My fellow countrymen,
The death of Grand Ayatollah Montazeri, one of the founders of Iran’s clerical regime, leaves us with mixed emotions.
On the one hand, Ayatollah Montazeri had a vital role in establishing “Vellayat-e Faghih”, the bloodiest and most backward regime in the long history of our country. During the first decade of this Islamic regime, his key role in planning the regime’s agenda led to his being named the “true scion of Imam” and he was appointed as a substitute to the “Valli-e Faghih”. If Ayatollah Montazeri’s political career had been limited to just these actions, his death would have stimulated little regret.
However, during the last two decades, Mr. Montazeri gradually took a different position from the regime he helped found. He criticized the motives of the leaders of the regime in their continuance of the war with Iraq, and towards the end of the war he condemned the brutal carnage of thousands of Iranian youths. Thus, he was expelled from the circles of power.
It was after the stolen June elections and the bloody repression that followed that finally turned Mr. Montazeri into a total critic of the regime, repudiating the legal legitimacy of the regime as well as its supreme leader. In his various interviews and statements, more than any other repented clergyman, he denounced the aggression and violence by the regime’s leaders and their accomplices towards the Iranian people.
Without a doubt, Mr. Montazeri’s speeches created a gulf within the ranks of the Islamic Republics’ leadership, triggered the conscience of the Revolutionary Guards and Basijies, and provided comfort to the Freedom Movement.
The political life of Ayatollah Montazeri illustrates the possibility of the transition of mind and manor. Anything is possible, even freedom. Let us hope that his generation and his fellow clergymen will choose to follow the path that late Ayatollah Montazeri decisively followed and
will also help Iranians in their quest for freedom.
God bless Iran
