Iran Canceling Major Ramadan Events in Wake of Election Protests

          
          In Wake of Elec on Protests, har lan Officials Canceling Major Raniadan lttp://www.washingtorçost.com'wp-dyn /content/article/2009/09/06/AR...
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          Iran Canceling Major Ramadan
          Events in Wake of Election Protests
          By Thomas Erdbrink
          Washington Post Foreign Service
          Moixlay, September 7, 2009
          TEFIRAN, Sept. 6 - - Iranian officials have canceled or
          downgraded major Shiite religious events during the Muslim
          holy month of Ramadan, suggesting fear that the opposition
          might use them to stage protests.
          A typically massive evening celebration scheduled for next
          weekend at the South Tehran mausoleum of the Islamic
          republic's founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, was
          canceled “due to problems,” the site's public relations department said in a statement.
          A traditional speech by Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Mi Khamenei, marking the end of Ramadan,
          meanwhile, was changed from a large venue to one that is much smaller, the Ettemaad newspaper, which is
          critical of the government, reported Sunday.
          And in Qom, the nation's center for religious education, several famous clerics who silently support the
          opposition were told they had been barred from speaking at an event Wednesday in the city's most important
          shrine, the semiofficial Mehr News Agency reported.
          Although there have been no mass demonstrations since July, the cancellations and venue changes show that
          Iranian leaders are still worried about protests by followers of the defeated presidential candidates Mir
          Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi.
          The two men and their supporters say President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's landslide victory in the June 12
          election was rigged, an allegation the government denies. Protests in June and July badly shook the
          government, but a massive crackdown has kept streets relatively quiet for more than a month.
          In a statement released Saturday, Mousavi urged his followers to take on the “cheaters,” while Karroubi has
          called for Iranians to protest on Sept. 18, when official demonstrations against Israel are planned.
          “On Quds Day you will once again see the power of the people and realize which side the people support,” he
          said last week, invoking the official name of the yearly demonstration, according to the Sarmayeh newspaper.
          Former president Mohammad Khatami, a supporter of Mousavi, was scheduled to speak during religious
          ceremonies starting Wednesday at Khomeini's tomb, but has been barred from doing so. According to
          Ettemaad, millions of people were planning to attend. The event is organized annually by Khomeini's
          grandson Hassan, a 37-year-old cleric who supports Mousavi. He is the official custodian of the shrine.
          Ahmadinej ad's supporters among Revolutionary Guard Corps commanders, prayer leaders and hard-line
          lawmakers have repeatedly called for the arrest of Mousavi, Karroubi and Khatami, who they say are the
          leaders in a foreign-backed plot to bring down the government.
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          In Wake of Elec on Protests, Irazilan Officials Canceling Major Raniadan.. lttp://www.washingtozçost .com'wp-dyn /content/article/2009/09/06/AR...
          On Wednesday, in the most direct attack on Khatami to date, the commander in chief of the Revolutionary
          Guard Corps, Mohammad Au Jafari, accused the former president of being one of the organizers of the
          protests and said they were targeted at Khamenei, the supreme leader. Jafari quoted what he said was the
          transcript of a phone conversation involving Khatami. “If we win,” Jafari quoted Khatami as saying “we
          reach a regime with a weakened, or without, a supreme leader.” Jafari also said his forces had had information
          about a plot six months before the election.
          On Sunday, Khatami struck back. “We are against those who, in the name of opposing Western liberalism, are
          trying to force people down their own preferred path with fascist methods and totalitarian ideas,” Khatami
          said, according to Parlemannews, which is affiliated with the parliament faction controlled by his supporters.
          “I warn all the system's supporters to rebuild public trust before all chances are completely lost.”
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