Senior Dissident Iranian Cleric Ayotollah Montazeri Passes Away

Iranian Ayotollah, Hossein Montazeri passed due to heart failure. His loss is a big loss not just in Iran but in anywhere there are people who yearn for freedom. He was a prominent founder of the Islamic republic who was once designated to be the successor to Ayotollah Khomeini. He had a falling out with Khomeini over the fatwa against Salman Rushdie, saying that the world will think that Iran's business is murdering people. He also angered Khomeini by calling for a political and ideological reconstruction of their system.

He should reminds us of the great Chinese leader, Zhao Ziyang, who as the secretary general of the communist party, the lone dissenter against the military crackdown in Tiananmen Square. He was a believer in that a parliamentary system was needed to support China's transition toward a market economic system. 1989 was the year of both of their downfalls. Montazeri over his statements in regards to the way things were handled in the Islamic republic. Tiananmen square was Ziyang's. (wiki)He went down to the protesters on the eve of the crackdown to warn them. The end result was years under house arrest. Ayotollah Montazeri was placed under house arrest after criticizing Khomeini's successor. After being released in 2003, he continued to be vocal by backing the Iranian reform movement. He has accused the government backed by Supreme Leader Ayotollah Khamanei of being " neither Islamic nor a republic." Just recently he accused the civilian religious militia the Basij as following the "path of Satan instead of the path of God." he railed against the crackdown against the opposition after last June's disputed election and voiced his support for them. (NYT)

Hopefully his death during these tumultous times in Iran will allow him to have one last hurrah by emboldening the oposition to expose the tyranny of Ayotollah Khamanei's spiritually bankrupt regime.

His death should be marked fanfare by the US and and by other leaders of the West. He was an important Islamic scholar who called for greater civil liberties in a part of the world where leaders stifle it in the name of Islam. Although both Montazeri and Ziyang failed in life to change the system they helped create, their memories will not fade.