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

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.

Iran says it will not be held responsible for ‘bloodshed’ on the streets

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.

It quoted one slogan as saying, in reference to the green colour of the pro-reform movement in Iran: “Today is the day of mourning and the green Iranian nation is the owner of this mourning.”

Kaleme said people were carrying various “green symbols”, an apparent reference to green wristbands and other items in the same colour.

It said there was a “considerable” presence of security forces, but that there had so far been no report of any clashes.

Ayatollah Montazeri’s death on Saturday coincides with tensions rising once again in the Islamic Republic, six months after the disputed June presidential poll plunged the major oil producer into political crisis.

The cleric was named in the 1980s to succeed revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini as Iran’s top authority, but fell out with the leadership. He was under house arrest in Qom from 1998 until 2003 and became a respected opposition figure.

In the name of God

I pray for the greatness of the Iranian people.

h/t Amadeus.

Tough to know what’s really going on half a world away, especially when our own Washington Post says the results may be accurate. But when an 86 year-old Grand Ayatollah calls ‘bullshit’, that’s when I’m sure the outrage is legitimate:

Iran’s senior ayatollah slams election, confirming split

TEHRAN, Iran — Supporters of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his main rival in the disputed presidential election, Mir Hossein Mousavi, massed in competing rallies Tuesday as the country’s most senior Islamic cleric threw his weight behind opposition charges that Ahmadinejad’s re-election was rigged.

Tehran residents, who spoke to a McClatchy reporter on condition that their names not be published, said there was widespread intimidation by thousands of members of the Basij, a hard-line Islamic volunteer militia loyal to the Islamic regime.

More on Hossein-Ali Montazeri.

Meanwhile, Iran’s soccer team wears symbolic green bands.