Posted on 01/31/2003 5:59:59 PM PST by blam
Dissident ayatollah condemns leaders
By Anton La Guardia, Diplomatic Editor
(Filed: 01/02/2003)
Days after being freed from five years of house arrest, Iran's most senior dissident cleric yesterday denounced Teheran's religious rulers as a dictatorship no different from the reviled former shah.
The comments by Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri might be a sign that he could become a major force for reform.
As the 81-year-old greeted well-wishers to his home in the holy city of Qom, 80 miles south-west of Teheran, hardliners issued a call for the government to take action to ensure that his home "will not be turned into a base for liberals, hypocrites and opponents and a stronghold against the Islamic establishment".
Ayatollah Montazeri responded scathingly: "That a group of people decides for the nation amounts to dictatorship. The only difference [from the past] is that some clerics have replaced the shah."
The comparison with Shah Reza Pahlavi, who was overthrown by the Islamic revolution in 1979, seemed almost calculated to insult his foes.
He said the Special Clergy Court, which had imposed his house arrest order, was unconstitutional.
His comments were made as he received Mohammad Reza Khatami, the parliamentary vice-speaker and brother of President Mohammad Khatami, whose attempts to reform the country have been blocked by hardliners in the judiciary and security forces.
Ayatollah Montazeri, once earmarked to be Iran's supreme ruler after Ayatollah Khomeini, was exiled to his home in November 1997 after criticising the mass executions of communists that took place after the 1979 revolution.
NAH! Ya think? I can't believe this writer would have any doubts about that!
God bless our President who encouraged them in his SOTUA.
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