Statement by a group of Iranian bloggers about the Presidential elections and the subsequent events

1) We, a group of Iranian bloggers, strongly condemn the violent and repressive confrontation of Iranian government against Iranian people’s legitimate and peaceful demonstrations and ask government officials to comply with Article 27 of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Constitution which emphasizes “Public gatherings and marches may be freely held, provided arms are not carried and that they are not detrimental to the fundamental principles of Islam.”

2) We consider the violations in the presidential elections, and their sad consequences a big blow to the democratic principles of the Islamic Republic regime, and observing the mounting evidence of fraud presented by the candidates and others, we believe that election fraud is obvious and we ask for a new election.

3) Actions such as deporting foreign reporters, arresting local journalists, censorship of the news and misrepresenting the facts, cutting off the SMS network and filtering of the internet cannot silence the voices of Iranian people as no darkness and suffocation can go on forever. We invite the Iranian government to honest and friendly interaction with its people and we hope to witness the narrowing of the huge gap between people and the government.

A part of the large community of Iranian bloggers

July 26, 2009

The news about Michael Jackson’s cardiac arrest was especially important in the Persian blogosphere. The King of Pop may not seem like a good companion for the videos of death and destruction which pour out of Iran everyday, but as an Iranian user of Twitter sarcastically put,

Manouchehr Mottaki [the Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs] published an official letter of acknowledgment to thank Michael Jackson for his superbly timely death.

Another Persian message on Twitter suggests,

It is really possible that the Iranian regime murdered Michael Jackson to distract the focus from Iran.

With the regime closing in on the population, including breaking into houses and shooting live ammunition in the streets, a lot of us are worried that Ahmadinejad might just find the death of Michael Jakson the blessing he has been looking for since the suspicious results of the Iranian Presidential Election were published.

And at last all the technical issues have been resolved.

Kamangir is now hosted on Media Temple. Kamangir being the blog of course in the previous sentence. Kamangir is preparing for his Ph.D. defense. This one being me.

And about Iran, I am petrified. I would have never anticipated them resort to violence to this extent. All I find myself capable of is to ask people to watch their back and to not get engaged in anything dangerous.

We’ll have more to talk about. And by that I hope there will be some good outcome after the bloodshed.