Taqiyya as an Islamic theological concept originates with the Shi’ites, and can be broad-ranging in its application.
“Twelve dead in Iran as security forces are accused of opening fire on protesters after President Rouhani said people were ‘completely free to express their criticism,'” by Chris Pleasance, MailOnline, January 1, 2018:
At least 12 people have been killed and multiple others wounded during a fourth night of unrest in Iran.
Iranian state TV reported the figure Monday, saying security forces repelled ‘armed protesters’ who tried to take over police stations and military bases.
Two people were shot dead in the southwestern town of Izeh while another two died in Dorud after being run over by a stolen fire truck, local news agencies reported.
Elsewhere there were unconfirmed reports that three people were shot dead after security forces opened fire on protesters in Isfahan.
Video purportedly filmed in the city shows dozens of marchers on the streets as vehicles burn around them before what sounds like gunshots are heard.
The deaths in Izeh were confirmed by local politician Hedayatollah Khademi, who said it was unclear whether they were killed by police or other demonstrators.
‘The governor said it (the gunfire) was unlikely to be by police as they were not supposed to open fire,’ he said.
The shooting in Isfahan was reported by several prominent Twitter personalities including Amichai Stein, foreign affairs correspondent for the Israeli public broadcasting corporation, but could not be independently verified.
Elsewhere police used tear gas and water cannon to disperse a small protest in Tehran’s Enghelab Square on Sunday evening.
Protesters in the small northwestern town of Takestan torched a school for clergy and government buildings, the ILNA news agency said, while the state broadcaster said two people had died in Dorud after crashing a stolen fire engine.
There were also reports of protests in the cities of Izeh (southwest), Kermanshah and Khorramabad (west), Shahinshahr (northwest) and Zanjan (north).
Verifying reports remained challenging due to travel restrictions and sporadic blocks on mobile Internet and popular social media sites including Telegram and Instagram.
The protests began as demonstrations against economic conditions in second city Mashhad on Thursday but quickly turned against the Islamic regime as a whole, with thousands marching in towns across Iran to chants of ‘Death to the dictator’.
‘The people are absolutely free in expressing their criticisms and even protests,’ Rouhani said in a message on the state broadcaster.
‘But criticism is different to violence and destroying public property.’
He sought a conciliatory tone, saying that government bodies ‘should provide space for legal criticism and protest’ and calling for greater transparency and a more balanced media.
US President Donald Trump said the ‘big protests’ showed people ‘were getting wise as to how their money and wealth is being stolen and squandered on terrorism’.
‘Looks like they will not take it any longer,’ he wrote on Twitter.
In a later tweet, Trump accused Iran of ‘numerous violations of human rights,’ and commented on the disruption to social media, saying it ‘has now closed down the Internet so that peaceful demonstrators cannot communicate. Not good!’…
LB says
If this doesn’t ignite a nation-wide rebellion against the mullahs’ theocratic regime, then that means that the majority of Iranians have chosen to be ruled by islamic iron fist of their own volition.
mortimer says
LIES and more LIES steeped in hot steaming TAQIYYA from the Mullahocracy.
http://www.iranhrdc.org/english/publications/reports/1000000635-restrictions-on-freedom-of-expression-in-the-islamic-republic-of-iran.html
A report on free speech in Iran (“Restrictions on Freedom of Expression in the Islamic Republic of Iran”) put a lie to the Iranian government’s claims.
Restrictions on freedom of expression in Iran are both broad and arbitrary. Isa Saharkhiz, a journalist and a former official with Iran’s Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, likened working as a journalist in Iran to walking on a minefield, knowing that a wrong step may harm your career or possibly land you in prison.
“The government of the Islamic Republic of Iran has engineered one of the most repressive environments on the planet in terms of the right to free speech,” said Rod Sanjabi, Executive Director of the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, adding, “For decades, journalists, scholars, artists and indeed all Iranians have been forced to navigate censorship, self-censorship, and the aggressive and often arbitrary policing of the public space by a government whose distaste for free speech has long been a matter of identity. As long as these trends persist, Iran will be poorly governed.”
D Austin says
“‘The governor said it (the gunfire) was unlikely to be by police as they were not supposed to open fire,’ he said.”
The Ohio National Guard wasn’t suppose to open fire at unarmed protestors at Kent State on May 4, 1970. Twenty-eight guardsmen fired approximately 67 rounds over a period of 13 seconds, killing four students and wounding nine others, one of whom suffered permanent paralysis. Other students who were shot had been walking nearby or observing the protest from a distance. Always the evil gun’s fault.
Guy Forester says
What was not widely reported regarding Kent State:
1. Many of the “protestors” were not students there.
2. The “peaceful” and “unarmed” protestors were hurling rebar, rocks, and chunks of bricks at the ONG.
3. This unit of the ONG was not trained in riot control and otherwise working with police trying to control non-combatant (civilian) unrest.
I was in college in that time frame and was quite aware of these types of protest movements. These were organized by professional agitators that recruited useful idiots (UI). Said UI would then get put out front in demonstrations. Organizers (who are not students and may not even be from the locality) then incite violence. UI protestors get the brunt of the police or NG reaction. Kent State worked as planned. Government, University, LEO’s and NG are embarrassed and made to look like Nazi’s. Communist organizers (as in Weather Underground and various others) look like innocent heroes of the “people.”
Amazing how many people still fall these ruses after all these years.
gravenimage says
Muslim apologist D Austin takes an incident from almost fifty years ago to pretend that the United States is the same as tyrannical Iran. *Ugh*.
In any case, though, Guy Forester is right–many of those “student protests” were more like violent riots, led by ‘professional’ anarchists. As a UC Berkeley alumnus, I know this all too well.
Moreover, this was a single incident. Campus police got better training and there were no more cases like this.
But in Iran, protest of the most gentle kind has been violently put down for decades, with shootings, arrests, torture, organized prison rape, and executions. I’m sure D Austin is aware of this, but hopes we are not.
Guy Forester says
GI, you have my deepest sympathy for going to what used to be an outstanding university at UC Berkeley.
Where I went to college at that time, a bunch of out of town, non-student agitators stated they were going to shut the college down. Most of us were working class types, including many from rough neighborhoods. We told then, “Really, just try it.” As a result, most people ignored them and they avoided confronting us. After a few days they left town. Never saw them again.
gravenimage says
Actually, Guy, most of the departments at Berkeley were still excellent then, including the History and Art History departments, and, of course, the hard sciences. But “studies” departments–i.e. Women’s Studies, African-American Studies–were starting to creep in, and were obviously heavily politicized. Most of the “Social Sciences” were the same.
And some people were obviously more professional protesters than any kind of students. And some of them–as you note–were not even nominal students, but just outside rabble rousers.
mortimer says
Taqiyya studies are required at the post-doctoral level for ALL ayatollahs. All Iranians understand that their ayatollahs never tell the truth unless a lie will do.
Western people are generally innocent lambkins waiting for the ayatollahs to skin them. Obama was a perfect example.
The top ayatollahs in Iran have net worths of tens of BILLIONS of dollars. Yes! Tens of BILLIONS! Look it up.
http://dailycaller.com/2016/03/07/iran-sentences-billionaire-to-death-for-stealing-oil-money/
gravenimage says
We are far more used to honesty, and tend to expect it from others–even those who habitually lie.
utis says
I hope that some Iranians, who do not take their marching order from an insane god, realize they will have the most to suffer if there is a nuclear war. America had the power to bring grief to the vast Soviet Union. How many nukes could Iran take today?
I wish the people trying to get rid of their geriatric leaders, who have one foot and half their brain in the next world, great success in saving their children and descendants from this lunacy.
CRUSADER says
Typical of despots !
“Meet the new boss, same as the old boss….”
Happy NEW Year !
( “….and I ran so far away….I couldn’t get away….” )
Don McKellar says
Yes, that’s Islam. You are free to criticize and protest and speak your mind — until you speak against the self-appointed leaders of Islam. Then you must be imprisoned or die.
Keys says
Yep.
There is no compulsion in religion for Islam.
But if you do not choose the right path according to Allah and his Ayatollahs you could die, but you will not be forced to do what they want.
Wink, wink.
gravenimage says
Iran: Rouhani promises people “completely free to express criticism,” then security forces murder 12 people
………………………..
Typical Muslim, talking out of both sides of his mouth. *Ugh*.
mortimer says
GI, ‘complete freedom’ refers to criticizing anyone who disagrees with Rouhani. Rouhani speaks for Allah and who are they to contradict Allah?
The slogan of the protesters was “THEY ACT LIKE GOD”.
mortimer says
FREEDOM OF SPEECH ACCORDING TO THE CAIRO DECLARATION MEANS INTRINISIC DISCRIMINATION and REPRESSION OF CRITICIZING THE MULLAHS
On 19 December 2016, the UN General Assembly adopted a Canadian-sponsored resolution expressing “serious concern” about Iran’s high rate of executions without legal safeguards, ongoing use of torture, widespread arbitrary detentions, sharp limits on freedom of assembly, expression, and religious belief, and continuing discrimination against women and ethnic and religious minorities.
The legal and governing principles upon which the Islamic Republic of Iran is based differ in some respects from the principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Sharia law, as interpreted in the Islamic Republic (and by many Muslims), calls for inequality of rights between genders, religions, sexual orientation, as well as for other internationally criticised practices such as stoning as a method of execution.
In 1984, Iran’s representative to the United Nations, Sai Rajaie-Khorassani, declared the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to be representing a “secular understanding of the Judeo-Christian tradition”, which could not be implemented by Muslims and did not “accord with the system of values recognized by the Islamic Republic of Iran” which would “therefore not hesitate to violate its provisions.”
According to scholar Ervand Abrahamian, in the eyes of Iranian officials, “the survival of the Islamic Republic – and therefore of Islam itself – justified the means used,” and trumped any right of the individual.
In a fatwa issued by Ayatollah Khomeini in early 1988, he declared Iran’s Islamic government “a branch of the absolute governance of the Prophet of God” and “among the primary ordinances of Islam,” having “precedence over all secondary ordinances such as prayer, fasting, and pilgrimage.”
Since Iran’s Islamic laws are PERFECT, it is blasphemy to criticize the government that passes these laws.
Ren says
There is no freedom of speech in islam. So people don’t expect Iran to let their folks express criticism without murderering a few just to deter them from expressing criticism.
Champ says
muslims lie …
Even perverted-prophet muhammad was a bald-faced LIAR, and a heinous criminal, too.
Hey lying is allah approved, dontcha know …
Lydia Church says
That IS their definition of freedom!
You are free to do what liberty grants, but after that… we have to kill you.
If we have more questions, we will ask them later.