Source:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/iran/story...978635,00.html
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Ayatollah urged to abandon 'supreme leader' status
George Wright and agencies
Monday June 16, 2003
More than 250 Iranian intellectuals today called on Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to relinquish his status as Iran's "supreme leader" and abandon the principle of being God's representative on earth.
A statement, signed by university lecturers, writers and some clerics, urges him to accept that he is accountable to his people. The statement denounces as "heresy" the possession of absolute power, according to one report in the New York Times.
The move follows six nights of violent street protests in Tehran, in which pro-democracy campaigners have staged the biggest show of opposition to Iran's clerics for months.
The demonstrators also voiced unprecedented condemnation of Ayatollah Khamenei, including calling for his execution, despite the threat of imprisonment for criticising the supreme leader.
Iran's ruling clerics regard the ayatollah as God's representative, and believe that his word cannot be challenged.
However, the dissidents' statement, published in an Iranian newspaper today, said: "Considering individuals to be in the position of a divinity and absolute power ... is open polytheism (in contradiction to) almighty God, and blatant oppression of the dignity of human being.
"People (and their elected lawmakers) have the right to fully supervise their rulers, criticise them and remove them from power if they are not satisfied."
Among the 252 signatories, according to the Associated Press, were Hashem Aghajari, a lecturer imprisoned since last year on charges of insulting Islam and questioning clerical rule, and Ebrahim Yazdi, the leader of the opposition party, the Freedom Movement of Iran.
The signatories also included two aides to President Mohammad Khatami: Saeed Pourazizi, an official in the president's office, and Saeed Hajjarian, who is widely regarded as the architect of Mr Khatami's reform program.
The statement also backed last month's call for democratic reform by liberal legislators, saying: "We, university teachers, students, writers and political activists, thank and support the letter by lawmakers addressed to the supreme leader that respectfully mentioned people's minimum demands and voiced national concerns."
Last month, more than 120 lawmakers wrote an open letter to the ayatollah, calling on him to accept reform before "the whole establishment and the country's independence and territorial integrity are jeopardised."
The conservative clerics who control the judiciary, security forces and other unelected bodies, have been using their power thwart Mr Khatami's reform programme.
Meanwhile, the unrest in Tehran, which subsided this morning after police arrested dozens of hardline Islamist vigilantes who were attacking demonstrators, appeared set to continue.
An outspoken student leader, Heshmetollah Tabarzadi, was quoted in the Siyasat-E Rouz newspaper as saying that the protests would go on until a referendum on Iran's future is held.
Yesterday, the Iranian student news agency reported that students planned to hold their first daytime demonstration this afternoon.
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