KHAMENEH'I ORDERED TOTAL CRACKDOWN ON THE NATIONALIST-RELIGIOUS
Exclusive to IPS
TEHRAN 16 Mar. (IPS) Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khameneh’i has declared an open war on the nationalist-religious and had directed the Judiciary he controls to "eradicate the movement he considers "more dangerous" for his autocratic theocracy than the reformists, according to well informed sources in Tehran.
"The decision to eliminate the nationalist-religious has been taken with the tacit accord of President Mohammad Khatami", the sources said, adding that the massive crackdown on the group, formed by both clergymen and religious-inclined civilians wishing to modernise Islam and adapt the 1400 years-old rigid fate with modern days world, would be intensified in the coming days and weeks.
The nationalist-religious, best symbolised in the "Iran Freedom Movement" (IFM) of the late Mehdi Bazargan, the first post-revolution provisory Prime Minister had been in the "cyclone’s eye" ever since it had been declared as "treacherous" and "more dangerous than the atheists" by Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founding father of the Islamic Republic that toppled Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi in 1979.
One of the reasons Ayatollah Khamenehe'i "loathes" the nationalist-religious is that though they "honour" the Constitution of the Islamic Republic, but at the same time reject its component of "velayat faqih", or the absolute "rule of the leader", a role played by Mr. Khamenehe'i, a junior Hojjatoleslam elevated overnight to the rank of Ayatollah after the death of Mr. Khomeini in 1989.
"The nationalist-religious enjoys great sympathy and support from the middle classes and the students because of their independence from both the government, the bulk of the reformists and the ruling conservatives", observed one political analyst who asked not be named.
Because they call for bringing Islam with modernity in the one hand and on the other criticising the shortcomings of the reformists they support, the nationalist-religious are hated by the conservatives and feared by the reformists.
Security agents raided the house of Mr. Mohammad Basteh-Negar, a nationalist-religious activist late Sunday afternoon and arrested all the thirty men and women who had gathered there to "review and evaluate the situation".
Eyewitnesses present at the scene said the agents produced warrant delivered by the Tehran Islamic revolution court charging the participants of "fomenting plots against the security of the State and discussing ways of toppling the regime".
In a meeting Thursday with Majles Speaker Hojjatoleslam Mehdi Karrubi, families of some of the detainee complained that the "Voice and Visage" (of the Islamic Republic, VVIR, or the Iranian Radio and Television) that is under the direct control or the leader had labeled the arrested ones as "mohareb" (fighting God) and "plotting to topple the regime".
"Mr. Karrubi told us that from about forty days ago, a tune that he described as a new and innovative trend has emerged within the Judiciary and other circles against the nationalist-religious movement, on the basis that the group has changed from a critic opposition into discussing ways and means of toppling the regime" ", Mrs. Tahereh Taleqani, the wife of Mr. Basteh-Negar said about the audience with Mr. Karrubi.
"The move has started with the measures taken against Mr. Ezzatollah Sahabi and the arrest made last Sunday is a follow up to the accusations that the group arrested Sunday has had gatherings about overthrowing the regime", Mrs. Taleqani quoted the Speaker as having revealed.
Arrested three months ago on charges of having participated at the now famous "Berlin Conference" and sentenced to four and half years jail, the 75 years-old veteran politician and journalist, Mr. Sahabi has been transferred to a special prison and subjected to such intense psychological tortures that he did not recognised members of his family allowed to visit him recently, according to his daughter.
Mrs. Taleqani also quoted the Head of the Islamic revolution court that had issued the warrants as having confirmed the charges to members of other families who met him, adding that the trial would be held behind closed doors.
She said Judiciary authorities are deliberately disseminating false and wrong information to other officials and added at the same time that so far nine of the arrested have been released while another twelve are still in prison.
Among the persons arrested Sunday were known and popular personalities such as Mr. Habibollah Peyman, the leader of Militant Muslims Movement (MMM) and his wife, several independent journalists like Mr. Taqi Rahmani, Mrs. Fatemeh Govara’i and Ahmad Zeydabadi, who was just released from prison on bail, his father and brother as well as prominent scholars and clergymen reformers etc.
The raid came shortly after President Mohammad Khatami, in a lengthy speech pronounced in the Majles (parliament), had slammed those who call for a change in the present Iranian Constitution, calling for the separation of religion from politics.
The arrest that many Iranian observers and political analysts said was "unprecedented by the size in the past decade" took place at a time that the President was in meeting with the leader, discussing Mr. Khatami’s visit to Russia.
Mrs. Mahdyeh Mohammadi, the wife of Mr. Zeydabadi told the Persian service of the BBC that the arrest was surprising as such meetings were not new and the authorities knew that.
Families of the detainees immediately went to the branch of the Islamic revolution court that had issued the warrant but were turned back, being told that nobody knows were their relatives have been taken to.
"The actions of the Islamic Revolution Tribunal showed clearly that the hue and cry orchestrated prior to the President’s (Sunday) speech were pre-planned and conducted by the very same group. This is an act against national security that can not and should not be pardoned", wrote the daily "Jomhoori Eslami" (Islamic Republic) that belongs to the fundamentalist Khameneh’i.
"Resalat", another conservatives-controlled paper that speaks for the Bazaar oligarchy that is closely associated with the ruling hard line faction said, "looking for specific documents, security agents, acting on precise information, raided the house of Mr. Basteh-Negar and they found both the documents and some people they suspected", confirming the "new innovative initiatives" against the nationalist-religious. ENDS NATIONALIST-RELIGIOUS CRACKDOWN 16301