In December the moderate Islamic party Muslim People’s Republican Party (MPRP) and its spiritual leader Mohammad Kazem Shariatmadari had become a rallying point for Iranians who wanted democracy not theocracy. Riots broke out in Shariatmadari’s Azeri home region with members of the MPRP and Shariatmadari’s followers seizing the Tabriz television station and using it to “broadcast demands and grievances.