"Ayatollah Montazeri and Ayatollah Taheri in Iran are doing the same as Sistani is doing in Iraq. "
It is going to be a long hard bloody road. But at least these peoples are showing their more ignorant Arab neighbors that freedom is worth fighting for. Who knows, in a few years it may get un-bearable for the regiem to continue in it's present form. And if we have to start forcing Bashir Asad's hands to play ball, Syria may end up falling into the same boat by default. Don't mean to go of course, but things that happen in one part of the ME can have lasting ramifications on the whole region regardless of ethnic/Religous majorities in any given one. They are all in the same boat when it comes to Islam. If it where not for Islam, regardless of what flavor we might talk about, many of these countries could have been modernized and been turned into fully functional democracies a long time ago. Turkey is an example where the democratic model has had success, and obviously until quite recently, it has remained pretty much secular. So many interwoven things must be taken into account to establish any type of sane picture of what is possible and what is not in the ME and FE.
Let us hope your and other's optimisim as to the potential of Iran ending up a secularized democracy shall come to past in the not to distant future. I find it hard enough just trying to gain a new level of Arabs/Islam, I have not delved into much on Iran due to having a small brain.
Semper Fi Aviator.