Cleric Wields Religion to Challenge Iran's TheocracySource: The New York Times
Ayatollah Montazeri has emerged as the spiritual leader of the opposition, an adversary the state has been unable to silence or jail because of his religious credentials and seminal role in the founding of the republic.
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Clerics' Call for Ouster Challenges Iranian LeaderSource: The New York Times
A group of Iranian clerics has issued an anonymous letter calling Iran's supreme leader a dictator and demanding his removal, the latest and perhaps strongest rhetorical attack on him yet in the country's post-election turmoil.
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Iran Hardliners Accuse Opposition of 'Treason'Source: Google
"Evidence of Khatami and Mousavi's treason unveiled," thundered the headline in the hardline Kayhan newspaper.
"The plot leaders are corrupt people whose unforgiveable crimes include killing innocent people and cooperating with foreign enemies," it said.

And Khamenei lacks the stern, spellbinding charisma that bound the first revolutionary leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, so strongly to his people.