Iranian Clerics Defy Regime

Michael Slackman and Nazila Fathi report in The New York Times that an important group of clerics has spoken out publicly against the recent presidential election and suppression of protests in Iran.

An important group of religious leaders in Iran called the disputed presidential election and the new government illegitimate on Saturday, an act of defiance against the country’s supreme leader and the most public sign of a major split in the country’s clerical establishment.

A statement by the group, the Association of Researchers and Teachers of Qum, represents a significant, if so far symbolic, setback for the government and especially the authority of the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, whose word is supposed to be final. The government has tried to paint the opposition and its top presidential candidate, Mir Hussein Moussavi, as criminals and traitors, a strategy that now becomes more difficult.

Before this statement was released, the clerical establishment in Qum had remained silent prompting speculation as to where they stood on the issue. American academics say this show of defiance by a clerical group established after the 1979 revolution by the Ayatollah Khomeni as a leading authority of Shiite Islam in Iran is unprecedented and may lead to other clerics coming out publicly against the regime.

Despite the state suppression of street protests and coerced "confessions" from detained opposition leaders that they were tools of foreign influence, I agree with Andrew Sullivan that "This is not over. It is just beginning."

--Ballard Burgher