Iran's dissident Grand Ayatollah Montazeri dies

[K. A. Pital]

Hoseyn Ali Montazeri was a moving spirit in the 1979 revolution which created Iran's Islamic state, and was at one stage set to become its leader.

One of Shia Islam's most respected figures, he was also a leading critic of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The BBC's Jon Leyne says the death comes at a crucial time in a standoff between the government and opposition.

Iran's rulers will now fear the opposition may attempt a big turnout for his funeral on Monday and other ceremonies marking his death, especially in the run-up to the Shia Muslim festival of Ashura on 27 December, our correspondent says.

Read full: One of Iran's most prominent dissident clerics, Grand Ayatollah Hoseyn Ali Montazeri, has died aged 87.

[Ritterin Sophia]

Too bad it couldn't have been Khomeini.

[open_sketchbook]

Fuuuuuuuuck. There goes the best hope for the revolution.

[Pelranius]

Too bad it couldn't have been Khomeini.

Don't you mean Khameini?

I wonder if the funeral could see more opposition activity after the funeral? Here's to that.

[Darth Yan]

damn shame

[irishmick79]

This could actually pick up revolutionary activity, which is why the government is really clamping down on mourners. Ashura is not too far away (actually, it starts sunday), and that's the major Shi'ia festival which commemerates Hussayn ali's death at the Battle of Karbala. Basically there will be a lot of celebrating Shi'ia martyrs, and Montazeri's death could effectively fuse the celebration of those martyrs with the ideals he embraced.

[open_sketchbook]

The problem is the aftermath. Montazeri was a guy they could put in power while they transistioned away from theocracy. Now, without the political figure, they can certainly dispose of the current assholes, but will have a hell of a time keeping the old politicians away from power, unless there is an obvious second choice (and I'm not seeing any)

Revolutions need martyrs, but countries need leaders, and Montazeri was better in the second category than the first.

[Straha]

Let me preface this with saying that I really like Montazeri, and have a great respect for the man. The Iranian Revolution and the Iran-Iraq War are two things which I study fervently and to hear someone who was decisively important to those events, like Montazeri, has passed away leaves me with a bit of melancholy.

That said, for the 'Green Revolution' it's a good thing that he's finally passed away.

First, he'd gone senile. The Greens were/are using him as a spiritual figurehead, but you can't use him for this when the man has detached from the world around him.

Second, no one ever thought through his figurehead status as the spiritual leader of the Greens. If what people want is a fundamental break with the clampdown on democracy and a more open society with less clerical interference Montazeri is not the man to do it. He was the right hand man of Khomeini throughout the 80s and the one major disagreement he had with the Imam was over executions of dissidents without trials. This is not a man who embraces democracy or rule of the people, despite what he might have said during the mid to late nineties when he was under house arrest.

Which brings me to point three, even if he wasn't senile he could never do anything because VAVAK has him under constant surveillance and watch. The man could never lead a revolution or a movement without having everything reported out.

With him gone new spiritual leaders will rise. This fills me with optimism.

[K. A. Pital]

Updates - riots in Tehran. Perhaps I would change the title in time if this continues to be a major news topic.

[Soldier of Entropy]

Updates - riots in Tehran. Perhaps I would change the title in time if this continues to be a major news topic.

Err... unless I'm confused,that link is about the Neda riot, back in June.

[folti78]

Current BBC article:

BBC NEWS
Iranian protesters die in clashes

Opposition sources in Iran say that at least eight protesters have been killed in violent clashes between anti-government crowds and police.

The nephew of former presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi was among four killed in Tehran, and reports say four also died in the city of Tabriz.

Security forces reportedly opened fire in Tehran after losing control.

It is almost certainly the worst loss of life in protests since the disputed presidential election in June.

Opposition parties had urged people to take to the streets as the Shia Muslim festival of Ashura reached a climax.

People were chanting "Khamenei will be toppled", opposition sources said, a reference to Iran's Supreme Leader.

Thousands of demonstrators are reported to have taken part in the protests, in defiance of official warnings.

Initial reports from Tehran said the security forces fired in the air to disperse the protests, but several different reports said that at least one, and possibly as many as four demonstrators, had been shot dead.

Police sources, quoted by the Iranian Fars news agency, denied this, saying foreign media were exaggerating reports of unrest.

But state television later acknowledged there had been several fatalities.

Mr Mousavi was at the hospital where his nephew Seyed Mousavi was taken after being fatally shot in the heart at Enghelab Square.

Although there were deaths in the immediate aftermath of the disputed elections and protests in June, fatalities since then have been rare.

ANALYSIS
Jon Leyne, BBC News Tehran correspondent The opposition hoped for a massive day of demonstrations, and they seem to have succeeded.

Despite attempts by the security forces to disperse them, the protesters took over a large section of central Tehran, leaving the police watching from the sidelines. And there are similar reports from across the country.

For much of the morning there was a series of violent confrontations. Witnessess described how opposition supporters attacked the police with their bare hands, and the police eventually opened fire directly on the crowd.

The day's events will significantly worsen the confrontation, particularly if the opposition is right that several protesters were shot dead.

But neither side has a clear strategy of what to do next. The opposition is leaderless. The government is still pretending there are just a handful of troublemakers. From day to day, it is not clear how the crisis will develop.

The security forces clearly have to tread a fine line between not appearing weak but also not provoking opposition protesters, says Siavash Ardalan of BBC Persian TV.

Police helicopters were seen flying over central Tehran as clouds of black smoke billowed into the sky, reports said.

On the ground, the security forces clashed with protesters trying to reach central Enghelab Square, witnesses said.

Protesters were chanting, "This is the month of blood", and calling for the downfall of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, according to opposition websites.

At the same time, crowds of pro-government demonstrators marched on Enghelab Street to voice support for Ayatollah Khamenei, witnesses said.

Opposition websites also reported four deaths in Tabriz, in northwestern Iran, and protests were also reported in the cities of Isfahan and nearby Najafabad.

The French foreign ministry said it condemned the "arbitrary arrests and the violent actions committed against simple protesters who came to defend their right to freedom of expression and their desire for democracy."

The French government has continued to lobby the Iranian authorities to release a French university lecturer who was charged with spying during the election. Clotilde Reiss remains in Tehran, and last appeared in court on 23 December.

Disputed election

Tensions have risen in Iran since influential dissident cleric Grand Ayatollah Hoseyn Ali Montazeri died a week ago aged 87.

Supporters of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi have sought to use Shia religious festivals this weekend to show continued defiance of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government.

Denied the right to protest, the opposition chose the highly significant festival of Ashura when millions of Iranians traditionally go onto the streets for ceremonies and parades, BBC Tehran correspondent Jon Leyne says.

The festival mourns the 7th Century death of Imam Hussein, a grandson of the Prophet Muhammad.

Iranian television had live coverage of the Ashura ceremonies, including those in Tehran attended by President Ahmadinejad.

Mr Mousavi came second in the June election, and anger at the result saw mass protests in Tehran and other cities that led to thousands of arrests and some deaths.

Mr Mousavi has said the poll, that returned Mr Ahmadinejad to power, was fraudulent.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/m ... 431523.stm

Published: 2009/12/27 17:25:51 GMT

© BBC MMIX

[irishmick79]

Whoa. If that's really the rhetoric being thrown about by the protesters in Tehran, it's on.

[folti78]

Whoa. If that's really the rhetoric being thrown about by the protesters in Tehran, it's on.

Were it really off since the after election riots or discontent just simmered under the surface since then, waiting for a cause to flare up again? What I gathered from other commenters on this board that it's the latter. And it's far from over.

Also Reuters take on the events:

Mousavi nephew, others die in protests: Iran websites
Photo
12:58pm EST

By Parisa Hafezi and Fredrik Dahl

TEHRAN (Reuters) - An opposition website said eight people were killed in clashes between pro-reform protesters and security forces in Iran on Sunday.

Opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi's nephew was among the dead, an adviser to Mousavi said.

If confirmed, it would be the worst violence in the Islamic Republic since protests that followed a disputed election in June which plunged the oil producer into turmoil and exposed widening splits within its clerical and political establishment.

It could also provoke further street protests against the hardline government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Tehran's police chief denied a report by the opposition Jaras website that four people had been killed in a second day of violence in Tehran during a Shi'ite religious festival.

But an adviser to Mousavi confirmed a report on Parlemannews website that the opposition leader's nephew was killed.

"I express my regrets and deep condolences over the martyrdom of your nephew Ali Habibi Mousevi on Sunday," Kaleme website quoted Alireza Beheshti as saying.

Jaras said at least four protesters were killed and many others wounded in the northwestern city of Tabriz, a Mousavi stronghold. A witness told Reuters that people were pouring into the streets of Tabriz, chanting anti-government slogans.

Jaras said unrest spread to other parts of Iran, including the holy city of Qom, in reports that could not be independently verified.

Police shot dead three protesters in central Tehran and a fourth demonstrator was killed later in the capital, it said.

"We will kill those who killed our brothers," Jaras quoted demonstrators as chanting.

Photographs from the clashes showed one man whose face was covered in blood, lying on the ground. Other pictures showed burning motorbikes and protesters throwing stones at police.

The reported killings would be the first in street protests since widespread unrest in the immediate aftermath of the June poll in which the opposition says more than 70 people died.

The authorities have estimated the post-vote death toll at about half that number, including pro-government militiamen.

Tehran police chief Azizollah Rajabzadeh, speaking about Sunday's protests, said: "So far there have been no reports of killings and no one has been killed up to now," according to the ISNA news agency. He said some arrests had been made.

Tens of thousands of demonstrators had packed the streets of Tehran and clashes also erupted in the cities of Shiraz, Isfahan, Najafabad, Mashhad and Babol, Jaras said.

It said 20 people were detained in Qom and Mashhad and that protests would continue in Tehran on Sunday evening. Shots were heard in northern Tehran after nightfall.

"DECEIVED HOOLIGANS"

English-language state television reported sporadic clashes in Tehran and said a bank and bus stop were set ablaze. It said police had fired into the air to disperse demonstrators.

The official IRNA news agency said two women and a child were hurt when rioters threw stones at people marking Ashura. It is one of the main Shi'ite holy days when the faithful commemorate the slaying of the Prophet Mohammad's grandson Hussein in Kerbala in present-day Iraq in 680 AD.

The semi-official Fars News Agency said supporters of opposition leader Mousavi "followed the call of the foreign media" and took to the streets -- a reference to the government position that the unrest is being stoked by foreign enemies of the Islamic Republic.

It said the group of "deceived hooligans" damaged public and private property and "disrespected" the holy Shi'ite day of Ashura, without elaborating.

Foreign media have been banned from reporting directly from opposition demonstrations since the June election.

Despite scores of arrests and security crackdowns, opposition protests have flared repeatedly since the June poll, which the opposition says was rigged to secure Ahmadinejad's re-election.

Reformist websites said there had also been clashes in Tehran on Saturday, with baton-wielding riot police firing tear gas and warning shots to disperse Mousavi supporters.

The authorities had warned the opposition against using the two-day Shi'ite Muslim Tasoua and Ashura festival on December 26-27 to revive protests against the clerical establishment.

"The Iranian nation has shown tolerance so far but they should know that the ... system's patience has a limit," Mojtaba Zolnour, a representative of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in the Revolutionary Guards, said, Fars reported.

This year's Ashura on Sunday coincided with the traditional seventh day of mourning for leading dissident cleric Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, who died a week ago at the age of 87 in the holy Shi'ite city of Qom.

A spiritual patron of Mousavi's movement, he was a fierce critic of the hardline clerical establishment.

The unrest that erupted after the June vote is the biggest in the Islamic state's 30-year history. Authorities deny opposition charges that voting was rigged.

The turmoil has complicated the international dispute over Iran's nuclear programme, which the West believes may have military ends, not just civilian purposes. Iran has rejected an end-of-year deadline set by world powers for it to agree a U.N.-drafted deal to ship most of its low-enriched uranium abroad in exchange for fuel for a Tehran research reactor.

It has also set back tentative U.S. moves toward a rapprochement with Iran initiated by U.S. President Barack Obama when he took office in January..

(Editing by Angus MacSwan)

[Tribun]

I find it interesting that the theocratic regime of Iran reacts the same way to unrest in the population the Shah did, by using violence and being too arrogant to admit that they are in the wrong. They have become so used to their power that they don't want to see that they've used up their credit with the people. So essentially Iran is back at square one. Kind of ironic that the revolution only made things worse. But then, this is the case with most revolutions.

[Big Orange]

Here's some interesting footage of the Tehran rioting (only 300+ viewers):



It's a shame the sudden death of a washed up pop stare buried the troubling development in Iran.

[Straha]

Here's a video of what they're up to now.

It ain't pretty.