Rafsanjani’s speech was the most dramatic in recent history. It gave the lie to those who think the opposition is finished

In the most dramatic Friday sermon in the history of the Islamic republic of Iran, former president Hashemi Rafsanjani slammed the results of the presidential elections, called for the release of political prisoners and set out the most formidable challenge to the leadership of Ayatollah Khamenei.

During the reformist presidency of Khatami the idea of “red lines” was a mainstay of Iranian political discourse. The press, arts, and political comment were all free up to a point. But red lines were drawn around the legitimacy of the basic tenets of the Islamic republic and they and the person of the supreme leader were deemed to be above the cut and thrust of political debate. Although we all suspected the sympathy of the leadership for more conservative political elements, on the surface and in mixed company Khamenei managed to maintain a degree of even-handedness that allowed him at least the illusion of non-partisanship. By his unreserved, premature and unconstitutional endorsement of the results Khamenei threw his hat into the political ring. By siding with the Ahmadinejad clique, he finally stepped off his apolitical pedestal.

If Rafsanjani’s criticism was biting in its rhetorical sharpness, its real power came in the context of its delivery. At the inception of the Islamic republic Friday prayers were instituted and led by Ayatollah Taleghani on what used to be the football pitch of Tehran University. It was designed to be a means of bringing together the brains of the revolution represented by the university students and its heart in shape of the religiously devout who flooded in from impoverished neighborhoods. Taleghani was the last Ayatollah who commanded almost universal national support across the political spectrum, whose legitimacy if not seniority could only be rivalled by Khomeini himself. Imprisoned and tortured by the Shah, he was elected to parliament as first deputy for Tehran in a landslide and was one of the most influential authors of the constitution whose very principles are now being contested in the streets of Tehran.

Ayatollah Taleghani, whose sudden death deprived the revolution of a counterweight to Khomeini’s power, was to many Iranians the conscience and soul of the revolution. It would be a mistake to regard him now as some obscure historical figure, as those participants in the Friday prayers who carried his portrait, prompted by instructions on opposition websites, testify. His deployment as the latest symbol for the green movement at the site of Friday prayers delivered a withering blow to the stature of the supreme leader on the subject and at the place where it might hurt him most. The slogan “Where is my vote?” seems to have extended its remit to “Where is my revolution?” and “Where are my Friday Prayers?”

Rafsanjani’s long sermon ended with 10 devastating minutes that went to the heart of the matter: the government of the Islamic republic can’t stay Islamic if it stops being a republic. He quoted both the founder of Islam as well as the founder of the Islamic republic. The gist of both the hadith from the Prophet Mohammed and his recollection from a conversation with Ayatollah Khomeini (coming as it does from Khomeini’s most consistent and trusted lieutenant), made the same point. Leadership in Islam isn’t a matter of force, not even a matter of who has the best qualifications. In Islam, without popular mandate, leadership is meaningless.

The people who surrounded his car on his arrival at the prayers were chanting “silence is betrayal”. He didn’t disappoint them, and according to many who I spoke to he delivered over and above what they had hoped for. The blood if not the resolve is slowly draining from organisers of the election fraud. The coup’s leaders are slowly coming to the realisation that they may have established order, but that is far from being the law.

The most formidable coalition of forces is lining up behind Mir Hossein Mousavi in recognition of his position as the legitimate president of the republic. A green grassroots movement is growing, based on a denial of the legitimacy of Ahmadinejad and the orchestrators of the coup. Though it lacks familiar characteristics, a potent political force is on the march. At times the movement itself seems to be leading its leaders and prompting them to action. Those who thought that the opposition had failed will surely see now that we are still in the opening stages of this drama.