Grand Ayatollah Montazeri's Funeral

[visionary]

http://www.parlemannews.ir/?n=6490

http://iran.whyweprotest.net/news-current-events/60346-photos-ayatollah-montazeris-funeral.html

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/12/21/iran.cleric.dies/index.html

Sad news, but it was a great turnout.

Some reports are of 500,000 to 1 million mourners

(despite warnings from the government and threats from and attacks by basij to those attending)

[G.A.C.O.L.B.]

It's a shame this guy fell out with Khomeini before his death and didn't end up succeeding him as he was supposed to.

[visionary]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091224/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_iran

TEHRAN, Iran – Iran banned memorials for the country's most senior dissident cleric and reiterated a stern warning to the opposition Thursday, after days of services in honor of the spiritual leader turned into street protests against the government.

A commemoration had been planned for Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri in the town of Kashan, 135 miles south of Tehran, according to reformist Web sites.

But a large banner was put up in the town proclaiming that the Supreme National Security Council has banned any memorials for Montazeri except in the holy city of Qom and the cleric's hometown of Najafabad. The Web site Parlemannews carried a photo of the banner in Kashan.

The death on Sunday of the 87-year-old Ali Montazeri, a sharp critic of Iran's leaders, has given a new push to opposition protests, which have endured despite a heavy security crackdown since disputed presidential elections in June.

Iran has been in turmoil since the vote, which the opposition alleges Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won by fraud.

On Wednesday, a memorial for Montazeri in the central city of Isfahan turned into anti-government demonstrations, and mourners clashed with riot police. At least 50 were arrested, according to reformist Web sites. Security forces and hard-line militiamen assaulted the crowd gathered at Isfahan's main mosque for Wednesday's memorial, beating men and women and firing tear gas to disperse them. The reports could not be independently confirmed since authorities have banned foreign media from covering protests.

The funeral procession for Montazeri in Qom on Monday also turned into a rally against the government.

The memorials have brought out not only the young, urban activists who filled the ranks of earlier protests, but also older, more religious Iranians who revered Montazeri on grounds of faith as much as politics.

And the government has started moving for the first time against clerics who support the opposition — in Isfahan, pro-government Basij militiamen on Wednesday surrounded the house and office of two prominent religious figures, shouting slogans and breaking windows, opposition Web sites reported.

[TimmySmith]

Some reports are of 500,000 to 1 million mourners

(despite warnings from the government and threats from and attacks by basij to those attending)

The Iraqi National Park Service said more like 200,000.

[G.A.C.O.L.B.]

**** is gonna seriously hit the fan on Sunday. Seven days after Montazeri's death (7 days after anyone's death is like a time to really mourn) and it's also the Day of Ashura holiday where the mourn for Prophet Mohammed's grandson (killed in the 7th Century) which is like HUGE for the Shias.

[Prosperity]

Montazeri was a good Iranian. He will be missed. His memory will live on in the Green Movement.

[visionary]

The Iraqi National Park Service said more like 200,000.

What?

LOL

[Gracelander]

It's a shame when someone so young dies. He didn't look a day over 96.

[Mickalino]

It's a shame when someone so young dies. He didn't look a day over 96.

Yea, he must have been a heavy drinker.

Booze is the only explanation for him passing so young.

[twa]

Not sure this is a fit here but it is the story of another good Persian's death

The Doctor Who Defied Tehran

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126118381849697953.html?mod=igoogle_wsj_gadgv1&

At the height of Iran's bloody civil unrest this year, a young doctor named Ramin Pourandarjani defied his superiors. He refused to sign death certificates at a Tehran prison that he said were falsified to cover up murder.

He testified to a parliamentary committee that jailers were torturing and raping protesters, his family says. He told friends and family he feared for his life.

And on Nov. 10, the 26-year-old doctor was found dead in the military clinic where he lived and worked.

..

This past Wednesday, the head of a parliamentary committee investigating the broader allegations of torture at Kahrizak prison said Dr. Pourandarjani's death didn't warrant examination. "As far as we are concerned, the death of the Kahrizak doctor is clear and doesn't need investigation," said the lawmaker, Farhad Tajari, according to the main parliamentary news service. Mr. Tajari couldn't be reached for comment.

[Thiebear]

of course its clear...

[twa]

Gonna need some more funeral threads...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/dec/27/nine-dead-iran-protests

The nephew of Iran's reformist opposition leader, Mir Hossein Mousavi, was reported to be among at least nine people killed after the streets of Tehran and other cities erupted in violent clashes between security forces and protesters.

...

The authorities responded by warning of a huge crackdown. Hospitals and emergency services were put on alert to expect large-scale casualties.

The authorities are taking a risk in using lethal force against protesters during the Islamic month of Moharram, during which war and bloodshed is deemed to be religiously haram, or forbidden. It raises the likelihood of a series of mourning cycles, as required by Shia tradition. It was such a mourning cycle that fatally undermined the Shah's regime when it tried to suppress demonstrations in 1978.

[twa]

Going Rogue ...Iranian style:cool:

A bit of Montazeri's background from a unlikely source

http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/017/390wrflv.asp

Montazeri was one of the lions of modern Iranian history. With his writing and his oratory, he unrelentingly challenged what he'd once held holy. His disciples--the army of Iranian intellectuals who've been for twenty years quietly obliterating the legitimacy of Khomeini's state--and the democratic dissidents who've poured into the streets since June 11, now command the high ground. Though the regime continues to rule because the Revolutionary Guard Corps hasn't (yet) cracked, Khamenei and his office have permanently lost their religious credentials.

With his unrivalled stubbornness and scholarly reach, Montazeri deserves much of the credit for the regime's predicament. Americans, who generally don't have an acute appreciation for Islam's religious authorities or the tumultuous debates about popular sovereignty inside Iran's clergy, owe Montazeri a great debt. Not a lover of the United States, its all-consuming popular culture, or its indefatigable ally in the region (Israel), he would not expect a word of thanks. Nevertheless, we should pay homage where homage is due. He earned it.

[Dan T.]

Opposition leader Mousavi's nephew among those killed as Iranian security forces fire on protesters:

At least 5 killed in Iran protests -AP

TEHRAN, Iran – Iranian security forces fired on stone-throwing protesters in the center of the capital Sunday in one of the bloodiest confrontations in months, opposition Web sites and witnesses said. At least five people were killed. Some accounts of the violence in Tehran were vivid and detailed, but they could not be independently confirmed because of government restrictions on media coverage. Police, who denied using firearms, said dozens of officers were injured and more than 300 protesters were arrested.

The dead included a nephew of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, according to Mousavi's Web site, Kaleme.ir. The clashes were sure to deepen antagonism between the government and a reform movement that has shown resilience in the face of repeated crackdowns. The street chaos coincided with commemorations of Shiite Islam's most important observance, Ashoura, fueling protesters' defiance with its message of sacrifice and dignity in the face of coercion. Still, many demonstrators had not anticipated such harsh tactics by the authorities, despite police warnings of tougher action against any protests on the sacred day.

Amateur video footage purportedly from the center of Tehran showed an enraged crowd carrying away one casualty, chanting, "I'll kill, I'll kill the one who killed my brother." In several locations, demonstrators confronted security forces, hurling stones and setting their motorcycles, cars and vans ablaze, according to video footage and pro-reform Web sites.

Complete article: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/ml_iran

[Prosperity]

[Prosperity]

I miss Iran, I feel like I missed a great opportunity to make real progress in the world, but instead I have to sit on my ass here living the good life. Thankfully there is no shortage of Iranians more courageous than me.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article6969094.ece

Is this Iran’s Berlin Wall moment?

It is time to start wondering out loud whether Iran’s uprising could become one of those Berlin Wall moments.

This is not yet a counter-revolution. And the new “green movement” is a coalition of disparate factions — from former presidents to people who have never voted at all — who view the issues through vastly different prisms. Yet the pattern of public outpourings since the disputed election six months ago is setting historic precedents.

The opposition has proven it has the resolve and resilience to sustain its risky challenge, despite the regime’s ruthless use of force, mass arrests, show trials and reports of torture and rape in prison. In the escalating political showdown the opposition has the momentum.

Just as important, the emergence of people power is also setting a new precedent in the last bloc of countries ruled by authoritarian regimes. Thirty years ago, Iran’s revolution redefined politics throughout the Middle East by ending dynastic rule and introducing Islam as a modern political idiom. Iran’s uprising is doing it again — this time by taking to the streets to demand an end to dictatorship as well as calling for fundamental rights such as free speech, a free press and respect for the individual vote.

But the green movement is far more than simply sporadic eruptions. This is the most vibrant and imaginative civil disobedience campaign in the world.

There’s the currency campaign, for starters. Thousands of rial notes have been stamped with a simple green “V” for victory. Others bear handwritten slogans that echo the public chants denouncing the regime. Some have even been reprinted with pictures: one is a cartoon of President Ahmadinejad with “people’s enemy” written underneath. Another carries a picture from the mobile phone images of Neda Agha Soltan as she lay dying on the street from a sniper’s bullet. Underneath is written “death to the dictator” — a common public chant against Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The currency campaign even denounces the regime’s foreign policy. “Khamenei the non-believer is the servant of [Russian leader Vladimir] Putin,” declares one slogan, written in green, on a 20,000-rial note. Another chastises: “They stole money and give it to [Venezuelan President Hugo] Chavez.” Some messages simply appeal for others to join the campaign to write anti-regime messages on one billion banknotes. The Government reportedly tried to take the marked notes out of circulation, but found there were too many to replace.

Then there is the boycott of goods advertised on state-controlled television. People in line at markets whisper to other shoppers not to buy certain products that help to subsidise the Government’s broadcasting monopoly — and its version of events. The opposition has also called for boycotts on mobile phone companies that provide technology to the Government. It is impossible to assess the impact but it adds a critical economic component to the political confrontation.

Civil disobedience is often brazen. Graffiti is increasingly showing up on public walls — in green spray paint — to berate the authorities or to announce a new demonstration. Large posters of arrested protesters and dissidents demanding their freedom have appeared on campuses, often timed for the appearance of a pro-regime event or speech.

At football matches and in subway tunnels, mobile phone videos record spontaneous outbursts of the two key opposition chants: “death to the dictator” and “God is great”. The latter was the pivotal revolutionary chant against the monarchy that has been usurped to denounce the revolution’s hardliners. The implication is that God has abandoned the revolution to side with and protect the green movement.

Participation in civil disobedience is far more widespread than the protests. It includes individual, uncoordinated acts, such as a challenge to the Supreme Leader by Mahmoud Vahidnia, an unassuming maths student with no record of dissent. At a meeting with Iran’s academic elite Ayatollah Khamenei warned that the “biggest crime” was questioning the June 12 election. Mr Vahidnia then went to the microphone and criticised the government crackdown, asking about alleged prison abuses and why no one was allowed to criticise the leader. He also told him that he lived in a bubble.

So far the green movement has insisted on non-violence. Perhaps the ultimate irony in the Islamic Republic today is that a brutal revolutionary regime suspected of secretly working on a nuclear weapon faces its biggest challenge from peaceful civil disobedience. And even such a militarised regime has been unable to put it down.

Robin Wright is a senior Fellow at the US Institute of Peace in Washington. The author of five books on the Middle East, she has visited Iran regularly since 1973

[G.A.C.O.L.B.]

What's going to happen now is what happened back with the Shah. People go out on days of mourning (7 days after someone passes) and protest. During the protest, someone (or 10 someones like today) get killed, and in 7 days there will be another day of mourning/protest, someone gets killed, repeat. It just keeps gaining momentum. It's just a matter of time. And it's beautiful.

[jpyaks3]

What's going to happen now is what happened back with the Shah. People go out on days of mourning (7 days after someone passes) and protest. During the protest, someone (or 10 someones like today) get killed, and in 7 days there will be another day of mourning/protest, someone gets killed, repeat. It just keeps gaining momentum. It's just a matter of time. And it's beautiful.

I hope so. I just fear that this regime learned from the Shah and will not make the same mistakes, but so far it appears they are traveling down the same path.

[G.A.C.O.L.B.]

I hope so. I just fear that this regime learned from the Shah and will not make the same mistakes, but so far it appears they are traveling down the same path.

I think they're more stupid than the Shah. Even the Shah didn't mess around and kill people on the Day of Ashura. That's how you really turn people on the fence against you. I don't know what the hell they're thinking.

[Ryman of the North]

the Iranian people are brave and I hope that they can get rid of these scumbags who have been oppressing them. the on thing in the ME that I am not proud of was the wests support of the shah, it basically drove those people into the arms of the fundamentalists. I will pray for them because they seem to be wiling to fight for their freedom.

[twa]

I don't know what the hell they're thinking.

They are thinking the same thing any entity under attack is....how can I turn this against my opposition.

They operate from a much different position than the Shah and will not relinquish authority easily....it is gonna get real ugly

[Prosperity]

nvm..............................

[twa]

another blog keeping up with it with press links ect

http://www.juancole.com/2009/12/iran-roiled-crowds-burn-banks-police.html

Update: Iran's official PressTV confirms: ""Nine residential buildings, 9 vehicles, 7 shops, 2 banks and 3 power stations were set on fire [by anti-government protestors], " Tashakkor said. The Iranian official added that "18 garbage bins" were also set on fire.'

...

In Isfahan, security forces are said to have badly beaten and cursed the brother of Abdollah Nouri, the minister of state under the reformist government of former president Mohammad Khatami.

The killing of Ali Mousavi, the 34-year-old nephew of former presidential candidate Mir Husain Mousavi, was also a violation of Shiite values. The Mousavis are putative descendants of the Prophet Muhammad, a sort of caste in Muslim societies called 'sayyid' or 'sharif.'

[Skins24]

The Iraqi National Park Service said more like 200,000.

:hysterical::hysterical:

What?

LOL

Whenever there's a huge event on the Mall the National Park Service usually understates the amount of people there.

i.e, the Million Man March http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Million_Man_March#Crowd_size_controversy

[G.A.C.O.L.B.]

They are thinking the same thing any entity under attack is....how can I turn this against my opposition.

So a religious government killing people on one of the holiest days in their religion and turning religious conservaives against them is actually turning it against the opposition?