Since his first election win in 2005 President Ahmadinejad has donated millions from government funds to the Mosque at this site, and according to The Aytollah Begs to Differ, he refers to hidden Messiah Iman Mahdi in every speech hoping he will arrive soon, in body, to right the injustices of the world.
Iranians love to talk politics. Author Hooman Majd tells a story that clearly delivers his message that Iranians want to be respected as a nation.
1) They want to govern their own country without interference.
2) They wish to solve their own problems without interference.
Majd tells of riding in a cab with a friend while talking politics with an older cab driver. The driver readily boasts that if any country invades Iran, everyone will fight the invaders including himself. If I remember correctly, the driver was sixty-eight years old.
In spite of what has happened during recent elections where Ahmadinejad stands accused of reporting false ballot counts, Iranians still consider their country to be a democracy—not one fashioned after the United States, but a decent theo/democratic country nonetheless.
The protests of thousands seen on TV after Iranians heard the election results were caused, not so much because citizens disliked Ahmadinejad, although they may now, but because he usurped their democratic right to vote. This truth came about when Iranians realized it was logically impossible for him to beat other candidates including Mir Hossein Mousavi by an eleven million vote margin factoring in voter turnout.
Author Hooman Majd claims that The Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, alluded to these votes in a sermon, “but failed to concede … that the only way to cheat by eleven million votes was to never count them in the first place.” True to their religion under Allah, perhaps Iranians may feel that world events are irrelevant under His Holy Will.
Today, Iran’s democracy moves on. Accurate election results may never be known. But what would irk Iranians more than the troubled election would be “meddlers” from any country, especially the United States — or even worse, Iranians educated in the United States, tainted by our ideas of democracy, attempting to tamper with or influence the religious/political course of modern Iran.
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