Anti Khamenei slogans chanted at large Iran protest
BBC says mourners chanted anti-government slogans at the funeral of a senior dissident cleric in Isfahan.
By JPOST.COM STAFFAyatollah Ali Khamenei prays 390(photo credit: REUTERS)
Mourners chanted slogans against the Iranian government and Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei describing him as a dictator in the largest Iranian anti-government protest in years at the funeral of a senior dissident cleric in Isfahan on Tuesday, according to the BBC.Tens of thousands of people attended the funeral of Ayatollah Jalaluddin Taheri in Iran's second largest city.The protest was the largest such protest in Iran in the past few years according to reporter Kasra Naji of BBC Persian who reported that the police did not intervene. Taheri, who died on Sunday at 87, was a pro-reformist Friday prayer leader in Isfahan who resigned from his post in protest, and was a vocal opponent of the Iranian hardliners in power, according to the report. Protesters at the funeral chanted “shame on the dictator” and called for lifting house arrest on reformist and opposition leaders, Saudi news outlet Al-Arabiya reported.In his scathing 2002 resignation letter Taheri wrote, “The principle of republic means constant change of officials. Civil society means repeated and unabated critic and contesting of government plans and revolution means satisfying and guaranteeing people’s demands. Unfortunately, today’s realities are far different,” Ayatollah Taheri wrote in the opening of his letter, Al-Arabiya reported. "Neither the Shah nor the Americans have any influence in this country, then why blaming them for shortcomings, failures and problems? Why not listening to positive critics and using real competences and brains,” Ayatollah Taheri wrote in his letter.
