Free Republic

One of Iran's most prominent dissident clerics, Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, has died aged 87. Hossein Ali Montazeri was a moving spirit in the 1979 revolution which created Iran's Islamic state, and was at one stage set to become its leader. His fierce criticism of the slaughter by Khomeini in his prisons - ended in his being "banned" and theoretically "demoted". Announcing his death, the Mullah regime refused to even give him an Ayatollah title let alone his true Grand Ayatollah one, mentioning him only by his name. One of Shia Islam's most respected figures, he was also a...

Thirty years after the Islamic Revolution, the Islamic Republic of Iran - if one can still call it a republic - is at a crossroads. What has been manifesting itself on Iran's streets since the disputed presidential elections is not only the electorate's collective feeling of injustice and rage, but also the religious-political elite's underlying divide over the future of the velayat-e faqih and its entire political system. When Mohammad Khatami was president of Iran from 1997 to 2005, reformist hermeneutics largely centered on the notion of justice - a fundamental tenet of Shia jurisprudence - civil society and human rights.During his tenure,...

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, ended his prayer sermon in tears on Friday, invoking the name of a disappeared Shiite prophet to suggest that his government was besieged by forces of evil out to destroy a legitimate Islamic government. The opposition leader, Mir Hussein Moussavi, in criticizing the government, demanded the kind of justice promised by the Koran and exhorted his followers to take to their rooftops at night to cry out, “Allahu akbar,” or “God is great.” In the battle to control Iran’s streets, both the government and the opposition are deploying religious symbols and parables to portray...

Mennonites' gesture to Iran spurs protest Academics decry attempt at `dialogue' with 6 controversial Islamic scholars May 16, 2007 lynda hurst A group of Iranian-Canadian academics and artists is vehemently protesting an invitation by the Mennonite Central Committee of Ontario to six Iranian Islamic scholars to take part in a conference at the University of Waterloo this month. The Shia scholars, who are still awaiting visas, are from the Imam Khomeini Education and Research Institute. Its director is the controversial fundamentalist Ayatollah Mohammad Taqi Mesbah-Yazdi, spiritual adviser to Iran's hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. This year, six representatives from the institute...

The Shark and the Crocodile go head to head today in elections for a clerical assembly empowered to appoint the next supreme leader of Iran. The animals are the nicknames of two powerful figures vying for control of the panel. The Assembly of Experts has the power to appoint and dismiss Iran’s religious leader and during its next ten-year tenure will likely need to usher in a successor to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who is 67. The wider country will be putting the popularity of President Ahmadinejad to the test in today’s municipal elections. The poll is the first since he...

Ayatollah who backs suicide bombs aims to be Iran's next spiritual leader By Colin Freeman and Kay Biouki in Teheran, Sunday Telegraph Last Updated: 12:28am GMT 19/11/2006 An ultra-conservative Iranian cleric who opposes all dialogue with the West is a frontrunner to become the country's next supreme spiritual leader. Mohammad Mesbah-Yazdi In a move that would push Iran even further into the diplomatic wilderness, Ayatollah Mohammad Taghi Mesbah-Yazdi, 71, who publicly backs the use of suicide bombers against Israel, is campaigning to succeed Grand Ayatollah Ali Khameini, 67, as the head of the Islamic state. Considered an extremist even by...

Ayatollah Mohammad Taghi Mesbah Yazdi, the intellectual mentor of hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said, at a seminar titled “Supporters of Islamic Government”, One cannot expect everyone in a country of 70 million people to be deserving and righteous, but 7 million believers can be raised from amongst them.” In the same light, one of the students of the ayatollah Mohsen Garavian has said, “While a think can be a non-criminal activity from a perspective, but from another perspective it cal also be a crime.” In recent weeks, some of the supporters of Yazdi have filed a legal suit against the...

The Role of Hidden Imam in the history and the politics of the Islamic republic of Iran. The notion of the Hidden Imam (Islamic Messiah) has a central role in the Islamic Shiite thoughts. There are countless references to the Hidden Imam in the Shiite books. However, following the victory of the so-called Islamic Revolution in Iran (or as some people say: the hijacking of the Iranian revolution by the Mullahs), in 1979, the references to the Hidden Imam has gained a new importance. The main reason is that the power and wealth of an important oil-exporting contrary, with a...