TEHRAN -- Head of Iran's oversight Guardian Council Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati here Friday delivered a broadside at a university professor and journalist who has called for a religious restructuring in Shia-dominated Iran.

Addressing thousands of worshipers at the weekly Friday prayers, held at the Tehran University campus, the cleric described as 'naive' remarks made by a member of the mainstream Islamic Revolution's Mojahedin Organization Hashem Aghajari who had also likened the principle of emulation**** (taqlid)*** from a religious leader in Shia Islam to monkeys' mimicry.

"This person has talked so naively that seems improbable of a university lecturer, but this is not surprising of a person who is unable to even read the Qoar'an correctly and understand it," Ayatollah Jannati said.

"How does a person, who cannot read the Qoar'an, take the liberty to interpret it or make statements on important religious issues to challenge top religious figures?,"he asked.

Jannati further recalled the warnings of the Late Founder of the Islamic Revolution Imam khomeini(R) that Islamic values and religious teachings will be questioned at times, saying Aghajari's remarks had not been 'anything new'.

"There is nothing new in his words. Some people attack the Islamic teachings with insight, but this person has no education at all and speaks ignorantly," he added.

Ayatollah Jannati described the journalist as among 'westoxificated intellectuals' who 'do not know anything but claim to be intelligent'.

Aghajari's remarks triggered an outrage among many, who called on the Judiciary to take action against the intellectual journalist who is a war veteran as well as a member of the IRMO.

On Thursday, President Mohammad Khatami criticized in the northwestern city of Khalkhal in the Ardebil Province those who were 'insulting and weakening' clerics in the name of intellectualism and reform.

"Today, some neither can nor must undermine the clergy and dignified religious leadership of Islam in the name of intellectualism, nor should they misuse this issue for their factional interests in the name of being revolutionary and promoting Islam," the Iranian president said.