Hundreds of hardline demonstrators in Tehran called...

Hundreds of hardline demonstrators in Tehran called for the execution of Hashem Aghajari, a popular academic and ally of President Mohammad Khatami sentenced to death for blasphemy. Following the weekly Muslim prayers some 1,000 demonstrators marched for some 200 metres (yards) outside Tehran's university campus, the scene of student rallies in support of Aghajari. The demonstrators chanted "Hashem Aghajari must be executed" and "Iran's Salman Rushdie must be executed", in reference to the British author whom former Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini ordered killed for alleged blasphemy in his novel "The Satanic Verses". They also chanted slogans condemning the United States, Israel and those opposed to Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and signed a petition of support for the death sentence issued by a court in Hamedan, western Iran. Pro-Aghajari students, who had no plans to demonstrate on the day, were not in evidence. "Khamenei, we are ready", the demonstrators said in response to an earlier warning by Khomeini's successor that he may resort to "popular force" to end a mounting crisis between the Islamic republic's reformist and conservative camps. Aghajari's lawyer said the history lecturer could in theory be executed within 20 days from November 13, when the verdict was officially announced in writing. Friday prayer leader Ayatollah Mohammad Emami-Kashani avoided the Aghajari issue in his sermon but raised "economic matters" as the Islamic Republic's main problem. Conservatives frequently criticize Khatami's government for focusing on social and political matters but failing to address high unemployment, inflation and corruption.