| FrontPageMag.com | By Robert Spencer | By Hugh Fitzgerald | Books | Dhimmi Watch | Islam 101 | Qur'an Blog | Raymond Ibrahim | Robert Spencer |  |
|
|
|||||||||||
|
|
Bad news for the Iranian authorities, who tried to dodge the issues Borujerdi addressed by accusing him of claiming to represent the Mahdi: This cleric seems to have a fairly significant following, and his arrest won't end the discussion about the separation of clerical and civil authority. "Iran arrests controversial cleric and followers," from AFP:
TEHERAN - Iran has arrested a controversial cleric and some of his followers who advocate separating religion and poitics, a taboo in Islamic Iran, after clashes with police, the student ISNA agency said on Sunday.
Hundreds of supporters of Ayatollah Mohammad Kazemeini Borujerdi had gathered on Saturday around his house in Teheran to protest the arrest of a number of the Shiite cleric’s followers and restrictions imposed on him, press reports said.
"The ones behind Saturday’s unrest were arrested. All including, Mr Borujerdi, have been handed over to judiciary officials," said a security official in Teheran governor’s office, identified only by his last name, Roshan.
Roshan said the police had previously sought to contain these "sectarian elements" but yesterday "they were carrying Molotov cocktails, knives, swords and clubs to confront the police."
"They even (for a time) took members of the force hostage and threw acid on policemen and vandalized public property," he said, adding "calm has been restored" in the crowded neighborhood in downtown Teheran.
A report in reformist Hambastegi daily said the Special Court for Clergy had recently tried to arrest Borujerdi but faced by resistance by his supporters.
Questioning a pillar of the Islamic republic, the ayatollah has said "we believe people have grown tired of political religion and they want to return to traditional religion. "The objective of my followers and me is in defending traditional religion," the semi-official ILNA news agency quoted the ayatollah as saying.
But the deputy head of Teheran police, Commander Nasser Shabani, accused the ayatollah of claiming to be the representative of the Shiites’ "hidden" twelfth Imam, Mahdi, and misinterpreting religion.
"A person has gathered some naive people around to pledge donations and have their wishes come true, which is a sheer lie and distortion of religion," he told ILNA.
The protesters were reportedly shouting slogans such as "religious freedom is our right" and "freedom is our undeniable right", and carried banners that said "we are ready to be martyred to defend traditional religion".
His aims breach a taboo in Islamic Iran -- a theocracy in which the all-powerful supreme leader is a cleric chosen by a top Shiite clerical assembly.
Posted by Marisol at October 8, 2006 4:08 PM
Print this entry
| Email this entry
| Digg this
| del.icio.us
I appears to me that Mr Borujerdi is trying to hijack Islam.
Posted by: Pelayo![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.jihadwatch.org/nav-commenters.gif)
at October 8, 2006 4:18 PM
I demand riots and burning of effigies. Where is the outrage, how dare they attack islam?
Posted by: Ronin at October 8, 2006 4:52 PM
I was at a party last night with a lot of Iranians, so I was trying to figure out what they think is going to happen. Some people said that an attack on Iran will increase support for "the mullahs," while others said that the US could topple the regime like a house of cards any time they wanted, because they have so little internal support, but that financial interests (most European countries) are standing in the way. Their basic point was that "the mullahs" are only interested in stealing more money, which they stuff into foreign bank accounts. All I concluded is that it is very difficult to understand what is really happening by reading news accounts.
at October 8, 2006 6:00 PM
Why did this cleric speak up against what are "obvious truths" in Iran? Is it because he's a reformer or is it because he can't get his share of loot? These mad mullahs resemble military dictators in that they should stick to their areas of expertise and leave governing to those who know how. When they do not then the country they try to run usually ends up being a cesspool.
Posted by: ISLAMSFORLOSERS at October 8, 2006 6:11 PM
Their basic point was that "the mullahs" are only interested in stealing more money, which they stuff into foreign bank accounts.
This is probably said because some people find it hard to believe that the mullahs are as religious as they seem to be. It's easy to cite money as the motivation instead of facing the reality of the religious fervor that they cannot understand. I'll bet that they have never seen any evidence that the mullahs are squirreling away any money.
Posted by: Pelayo at October 8, 2006 6:13 PM
These mad mullahs resemble military dictators in that they should stick to their areas of expertise and leave governing to those who know how.
These mad Mullahs are Islamic scholars, or at least think they are. The Quran, Sunnah, and the hadiths are all anyone needs to know to govern. They believe this because the Perfect Man said so.
Posted by: Pelayo at October 8, 2006 6:18 PM
Borujerdi is a good man. It is easy to believe that all Muslims are addled by the Jihad ideology, but that really doesn't make sense, particularly in a relatively modern, industrialized country like Iran with a long storied history before the Islamic conquest. This guy is a mortal threat to the Mullah's regime - all he needs is a big enough soapbox. They will use all due force to crush him and his followers. It is important to remember that many, perhaps a majority of Muslims living in the west want the religious authorities out of their face, and the Jihadis are fomenting outrage and slinging threats, as much to intimidate infidels into dhimmitude as to keep their own skeptics and "Muslims for identification purposes only" in the faith and unable to assimilate.
Posted by: Quijybo at October 8, 2006 6:47 PM
Off-topic, but thought I'd point this out at LGF: Muslims riot in Sweden, police helpless as usual.
Posted by: Jesus Christ Supercop at October 8, 2006 7:08 PM
If Mr. Borujerdi gets to America, he is cordially invited to examine the claims of Christ in a Presbyterian context. After all, the Rev'd Dr. Witherspoon was able to accommodate his brethren's feelings to the fact they were no longer the establishment, as they were back in Scotland.
Posted by: Kepha at October 8, 2006 7:37 PM
There are great numbers of Iranians in western Europe. Also in Dearborn USA, and even in Tokyo, Japan, among other places.
Being of the fanatical Muslim-variety, one wonders why and how they got permission to settle behind enemy lines, in the lands of the infidels: It clearly can't be political asylum because of persecution at home, they are exactly of the same mindset of those raving lunatics in Teheran...
INTERNMENT & DEPORTATIONS!
Whatever it takes to restore the peace...
Posted by: sheik yer'mami at October 8, 2006 10:54 PM
I think the Japanese translator of "The Satanic Verses" was killed by an Iranian.
http://www.asiamedia.ucla.edu/religion/article.asp?parentid=40041
Posted by: non-redneck at October 8, 2006 11:56 PM
This cleric is still a Muslim. The problem is not Islam and politics in Iran mixing; the problem, as always, is Iran being Islamic. If Iran suddenly de-couples Islam from government without de-Islamizing its population, that won't solve things; down the road, when times become bad, as will happen at different points in any country's history, they could see another 1979 like revolution.
The only way out is Iran de-Islamizing, preferably converting en masse to Zoroastrianism. Unless and until that happens, I'm not going to be comfortable with any trends coming out of Iran.
Posted by: Infidel Pride at October 9, 2006 1:53 AM
The notion of a non-political Islam is, of course, fantastic. As is the idea of Islam itself.
From day one, Islam was issuing unilateral military treaties and levying taxes (protection rackets, actually, but what's the difference). And laws. The Koran, as stilted and subliterate and historically mistaken as it is, set forth an entire code.
So this heroic Moslem imam is just another... Moslem. That is to say, just another confused individual with a beard. There are so many nowadays.
Posted by: Alarmed Pig Farmer at October 9, 2006 3:22 AM
Comments are turned off and archived for this entry.
(Note: The Comments section is provided in the interests of free speech only. It is mostly unmoderated, but comments that are off-topic, offensive, slanderous, or otherwise annoying stand a chance of being deleted. The fact that any comment remains on the site IN NO WAY constitutes an endorsement by Jihad Watch or Dhimmi Watch, or by Robert Spencer or any other Jihad Watch or Dhimmi Watch writer, of any view expressed, fact alleged, or link provided in that comment.)