The American Spectator

The Spectacle Blog

Mir Hossein Mousavi released a statement to Iranians living abroad, first thanking them for their support, then criticizing the government for stifling his speech, but ultimately asking them to remain supportive of the Islamic system of government:

I’d like to thank you again for your peaceful objections which have received widespread coverage across the world, and would like to ask you that by using all legal channels, and by remaining faithful to the sacred system of the Islamic Republic, to make sure that your objections are heard by the authorities in the country. I am fully aware that your justified demands have nothing to do with groups who do not believe in the sacred Islamic Republic of Iran’s system. It is up to you to distance yourself from them, and do not allow them to misuse the current situation.

This reinforces the point that for all the understandable enthusiasm for the idea of the Iranian people taking to the streets, Mousavi has not been willing to challenge the Islamic system of government itself. And as long as a theocratic regime persists in Iran, the pople will never be free.