200 demonstrators gather outside of the Los Angeles Federal Building, dozens of flags floating in the air, each piece of cloth boldly declaring support for movements in Iran and Libya.
As protests go, the one held on February 20th was small compared to one’s held in previous weeks for Egypt and Tunisia, yet it’s sometimes the smallest of events, the moments people tend to overlook, that can impact a community in ground-breaking ways. That is, if its people have enough courage to evaluate themselves.
The purpose of this protest, like many others, was to show solidarity and support for movements taking place in the Middle East, specifically in Libya and Iran.
For the Iranians, the protest took place on a day meant to commemorate the death of two student protesters killed in Iran’s February 14th demonstrations, with several cities in Iran, Europe, and America also holding protests to mark this day.
Protesters of both ethnicities (Libyan and Iranian) appeared to be supportive of each other, repeating and cheering for each other’s chants.
“Libyans would chant for change in Iran and Iranians would chant for change in Libya. It was going back and forth and it was actually really nice to see,” says a twenty-three year old Iranian protester, who recently graduated from UCLA.
Despite this show of support, however, the physical separation between these groups, with the Libyans and Iranians standing apart from each other, along with the homogeneous composition of these two sides, points to the existence of division amongst these demonstrators along ethnic lines.
Such a divide can also be seen in the MSA setting and our community at large, where for the past few weeks since protests in the Middle East began, members have come out strong to support their ‘brothers and sisters’ in the Middle East and their struggles for freedom.
Yet in the midst of all of the duas and prayers made for the people of Libya, Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen, Bahrain, etc, Iran has consistently been left unmentioned, seemingly forever destined to remain in the ‘etc’ category, never mentioned by name.
The causes for this and their implications for our community are worth a deeper look, because the movements and causes we support say a great deal about where we are as a community.
Is Iran left out of the equation simply because of ignorance? Yet how can the community remain almost completely ignorant about one of the most populated nations in the Middle East, with over 70 million people? This is especially strange given the enormous Iranian-American population in Los Angeles, numbering in the hundreds of thousands and by some counts, over a million.
Or could the cause be more ethnic in nature, and therefore more troubling, where certain groups (such as nearly all Black-African nations) don’t even register in the community’s ‘struggles abroad’ radar? Do people subconsciously categorize Iran as ‘other’ because it is a Shia majority nation and should just deal with its own problems?
Whatever the case may be, the community needs to broaden their scope beyond Arabic-speaking countries in order to truly be supportive of their brothers and sisters worldwide.
Good points. However I feel Iran is left out because some people ARE in support of the regime? At least this is just a surface level observation. But I don’t feel everyone is supportive of a regime change in Iran.
I agree with Koutaiba.
Many people, including me and my friends, do not list Iran because we support the Iranian government. This is an attempt to destroy the Iranian government because they cannot attack it militarily. What’s left? Cause internal division. Luckily most Iranians don’t buy this garbage. What you don’t see on the media are the hundreds of thousands of Iranians who come out in support of Ahmadinejad.
Ahmadinejad won the votes in 2006. There’s been plenty of analysis done to show that it’s statistically impossible for him to have cheated. All of the arguments that have been given by the ‘green movement’ have been destroyed.
Please read the following: http://brillwebsite.com/writings/iran2009election.html
If anything, Iran had its revolution already…30 years ago against the CIA-backed Shah.
Secondly, we should never just jump on the bandwagon of protests that appear to be popular. Here are a few examples of so-called ‘popular’ protests that are really funded by outside forces:
– The Confederación de Trabajadores de Venezuela and PDVSA protesting against Chavez. Analysts view this as a foreign-backed movement namely through the use of agencies like USAID or NED.
– Obama giving millions of aid to “dissidents in Iran” http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2009-06-25-iran-money_N.htm
– Orange ‘Revolution’ “activists” of Ukraine were trained and funded by USAID, NED, IRI, etc
– Rose ‘Revolution’ of Georgia funded by dozens of millions of dollars by billionaire George Soros
Anyone interested in learning more about these psuedo-revolutions can read: http://www.amazon.com/Interventions-City-Lights-Open-Media/dp/0872864839
Ahmadinejad won the elections of 2009*
*correction
Thank you Al-Talib for covering the protests and also bringing up an important issue: why is Iran being left out? Why are African nations being left out?
In solidarity.
Pouneh
EDIT: Sorry ended up in the moderation queue – AT EiC
I don’t appreciate my comment being deleted. So much for freedom of speech and democracy?
Allow me to post what I said once more:
Many Iranians, including my family in Iran, do not support the green movement. To compare the noble revolutions in Libya and Egypt to the CIA-backed green movement is insulting to the Arab world. Iran already had its revolution – the Islamic revolution which occurred 30 years ago against the US-backed Shah.
Statistical analysis shows that it would be impossible for Ahmadinejad to have cheated during the 2009 elections. Representatives of Mousavi were present at the ballot boxes and signed the Form 22s verifying the results. The Form 28s of the Guardian Council match the results of the Form 22s. I respectfully ask the author to explain how Iran is NOT a democracy. This article addresses all of the weak and superfluous arguments made by the green movement: http://brillwebsite.com/writings/iran2009election.html#ExcludedObservers
The green movement in Iran is astonishingly similar to the red shirts who protested against Thaksin Shinawatra (who overwhelmingly won the election) and caused a military coup. Democracy does not work when the people who lose do not accept the results.
Improperly calling an elections a fraud and not providing evidence is incredibly unethical.I completely support popular movements. This green movement is NOT a popular movement. It has been funded by outside forces to bring down Iran: http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2009-06-25-iran-money_N.htm
Rather than delete my post, perhaps we can engage in a peaceful discussion?
I totally sympathize with the author when it comes to popular uprisings in Africa. For example, how many of us have discussed the women protesters who were recently murdered by Gbagbo’s forces? How air strikes were ordered on the Muslim ‘rebels’ in the north?
But then again, what do you expect when you have so much media attention given to pseudo-revolutions like the Green movement?
This article is wonderfully written. Thanks for pointing out these ethnic/ sectarian divisions that might also exist in the community. Let’s not forget that the UCLA community, and Los Angeles at large, is very diverse and does indeed consist of Shia Muslims, amongst other minorities inside the Ummah. And while we are on the subject of broadening our scope to other parts of the world, we can make dua for our brothers and sisters suffering in Kashmir.
This article raises some troubling issuse that can be remedied, insha’Allah. I look forward to a time when we will stand united and desegregated as a community. And insha’Allah this idea will not be a novelty to our children or to future generations of UCLA students.