IRANIAN OPPOSITION LEADERS REQUEST CEREMONY

OPPOSITION ASKS PERMISSION TO HOLD MEMORIAL SERVICE
FOR VICTIMS OF POST-ELECTION UNREST

TEHRAN, Iran – The top aide to Iran's opposition leader says his boss has requested permission from authorities to hold a memorial service for victims of post-election unrest. Ali Reza Beheshti told The Associated Press Sunday that Mir Hossein Mousavi signed the request with Mahdi Karroubi, the other reformist candidate in last month's disputed presidential election. Mousavi has said President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's victory was fraudulent.Beheshti said the two requested a memorial Thursday in a Tehran mosque to recite the Quran, the Muslim holy book, and hold moments of silence. Police have said at least 20 people were killed in the post-election unrest. Pro-reform Web sites have reported families of slain protesters have been banned from mourning publicly.

The reformists compared the regime's crackdown to that of the late shah of Iran, remembered in the country for his brutal secret police, with one opposition leader even tactics were worse than those used by the Israelis against the Palestinians. The reformists criticized the regime's actions in the letter they sent to the clerics, saying "they have resorted to illegal, immoral and un-Islamic methods to obtain confessions." "What legal, Islamic or human rights code can justify the repeated torture of those who live under the banner of Islam?" it said. The letter said the repressive methods used to obtain confessions were reminiscent of the methods employed by Iran's former shah, who was toppled by the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US?

"Vritrāsura said: All living entities who have taken birth in this material world must die. Surely, no one in this world has found any means to be saved from death. Even providence has not provided a means to escape it. Under the circumstances, death being inevitable, if one can gain promotion to the higher planetary systems and be always celebrated here by dying a suitable death, what man will not accept such a glorious death?"

Srimad Bhagavatam - 6 - 10 - 32.

If by dying one can be elevated to the higher planetary systems and be ever-famous after his death, who is so foolish that he will refuse such a glorious death? Similar advice was also given by Krishna to Arjuna. "My dear Arjuna," the Lord said, "do not desist from fighting. If you gain victory in the fight, you will enjoy a kingdom, and even if you die you will be elevated to the heavenly planets." Everyone should be ready to die while performing glorious deeds. A glorious person is not meant to meet death like cats and dogs.

Srila A.C. BV Swami Prabhupada:
"Srimad Bhagavatam - Purport in Canto 6 - Chapter 10 - Verse 32"