Iran clerics declare election invalid and condemn crackdown

Perhaps there is a glimmer of hope that Iran will someday throw off the tyrannical yoke of the radical mullahs. But one has to ask, would the Association of Researchers and Teachers of Qom, who are now bucking Ayatollah Ali Khamenei stop Iran's nuclear bomb program if they were in power? I doubt it. Initially, nuclear power is Iran's way to regional dominance and eventually Islamic, global dominance of mankind.

It will be very interesting to see how much rebellion Ayatollah Ali Khamenei will tolerate from his fellow mullahs before he begins hanging them.

FROM TIMESONLINE.CO.UK:

Iran clerics declare election invalid and condemn crackdown

Martin Fletcher

Iran’s biggest group of clerics has declared President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s re-election to be illegitimate and condemned the subsequent crackdown.
The statement by the Association of Researchers and Teachers of Qom is an act of defiance against the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has made clear he will tolerate no further challenges to Mr Ahmadinejad’s “victory” over Mir Hossein Mousavi.
“It’s a clerical mutiny,” said one Iranian analyst. “This is the first time ever you have all these big clerics openly challenging the leader’s decision.” Another, in Tehran, said: “We are seeing the birth of a new political front.”
Professor Ali Ansari, head of Iranian Studies at St Andrews University, said: “It’s highly significant. It shows this is nowhere near resolved.”

The association’s statement also shows how deeply the political establishment is divided, and the extent to which the Supreme Leader now derives his power from military might, not moral authority. It makes it much harder for the regime to arrest Mr Mousavi and other opposition leaders.

At the weekend a top aide to Mr Khamenei demanded that Mr Mousavi and other opponents be tried for “terrible crimes”, and the elite Revolutionary Guards accused them of “trying to overthrow the Islamic establishment”.
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