Funeral of Iranian cleric Montazeri turns into political protest

Montazeri Funeral – Iran Qom 18.3gp

Huge crowds in Qom defy security clampdown • Mourners clash with pro-government forces

Hundreds of thousands of opposition protesters openly challenged the authority of Iran‘s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, today by mourning the death of a dissident cleric who had questioned Khamenei’s fitness to rule.

The mass turnout in Qom for the funeral of Grand Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri, who died on Sunday, aged 87, came just a day after Khamenei had dismissed him as a figure who had failed “a big test” and ordered a security clampdown to deter mourners from paying their respects.Instead, the event turned into the opposition Green Movement’s biggest show of strength in months. The sheer numbers – including many wearing the opposition’s signature colour of green – seemed to confirm the Islamic regime’s fears that Montazeri’s death could provide a fresh spark for the simmering discontent over President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad‘s hotly disputed re-election last June.

The authorities were powerless to stop a gathering officially meant to mourn the passing of one of the pillars of the 1979 Islamic revolution. But its overtly political nature was displayed by the presence of Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, the two defeated reformists from last summer’s poll.

Montazeri had emerged as a spiritual leader to the pair after denouncing the election as fraudulent and declaring that the current ruling regime was neither Islamic nor a republic.

Those political overtones prompted clashes between mourners and security forces, with witnesses reporting that members of the pro-government basij militia rode into the crowds on motorcycles. Teargas was said to have been fired on at least two occasions.

Hardline pro-government forces ripped up a condolence banner outside Montazeri’s house while mourners were reported to have thrown stones at police who tried to stop them chanting pro-Montazeri slogans. Mourners responded defiantly when ordered by loudspeaker not to chant, breaking into shouts of “Ya Hossein, Mir Hossein” in support of Mousavi. When a crowd of pro-government supporters chanted back: “I will give my life for the supreme leader,” they were booed by mourners, a witness said.

The clashes occurred despite the deployment of riot police throughout Qom, a religious shrine city about 90 miles from Tehran. Political activists had been warned not to attend amid extraordinary measures aimed at stopping them from travelling.

The reformist website, Rah-e Sabs, reported that a busload of 42 activists travelling from Tabriz had been stopped and turned back by police. Demonstrations in favour of Montazeri – and implicitly against Khamenei – also took place in the former’s birthplace of Najafabad in Isfahan province.

Videos on YouTube showed female mourners chanting: “You oppressed Montazeri, your path will be followed even if the dictator shoots us all” and “dictator, dictator, Montazeri is alive.”

Montazeri was once heir apparent to the Islamic revolution’s spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. But he was defrocked and banished from the leadership after the pair fell out when Montazeri criticised the mass killings of political prisoners in 1988. He spent six years under house arrest after questioning Khamenei’s religious credentials and ability to be supreme leader in 1997.

Khamenei responded to Montazeri’s death by saying that he hoped he would be subject to “God’s lenience” after failing a “test” by disagreeing with Khomeini.

Hossein Bastani, an Iranian political analyst, said the protests had moved beyond anger over the election and were now aimed directly at Khamenei. “Khamenei’s comments about Montazeri met with a very negative reflection in Iranian opposition websites and media,” he said. “Today we had a very great demonstration in Qom, a small provincial city and the ideological centre of the Islamic regime,” he added

“I don’t think there were demonstrations there of that size even during the revolution. The slogans people were chanting were indirectly against the Islamic regime and similar to what was chanted before the revolution against the Shah.”