover, most of them probably think that it is more consistent with Islamic principles to count the votes than to disregard them. But, the actions of the Iranian government have undermined their credibility. At the very minimum, the protesters want the Supreme Leader replaced (they are calling for his death, after all). And, since the principles of the reform movement heavily implicate the entire system of the Mullahocracy, it seems plain that they don’t just want to swap out one Mullah for another. They want a truer form of representative democracy that is not subject to the vetoes of the clerics.
They would argue that such a republic was more Islamic than the one they currently have. But, I would argue that it isn’t the adherence to Islamic principles that makes Iran’s Republic Islamic, but the control granted to the clerics that makes it so.
It’s a semantic argument, in part. But, give Iran a true Republic, and I won’t care whether someone wants to debate its Islamic credentials.
