DUBAI - The leader of Iran's judiciary warned an anti-government cleric Friday to stop questioning the legitimacy of Iran's leadership -- or else.

A Tehran protest added emphasis to the ominously vague warning to Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, with about 1,000 people turning out to chant "Traitor!" and "Death to Montazeri!"

Montazeri, one of Shiite Muslims' most senior theologians, crossed Iran's Islamic government last week when he issued a statement questioning the authority of the nation's leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

"This gentleman should understand that if he accepts the Islamic system, he can live freely. Otherwise, the people will take the next step," Yazdi said.

Pro-government Muslim militants occupied Montazeri's house in the holy city of Qom on Thursday, a day after security guards had to whisk the cleric to safety when a mob attacked his home.

In Paris, Massoud Rajavi, the head of an Iranian dissident group, the National Council of Resistance of Iran, issued a statement Friday condemning the attacks on Montazeri.

The conflict between Montazeri and the government has the potential to turn into a serious crisis. Montazeri has a considerable following in Iran and any attempt to arrest or punish him could lead to widespread protests.

Montazeri has criticized a system that has led to competing power centers, while the supreme leader can dictate all policies and stands above the law.

With the conservative Khamenei as supreme leader, Iran's president, Mohammad Khatami, is nearly powerless to implement his own policies.

Top Mullah Distances Himself From Khamenei, Iran Zamin News Agency, November 23 

Speaking in Qom, mullah Ali Meshkini, the head of the Assembly of Experts, emphasized upon the leadership of Khamenei, but admitted that Khamenei (mullahs’ supreme leader) was not qualified to be the Marja'-e Taqlid (source of emulation). He said: "Not being superior in religious authority, does not undermine one's qualifications as vali-e faqih."

Meshkini, whose remarks appeared in some of the state-run press, also condemned the attack on Montazeri's house in Qom by the Intelligence Ministry agents. Concerned over the regime's uncertain future, he thus distanced himself from Khamenei.

Additional reports from the cities in Isfahan province, central Iran, indicate that anti-Khamenei graffiti are distinctively visible on the walls.

Overview

A series of increasingly violent confrontations that have shaken Iran in recent weeks reflect growing tension between forces wanting to liberalize Iranian society and others who want to keep it strictly conservative, diplomats and political analysts say.

The tension reached a peak on Wednesday, when the police used tear gas to disperse a crowd that attacked and ransacked a religious school in the holy city of Qum. The crowd was angry that the school's director had called for curbs on the country's supreme religious leader, Ayatollah Ali Khameni, who has power over elected officials.

The director of the school, Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, played a powerful role in the first years of Islamic rule in Iran. He urged last week that religious figures not chosen by popular vote should "supervise, not rule" the country.

After the attack, a conservative press commentator asserted that critics of Ayatollah Khameni, who is said to represents the will of God, had been misled and were acting as "agents of a plot by world arrogance." Another said they were undermining "the cause of unity in Iran."

The attack and its aftermath were only the latest signs that forces with differing views of Iran's future are coming into sharper confrontation.

The confrontation broke into public view on Nov. 4, when two separate demonstrations were held to mark the anniversary of the takeover of the United States Embassy in Tehran and seizure of American diplomats there as hostages in 1979. There was to have been only one demonstration, but disputes over speakers and political content led to a split.

Last week, religious and political radicals shouted down Abdolkarim Soruch as he sought to give a speech at Tehran Polytechnic University.

Three days later they disrupted and forced the cancellation of a conference there at which Soruch and others were to have discussed the morality of hostage-taking. That is a highly sensitive subject in Iran because some politicians and others who supported the hostage-taking in 1979 are still active public figures.

Also last week, assailants broke into and ransacked the office of a student group whose leader, Heshmatollah Tabarzadi, had called for limits on Ayatollah Khameni's power and his term in office. Several members of the group, including Tabarzadi, were severely beaten...

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