BREAKING IN PROGRESS - Ayatollah Boroujerdi Revolts

541 posted on 10/08/2006 6:12:43 AM PDT by ConservativeMan55

That's the first story I've seen this morning...Haaretz said AP was carrying it, but I think their newsticker person made a mistake...they're carrying the Reuter's story on their website, with the same title as the one their ticker says ap is carrying...

542 posted on 10/08/2006 6:16:02 AM PDT by Knitting A Conundrum (Act Justly, Love Mercy, and Walk Humbly With God Micah 6:8)

Iran is a very large country.

Even if there are 3,000 rebels there, it is no more than a minor incident.

I had hoped it would snowball, but it seems that it has not and will not.

543 posted on 10/08/2006 6:21:48 AM PDT by woodbutcher

The thing is these minor incidences keep happening all the time, all over Iran.

544 posted on 10/08/2006 6:26:45 AM PDT by Valin (http://www.irey.com/)

Of cours!!!Sorry! I was trying to explain to a newbie that a lot of accounts of events are firsthand by freepers and that there is also usually a link if appropriate.
I am usually more fascinated by the firsthand accounts that freepers present. I am hoefull for Iran.

545 posted on 10/08/2006 6:28:52 AM PDT by mom4kittys (If velvet could sing, it would sound like Josh Groban)

Clashes in Iran to defend critical cleric - reports
Sun Oct 8, 2006 1:00 PM BST

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Supporters of a senior Shi'ite Muslim cleric who has challenged Iran's system of clerical rule have clashed with police during a protest outside the cleric's house, Iranian media reported on Sunday.

Police used teargas to disperse the crowd, which was estimated at 200 people or more, who had gathered on Saturday outside the home in southern Tehran of Ayatollah Mohammad Kazemeini Boroujerdi, newspapers reported.

Etemad-e Melli daily said protesters formed a cordon around the house to call for the release of Boroujerdi's followers who they said had been detained. Some newspapers said the crowd feared Boroujerdi might himself be arrested.

Seday-e Edalat reported that the crowd, some carrying knives, lit fires to stop police approaching the house. A picture showed police in riot geared lined up near a crowd of people in the street and smoke rising up.

Officials were not immediately available to comment.

The Iranian authorities are wary of any challenge, particularly from top clerics, to the system of clerical rule that was established after the 1979 Islamic revolution by revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

"We believe that our nation is tired of political religion and they want to return to traditional religion," Boroujerdi told Iran's labour news agency ILNA on Saturday.

He said he had written to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana, Pope Benedict and other leaders asking them "to make efforts to spread traditional religion", ILNA reported.

A senior police officer was quoted as saying Boroujerdi claimed to be a representative of the "hidden" 12th Imam, who Shi'ite Muslims revere, and this prompted some people to make donations.

"This is misinterpreting religion and is sheer lies," the police officer was quoted by Seday-e Edalat as saying.

Iran has an elected president and parliament, but final authority lies with the supreme leader, currently Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, according to 'velayat-e faqih', the system of rule by a religious legal scholar that was propounded by Khomeini.

The supreme leader is chosen by an assembly of elected clerics.

Some traditional Shi'ite Muslim clerics hold that religious leaders should not have a political role.

The protesters outside Boroujerdi's home chanted "God is greatest" and verses from the Muslim holy book, the Koran. One newspaper said a placard they carried read: "We are ready to be martyred for defending traditional religion."

As an ayatollah, Boroujerdi holds one of the highest ranks in the Shi'ite Muslim religious hierarchy.

http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/articlenews.aspx?type=worldNews&storyid=2006-10-08T115958Z_01_BLA829259_RTRUKOC_0_UK-IRAN-CLERIC.xml

546 posted on 10/08/2006 6:31:19 AM PDT by TexKat (Just because you did not see it or read it, that does not mean it did or did not happen.)

547 posted on 10/08/2006 6:34:16 AM PDT by TexKat (Just because you did not see it or read it, that does not mean it did or did not happen.)

548 posted on 10/08/2006 6:35:21 AM PDT by cgk (I don't see myself as a conservative. I see myself as a religious, right-wing, wacko extremist.)

549 posted on 10/08/2006 6:37:33 AM PDT by TexKat (Just because you did not see it or read it, that does not mean it did or did not happen.)

Iranians clash with police over cleric: press
(AFP)

8 October 2006

TEHERAN - Hundreds of people clashed with police in Teheran while protesting in support of a controversial cleric who advocates separating religion and politics, a taboo in Islamic Iran, press reports said on Sunday.

The protesters, some carrying knives, gathered around the house of Ayatollah Mohammad Kazemeini Borujerdi on Saturday to protest the arrest of a number of the Shiite cleric’s followers and restrictions imposed on him, the reformist Hambastegi and Aftab dailies said.

“The objective of my followers and myself is in defending traditional religion,” the semi-official ILNA news agency quoted Borujerdi as saying.

“We believe people have grown tired of political religion and they want to return to traditional religion,” said the ayatollah.

But the deputy head of Teheran police, Commander Nasser Shabani, accused the ayatollah of claiming to be the representative of the Shiites’ “hidden” twelfth Imam, Mahdi and misinterpreting religion.

“A person has gathered some naive people around to pledge donations and have their wishes come true, which is a sheer lie and distortion of religion,” he told ILNA.

The protesters were reportedly shouting slogans such as ”religious freedom is our right” and “freedom is our undeniable right”, and carried banners that said “we are ready to be martyred to defend traditional religion”.

His aims breach a taboo in the Islamic republic, a theocracy where the all-powerful supreme leader is a cleric chosen by a top Shiite clerical assembly.

A large number of key positions in Iran are taken by clerics, such as the head of the judiciary and members of the non-elected watchdog body, the Guardians Council, which vets all legislation and candidates for public office.

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/middleeast/2006/October/middleeast_October138.xml&section=middleeast

550 posted on 10/08/2006 6:38:16 AM PDT by TexKat (Just because you did not see it or read it, that does not mean it did or did not happen.)

Clashes in Iran to defend critical cleric: reports
ABC News - 51 minutes ago
... at 200 people or more, who had gathered on Saturday outside the home in southern Tehran of Ayatollah Mohammad Kazemeini Boroujerdi, newspapers reported. ...

RADIO FREE EUROPE / RADIO LIBERTY
RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty, Czech Republic - 1 hour ago
... TEHRAN, October 7, 2006 (RFE/RL) -- Several hundred supporters of an outspoken cleric in Tehran, Ayatollah Kazemeyni Boroujerdi, gathered today in the streets ...

Clashes in Iran to defend critical cleric - reports
Reuters.uk, UK - 1 hour ago
... at 200 people or more, who had gathered on Saturday outside the home in southern Tehran of Ayatollah Mohammad Kazemeini Boroujerdi, newspapers reported. ...

Clashes in Iran to defend critical cleric: reports
Washington Post, United States - 1 hour ago
... at 200 people or more, who had gathered on Saturday outside the home in southern Tehran of Ayatollah Mohammad Kazemeini Boroujerdi, newspapers reported. ...

Tehran Police Clash With Supporters Of Outspoken Cleric
Persian Journal, Iran - 15 hours ago
Several hundred supporters of an outspoken cleric in Tehran, Ayatollah Kazemeyni Boroujerdi, gathered today in the streets around his house to protest what ...

Iran: Outspoken Ayatollah Alleges Official Persecution
Payvand, Iran - 21 hours ago
... 2006 (RFE/RL) -- A dissident Iranian cleric who advocates the separation of religion and politics, Ayatollah Seyyed Hossein Kazemeyni Boroujerdi, is accusing ...

Tehran Police Clash With Supporters Of Outspoken Cleric
RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty, Czech Republic - 21 hours ago
TEHRAN, October 7, 2006 (RFE/RL) -- Several hundred supporters of an outspoken cleric in Tehran, Ayatollah Kazemeyni Boroujerdi, gathered today in the streets ...

551 posted on 10/08/2006 6:43:41 AM PDT by Knitting A Conundrum (Act Justly, Love Mercy, and Walk Humbly With God Micah 6:8)

Would be a perfect time to send a few cruise missiles to key points in Iran....

552 posted on 10/08/2006 6:43:41 AM PDT by mdmathis6 (Proof against evolution:"Man is the only creature that blushes, or needs to" M.Twain)

To: olde north church

"...Arabian thugs used to keep order there."

Same deal as the Hessian Prince renting out his army to the British to help them keep control in the Colony on this side of the pond.

553 posted on 10/08/2006 6:49:49 AM PDT by Vn_survivor_67-68

Still nothing on the tube about this.

I know. Strange isn't it? Something this big.

I have had Fox on all morning and not one word..................

554 posted on 10/08/2006 6:59:31 AM PDT by SheLion ("If you're legal, you can fly with the Eagle!" - Michael Anthony)

Crossing my fingers and hoping for their success. I was reading this last night and some of the counter measures used by the Government are downright sadistic.

555 posted on 10/08/2006 7:41:41 AM PDT by Enterprise (Let's not enforce laws that are already on the books, let's just write new laws we won't enforce.)

To: Zeroisanumber

They think they're french.

556 posted on 10/08/2006 7:42:58 AM PDT by RobRoy (Islam is a greater threat to the world today than Naziism was in 1937.)

the 12th Imam, who disappeared down a well 1300 years ago and will return to redeem the world.

The jokes write themselves ...

557 posted on 10/08/2006 7:48:17 AM PDT by IronJack

Still nothing......

FOLEYFOLEYFOLEY on all news channels.

558 posted on 10/08/2006 8:12:45 AM PDT by bonfire

The only story being told is Rueters' skewed and shallow version. Not alot of true reporters left I'm afraid.

559 posted on 10/08/2006 8:29:48 AM PDT by 4woodenboats ("Show me what Muhammad brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman")

Nothing in the major news services?

Whats going on?

need to drop robotic surveillance

560 posted on 10/08/2006 8:29:50 AM PDT by Therapsid (Every other weekend however i dilligently support dangerous fantasy)

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