[Peace] Peaceful demonstration against electoral fraud in Iran

[Robert Naiman]

I'm all for people protesting government repression.

But I'm not convinced that the opposition has made a strong case that
the election was stolen; and therefore that the accusation of "coup"
is justified. And I'm worried that the knee-jerk tendency in the U.S.
to believe anything bad said about the Iranian government, regardless
of evidence, is going to give impetus to those in the U.S. seeking
confrontation with Iran. Cooler heads should prevail.

I'm aware of one pre-election poll that followed standard Western
polling practices. If you extrapolate from that poll, even allocating
60% of the undecided to the opposition, you would predict an absolute
majority for Ahmadinejad in the first round.

The numbers are here:

Based on Terror Free Tomorrow Poll, Ahmadinejad Victory Was Expected
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-naiman/based-on-terror-free-tomo_b_215423.html

On Sun, Jun 14, 2009 at 11:22 PM, John Fettig<john.fettig at gmail.com> wrote:
> Taken from the facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=97129086646
>
> Peaceful demonstration against electoral fraud in Iran
>
> Where is our vote? Where are their votes?
> Host:
> U of I supporters of free election
> Type:
> Causes - Protest
> Network:
> Global
> Date:
> Monday, June 15, 2009
> Time:
> 5:00pm - 8:00pm
> Location:
> Intersection of Main and Neil St.
> City/Town:
> Champaign, IL
>
> Description
>
> Our nation is facing another turning point in the history; after the huge
> electoral fraud, Iran has passed the second day of the coup d'etat: cell
> phone networks and Internet connection are limited, political activists,
> journalists, and opposition leaders are being arrested, anti riot police and
> militia suppressing the street protest.
>
> We would like to invite you to join our peaceful gathering in downtown
> Champaign in which we will express our concern regarding the electoral fraud
> and will demonstrate our sympathy and support of the right for free
> election.
>
> This is our first step in spreading the word on all the injustice and fraud
> that have occurred in Iran and inform the non-Iranian community on the
> current status. The demonstration will be covered by media.
>
> Further information regarding the demonstration and our following events
> will be posted to this Facebook group. Please join the group and kindly
> spread the word to all who might be interested.
> _______________________________________________
> Peace mailing list
> Peace at lists.chambana.net
> http://lists.chambana.net/cgi-bin/listinfo/peace
>
>



-- 
Robert Naiman
Just Foreign Policy
www.justforeignpolicy.org
naiman at justforeignpolicy.org