Qom-bayah, My Lord
Iran has been awfully quiet lately. Too quiet:
On the eve of Iran’s annual Qods (Jerusalem) Day, September 18, 2009, which traditionally features mass demonstrations held by the regime, senior Iranian cleric and dissident Grand Ayatollah Ali Hossein Montazeri called on all senior clerics in Iran’s major cities - Qom, Mashhad, Tehran, Isfahan, Tabriz, and others (and also in Iraq’s holy Shi’ite cities Najaf and Karbala), to come out openly against the regime and to use their influence to restore the power to the people.
In a letter sent to all clerics in Iran, Montazeri underlined that in order to exist, the regime required the legitimacy granted to it by the country’s senior clerics. He said that the clerics’ silence in light of the events of recent months were being interpreted by the public as consent to the injustice of the regime - which he called a “military rule,” not the “rule of the jurisprudent.”
It is safe to assume that Montazeri’s call will have a significant impact on the upcoming Qods Day events.
We’ll find out in three days, I guess.