The Death of an Ayatollah

[Sheilbh]

Grand Ayatollah Hussein Ali Montazeri: Iranian cleric



Hussein Ali Montazeri was one of the most influential figures in the history of modern Iran. Among the most senior theologians of the Shia Muslim faith — he was one of the few Grand Ayatollahs — Montazeri was designated successor to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini before falling out with the founder of the Islamic Revolution over the issue of civil rights shortly before the latter's death in 1989. Khomeini was instead followed as Supreme Leader by the less theologically qualified Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and Montazeri — while remaining part of the Islamic establishment — became one of the leading critics of the regime's domestic and foreign policy.

Montazeri's oppositional stance led to his becoming Iran's most prominent prisoner of conscience, as for more than five years from 1997 he was held under house arrest at his home in Qom. Despite his advanced years and poor health, he played a role in the political crisis that engulfed Iran after Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's heavily disputed re-election as President in 2009. It was Montazeri who called three days of national mourning for the young student, Neda Agha-Soltan, and others shot dead by security units loyal to Ahmadinejad.

Hussein Ali Montazeri was born in 1922 into a modest farming family in Najafabad in the central province of Isfahan. This was just a year after a military commander named Reza Khan had seized power in what was still known as Persia. Reza Khan was crowned Shah of Persia in 1926 with his eldest son, Mohammed Reza, being proclaimed Crown Prince.

The young Montazeri received his early theological training in Isfahan before going to study in Qom, a traditional centre of the Shia Islam faith and, at the time, undergoing a resurgence after a period of decline. It was in Qom that Montazeri first encountered and studied under the future leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ruhollah Khomeini. In due course, Montazeri himself became a teacher at the Faiziyeh Theological School in the city. Reza Khan had been deposed in 1941 for his pro-Axis policies after an Anglo-Russian occupation of Iran and replaced by his son, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi. The new Shah's dependence on Britain and the United States, who helped him to defeat his nationalist opponents in the 1950s, radicalised opposition to the regime. His secularising and modernising policies also alienated the conservative Shia religious scholars who became drawn into politics. The Shah's announcement in 1963 of a "white revolution" — a programme of land reform and social and economic change, including voting rights for women and allowing non-Muslims to hold office — was a turning-point in prompting Khomeini into outright opposition.
Related Links

Montazeri joined Khomeini in denouncing the Shah's initiative and calling for a boycott of a referendum on the white revolution. By 1965 Khomeini had been forced into exile, but Montazeri was at the heart of clerical network which his mentor had established to fight Pahlavi's rule. As the Shah resorted to increased repression, through the use of the notorious secret police, or Savak, Montazeri frequently came up on the regime's radar and was imprisoned in 1974 for his outspoken criticisms. He was released in 1978, in time to play an active part in the agitation that led to the overthrow of the Shah the following year.

It was during this period of repression that Montazeri developed his political ideas. He supported a democratic republic as the best form of government, but with an administration supervised by Islamic jurists. In theory, the key point was that the jurists would be advisers to the rulers who would be elected by the people without violating Islamic principles. After the Shah's departure, Montazeri played a lead in drafting a new constitution, ensuring — in the process — the central role for Islamic jurists who would appoint judges and have a right of veto over laws and actions deemed to be against Islamic principles.

In the early years of the Islamic Republic Montazeri was already the acknowledged deputy to Khomeini even before being formally designated in 1985 as his successor as Supreme Leader. Montazeri was a member of the powerful Revolutionary Council and led Friday prayers in Qom. Government offices across Iran displayed a smaller picture of Montazeri next to one of Khomeini. The Supreme Leader referred to Montazeri, at the time, as "the fruit of my life".

The relationship, however, began to sour later in the decade when Montazeri's ideas for the political development of the Islamic Republic were portrayed by his opponents as criticisms of the Supreme Leader. In particular, Montazeri's call for the legalisation of political parties, albeit under strict regulation, and for an open assessment of the revolution's failings, earned a rebuke from Khomeini.

Matters came to a head after the execution of thousands of political prisoners at the end of the war with Iraq in July 1988. Letters from Montazeri condemning the excesses were published and broadcast abroad. He then criticised Khomeini's fatwa against the British author, Salman Rushdie, asserting that "people around the world were getting the idea that our business in Iran is murdering people". A furious Khomeini denounced his designated successor and announced, in March 1989, that Montazeri had resigned his posts. Montazeri accepted this without protest. Across the country his portraits were taken down, the state media stopped quoting him and articles appeared in various newspapers dismantling his previously impeccable revolutionary credentials.

When Khomeini died in June 1989, a middle-ranking cleric, Ali Khamenei, was selected as his successor. Montazeri's supporters in Qom lost no time in questioning Khamenei's religious credentials for the office, earning their own leader humiliating detention by the Revolutionary Guards. Iran's conservative media sought to undermine Montazeri, declaring him no longer a Grand Ayatollah and a "simple-minded cleric". But he retained a considerable following among the faithful and, in theory at least, a responsibility to interpret the rulings of the Supreme Leader. As such, his views were meant to carry weight with policymakers, but in practice the Government, loyal to Khamenei, paid them little heed.

The feud with Khamenei culminated in October 1997, when Montazeri was placed under house arrest in Qom after openly criticising the authority of the Supreme Leader once again. He was to remain under the restriction for five-and-a-half years. Ironically, his detention coincided with the start of the presidency of the reformist cleric, Mohammed Khatami. In the new climate, some liberal newspapers were prepared to continue to publish Montazeri's written answers to journalists' questions. In these he upheld the principle of clerical supervision of the Government but said Ayatollah Khamenei had overstepped the mark and should submit himself to popular election. He also suggested the constitution, of which he was an author, should be changed to give President Khatami control over the military and security forces.

Montazeri irked the regime more deeply in 2001 when, in his privately published memoirs, he alleged that more than 30,000 political prisoners had been massacred at the end of the war with Iraq — far more than previously suspected. The most damning of the letters and documents published in the book was Khomeini's alleged order for all Mujahidin opponents of the regime to be killed and the establishment of "death commitees" to carry out the sentences. In his own correspondence with Khomeini, Montazeri had warned that the killings would be seen as a "vendetta" and would "not be mistake-free".

Montazeri was released from his house arrest in January 2003 in a move possibly prompted by fears that he would die in custody, thereby sparking serious protests. True to form, he remained an outspoken critic of the failings of the regime. Khatami had been replaced as President in 2005 by the hard-line populist, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Montazeri critised his economic policies, arguing that a country could not be run on "slogans". He defended Iran's right to nuclear energy but poured scorn on Ahmadinejad's aggressive approach, which provoked the enemy rather than dealt with it using wisdom. He also spoke out in defence of the persecuted Baha'i community and the broader neglect of human rights.

Montazeri's transition from being a pivotal figure in the Islamic revolution to being the grey eminence of the Iranian reform movement was shown in the aftermath of Ahmadinejad's disputed re-election in June 2009. Openly declaring that "no one in their right mind" could believe the results had been counted fairly, Montazeri then called three days of public mourning for protesters who had been shot down by the security forces. His stance led many Iranians to reflect on how their country might have evolved in the two decades since Khomeini's death if Montazeri had become — as was once intended — his successor as Supreme Leader.

Grand Ayatollah Hussein Ali Montazeri, Iranian cleric and scholar, was born in 1922. He died on December 20, 2009, aged 87

Inevitably reformists and protesters are apparently flooding Qom for the funeral tomorrow.

[Palisadoes]

Does it make a difference?

[Sheilbh]

Does it make a difference?

Who knows?  I read obituaries because they're the most interesting stories in any newspaper.

[grumbler]

Does it make a difference?

Not really.  Montazeri only really disagreed with Khomeini and Khamenei over the issue of what color the facade of democracy should be painted.

[KRonn]

This Ayatollah was outspoken against the clerics/radicals taking over, had been in prison for it. So apparently he was somewhat of a rallying cry for the opposition.

http://www.foxnews.com/

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates —  Tens of thousands of Iranian mourners — many chanting protest slogans — joined the funeral procession Monday for the country's most senior dissident cleric, who had described government crackdowns as the work of power-hungry despots.

Iranian authorities have barred foreign media from covering the processions in the holy city of Qom for Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, who died Sunday at age 87. But witnesses said many mourners shouted protest cries including "Death to the Dictator" in displays of anger against Iran's ruling establishment.

There were no immediate reports of serious clashes from the witnesses, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of fears of arrest by Iranian authorities. Some opposition Web sites noted scuffles and violence, but the reports could not immediately be confirmed.

On Monday, access to the Internet in Iran was slow, and cellular telephone service was unreliable. The government has periodically restricted communications in an attempt to prevent protesters from organizing.

Security was extremely tight in Qom, about 60 miles south of Tehran, as people streamed in along the single highway from the capital, Tehran.

The funeral rites for Montazeri pushed Iranian authorities into a difficult spot. They were obliged to pay respects to one of the patriarchs of the 1979 Islamic Revolution and the one-time heir apparent to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

But officials also worried that Montazeri's death — and upcoming memorials — could become new rallying points for opposition demonstrations.

Montazeri broke with the regime in the 1980s after claiming that the ruling clerics violated the ideals of the revolution by taking absolute power rather than serving as advisers to political leaders. He spent five years under house arrest and had only a minor role in political affairs after being released in 2003.

But the outrage after June's disputed presidential election gave him a new voice that resonated with a younger generation. His most pivotal moments came in the summer when he denounced the "despotic" tactics and "crimes" of the ruling clerics — a bold step that encouraged protesters to break taboos about criticism of Khomeini's successor, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

In demonstrations earlier this month, students shouted "Death to the dictator!" and burned pictures of Khamenei.

Many people during Monday's funeral made references to the Green Movement of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, who joined the procession in Qom, witnesses said. Opposition leaders had called for people to turn out for a day of mourning, and Mousavi described Montazeri's death as a "great loss."

On Sunday, Khamenei praised Montazeri as a respected Islamic scholar, but noted his falling out with Khomeini and other leaders of the revolution.

Montazeri's grandson, Nasser Montazeri, said he died in his sleep overnight. The Web site of Iranian state television quoted doctors as saying Montazeri had suffered from asthma and arteriosclerosis, a disease that thickens and hardens arteries.

The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran said one of Montazeri's followers and a government critic, Ahmad Ghabel, was arrested while driving to Qom with his family to attend the funeral. The New York-based group called on the government not to interfere in the commemorations.

Another prominent critic, filmmaker Mohammad Nourizad, was arrested on a charge of insulting officials, the state news agency IRNA reported Sunday. Nourizad, once a conservative government supporter, wrote a letter of protest to Khamenei in September urging him to apologize to the nation for the postelection crackdown.

Montazeri was one of the leaders of the revolution and he helped draft the nation's new constitution, which was based on a concept called velayat-e faqih, or rule by Islamic jurists. That concept enshrined a political role for Islamic clerics in the new system.

But a deep ideological rift soon developed with Khomeini. Montazeri envisioned the Islamic experts as advisers to the government who should not have outright control to rule themselves. He was also among those clerics who believed the power of the supreme leader comes from the people, not from God.

Taking an opposing view, Khomeini and his circle of clerics consolidated absolute power.

[Sheilbh]

The Guardian's saying hundreds of thousands of people turned out, up to a million:

Iran braces for protests as 'up to 1m' attend funeral of reformist cleric

Hundreds of thousands gather in Qom for Ayatollah Montazeri's funeral just as traditional day of protest looms


Mourners attend the funeral of Iranian Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, the spiritual father of Iran's reform movement, in the city of Qom. Photograph: STR/AP

Hundreds of thousand of mourners, many chanting anti-government slogans, gathered in the Iranian city of Qom for the funeral today of the leading reformist cleric Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri.

Defying a heavy presence of security forces, the funeral became a rallying point for further protests against the disputed re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Pictures showed the defeated presidential candidates Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi among the mourners, after the opposition movement called for a national day of mourning.

There were reports of clashes after mourners chanted slogans against Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. YouTube footage showed huge crowds gathering in Qom and chants of pro-opposition slogans.

Montazeri, who died early yesterday aged 87, was buried at the Masoumeh shrine, one of the holiest in Shia Islam.

Hundreds of thousands of people turned out, according to Reuters, citing the website Jaras. Pictures purportedly from the event showed huge crowds, and some reports said up to a million mourners had gathered, although this was impossible to verify because of the heavy media restrictions in Iran.

The BBC said attempts were made to jam the signal on its Persian service today after the corporation began extended coverage of the funeral. The reformist daily newspaper Parlemannews was also banned, according to the semi-official news agency Fars.

State-controlled Press TV carried only a brief report on Montazeri's funeral, without mentioning the protest.



Mourners travelled from as far away as Isfahan and Najafabad, Montazeri's birthplace. Reformist websites reported that the road between Tehran and Qom was clogged with motorists heading to the funeral. Riot police were deployed throughout Qom in preparation for a mass turnout of anti-government demonstrators, while security forces surrounded Montazeri's house.

YouTube footage showed Montazeri's supporters gathering at his home, where his body lay in a glass case. The reformist website Rah-e Sabz reported that some political activists had been contacted by intelligence agents and warned that they would face arrest if they tried to attend the funeral.

Montazeri, who had long been banished from Iran's theocratic hierarchy, had emerged as a spiritual leader for the opposition Green Movement after denouncing June's election as fraudulent and the subsequent crackdown as un-Islamic. Since the poll, he had been in regular contact with Mousavi and Karroubi.

Once seen as heir apparent to the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, spiritual leader of the 1979 Islamic revolution, Montazeri was sidelined and defrocked in 1988 after criticising the mass execution of political prisoners.

News of his death, attributed by his doctor to a combination of old age and chronic heart and prostate conditions, triggered fresh dissent on Iran's university campuses, the focal point of repeated post-election clashes between students and security forces. Noisy protests were reported at Tehran's Sharif University and at the Science and Industry University, where students held up Montazeri's picture and chanted: "Today is mourning day, the green nation is the chief mourner."

Montazeri's death could hardly have come at a worse time for Iran's Islamic regime, which has sought to isolate Mousavi and Karroubi as puppets of foreign "enemies". It came just three days into the Shia mourning month of Muharram, during which the opposition had already pledged to stage a series of demonstrations.

Worse still, the seventh day of his death ‑ a special mourning occasion in Shia Islam ‑ will coincide with next Sunday's Ashura ceremony, marking the martyrdom at Karbala of Hossein, Shia Islam's third imam, who is regarded as a symbol of struggle against oppressive rule.

Both the government and the opposition had identified this year's Ashura event as a potential flashpoint even before Montazeri's death. The ceremony has a central place in Iran's revolutionary folklore. Ashura demonstrations against the shah in 1978 are widely thought to have played a pivotal role in toppling the former monarch's regime.

"This is something the Iranian government is quite worried about," said Hossein Bastani, an Iranian analyst based in France. "On the seventh day of Ayatollah Montazeri's death, people will be gathering to commemorate him on the same day as Ashura. Iranian internet forums, websites and social networking sites are all talking about it.

"This will become a nightmare for the Islamic regime. Muharram for the Shias is the month of martyrdom and protest against cruel government, and at the moment inside Iran, many consider the Islamic republic to be the most cruel enemy of Islam and of the people."

The regime's nervousness was evident from official pronouncements. The state news agency, Irna, announced Montazeri's death while omitting his official title of grand ayatollah, while the culture and Islamic guidance ministry told newspapers to stress his disagreements with Khomeini and ignore his political views.

Khamenei also stressed Montazeri's differences with Khomeini. "At the final phase of the imam's [Khomeini's] gracious life, there had been a difficult and challenging test [for Montazeri] which I hope will be covered by God's lenience," he said.

Montazeri spent six years under house arrest after 1997 when he criticised Khamenei as over-powerful and questioned his qualifications as a source of religious guidance. Even after the end of his sentence, he rarely left his modest house in a quiet lane in Qom. But his views remained sharply critical.

Interviewed by the Guardian in 2006, he accused the regime of encouraging people to hate religion by "misusing Islam. From the beginning of the revolution, we have been chanting slogans of independence, liberty, Islamic republic," he said. "The complaint I have is why the slogans we have been chanting since then and are still chanting haven't been fulfilled."

I disagree with grumbler saying that he was basically the same as Khomeini or Khamenei.

[CountDeMoney]

I disagree with grumbler saying that he was basically the same as Khomeini or Khamenei.

I don't. 
And grumbler wasn't saying he was basically the same;  they were as different as Cheney was to Rumsfeld.

[grumbler]

I disagree with grumbler saying that he was basically the same as Khomeini or Khamenei.

I said that his views on democracy were basically the same as Khomeini's and Khanemei - elected leaders must be guided by unelected clerics, because that is true.  Montezari favored a longer clerical leash on the politicians, it is true. If you consider that significant, then you can consider them "different."  I don't, so I don't.

[Ed Anger]

It is too bad a flaming AWACS didn't crash into the crowd. Persian fucks.

[Jaron]

They ripped me off on my slurpee this morning.

[Sheilbh]

I said that his views on democracy were basically the same as Khomeini's and Khanemei - elected leaders must be guided by unelected clerics, because that is true.  Montezari favored a longer clerical leash on the politicians, it is true. If you consider that significant, then you can consider them "different."  I don't, so I don't.

I think it's a significant and an important difference.  The difference between, say, Robespierre and Desmoulins or in monarchical terms Charles I and William of Orange.

[grumbler]

I think it's a significant and an important difference.  The difference between, say, Robespierre and Desmoulins or in monarchical terms Charles I and William of Orange.

I don't see that at all! 

Got some pointers to things he has said that make you think he no longer believes in the constitution he drafted?  I see the him as Charles II to Khamenei's James II.  He helped execute Iran's Williams of Orange.

[Sheilbh]

Got some pointers to things he has said that make you think he no longer believes in the constitution he drafted?  I see the him as Charles II to Khamenei's James II.  He helped execute Iran's Williams of Orange.

From 1989:

The denial of people's rights, injustice and disregard for the revolution's true values have delivered the most severe blows against the revolution. Before any reconstruction [takes place], there must first be a political and ideological reconstruction... This is something that the people expect of a leader.

He called for an 'open discussion' of the faults of the revolution as early as 86.  His comments in 1989 to some extent ended that constitution because Khomeini changed it so you didn't have to be a Grand Ayatollah to become Supreme Leader - aside from himself Montazeri was the only Grand Ayatollah who accepted the idea of religious government and he was no longer acceptable.  It's the great irony of Iran as a Shia theocratic state.  The clergy of the Shia overwhelmingly reject the idea of theocracy so you have, frankly, a second-rate scholar as Supreme Leader.

On Iran's right to nuclear power:

Don't we have other rights too?

On the Bahai:

They are the citizens of this country, they have the right of citizenship and to live in this country. Furthermore, they must benefit from the Islamic compassion which is stressed in Quran and by the religious authorities.

On the Salman Rushdie fatwa:

People in the world are getting the idea that our business in Iran is just murdering people.

A fatwa in the aftermath of the election:

A political system based on force, oppression, changing people's votes, killing, closure, arresting and using Stalinist and medieval torture, creating repression, censorship of newspapers, interruption of the means of mass communications, jailing the enlightened and the elite of society for false reasons, and forcing them to make false confessions in jail, is condemned and illegitimate

I believe that since that fatwa he's also declared that the government can no longer be considered Islamic - because it betrays the teachings of Islam through its oppression etc - and can no longer be considered a Republic because it lacks democratic legitimacy.  I could be wrong on this but I remember reading that the word he used to describe it is loosely translated as 'tyranny' but is especially explosive in Shia Islam because I think it's the word they use to describe the Umayyad Caliphs.