But followers of Moktada al-Sadr, a militant young cleric who would like to model Iraq on the clerical rule next door in Iran, said he would not be deterred and was a viable alternative.
Disenchantment with clerical rule has been growing for years.
Repression and anti-Americanism have helped sustain clerical rule for nearly a quarter of a century.
This class includes not only the traditional clerical elite, but also opponents of absolute clerical rule.
If he lets the demonstrations swell, it could well change the system of clerical rule.
The group, also known as the M.E.K., was a guerrilla organization opposed to clerical rule in Iran.
The young and impatient are growing increasingly intolerant not only of clerical rule, but of clerical prudence too.
Khomeini dissolved even his own, dominant, post-revolutionary Islamic Republic Party in 1984 when it became difficult to reconcile it with the exigencies of clerical rule.
In Qom, you can get into serious trouble if you declare your opposition to clerical rule, or to the theology that underpins it.
He said, "It says 'money-grubbers, bloodsuckers.' " For many Iranians, Ahmadinejad's ascendance represented the invincibility of clerical rule and the demise of the reformers.
One, Hojatoleslam Mohsen Kadivar, began to argue in the 1990s that Iran could not have clerical rule and claim to be a democracy at the same time.
