A Daily Briefing on Iran: Yogi in Iran

Dr. Jack Wheeler, To The Point News:

It's beginning to sink in to a lot of folks - from the State Department to the French Foreign Ministry to Egyptian intelligence - that Iran's Ahmadinejad is far more dangerous and wacko than the Ayatollah Khomeini. READ MORE
Most all Iranians, as you have heard, are "Shias." Shias form one of the two main branches of Islam (Sunnis form the other - most Arabs are Sunnis), originating as "Shiat Ali" or followers of Mohammed's son-in-law Ali, married to Mohammed's daughter, Fatima (Mohammed had no sons).

Shias believed the Caliph, or Islamic Pope, should be a descendant of Mohammed, i.e., of Ali and Fatima. But the Caliphate was seized when the army of Ali's son, Hussein, was slaughtered at the Battle of Karbala (now a sacred city in Iraq) in 680 AD by rival Sunnis.

The line of Imams, or Shia Calpihs, continued until the mysterious disappearance of Al-Askari, the 12^th Imam, at age four in 873. Shias refused to believe he died, and he became revered as the Hidden Imam who would some day return to save the world as an Islamic Messiah.

This is why most Shias are "Twelvers" waiting for the return of the 12^th Imam, for they deeply believe only he can establish true Islamic law on earth. Like apocalyptic Christians, they believe that disastrous "signs" - chaos, death, and destruction on a horrifically massive scale - will portend the coming of their messiah.

All Shias believe this, that there will be a Second Coming of their Savior. One small group of them, however, got impatient.

It started in 1953, when a mullah from Mashad, Mahmoud Halabi, began denouncing the Baha'is, followers of Mirza Hussein Ali Nuri (1817-1892) who had declared he was a Messenger of Allah called Baha-ullah.

For Halabi, this was a double heresy, as there could no more prophets after Mohammed and Baha-ullah was claiming in effect he was the 12^th Imam returned. To punish and persecute the Baha'is, Halabi formed a secret society called the Anjoman-e Zedd-e Baha-iyat, the Anti-Baha'i Society.

It never gained much traction and its adherents remained underground until the Shah was overthrown and Khomeini seized power in 1979. They came out of hiding and announced they were the truest of believers, the vanguard of Khomeini's revolution. Khomeini said thank you for sharing, and banned them in 1983.

So the "Anjomanis" reorganized under the leadership of an Ayatollah named Mesbah Yazdi, who changed the name of the group to the Hojjatieh, a compression in Farsi (the Persian language) meaning "Allah's proof of creation."

Yazdi went way beyond denouncing heretical Baha'is. He taught his disciples they should stop waiting passively for the return of the Hidden Imam, and actively accelerate his return instead.

Only when tyranny and chaos and war and mass slaughter become so overwhelming, Yazdi said, will the Hidden Imam return to rescue humanity from it. This is standard Shia dogma. Yazdi's addition was to say that by precipitating such mass war and slaughter, the Hojjatieh could force the Hidden Imam to return.

One of Yazdi's most fervent students was a young man who had led the hostage-takers seizing the US Embassy in Tehran in 1979 - Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who is today president of Iran.

This is why Ahmadinejad is now talking in praise of not only individual "martyrs" who sacrifice their lives for Islam, but the "glory" of "the martyrdom of the nation." It is dawning on Iranians that the nation he is talking about is Iran.

Ahmadinejad is not just willing to "wipe Israel off the map," he's willing to wipe his own country off the map in addition. Actually, "willing" is far too weak a word. This is what he is trying his passionate best to achieve.

This is not going down so well with a lot of his countrymen.

For openers, there are over 100,000 active Persian blog sites on the Internet now, the vast majority of which are virulently against Ahmadinejad and the mullacracy. Many are pro-American, many are anti-American, yet both look upon the regime in Tehran as despised "new Taliban" and "Bin Ladenists."

And that's among Ahmadinejad's fellow Persians. Bear in mind that Iran is not a homogeneous country - it is a Persian Empire, with ethnic Persians comprising less than half the population.

As we discussed in The Persian Ratchet last August, 36% of Iran's population is ethnic Azeri, Shia Turks just like in neighboring Azerbaijan. There are thousands of Azeri blogs bemoaning "Farsitoxication" of their culture, and an active secessionist movement - The South Azerbaijan Liberation Movement (SALM) - has arisen to break off northwest Iran to create a Greater Azerbaijan.

Another 9% of Iran's population is ethnic Kurd, neither Turk nor Arab nor Persian. There are more Kurds in Iran than across the border in Iraq, and they desperately want to secede and join prosperous and free Iraqi Kurdistan. An organization has been formed to do just that: The Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan.

Over 5% of Iran's population is ethnic Arab, concentrated across the border with Iraq in a region called Khuzistan. The focus of Iranian Arab resistance to Persian colonialism is in the capital of Ahwaz, and is organized by the Democratic Solidarity Party of al-Ahwaz. The Ahwazi Arabs know all too well that their region produces most of Iran's oil.

6% of Iran's population is Baluchi. While the Azeris and Iranian Arabs are Shia, the Baluchi, like the Kurds, are Sunni. They populate the southeast corner of Iran and share ethnic identity with their tribal brethren across the border in Pakistan. Fiercely independent, anti-Shia and anti-Persian, they want their freedom too. Their most prominent organization is the Baluchistan People's Party (click on "English" in the left side bar).

Then there are the Turkmen along the northern border with Turkmenistan. They are Sunni and comprise 3% of Iranians. They have little desire to join the surrealistic dictatorship of Sapamurat "Turkmenbashi" Niyazov in Turkmenistan, but are still agitating for their freedom through the Organization for Defence of the Rights of Turkmen People.

All of these resistance groups have organized a Congress of Nationalities For A Federal Iran. Their argument for public Persian consumption is not a disintegration of Iran into separate countries like the Soviet Union, but regional autonomy with democratic freedoms.

They have jointly signed and issued a Manifesto pledging to work together to achieve "self rule in a framework of a free, united and a democratic Iran" according to the following principles (quoted from their Manifesto):

1. That the Islamic Republic of Iran is a totalitarian, anti-democratic and violator of the rights of the Iranian peoples. Hence its removal is the necessary condition for the establishment of a federal democratic government in Iran.

2. Notwithstanding our firm believe in the inalienable rights for the exercise of the rights of self determination in accordance with the United Nations declaration of human rights and all pertinent international accords; we desire a federal system of government, on the basis of national ethnicity and geography, in a united and an integral (unified or with territorial integrity) Iran.

3. Separation of religion and state.

4. Removal of any gender discrimination and full equality of men and women in every sphere of life, social, political, economics etc.

5. Guarantee of freedom of thoughts, free speech and assembly, and freedom to organize social and political organizations, ensure and provide for the equal rights of all citizens in legal enjoyment of these freedoms.

6. Guarantee social and political equity and justice, and enhancement of quality of life of all citizens.

7. Establish peaceful relations with all countries on the basis of mutual respect and respect for international norms and accords, and resolution of conflicts employing peaceful means and internal law.

8. Combat terrorism and weapons of mass destruction in the region and internationally, cooperate with international endeavors toward achievement of this objective and, in defense of peaceful resolution of regional and international conflicts.

Whether these noble goals can be achieved with Iran staying intact is a question for the future. This organized multi-ethnic resistance to the Mullacracy is happening right now - and the realization of the US and European governments that the people running the Mullacracy are hopelessly dangerous Hojjatieh religious nuts is providing the spine to help the resistance.

Perhaps most interesting is that France is bellying up to the anti-Iran bar. There has been a major fallout, for example, between France and Hezbollah, the Iran-sponsored terrorist outfit. Chirac is so worried now about a major Hezbollah terrorist attack in Paris that he threatened Iran he would retaliate with nuclear missiles.

The bottom line is we have arrived at Yogi Berra's fork in the road. Yogi advised that, "When you come to a fork in the road, take it." When both France and the US agree that the Ahmadinejad regime in Tehran has to be removed, you know we've arrived.

The fork leaves only two choices: military decapitation or internal revolution. There are no other choices. The discussion is no longer about taking out the nuclear facilities - it's about taking out the government.

There is no negotiating with such a government of Hojjatieh crazies. That's over. Events are going to be moving very fast now regarding Iran - maybe even fast enough for Michael "Faster, please" Ledeen.