Down with the Islamic Regime in Iran

I attended a Freedom for Iran rally in downtown Portland earlier this week and was very disappointed with the nature of it. Previous rallies I have attended have been organized and attended by members of the community who desire to see the Islamic regime in Iran removed. However, if you read the exchange between myself and an Iranian gentleman who also attends these rallies, you will see that this last one was quite different.


His message:
"I've heard that a couple of organizers used physical force to move M--- from one location to another, just because M--- wished to exercise her freedom of speech and chant anti regime slogans. If this is true, the organizers are hypocritically claiming to be defending the rights of Iranians in Iran while suppressing the same here in Portland. I believe the Political Green organizers are high-jacking the movement in Iran by suppressing any kind of anti regime slogans outside Iran."

My reply:
"I agree completely with you! I was not physically present when they put their hands on M---'s shoulders and told her to shut her mouth and pushed her back, but she told me what happened and she is a very honest woman and certainly would not fabricate such an incident. I was there, however, when a German girl, who knew NOTHING about Iran or the situation there, became very vocally angry with M--- and kept forcing M--- and I to back up by aggressively pushing her body towards/against us. Another man mockingly told M--- that she had a big mouth.

I was so frustrated with the fact that the people (none or very few of which were Iranian) who were allowed to come and speak from the podium knew very little about the situation in Iran, and some of them didn't even how to pronounce Iran! They kept calling it I-ran. They were merely up there to get their own political agendas across, which in many cases happened to be anti-America, anti-Jewish, and anti-regime change. They spoke about how enraged they were with America's involvement in Iraq; they spoke as though they thought that Iraq and Iran were the same country and good buddies. I wonder if they even know about the Iraq/Iran war and that Persians and Iran are VERY different from their neighboring Arab countries.

They had speakers from the Arab and Palestinian coalitions of this and that, who really weren't talking about much that was relative to the subject we were protesting at all! We were there to protest the brutal treatment that the people of Iran have endured at the hands of their Islamic government which is dominated by a cruel and ruthless dictatorship. The entire regime must go, otherwise little has been accomplished. Mousavi, after all, is one of the few candidates that Supreme leader Khameini allowed to run for the presidency. None of the leaders under that regime are going to bring true change to Iran, regardless of whatever promises of slight reforms they may give.

The attempts made by the organizers of the rally to remove the visibility of any pre-regime flags from the premises of the rallies, and their aggressive and suppressive behavior towards those who want the entire regime gone is unacceptable and, like you said, hypocritical. Also, the lack of knowledge demonstrated by the speakers they allowed to come and speak was deplorable and disrespectful to any freedom loving Iranian or American."