Iran Marks Islamic Republic Day

Iran commemorates the 34th anniversary of a referendum in which Iranians voted for the establishment of the Islamic Republic following the collapse of the Shah’s regime. In a two-day referendum held on 30-31 March 1979, Iranians overwhelmingly voted “yes” to establish an Islamic Republic.

Ayatollah Khomeini, the leader of the Iranian revolution, had famously said that a new generation of Iranians needed a referendum because the regime they had was not of their choosing but that of their parents and grandparents. Now after more than three decades after the referendum, a new generation of Iranians has come to replace their parents and grandparents. Is it the time then for a new referendum?

File photo: Overwhelming majority of Iranians voted in favor of the establishment of the Islamic Republic. March 1979 (IRNA)

Khamenei proven right about the Islamic nature of the Arab Spring

Egypt's Islamic parties secure 75 percent of parliament

by Mark Pyruz

The face of Egypt's Islamic electoral majority

According to the Associated Press:

Egypt's election commission and political groups say final results from the country's first elections since the ouster of Hosni Mubarak show Islamist parties winning nearly three-quarters of the seats in parliament.

An alliance led by the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood won 47 percent of the spots in the 498-seat parliament, while the ultraconservative Al-Nour Party clinched 25 percent.

Since his speech on February 4, 2011, numerous Western commenters disdainfully rejected Khamenei's remarks referring to the Arab Spring as an "Islamic awakening." Here we have the results of the election in Egypt and they are unmistakeable: Khamenei has been proven correct.

With full control of their country in the hands of the electorate, it can be reliably assumed that Egyptians would seek similar social and political arrangements as those accepted by Iranians in their 1979 referendum, which popularly mandated an Islamic Republic. However the Egyptians have a roadblock in the form of a military junta that retains power. In Iranian terms, it is as if the Nojeh coup had successfully taken place while the Shah fled Iran, forestalling for a time the referendum.

Photo: Associated Press