TEHRAN, Iran — Thousands of supporters of Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, Iran’s most senior dissident cleric, marched through streets in his hometown and descended upon the country’s main theological center today to mourn his passing just days before the climax of a politically charged religious commemoration.
Montazeri, a pillar of the Islamic Revolution three decades ago who became a staunch defender of the nation’s current opposition movement, died late Saturday of natural causes, his doctor told state television. He was 87.
His death could further galvanize the protest movement that grew out of disputed presidential elections in June but that has been driven as much, if not more, by emotion over perceived injustice as rational political calculation.
Montazeri was an important figure in Iran’s post-revolutionary period, a respected and creative Islamic jurist and political theorist. He was slated to take over as the country’s supreme leader until a falling out with Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founding father of the Islamic Republic, over killings of political prisoners in the late 1980s. Montazeri became a defiant critic of the revolution he helped create.
“Ayatollah Montazeri will be remembered in the history of Iran as brave, open-minded and willing to say the truth at any time, even when encountering danger,” Fazel Maybodi, a mid-ranking reformist cleric and disciple of Montazeri, said from the city of Qom, the country’s religious center.
Montazeri’s death comes as the opposition prepares to hold protests to coincide with ceremonies marking the seventh- century martyrdom of Imam Hussein, a grandson of the prophet Muhammad and a highly revered figure within Iran’s majority Shiite Muslim faith.
Adding to the potential for unrest, the religiously significant seventh day following Montazeri’s death will fall on Ashoura, the often-frenzied culmination of Muharram, when Shiites pour into the streets to beat their chests and weep in ritual mourning of Hussein.
Opposition leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi declared today a national day of mourning and called on Iranians to come to Qom, where Montazeri died and is scheduled to be laid to rest during the day in the shrine of Fatemeh Masoumeh.
The roads leading south out of Tehran were clogged with traffic to Qom, where residents and students in the city of 1 million began text messaging and e-mailing friends in the capital to invite them to stay at their homes overnight.
On the restive campuses of Tehran, students gathered to mourn Montazeri, according to witnesses and online videos.
The main market and schools of Montazeri’s hometown, Najafabad, shut down as thousands holding black flags marched through the streets.
“Dictator! Dictator!” they chanted, according to video posted to the Internet. “Montazeri’s path will continue.”
Security forces were reportedly flooding Qom to head off potential unrest. At least one student of Montazeri’s, Ahmad Qabel, was arrested en route to the shrine city, a reformist website reported.
Cast out of the inner circle of power and stripped of his official posts after his split with Khomeini, Montazeri over the past two decades became an outspoken critic of the Islamic Republic, calling for greater democracy and respect for human rights and civil liberties. His stature and relevance rose following the disputed elections, when he became an advocate for the opposition movement.
