TIMES ONLINE: Iran’s Supreme Leader is seeking to ban the Iranian equivalent of Bonfire Night in case the opposition turns it into another protest against his regime.
“Charshanbeh Suri [Red Wednesday] has no Sharia basis and causes much harm and corruption and should be avoided altogether,” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei declared, in what opponents called a fatwa.
Millions of Iranians celebrate the festival, a prelude to the Persian new year, by lighting fires in the streets and letting off firecrackers on a night of anarchy that the regime has tolerated but never encouraged. It dates back to the Zoroastrian era but analysts said that Ayatollah Khamenei’s pronouncement had less to do with its un-Islamic origins than the fear that it would give the opposition a chance to show it was still a potent force. >>> Martin Fletcher | Tuesday, March 16, 2010
