Saeed Montazeri, son ...of late Grand Ayatollah Montazeri, in an interview said that the security forces have surrounded Grand Ayatollah’s house and are not letting the people to go in or out of the house. He also added that since the Basij and Revolutionary Guards have filled the grand mosque, where late Grand Ayatollah Montazeri’s funeral was supposed to be held, from hours ago they cancelled the ceremony.
PROFILE-Montazeri: architect and critic of modern Iran
21 Dec 2009 10:36:02 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Parisa Hafezi
TEHRAN, Dec 22 (Reuters) - Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, who died aged 87, was once named to succeed Iranian revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini but fell from grace after criticising mass executions of political prisoners.
Montazeri, who denounced June's presidential election as fraudulent, avowed that Iran's Islamic system had been abused to deny the president real authority, handing the power instead to the Supreme Leader.
An architect of the 1979 overthrow of the U.S.-backed shah, Montazeri's star waned following his quarrel with Khomeini. He spent five years under house arrest in the city of Qom after criticising Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in 1998.
A close ally of Khomeini before the revolution and jailed several times by the shah's police, Montazeri in recent years was among the harshest critics of a ruling clerical establishment in which splits have widened since the election.
In August, the ayatollah said on his website that the authorities' handling of street unrest following the election "could lead to the fall of the regime" and he denounced the clerical leadership as a dictatorship.
An indication of Montazeri's early political standing was a publicised meeting he had with Khomeini in December 1987 after the latter handed a revised political will -- believed to contain his choice for a successor -- to close aides.
Zan-e Rouz magazine quoted Khomeini as saying of Montazeri: "He is the fruit of my life. My essence is in him, not once or twice but several times."
Montazeri, an author of Iran's constitution, had been expected to inherit the ayatollah's sweeping powers despite questions over his suitability and the execution in 1987 of a relative by marriage for murder and subversion.
Khomeini's son and aide Ahmad endorsed Montazeri in 1983 as the most suitable successor, and two years later the Assembly of Experts, a council of senior clerics, also recommended him.
His political statements concentrated on rationality, justice and decency, as reflected in letters released in Paris and said to have been written to Khomeini in July 1988.
POLITICS AND THE CONSTITUTION
In these letters, Montazeri appealed for a halt to "thousands of executions" in which "many ... innocents and minor offenders" were killed.
Montazeri's leadership qualifications were hurt by not being a seyyed, or black-turbaned descendant of the Prophet Mohammed, as was Khomeini and as is Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. In accepting Montazeri's resignation in March 1989 after he was forced out by hardliners, Khomeini said he had been opposed to his former ally's appointment from the beginning.
Political analysts said at the time that Montazeri's removal was a big boost for radicals like the then prime minister, Mirhossein Mousavi, who is now the main opposition leader. Montazeri helped develop the political system in Iran, which is based on a theory called the "rule of the jurisprudent" that says clerics should directly supervise political life.
But in an interview with Reuters in 2005, he said the constitution he helped to write had not only been misused but was also flawed -- a mistake he put down to inexperience.
He said it should be changed to give the president control over state matters, including the military, police and media.
"There is a contradiction in our constitution. It gives a lot of responsibilities to the president without giving him enough authority," Montazeri said.
"Responsibility and authority should come together. You cannot give responsibility to someone without giving him authority."
He said the Supreme Leader should limit his role to religious matters and to ensuring that laws conformed to Islam.
Montazeri was born into a farming family in 1922 (the exact date is not known) in Najafabad in central Iran, and started theological studies at the age of 10.
He took his early lessons in Isfahan and then in the Shi'ite holy city of Qom, south of Tehran, where he studied under Khomeini, and became a teacher at the age of 30.
He joined protests called by Khomeini in his first big confrontation with the late shah's Westernisation campaign in 1963 over votes for women and land reform.
Montazeri also had his share of tragedy. One son died in a bomb blast at Islamic Republican Party headquarters in 1981; another, Saeed, lost an eye in the Gulf war in 1985, and a grandson was killed in the war in 1986.
(Writing by Peter Millership)
Little is known about his private life, but Ayatollah Mohammad Guilani once said: "Ayatollah Montazeri is meticulous about, if not obsessed by, cleanliness."
انا لله وانا الیه راجعون: آیت الله العظمی منتظری به دیار حق شتافت. درگذشت این مرجع عالیقدر را به ملت ایران تسلیت میگوییم.
انا لله و انا الیه راجعون ... یا ایتها النفس المطمئنه، ارجی الی ربک راضیه مرضیه9
با عرض تسلیت به پیشگاه ولی الله الاعظم و امت داغدار به اطلاع می رساند پیکر مطهر فقیه عالیقدر و مجاهد عظیم الشأن حضرت آیت الله العظمی منتظری (قدس الله نفسه الزکیه) روز دوشنبه 30/9/1388 برابر با چهارم محرم الحرام 1431 ساعت 9 صبح از محل بیت آن فقید سعید به سوی حرم مطهر حضرت معصومه (سلام الله علیها) تشییع خواهد شد
Funeral o...f Grand Ayatollah Montazeri will be held on Monday, Dec 21st starting at 9:00AM from his house in Qom toward the Shrine of her holiness, Masoumeh.
Following the announcements made by a number of Grand Ayatollahs inviting public to mourn the departure of the great shia scholar and noble combatant, Grand Ayatollah Montazeri, in a joint statement Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karoubi declared Monday to be a national mourning day and invited the grieving public to at...tend Grand Ayatollah Montazeri’s funeral which will be held tomorrow (Monday Dec 21st).
---
According to ParlemanNews a great number of Grand Ayatollah Montazeri’s followers and devotees are moving toward his home in the holy city of Qom to pay their respect. After the announcement of the sad news of Grand Ayatollah Montazeri’s passing, many of his followers and devotees have gathered in his home as well as some of the senior religious figures including Grand Ayatollahs Mousavi-Ardebili, Shobeiri-Zanjani, Bayat-Zanjani, Saanei and Amini. Followers of this senior religious figure are moving toward his home in the holy city of Qom from Tehran, Isfahan, Shiraz, Najaf-Abad and other cities.
TEHRAN
Sun Dec 20, 2009 3:47am EST
Iran's most senior dissident cleric Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri is pictured at his home in Qom in this May 19, 2005 file photo. REUTERS/Morteza Nikoubazl/Files
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's senior dissident cleric, Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, has died, official media reported on Sunday. He was 87.
World
Montazeri, who branded Iran's disputed election in June fraudulent, was an architect of the 1979 Islamic revolution who fell out with the present clerical leadership and spent five years under house arrest until 2002.
He had been named to succeed late revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini as Iran's supreme leader, but quarreled with him in 1989 over the mass execution of prisoners. Instead, the current supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, succeeded Khomeini after he died later the same year.
"Hossein Ali Montazeri passed away in his home last night," the official IRNA news agency said in a report that did not mention his title.
He lived in the holy Shi'ite Muslim city of Qom, south of Tehran, and was one of the Islamic Republic's most senior clerics.
In August, he described the clerical establishment as a "dictatorship," saying the authorities' handling of street unrest following the June presidential poll "could lead to the fall of the regime."
Montazeri was among the government's harshest critics in a clerical establishment whose splits have gaped during turmoil triggered by the disputed election six months ago.
The pro-reform opposition says the poll was rigged to secure hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's re-election.
The authorities have denied the charge and portrayed the huge opposition protests that erupted after the election as a foreign-backed bid to undermine the clerical leadership.
The semi-official Fars News Agency said another senior pro-reform cleric, Grand Ayatollah Yusof Saanei, visited Montazeri's home on Sunday to express his condolences.
(Reporting by Hashem Kalantari; writing by Fredrik Dahl; editing by Matthew Jones).
----
by Aresu Eqbali Aresu Eqbali – 1 hr 17 mins ago
TEHRAN (AFP) – Thousands of mourners converged on the Shiite holy city of Qom for the funeral on Monday of Iran's top dissident cleric Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, opposition sources said.
Montazeri, 87, a fierce critic of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, died of an illness on Saturday night and is to be buried in Qom, said his office in the central city where he was based.
"He was diabetic and had been using insulin for years... He had also some lung problems and asthma. In fact he was suffering from several diseases," his doctor told state television.
The grand ayatollah was an inspiration to rights advocates and pro-reform groups and was considered by his followers as the highest living authority of Shiite Islam in Iran.
Key opposition leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi called for a public day of mourning on Monday and for their supporters to take part in the funeral, in a joint statement on Mousavi's website, Kaleme.org.
"Following a call by some grand ayatollahs to mourn the death... we announce tomorrow, Monday, December 21, a day of public mourning," they said.
"We invite all saddened religious people mourning the death of this pride of the Shiite world to take part in the funeral of this legend of endeavour, jurisprudence and spirituality."
Upon the news of his death, students gathered at Tehran University to recite verses from the Koran.
The opposition website Rahesabz.net said opposition supporters also called a gathering to mourn the cleric at Tehran's Mohseni square on Sunday, adding that "sporadic gatherings" were seen in the capital.
"Thousands of people from Isfahan, (Montazeri's hometown of) Najafabad and Shiraz began travelling by road to Qom for the funeral," according to the site of the parliamentary opposition, Parlemannews.ir.
Meanwhile, Internet connection slowed to a crawl, as has been the case whenever the authorities anticipate opposition demonstrations.
Montazeri is to be buried in the shrine of Masoumeh, a revered Shiite figure, in Qom, his office told AFP. Foreign media have been banned from covering the ceremony.
Once designated as the successor to the founder of the 1979 Islamic revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Montazeri came out in bold support of the Iranian opposition when it rejected the re-election of Ahmadinejad in June.
Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei offered condolences to his family although Montazeri was also critical of him and questioned his credentials for being the country's highest religious authority.
Montazeri had long been critical of the concentration of power in the hands of the supreme leader and called for changes to the constitution, which he helped draw up after the 1979 Islamic revolution, to limit his authority.
The grand ayatollah also often criticised hardliner Ahmadinejad over his domestic and foreign policies, including Tehran's nuclear standoff with the West.
He called on other leading clerics to break their silence over rights abuses during the government's crackdown on opposition supporters protesting the presidential election, which they charge was rigged in Ahmadinejad's favour.
Montazeri, one of the chief architects of the Islamic republic, was a student and close ally of Khomeini, whom he was set to succeed.
But the cleric fell from grace in the late 1980s after he became too openly critical of political and cultural restrictions, most notably Iran's treatment of political prisoners and opposition groups.
Montazeri resigned months before Khomeini's death in 1989, and was told by Khomeini to stay out of politics and focus instead on teaching in Qom. Unfazed by such warnings, he continued to speak out.
The grand ayatollah also questioned the theological credentials of Khamenei. This was branded as treason, and in 1997 he was placed under house arrest.
Freed after five years on health grounds during the reformist presidency of Mohammad Khatami, the grand ayatollah vowed that he would continue to speak out in defence of freedom and justice.
In his latest reaction to the post-vote crackdown on protests, Montazeri slammed "the killing of innocent people, the arrest of political activists and freedom-seekers as well as their illegal show trials."
Iran's state news agency IRNA branded him as the "clerical figure of rioters" -- the term used by pro-government media for post-vote protesters -- and dropped his clerical title of grand ayatollah in its early reports.
---
Protests mark funeral of dissident Iranian cleric
21 Dec 2009 10:14:15 GMT
Source: Reuters
* Security forces clash with protesters -reformist website
* Montazeri seen as a rallying point for opposition
* Seven-day mourning period may see more protests
By Parisa Hafezi and Fredrik Dahl
TEHRAN, Dec 21 (Reuters) - Huge crowds of Iranians chanted anti-government slogans during the funeral of leading dissident cleric Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri in the holy Shi'ite city of Qom on Monday, websites reported.
Montazeri, who died late on Saturday aged 87, was viewed as the spiritual patron of an opposition movement that blossomed after a disputed presidential election in June and has proved resilient despite repeated efforts to suppress it.
Violence flared when security forces around Montazeri's house clashed with stone-throwing protesters, the reformist website Norooz said. There was no immediate official comment.
The report could not be verified independently since foreign media were banned from reporting directly on protests and were told not to travel to Qom for Montazeri's funeral.
The reformist website Jaras said hundreds of thousands of people joined a procession for Montazeri, an architect of Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution that toppled the U.S.-backed shah. He later became a fierce critic of its present hardline leadership.
"Innocent Montazeri, your path will be continued even if the dictator should rain bullets on our heads," they chanted.
Iran's internal unrest, highlighted by Montazeri's arguments that the leadership had lost its legitimacy, has complicated a long-running dispute over Iran's nuclear programme, which the West believes may have military ends, not just civilian purposes.
The cleric's death from a heart attack occurred at a tense moment when the government was seeking to choke off any attempt to use the run-up to the Shi'ite religious occasion of Ashura next Sunday to stage large-scale protest rallies.
Shouts of "Oh Hossein, Mirhossein" also rose from mourners near Iran's second holiest shrine, many wearing green wristbands to mark support for opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi.
Their cries echoed traditional Ashura laments for Hossein, a grandson of the Prophet Mohammad, killed in a 7th-century battle that sealed the schism between Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims.
Ashura, a key occasion in the Islamic Republic's calendar, will coincide with the seventh day of mourning for Montazeri, making it harder for authorities to keep people off the streets.
Riot police were out in force in Qom, 125 km (80 miles) south of Tehran, ahead of the funeral of the senior Shi'ite cleric who had been a thorn in the establishment's side.
Pro-government Basij militiamen shouted: "Shame on you hypocrites, leave the city of Qom," said the Ayande website, seen as close to conservative politician Mohsen Rezaie. Mourners chanted back: "What happened to the oil money? It went to the Basijis."
The reformist Kaleme website said crowds had shouted: "Today is the day of mourning and the green Iranian nation is the owner of this mourning," referring to the opposition colour.
Mourners carried pictures of Montazeri and of another Qom-based dissident cleric, Grand Ayatollah Yusuf Sanei.
MOURNING FOR MONTAZERI
Opposition figures declared a national day of mourning for Montazeri, who was named in the 1980s to succeed revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini but was shunted aside after he criticised mass executions of prisoners.
Khamenei, who succeeded Khomeini after he died in 1989, expressed his condolences, but said he asked God to forgive Montazeri over a "difficult and critical test" that he faced towards the end of Khomeini's life, ISNA news agency said. Khamenei made it clear he believed Montazeri failed the test.
Iranian newspapers published no pictures of Montazeri on their front pages, in line with what reformist websites said were instructions from the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance.
Khomeini's grandson, Hassan Khomeini, a cleric, paid tribute in his condolence message to a man he said had "spent many years of his honourable life on the path of advancing the high goals of Islam and the Islamic revolution", ILNA news agency reported.
Human rights activist and Nobel Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi called Montazeri "the father of human rights in Iran".
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's re-election in a June vote that losing candidates Mousavi and Mehdi Karoubi said was rigged kindled the worst unrest in the Islamic Republic's 30-year history and split the political and clerical establishment.
In August, Montazeri said the authorities' handling of the unrest "could lead to the fall of the regime" and he denounced the clerical leadership as a dictatorship.
The authorities deny charges of electoral fraud and have portrayed the protests, quelled by Revolutionary Guards and Islamic militiamen, as a foreign-backed plot to undermine them.
"Montazeri was one of the chief spiritual and religious voices of the reformist movement," said Alireza Nader, Iran analyst at the RAND Corporation in Washington.
Nader said the cleric's status as a Shi'ite religious authority and his revolutionary credentials provided a cover of legitimacy for the reformists' political and social demands.
"His death leaves an important vacuum, but there are other senior clerics who are also outspoken against the Ahmadinejad administration and who demand political reform. His absence will not necessarily lead to a weakening of the opposition." (Writing and additional reporting by Alistair Lyon; editing by Andrew Dobbie)
No comments:
Post a Comment