Protests Erupt During Funeral for Top Iranian Cleric
The funeral procession that attracted thousands of mourners in Qom, Iran, for a top Iranian cleric turned into another major protest against Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his hard-line Iranian government.
Shouts of “death to the dictator!” loudly echoed outside the home of senior Iranian dissident Grand Ayatollah Hussein Ali Montazeri, who died early Sunday. According to CNN, Montazeri was perhaps the most prominent Iranian cleric who publicly criticized the presidential elections last June.
His death is “a terrible blow for the (reformist) green movement and everybody who has been active these past few months,” said Mehrdad Khonsari, a senior research consultant at the Centre for Arab and Iranian Studies in London.
“He was a major thorn in the back of (Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali) Khamenei. He was a bastion for all the people opposing the excesses of the system,” even within the ruling establishment, he said.
Following the disputed elections in June, Montazeri dared to speak out with “minders” present in his office.
“Even I, who used to be a leading figure in the revolution, have not the right to speak out,” he said. “Authoritarianism will never last long. The gentlemen in power must submit to the wishes of the people, or they will be swept away.”
