{"id":1857,"date":"2004-01-14T04:12:59","date_gmt":"2004-01-14T09:12:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/?p=1857"},"modified":"2004-01-14T04:12:59","modified_gmt":"2004-01-14T09:12:59","slug":"political_earthquake_in_iran_4000_reformist_candidates_banned","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2004\/01\/political_earthquake_in_iran_4000_reformist_candidates_banned\/","title":{"rendered":": Political Earthquake In Iran: 4000 Reformist Candidates Banned"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><table cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" border=\"0\" align=\"right\">\n<tr>\n<td><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.altmuslim.com\/ee_images\/iran_sitin.jpg\"><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td align=\"right\">\n<div class=\"caption\"><\/div>\n<p><\/p><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<p>Looks like the earthquake that shook southern Iran last month has triggered a political earthquake in Tehran.  Criticism of the unelected \u201cGuardian Council\u201d, who has ultimate authority over the elected legislature and executive branch, peaked after the earthquake, and perhaps after seeing the writing on the wall as the reform movement grows in strength, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.latimes.com%2Fnews%2Fnationworld%2Fworld%2Fla-fg-iran12jan12%2C1%2C5098312.story%3Fcoll%3Dla-home-headlines\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">banned<\/a> nearly half of the 8,200 candidates for Iran\u2019s parliament, including 80 reformists currently serving.  \u201cThese days hard-liners are very active and at the core of power, so they do what they wish,\u201d says Hamid Reza Jalaiepour, a former editor of several banned reform newspapers.  \u201cThey suppose that democracy comes from the West and is not a product of Islam, and use that interpretation to justify undemocratic behavior.\u201d  President Mohammad Khatami has threatened <a href=\"http:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk%2Fnews%2Fmain.jhtml%3Fxml%3D%2Fnews%2F2004%2F01%2F14%2Fwiran14.xml%26sSheet%3D%2Fnews%2F2004%2F01%2F14%2Fixworld.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">to quit<\/a> his post unless the ban on the reformers is lifted, and many other reformists are <a href=\"http:\/\/www.voanews.com%2Farticle.cfm%3FobjectID%3D29263DEE-9033-405C-9F2DB3DDEC04D9AA\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">pledging<\/a> to join his exodus.  The 80 incumbents (including Khatami\u2019s brother) banned from running again have staged a sit-in inside the Parliament building, suggesting that the drastic actions may <a href=\"http:\/\/news.bbc.co.uk%2F1%2Fhi%2Fworld%2Fmiddle_east%2F3389017.stm\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">add fuel<\/a> to the reform movement.  While the streets have been quiet so far, many young Iranians who have been <a href=\"http:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk%2Firan%2Fstory%2F0%2C12858%2C1121971%2C00.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">frustrated<\/a> with the slow pace of democratic reforms in Iran (and who have proven <a href=\"http:\/\/www.truthnews.net%2Fworld%2F2004010044.htm\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">quite savvy<\/a> at organizing over the Internet) may take matters into their own hands, as they have done over the past years in defense of press freedoms.  Even one of the creators of the Guardian Council, Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, charged that conservatives are <a href=\"http:\/\/www.csmonitor.com%2F2004%2F0114%2Fp06s02-wome.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">misusing the body<\/a> for political ends. \u201cI am really sad when I see this Guardian Council has been transformed into a body that violates the nation\u2019s rights and disqualifies these people,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p><i><\/i><\/p>\n<p>Shahed Amanullah is editor-in-chief of altmuslim.com.\n<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Political turmoil takes over in Iran as the unelected Guardian Council bans 4000 reformists from running for political office.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":530,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1857","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-briefings"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>: Political Earthquake In Iran: 4000 Reformist Candidates Banned<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Political turmoil takes over in Iran as the unelected Guardian Council bans 4000 reformists from running for political office.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2004\/01\/political_earthquake_in_iran_4000_reformist_candidates_banned\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\": Political Earthquake In Iran: 4000 Reformist Candidates Banned\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Political turmoil takes over in Iran as the unelected Guardian Council bans 4000 reformists from running for political office.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2004\/01\/political_earthquake_in_iran_4000_reformist_candidates_banned\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"altmuslim\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2004-01-14T09:12:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.altmuslim.com\/ee_images\/iran_sitin.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Shahed Amanullah\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Shahed Amanullah\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2004\/01\/political_earthquake_in_iran_4000_reformist_candidates_banned\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2004\/01\/political_earthquake_in_iran_4000_reformist_candidates_banned\/\",\"name\":\": Political Earthquake In Iran: 4000 Reformist Candidates Banned\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2004-01-14T09:12:59+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2004-01-14T09:12:59+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/#\/schema\/person\/0e0efbb645cc461c721083358f82f945\"},\"description\":\"Political turmoil takes over in Iran as the unelected Guardian Council bans 4000 reformists from running for political office.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2004\/01\/political_earthquake_in_iran_4000_reformist_candidates_banned\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2004\/01\/political_earthquake_in_iran_4000_reformist_candidates_banned\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2004\/01\/political_earthquake_in_iran_4000_reformist_candidates_banned\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\": Political Earthquake In Iran: 4000 Reformist Candidates Banned\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/\",\"name\":\"altmuslim\",\"description\":\"Global perspectives on Muslim life, politics &amp; 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