Word: sharietmadari
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...Iran's northwestern city of Tabriz (pop. 1 million), tens of thousands of Azerbaijani Turks, the country's largest ethnic minority, revolted against Khomeini's rule shortly after a referendum had made him a virtual dictator for life. The rebels are followers of Ayatullah Kazem Sharietmadari, who is both Khomeini's leading religious rival and Iran's foremost Muslim moderate. They demanded autonomy for Azerbaijan...
With the referendum behind him, the next step for Khomeini was to name the members of his new government. But this process was suddenly interrupted by the revolt of the Azerbaijani Turks, who follow the leadership of Iran's second most powerful ayatullah, Sharietmadari. They number about 13 million out of Iran's total population of 35 million, and have long sought autonomy. When Sharietmadari expressed mild reservations about the new constitution-he wanted some checks on Khomeini's power-and said that he would boycott the polls, most of his followers in Azerbaijjrfi followed suit...
...days after the referendum, trouble broke out in Qum, where Khomeini, Sharietmadari and most of Iran's top Shi'ite leaders live. Several hundred Khomeini supporters gathered in the bazaar, shouting slogans against Sharietmadari, and then marched on his house. Among them were young men in black shirts, beating themselves with chain flails-the traditional Shi'ite expression of penitence...
They clashed with a group of Azerbaijanis who had made a pilgrimage to Qum to see Sharietmadari. Pro-Khomeini guards fired into the air and used tear gas to disperse the crowd. Later, an unidentified sniper killed one man guarding Shariet-madari's house. Subsequently, an Iranian soldier was killed and nine people injured...
Secular opposition to the new constitution has been feeble and ineffective. A small group of dissenting Experts, discreetly supported outside the Assembly by Seyed Kazem Sharietmadari-after Khomeini, the second most popular Ayatullah in Iran-gingerly tried to revise Article 5 on legal grounds in order to ensure the sovereignty of the electorate; the Assembly majority ignored the plea. In the country at large, however, Asian and Western diplomats believe they discern more significant pockets of brewing resistance...