I don't know how many of you have been paying attention to this issue, but
there has been a very big political upheaval in Iran, ever since incumbent
president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was declared the victor in the recent
presidential election, by Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
There have been street protests of hundreds of thousands of people all
across Iran, particularly in Tehran, and dozens of people have been killed
by government forces, many others arrested, and Ahmadinejad's and Khamenei's
political enemies accused of being traitors.

As I was thinking on this issue, a very interesting verse from the
prophecies of Daniel came to my mind. As you may know, some Bible scholars
and students have long believed that the king of the north who is mentioned
in Daniel's prophecies, may be the leader of Iran, while the king of the
south -- also mentioned in the very same prophecies -- may be a reference to
the leader of Iraq.

As you may also know, the prophecies of Daniel also seem to indicate,
according to some interpretations, that the Endtime Beast may arise out of
the kingdom of the north -- meaning out of Iran...at least according to the
previous interpretation.

If there is any truth to this interpretation, that makes the following verse
even more interesting, as it would certainly seem to fit the fraudulent
re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Consider this:

"And in his estate shall stand up a vile person, to whom they shall not give
the honour of the kingdom: but he shall come in peaceably, and obtain the
kingdom by flatteries." Daniel 11:21, KJV

In other words, this leader won't be given control of the nation through
normal political means; but rather, he will be a fast-talker who will rely
upon deception and false promises. That word "flatteries" is derived from a
Hebrew word which means "flattery, slipperiness, fine promises,
smoothness";
and if there is one thing that we know, it is that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has a
very big mouth, and is a smooth, slippery talker.

I am NOT saying that Daniel 11:21 is talking about Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, as I
honestly do not know, but I do find the similarity interesting. How about
you?

Below is an article from the New York Times.


Leading Clerics Defy Ayatollah on Disputed Iran Election

By MICHAEL SLACKMAN and NAZILA FATHI - NYT

July 4, 2009


CAIRO -- The most important group of religious leaders in Iran called the
disputed presidential election and the new government illegitimate on
Saturday, an act of defiance against the country's supreme leader and the
most public sign of a major split in the country's clerical establishment.

A statement by the group, the Association of Researchers and Teachers of
Qum, represents a significant, if so far symbolic, setback for the
government and especially the authority of the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei, whose word is supposed to be final. The government has tried to
paint the opposition and its top presidential candidate, Mir Hussein
Moussavi, as criminals and traitors, a strategy that now becomes more
difficult -- if not impossible.

"This crack in the clerical establishment, and the fact they are siding with
the people and Moussavi, in my view is the most historic crack in the 30
years of the Islamic republic," said Abbas Milani, director of the Iranian
Studies Program at Stanford University. "Remember, they are going against an
election verified and sanctified by Khamenei."

The announcement came on a day when Mr. Moussavi released documents
detailing a campaign of fraud by the current president's supporters, and as
a close associate of the supreme leader called Mr. Moussavi and former
President Mohammad Khatami "foreign agents," saying they should be treated
as criminals.

The documents, published on Mr. Moussavi's Web site, accused supporters of
the president of printing more than 20 million extra ballots before the vote
and handing out cash bonuses to voters.

Since the election, the bulk of the clerical establishment in the holy city
of Qum, an important religious and political center of power, has remained
largely silent, leaving many to wonder when, or if, the nation's most senior
religious leaders would jump into the controversy that has posed the most
significant challenge to the country's leadership since the Islamic
Revolution.

With its statement Saturday, the association of clerics -- formed under the
leadership of the revolution's founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini -- came
down squarely on the side of the reform movement.

The association includes reformists, but Iranian political analysts describe
it as independent, and it did not support any candidate in the recent
election.

The group had earlier asked for the election to be nullified because so many
Iranians objected to the results, but it never directly challenged the
legitimacy of the government and, by extension, the supreme leader.

The earlier statement also came before the election was certified by the
country's religious leaders, who have since said that opposition to the
results must cease.

The clerics' decision to speak up again is not itself a turning point and
could fizzle under pressure from the state, which has continued to threaten
its critics. Some seminaries in Qum rely on the government for funds, and
Ayatollah Khamenei and the man he has declared the winner of the election,
incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, have powerful backers there.

They also retain the support of the powerful security forces and the elite
Revolutionary Guards. In addition, the country's highest-ranking clerics
have yet to speak out individually against the election results.

But the association's latest statement does help Mr. Moussavi, Mr. Khatami
and a former speaker of Parliament, Mehdi Karroubi, who have been the most
vocal in calling the election illegitimate and who, in their attempts to
force change, have been hindered by the jailing of influential backers.

"The significance is that even within the clergy, there are many who refuse
to recognize the legitimacy of the election results as announced by the
supreme leader," said an Iranian political analyst who spoke on condition of
anonymity for fear of reprisal.

While the government could continue vilifying the three opposition leaders,
analysts say it was highly unlikely that the leadership would use the same
tactic against the clerical establishment in Qum.

The backing also came at a sensitive time for Mr. Moussavi, because the
accusations that he is a foreign agent ran in a newspaper, Kayhan, that has
often been used to build cases against critics of the government.

The editorial was written by Hossein Shariatmadari, who was picked by the
supreme leader to run the newspaper.

The clerics' statement chastised the leadership for failing to adequately
study complaints of vote rigging and lashed out at the use of force in
crushing huge public protests.

It even directly criticized the Guardian Council, the powerful group of
clerics charged with certifying elections.

"Is it possible to consider the results of the election as legitimate by
merely the validation of the Guardian Council?" the association said.

Perhaps more threatening to the supreme leader, the committee called on
other clerics to join the fight against the government's refusal to
adequately reconsider the charges of voter fraud. The committee invoked
powerful imagery, comparing the 20 protesters killed during demonstrations
with the martyrs who died in the early days of the revolution and the war
with Iraq, asking other clerics to save what it called "the dignity that was
earned with the blood of tens of thousands of martyrs."

The statement was posted on the association's Web site late Saturday and
carried on many other sites, including the Persian BBC, but it was
impossible to reach senior clerics in the group to independently confirm its
veracity.

The statement was issued after a meeting Mr. Moussavi had with the committee
10 days ago and a decision by the Guardian Council to certify the election
and declare that all matters concerning the vote were closed.

But the defiance has not ended.

With heavy security on the streets, there is a forced calm. But each day,
slowly, another link falls from the chain of government control. Last week,
in what appeared a coordinated thrust, Mr. Moussavi, Mr. Karroubi and Mr.
Khatami all called the new government illegitimate. On Saturday, Mr. Milani
of Stanford said, former President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani met with
families of those who had been arrested, another sign that he was working
behind the scenes to keep the issue alive.

"I don't ever remember in the 20 years of Khamenei's rule where he was
clearly and categorically on one side and so many clergy were on the other
side," Mr. Milani said. "This might embolden other clergy to come
forward."

The committee of clergy was formed in the 1960s. Mr. Milani said that for
years, Ayatollah Khamenei also belonged to the group, and that it had
developed some political clout by backing successful candidates for national
office.

Many of the accusations of fraud posted on Mr. Moussavi's Web site Saturday
had been published before, but the report did give some more specific
charges.

For instance, although the government had announced that two of the losing
presidential contenders had received relatively few votes in their
hometowns, the documents stated that some ballot boxes in those towns
contained no votes for the two men.



Jeff Snyder, SysOp - Armageddon BBS  Visit us at endtimeprophecy.org port 23
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