http://www.joshualandis.com/blog/?p=12447&cp=all#comment-277513
I have many reservations about Iran’ system of Vilayat Vaqeeh, so I don’t necessarily agree with many of Ayatollah Khamenei’s views on the application of a similar religious system in countries with different history, culture and ethnic-religious composition.
Yet, I doubt Khamenei has in mind to have Al Azhar clerics in Egypt ruling the country. I just think these are just words aimed at deflating the influence Sunni Turkey is trying to have in the Arab world, that could stir dissidence in Iran.
As for Iranians, they have always had authoritarian regimes. They never tasted full freedom of expression in their country.
The Pahlavi ruled ruthlessly Iran for more than 50 years, trying to make it secular by force. As a result they got the Islamic revolution because the average Iranian, (like many average moslems in arab countries) who are fundamentally religious and practising rejected the excessive liberalization US made that the Shah was trying to impose.
The Islamic republic is 32 years old and the country has achieved much more in education (eradication of illiteracy, wider access to education for women), artistic, self-sufficiency and military progress than during the Pahlavis or the previous Shah. In other areas, there are no success stories, unfortunately.
I think Iranians need more time to invent a system that suits them all. There are a lot of debates in Iran about that. Yet, while progressing slowly, the system is still holding on to its basic tenets.
One the reason is the short-sighted US’s foreign policies in the region that does not seem to change at all in 33 years!
Imagining that old countries can just change into a perfect system, with the snap of a finger because Hillary Clinton or Cameron or Sarkozy think so, is a fallacy.