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Oil Bubbling discontent
December 23, 2009 Edition 1
If Iranian authorities had hoped they had got opposition protesters under control after disputed elections, the demonstrations on Monday at the funeral of Grand Ayatollah Hoseyn Ali Montazeri in Qom should have disabused them. Despite efforts to control the crowds by stopping transport, making arrests, interfering with the internet and trying to close down cellphone messaging, tens of thousands took part in the procession, many of them shouting anti-government slogans.
It is a sign of the fracture of Iran's political society that a funeral should arouse such repression. But it is also a demonstration of the terms in which political debate is still carried out that the occasion should be the death of a senior cleric in a holy city. Grand Ayatollah Montazeri was once regarded as the successor to the Islamic Revolution's founding father, Ayatollah Khomeini (junior to him in religious seniority). Montazeri had proved a consistent critic of the regime, arguing against the untrammelled authority of the Supreme Ruler and in October condemning the election.
The Iranian revolt is complex, encompassing not just the young and educated, but also factions within the ruling theocratic system. The death of Montazeri is significant because his views chimed in with those of a sizable number of conservative clerics, as well as more secular radicals.
That doesn't make the task of the West any easier. On the one hand, there is the natural desire to support the voices of dissent within Iran.
On the other hand, there is the danger that, by taking up their cause, the authorities will find it the easier to paint them as anti-Iranian stooges of the West. The dilemma is made all the more difficult by the growing confrontation with Tehran over its nuclear ambitions. It is a delicate path the West needs to tread, but it is one where we must keep emphasising our own belief in the virtues of democracy and our faith that Iran's future lies down that path. - The Independent
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