The Islamic Republic of Iran, one of the world's only theocratic governments ruled by clerics, is undergoing a major crisis of legitimacy .As thousands of Iranians braved state police in the streets of Tehran and other major cities, the Islamist state now faces considerable resistance from many oppositional factions, who see the elections as fraudulent and the ruling clerics as morally corrupt. Amid such crisis, one unlikely faction that has emerged to confront the regime is the Shia Islamic leadership based in the shrine-city of Qom.