Funeral for Ayatollah Montazeri turns into massive pro-reform protest in Iran

Grand Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri, one of Iran's respected religious clerics, died last Sunday at the age of 87. His funeral, which was held today in the city of Qom, turned into a massive protest against the government and questioned the authority of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader. Ayatollah Montazeri had openly criticized Khamenei in recent months, and the crowds that turned out today to bid him farewell have used Montazeri's memorial as an opportunity to voice their grievances with the current leadership.

These protests have been captured on video and uploaded to YouTube, as now seems to be the reliable pattern whenever there are demonstrations in Iran.

This video was allegedly taken inside Ayatollah Montazeri's home and shows his body being displayed inside of an open casket:

The two opposition candidates who ran against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the June 2009 Presidential election -- Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi -- attended the rally, further exciting the crowd.

Here's a playlist of some of the footage that's come in today: