TEHRAN, Iran - Iran's largest reform party and more than 100 lawmakers have come out in support of a popular cleric who resigned in protest over the hard-line authorities, reports said Thursday.
The outpouring of sympathy for Ayatollah Jalaleddin Taheri came despite an order by the Supreme National Security Council that banned newspapers from publishing reports for or against the cleric.
Taheri quit as a prayer-leader in the central city Isfahan on Tuesday, saying that hard-liners in the ruling establishment were "paralyzing" civil and elected institutions in the name of religion to preserve their power.
The Islamic Iran Participation Front, a reform party led by Mohammad Reza Khatami, the younger brother of President Mohammad Khatami, said Taheri's denunciation of the influence of unelected conservatives reflected the view of millions of Iranians.
In a statement on its website, the party said: "The importance of his message is that as a cleric, he has revolted against the injustice, monopolies and dictatorship imposed (by clerics) on this nation in the name of religion."
No fewer than 125 reformist lawmakers had signed a letter supporting Taheri, newspapers reported Thursday.
"We understand your pains and hope people will listen before making any negative reaction and open way for achievement of public demands," the daily Mardom Salari, or democracy, quoted the letter as saying.
Several papers defied the ban imposed by the Supreme National Security Council, devoting pages to comments on Taheri's resignation statement.
The council said its ban was necessary to "preserve calm and unity," the newspaper Nowruz said Thursday.
The council is the highest decision-making body on security matters. It is headed by President Khatami and its members the interior and intelligence ministers, top military and police officers and representatives of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
In a separate development Thursday, the government-owned daily Iran reported that police have detained over 140 people who defied a ban on demonstrations Tuesday to attended a peaceful rally outside Tehran University.
Officials were not available for comment Thursday.
Khatami's program of political freedoms and reforms has effectively been thwarted by hard-liners in the judiciary, who have closed more than 50 liberal newspapers and detained or imprisoned dozens of journalists and political activists.
Under criticism for failing to stand up to the hard-liners, Khatami has said he prefers a slower pace of reform to avoid riots.
"At a time when hard-line opponents don't agree to the ABC of healthy politics and refuse to respect people's votes, Khatami fears that a strong high-profile policy might bring about heightened tension, political uncertainty and even collapse," the reformist writer Abbas Abdi told The Associated Press.