Juhayman and his followers, many of whom came from the Medina seminary, had the tacit support, amongst other clerics, of Sheikh Abdel-Aziz Bin Baz, the former Mufti of Saudi Arabia.
Since March 2010, at least 34 people have set themselves ablaze, the vast majority of them current or former Buddhist clerics, many of them young.
He immediately became a major patron to former Edwardian clerics and returning exiles.
The cracks in Iran's political establishment were highlighted last Friday when one of Iran's most powerful clerics, former president Akbar Rafsanjani, criticised the government's response to the election dispute.
Some of the lucre has gone to finance the pro-poor subsidies beloved of the president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, but big sums have also found their way into the pockets of senior clerics, former Revolutionary Guard commanders and well-connected businessmen at the heart of the economic elite.
In a broader sense, the protests and clashes have become more radical even as the establishment supporters of the opposition, former government insiders, clerics and contemporaries of Ayatollah Khomeini, have focused on repairing the damaged system, which they say has become corrupt and illegitimate.
Recent victims reportedly include the incumbent imam of the Noureddin Zangi mosque and a dozen other Sunni clerics in Mosul, as well as former Iraqi army officers who helped plan SIC's stunning seizure of Iraq's second-largest city last month.Yet Mr Baghdadi faces some big obstacles.
But his wife, Zahra Rahnavard, was able to enter the heavily-guarded burial plot along with former MPs and opposition clerics.
While Mr. Mashaei has not yet officially announced his candidacy, several clerics and former foreign ministers and intelligence officials have entered the race.
One of the kingdom's most famous clerics, the former grand mufti Sheikh Abdul Aziz ibn Baz, once declared, "Driving by women contradicts Islamic traditions followed by Saudi Citizens".
