A REFERENDUM TOO FAR:

Citizens and exiles: an edifying conversation (Mansour Farhang, 13 - 4 - 2005, Open Democracy)

A coalition of Iranian dissidents inside the country have issued an appeal for a nationwide referendum to choose between the constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran and a new constitution based on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This invitation is a veiled method of announcing that the reform movement of the Khatami era is dead and nothing but a secular democracy can liberate the Iranian people from the grip of their tyrannical rulers.

Since many signatories of the appeal began their opposition to the reigning ayatollahs as reformers, their call for a plebiscite on the essential claims of the theocratic order is equivalent to rejecting the legitimacy of the regime and embracing the democratic path.

It would be a tragedy if in their eagerness to shuck themselves of the mullahcracy they were to deny that the rights they seek come from God, not from transnationalist pabulum.

Posted by Orrin Judd at April 20, 2005 12:00 AM