“This is Not Another Revolution. This is a Civil Rights Movement”

In Iran, supporters of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi have called for another protest in Tehran today in defiance of the government ban. At least nineteen demonstrators have been killed in the ten days since the election of June 12th. The government continues to detain journalists and activists and has set up a special court for demonstrators. We speak with Columbia University Professor Hamid Dabashi. He writes, “I see the moment we are witnessing as a civil rights movement rather than a push to topple the regime.”

AMY GOODMAN: We turn now to another top story, Iran, where supporters of the defeated opposition presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi have called for another protest in Tehran today in defiance of the government ban. The call comes after the Guardian Council rejected claims of election fraud and announced that the results of the disputed election would not be annulled.

The streets were relatively quiet Tuesday, even as the government continues to detain journalists and activists and set up a special court for demonstrators. At least nineteen protesters have been killed in the ten days since the election of June 12th.

President Obama issued his strongest condemnation of Iran since the election at a news conference Tuesday, saying he was, quote, “appalled and outraged by the threats, beatings and imprisonments of the past few days.” But he added that what is happening in Iran is an internal debate.

       PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: I’ve made it clear that the United States respects the sovereignty of the Islamic Republic of Iran and is not interfering with Iran’s affairs. But we must also bear witness to the courage and the dignity of the Iranian people and to a remarkable opening within Iranian society. And we deplore the violence against innocent civilians anywhere that it takes place.

AMY GOODMAN: Obama dismissed as, quote, “patently false” Iranian government accusations of the US role in instigating protests. He also addressed Republican criticism of his, quote, “timid” and “passive” response to events in Iran.

       PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Yeah, I think that all of us share a belief that we want justice to prevail. But only I am the President of the United States. And I’ve got responsibilities in making certain that we are continually advancing our national security interests and that we are not used as a tool to be exploited by other countries. And so, I think that in the hothouse of Washington, there may be all kinds of stuff going back and forth in terms of Republican critics versus the administration. That’s not what is relevant to the Iranian people.

AMY GOODMAN: But Republican Senators Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and John McCain of Arizona continue to challenge Obama’s seeming willingness to talk to Iran’s leaders. Speaking to news media Tuesday, both senators called for stronger sanctions and a UN Security Council resolution against Iran. This is Lindsey Graham.

       SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM: Why don’t we take a UN resolution, lead it, author it, condemn this regime for the way they treated their people and the way they foster terrorism, take it to the Security Council of the United Nations, and ask for a vote? Why don’t we call for tougher sanctions on this regime, because it will help the people down the road? Even though it may hurt now, it will help them later. We can do what we can—I can’t promise you an outcome, but I can promise you this, that as the leader of the free world, the President of United States, when he speaks, people listen. And we need to not only speak more forcefully, we need to act more forcefully.

AMY GOODMAN: Senator Graham on PBS’s NewsHour with Jim Lehrer Tuesday. Senator McCain made a similar call on CNN’s Larry King Live last night.

        SEN. JOHN McCAIN: We should marshal the world’s opinion and forces and maybe enact sanctions or other measures that need to be taken. Let’s hope and pray that this tyrannical government will draw back some. You know, there are defining moments, Larry. And what happened to this brave young woman Neda, as we—millions of us have seen her death on the street in Tehran, is—I think may be a defining moment and may signal, in the view of historians, the real end of this tyrannical regime.

AMY GOODMAN: That is the former presidential candidate, John McCain.

I’m joined now by Hamid Dabashi, the Hagop Kevorkian Professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature at Columbia University. He’s written nearly two dozen books on Iranian studies, Islam, world cinema, comparative literature and art, including Iran: A People Interrupted.

Professor Dabashi, welcome to Democracy Now!

HAMID DABASHI: Thanks for having me, Amy.

AMY GOODMAN: Sum up for us the latest events in Iran, as you understand them.

HAMID DABASHI: The latest news, which I just checked, a number of websites that I ordinarily do, because you have to dodge censorship and such, is that Grand Ayatollah Montazeri, the senior-most opposition Grand Ayatollah, has called for three days of mourning of the victims of the recent violence.

And Mr. Mousavi has also called for a march of his supporters, with their families—namely, they’re coming with their spouses and their children—to march towards Khomeini’s mausoleum. This is a very shrewd move, because, obviously, if they’re coming with their families, they are a bit more protected from violence. And they’re headed towards a mausoleum, which is exercising a very old and amazing political gesture that we have in Iranian political culture, which means—translates as seeking refuge in a sanctuary, and presumably will be protected from violence there. So they’re using aspects of Iranian political culture in order to navigate through strategies of civil disobedience.

But when we say civil disobedience, we have to understand that Article 27 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic allows for peaceful demonstration. Mousavi and Karroubi, the two major oppositional candidates, have repeatedly asked the Ministry of Interior for permission to have peaceful protests, rallies, and they have been denied, while pro-Ahmadinejad supporters have been repeatedly granted permission to protest.

So, but the arrest of the leading reformists continues. The arrest of a number of civilian protesters continues. Ms. Zahra Rahnavard, the wife of Mr. Mousavi, has just issued a statement, that the BBC has authenticated that it is actually hers, calling for the release of these reformist leaders. In the Parliament, in the Iranian Parliament, over the past two days, there have been debates regarding torture of a number of arrested leaders of the reform movement, forcing them to come to the television and confess to one thing or another, which is an old tradition in the Islamic Republic.

So, to sum up, Khamenei has also again come and reiterated his support for the result of the election, that there is not going to be a reelection, and if there are any particular complaints, they will take it into consideration. So the battle lines are drawn between Khamenei and Ahmadinejad and the Guardian Council, on one side, and the opposition, Khatami, Karroubi and Mousavi, on the other. The wild card is—it remains Hashemi Rafsanjani. The rumbles that are coming is that he is trying to negotiate a middle ground, suggesting—Financial Times reported, suggesting the formation of a oppositional front to allow for this particular phase of the election to proceed, because they’re equally concerned, as you see President Obama being concerned, about Iran being represented by one person, but not completely conceding this oppositional force that has been formed.

AMY GOODMAN: I want to ask you about your op-ed piece in the New York Times today, “Looking for Their Martin Luther King, Jr.” But we have to take a break. And we’re going to come back to our conversation with Professor Hamid Dabashi, a professor of Iranian studies and comparative literature at Columbia University here in New York. Stay with us.