One of the mysteries behind this week’s mass demonstrations is who is coordinating them. Some suspect that the hidden hand is the powerful political organization of former President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. His daughter Faezeh Hashemi Rafsanjani, a former member of Parliament famous for opening sports to women, was spotted at a march for Mir Hussein Moussavi, who the Interior Ministry says came in second in a landslide for the country’s incumbent president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

One of the country’s most influential clerics, Mr. Rafsanjani has been notably silent since Mr. Ahmadinejad was declared the winner last week, and there has been speculation that Mr. Rafsanjani is in Qum trying to muster clerical opposition to the country’s leaders. But those reports are difficult to confirm with any authority…

Analysts suspect that Mr. Rafsanjani’s message to the rest of the religious establishment is that it is about to be eclipsed by the military, which supports the government.

The risk for the supreme leader and Mr. Ahmadinejad if the mullahs shift away from them is that the idea that the government carries an Islamic stamp of approval will be undermined…

Criticism from the mullahs would also make it nearly impossible to portray the demonstrations as some foreign plot.