Video: A protest where it counts
posted at 1:22 pm on December 18, 2008 by Ed Morrissey
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The Left fell in love with a reporter who threw shoes at a man who couldn’t (and wouldn’t) take retribution against his protest. What about supporting a protester who actually put his neck on the line to “tell truth to power”? Two weeks ago, an Iranian student ripped Ali Larijani to his face at a speech and denounced Mahmoud Ahmadinejad:
No shoes were harmed in the filming of this incident, but the speaker may have been lucky to get out alive. As soon as he denounced Larijani as illegitimate, a cheer went up in the auditorium, but it quickly got drowned out as soon as the student directed his ire to Ahmadinejad. While the protester described the Iranian president as “nauseating”, some in the auditorium jumped to their feet and started chanting support slogans for Ahmadinejad — including “Death to hypocrites!”
Note the reaction of the rest of the students in this video, taken at Shiraz University on December 5th. They don’t seem happy to find themselves in the middle of this near-riot, although Larijani himself seems unmoved by either the criticism or the response. The student gets shouted off the stage, and no one seems interested in defending him.
Which took more guts — tossing shoes at President Bush in Iraq, or standing up to the mullahcracy in Iran?
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Why throwing shoes took more courage, of course. BDS is still alive and well. You notice NONE in the MSM made the comment that the shoe thrower would have been executed on the spot 5 years ago. Call it “An Inconvenient Truth”.
GarandFan on December 18, 2008 at 1:28 PM
I smell an awesome t-shirt slogan! (Especially the I-can’t-stand-his-face part.)
Almost like “Por que no te callas?”!
It’s too bad the Left doesn’t actually care about freedom. No, concerning itself with actual oppression might actually make the Left less hostile to the United States, which is of course the source of all evil.
By the way, that whole jackbooted “We love you, Mahmoud!” thing at the end? Strongest argument for Western Civilization made in a looong time.
emailnuevo on December 18, 2008 at 1:30 PM
But for how long will he remain so?
Disturb the Universe on December 18, 2008 at 1:30 PM
AP etc.. are not interested in investigating real courage. It’s too messy.
They’re more interested in their propaganda.
The Muslim world needs more young men like this. Unfortunately, enough of them don’t, or never will, exist.
Badger40 on December 18, 2008 at 1:31 PM
What does that have to do with anything? Are you saying protests are only valid if you risk losing your life? If you think an action is wrong you should be against it whether or not it endangers you.
aengus on December 18, 2008 at 1:32 PM
Heh. You could go to every major university in America and you’d never find a group of people would stand up and chant “We Support Bush.”
Ahmedinejad has those guys brainwashed pretty good.
jimmy the notable on December 18, 2008 at 1:32 PM
Not a very eloquent protest. I can’t stand his face? We’d all make fun of a lefty student doing that to a speaker on a campus here.
Still, the act itself took some serious stones. I hope the guy is still ok.
BadgerHawk on December 18, 2008 at 1:34 PM
damn, that guy has real courage. note that the chanting students who support the Ahmedinejad are a small minority of the audience.
icemaniceman1111 on December 18, 2008 at 1:34 PM
Ahmadinejad would merely thank the man for exercising his freedoms, while the fascist child-killing monkey-man Bushitler has the power to launch people into the sun.
Come on, there is no comparison of the bravery of these two protesters.
Bishop on December 18, 2008 at 1:35 PM
aengus on December 18, 2008 at 1:32 PM
No one’s saying that.
jimmy the notable on December 18, 2008 at 1:32 PM
I wouldn’t go so far as to say every one, but that’s regrettably the case with 95% of them.
Ryan Gandy on December 18, 2008 at 1:35 PM
How do you take a question about which took more courage and derive the statement that a protest is only valid if your life is at risk? Your protest can be very valid, yet it takes less courage to do something that won’t get you killed than to do something that will.
amerpundit on December 18, 2008 at 1:36 PM
Brainwashed or simply afraid? During the Great Terror many people in the Soviet Union would applaud for Stalin until their hands would practically bleed. Not because they loved him, but because the KGB was watching for any sign of disloyalty.
Disturb the Universe on December 18, 2008 at 1:36 PM
If you think an action is wrong you should be against it whether or not it endangers you.
aengus on December 18, 2008 at 1:32 PM
Are you against the crimes being committed against the people of North Korea by their murderous, dictatorial regime? Why not head over to Pyongyang and announce it loud and clear under the towering statue of Great Leader?
Bishop on December 18, 2008 at 1:38 PM
There’s no comparison to be made between the two incidents.
The brave Iranian student is standing up to tyrants. The shoe-thrower is a tyrant, since he’s a former Ba’athist who then latched onto to the Sadr movement.
Has Leftist moral relativity reached the point that we’re now supposed to be concerned with the “protests” of tyrants?
rvastar on December 18, 2008 at 1:38 PM
I wasn’t sure if this kind of courage still existed. This kind of student is an inspiration.
Just think of what could happen on our college campuses, if the conservative students stood up to the Socialist professors en masse.
This student’s life was on the line, and he acted. I hope that American students will act, too.
OhEssYouCowboys on December 18, 2008 at 1:39 PM
The height of civilization. Maybee we will get lucky and they will blow themselves up.
saiga on December 18, 2008 at 1:40 PM
Better yet, aengus, I would like to see how you would have voted in the Iraqi elections when Saddam was still in power, openly marking your ballot while a soldier with a rifle is staring at you.
Bishop on December 18, 2008 at 1:40 PM
I’ve actually seen film footage showing that a bell had to be installed, in order to advise the audience that it was OK to stop clapping, and sit down. Absent the bell, they were afraid to stop clapping for Stalin.
OhEssYouCowboys on December 18, 2008 at 1:41 PM
Wrong? Well, the shoe throwing was only morally wrong in that it amounts to a minor assault, but ironically shows just how incorrect the shoe throwers message was.
Count to 10 on December 18, 2008 at 1:42 PM
I would have cast a write-in vote for Tancredo.
I’m not trying to diminish this Iranian’s protest, I just think it and shoe thrower are entirely unrelated incidents.
If legal protests in free countries are trivial then why complain about about Obama and Democrats?
I would like to be as courageous as the Latvian priest who kissed his Bible in front of Soviet troops but even if I’m not faced with that scenario I’m still going to be against what I regard as evil.
aengus on December 18, 2008 at 1:48 PM
…you nailed it…Mr. Bush wouldn’t retaliate…I don’t think you could say the same of the folks in Iran….
…so, the “journalist” turned pop-culture hero risked nothing but celebrity…the students risked a good licking at best, and beheading or hanging at worst…there’s no contest….
Puritan1648 on December 18, 2008 at 1:52 PM
Ya know, I just watched the video, again, and it struck me, replace the Iranian student who was speaking, with a Conservative student who was speaking at Berkeley, or Harvard, or Columbia, or Brown, or Duke, et al., and we’d have the same crowd response, lashing out at him … including threats of “death.”
Our country is in very serious trouble. It is close to a catastrophe, the seeds of which have been sown in our public schools and universities.
OhEssYouCowboys on December 18, 2008 at 1:53 PM
Moral relativism strikes again.
One man discusses creating legislation because of his feelings. The other has men and women executed because of his feelings.
Are you seeing the difference? If not, then you have to look a little past the surface. Some protest true tyrants. others protest those who pose no real threat to them.
MadisonConservative on December 18, 2008 at 1:54 PM
Gee, this hasn’t been shown on any of our networks?
I can understand why. The latest “news” about our beloved leader’s choice in puppies drowned it out.
Wouldn’t want to broadcast anyone questioning an authority outside President Bush or pro-American countries.
Might send the wrong message. People might think it’s acceptable to question Beloved Leader.
NoDonkey on December 18, 2008 at 1:55 PM
I admire the man’s courage. I will be praying for his safety.
DL13 on December 18, 2008 at 1:57 PM
An obvious case of Ahmadinejad Derangement Syndrome.
Cicero43 on December 18, 2008 at 2:05 PM
I dont think that is the point. The point is that a Bathist, who follows Sadr, is most likely a reprehensible human being, who is against supposedly everything the left stands for. Yet the left makes that pansy shoe thrower into a hero. Why, because he did something against Bush. It shows how the left will tolerate anyone, even if that person does not have anything to do with the lefts policies, as long as they hate Bush. Thats very juvenile.
Where as this iranian student, is extremely brave for speaking out against there dictators. Where he most certainly will be either jailed , if not disappear.
MDWNJ on December 18, 2008 at 2:07 PM
That was awesome! What courage! Some cheering too when he began speaking against Ahmadinejad, later drowned out by the haters, which indicates others feel the same way about Ahmadinejenicide and are not happy. I pray the Lord puts a hedge of protection around that man, and if he is not saved, he gets saved, and wins many to the Lord. Amen.
apacalyps on December 18, 2008 at 2:28 PM
God Bless Him! I fear his death now, but may God hold this man in His Powerful Hands so that no harm will come to him.
CynicalOptimist on December 18, 2008 at 2:39 PM
Will Katie Couric ever show this? Will Wolfie? This is a perfect, real world example of truly speaking truth to power.
Too bad it will stay here on a site that only had 1/3 the page views of the LA Times last month.
Grantman on December 18, 2008 at 2:50 PM
The brave spirit of Sophie Scholl lives on in these kids.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophie_Scholl
RobCon on December 18, 2008 at 4:11 PM
Thank you RobCon. I’m ashamed that I didn’t know her story, but I’m grateful that I know it now.
ral514 on December 18, 2008 at 4:49 PM
standing up to the mullahcracy in Iran
Portraits of Courage…
Kaptain Amerika on December 18, 2008 at 5:22 PM
Real courage is always on the side of the right.
JellyToast on December 18, 2008 at 6:32 PM
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