Why The Reform Movement Is So Dangerous To The Regime

From left to right: Foremer President Mohammad Khatami; Mousavi Bojnourdi, a member of the Association of Combatant Clerics (a reform cleric group), Presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi; Mohammad Mousavi Khoeiniha; and Mohammad Ali Ansari, a former member of Iran’s parliament and council of experts.

These guys don't look like a bunch of Western secular liberals who are trying to introduce foreign destructive ideas into Iran. That's because they are not. Yet these are some of the leading members of the opposition movement who have been working to remove the current hardliners in power.

This image shows you why the reform movement is so dangerous for the regime. Many of the leading opposition leaders are clerics and they all belong to the system. It is clear that they are not puppets of the West and they only have the best interest of the Iranian people in mind. This image makes it hard for the hardliners in power to paint them as anyting other than devout Muslims who believe in the Islamic Republic. Yet at the same time, these men also believe in the importance of freedom and democracy for the Islamic Republic.