Grand Ayatollah Montazeri's funeral sees hundreds of thousands challenge the Iranian regime

Telegraph (U.K.) ^ | December 21, 2009

[Schnucki]

Hundreds of thousands of mourners turned out in Iran's holy city of Qom on Monday for the funeral of top dissident cleric Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri.

Opposition supporters chanted anti-government slogans in Iran's holy city of Qom on Monday after the funeral of Ayatollah Montazeri.

Mourners wearing green items, a symbol of the protests that followed last June's presidential election, chanted slogans similar to those used in the post-ballot demonstrations.

There were clashes between hardline pro-government vigilantes and mourners, reports said. "Ansar Hezbollah groups entered the crowd and wanted to derail the slogans and disrupt the ceremony. They went away after clashing with some people," Rahesabz website reported.

Presidential challengers Mir-Hussein Mousavi and Mehdi Karrubi were among those present. "Hundreds of thousands from all over the country" gathered today outside Montazeri's house in the city of Qom to take part, opposition leader Mr Mousavi's Kaleme.org website said.

Ayatollah Montazeri, once an ally of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini who led the 1979 Islamic Revolution, was designated to succeed him as Supreme Leader before the two fell out over the execution of opposition members shortly before Khomeini died in 1989. The post of Supreme Leader has since been held by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

In September, authorities arrested three grandsons of Montazeri after he urged the clergy to speak out against Iran's leadership and the crackdown that followed President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's re-election. The opposition alleged that the June election was marred by fraud, a charge that Ahmadinejad denied.

Kaleme said people were chanting slogans in support of opposition leaders Mr Mousavi and Mr Karoubi.

[popdonnelly]

We have a man in the White House who won’t help these people out. A stupid action on his part.

[toomuchcoffee]

Off topic but oft annoying... why isn’t the American city of Salt Lake ever referred to as The Holy City of Salt Lake? How bloody many holy cities are there in the muslum world, anyway?

[BerryDingle]

We have a man in the White House who won’t help these people out. A stupid action on his part.

They're catching on to us.

[Badabing Badablonde]

US Holy Cities are determined by their NFL records.

[jwparkerjr]

He needs to make a speech notifying the world that he is taking back the pledge of JFK in his inaugural speech, when he spoke of bearing any burden, etc., to further the cause of freedom around the globe. It's bad enough he's turned his back on a chance to help make the single change that would bring about the best hope of peace on Earth, but to play along like he intends to keep JFK's pledge is just too much.

We have no one to blame but ourselves. We are a stiff necked people who lost the art of knowing the good from the bad without experiencing first-hand the bad. God has no choice but to make us suffer at the hands of evil if we are to regain what made us the greatest nation in history.

A regime change in Iran would do more to reduce terrorism worldwide than any number of troops could do. Barrack Obama will have a lot of blood on his hands when it comes to time to reckon with his record.