A senior cleric who opposes religious rule of Iran and a number of his followers were arrested Sunday after clashes with the riot police over the weekend, news agencies reported.
About 1,000 supporters of the cleric, Ayatollah Mohammad Kazemeni Boroujerdi, gathered outside his home and on the streets leading to it on Saturday, the semiofficial ILNA news agency reported. They were there apparently to protect him from arrest and to protest the arrests over the past month of other supporters who had tried to protect him after a court had summoned him.
Another news agency, Entekhab, also reported that Ayatollah Boroujerdi and some supporters had been arrested. News reports quoted officials as saying that members of the crowd came armed with knives and daggers, and the reports said the riot police used tear gas to disperse them.
Ayatollah Boroujerdi said that he had written to the United Nations secretary general, Kofi Annan, to the European Union foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, and to Pope Benedict XVI and others seeking protection and asking them “to make efforts to spread traditional religion,” separate from politics, ILNA reported. “I believe people are fed up with political religion and want traditional religion to return,” ILNA quoted Ayatollah Boroujerdi as saying.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/09/world/middleeast/09iran.html?_r=2&hp&ex=1160366400&en=c5e2a3bf2a8ea757&ei=5094&partner=homepage&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
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