President Mahmood Ahmadinejad of Iran declared last week that he had instructed his justice officials to release hundreds of detainees in a show of “Islamic compassion.”
But Mr. Ahmadinejad’s proclamations ring hollow when measured against the brutal repression his loyal security forces waged against unarmed protestors in the aftermath of the controversial elections that returned him to power. At the same time Mr. Ahmadinejad was calling for compassion, his government launched public show trials of senior Iranian reformers, claiming they were acting as agents of foreign powers.
None of the recent measures taken by the Iranian regime resembles anything deemed to be compassion of any kind. In fact, Mr. Ahmedinejad’s use of the terms “Islamic” and “justice,” many believe, was a cynical display of demagoguery.
So says Dr. Mohsen Kadivar, a prominent Iranian philosopher-theologian and advocate of political reform, now a visiting professor of religion at Duke University. Of the Iranian president’s public statement of commitment to Islamic compassion, Kadivar says: “Ahmadinejad is a proponent of violence, not compassion. He is a liar.”
These are fighting words by any reckoning. But Kadivar, who spent 18 months in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison from 1999-2000, is known to be a man who chooses his words carefully. Reflective and soft-spoken, with a face that breaks easily into a smile, the 50-year-old Kadivar was trained in the shrine-city of Qum, which today is home to Iran’s most famous seminaries. He has the credentials of an ayatollah in terms of academic training and authorization by his peers, but does not flaunt his status.
Kadivar is an outspoken critic of the theological doctrine that validates the role of the supreme leader; a position of political and religious authority that, he argues, leads to totalitarian government. He is also a protégé of Grand Ayatollah Husein Ali Montazeri. Montazeri is perhaps the most prominent religious figure in Iran today, someone the regime has repeatedly tried to silence. He was subject to debilitating house arrest for five years until 2002. Not only was Montazeri one of the prominent architects of Iran’s controversial theocratic political system, he was also for a time the named successor to Ayatollah Ruhullah Khomeini, the man who spearheaded the Islamic Revolution and served as its first supreme leader—a position that later fell to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
In post-revolutionary Iran, two portraits of compassion play out in public for those who have long memories: the antics of the politician Ahmadinejad vs. the deeds of the aging cleric Montazeri. The comparison becomes even more poignant in the light of recent events in Iran as seen through the eyes of Kadivar.
When Kadivar speaks of the recent developments in his homeland, his eyes moisten and he bears an agonized expression; especially as he tells of the horrific reports of torture filtering out of Iran. Apart from the reported imprisonment of thousands and the death of an estimated 100 people, what has appalled Kadivar beyond measure are the widespread reports of torture. Arrested protesters, he says, were stacked upright into overfilled prisons and deprived of food for over 48 hours. The only water they could drink, or lick, was hosed onto the same prison floor where inmates were forced to relieve themselves.
“There are two things that I never expected to see in my lifetime,” said Kadivar. “One was that Iranians would face torture on this scale and ferocity; the other was that the regime would be so badly shaken to resort to such desperate measures.” While he himself was never tortured while imprisoned, he was aware that individual dissidents were subjected to cruelty and even death at the hands of the regime in recent years. What has shocked Kadivar is the scale of the regime’s atrocities and the rapid moral deterioration of the legitimacy of the state.
Montazeri’s Courage
Since the elections fiasco, president Ahmadinejad has taken refuge in the authority of Ayatollah Khameni (Iran’s current supreme leader), sheltered by the repressive security forces under the latter’s command. By contrast, nearly two decades ago, Ayatollah Montazeri fell from grace because he refused to ingratiate himself with then supreme leader, the late Ayatollah Khomeini, on a crucial policy decision.
Montazeri’s legendary commitment to compassion, justice, and the human rights of prisoners put him on a collision course with Khomeini and the revolutionary hardliners, a path that changed his destiny in the Islamic Republic. Ahmadinejad’s turn to compassion allows him a grip on power as Iran is plunged into domestic instability and made vulnerable internationally.
Nearly two decades ago, Ayatollah Montazeri tried to draw attention to the gradual moral decline of the Islamic Republic but was rebuked and marginalized for doing so. In fact, Montazeri’s courageous stance evokes greater admiration in hindsight if one kept in mind both the political context at the time and his own personal story.
Some history:
In the summer of 1988, six days after Ayatollah Khomeini accepted a United Nations-brokered ceasefire with Iraq (then a US ally under Saddam Hussein), the leftist Mujahidin-i Khalq Organization, bitterly opposed to Tehran, launched a devastating attack that razed the town of Islamabad-e Gharb. With full logistical and air support from Iran’s then menacing neighbor, this attack alone caused Iran’s casualties to soar to an estimated 55,000 people.
After this incident, Ayatollah Khomeini viewed the Khalq as mortal enemy combatants and immediately invoked powers to declare a state of exception that called for extreme measures. For the thousands of non-combatant Khalq prisoners (all of them Iranian citizens opposed to the Islamic Republic), this turned out to be literally a matter of life and death. Khomeini offered all Khalq prisoners an ultimatum: recant and denounce the Khalq or face summary execution.
In the heat of that national crisis of war and extreme danger to the fledgling Islamic Republic, Montazeri turned dissident. In a letter included in his Persian-language biography, he told Khomeini that according to Islamic law and ethics it was impermissible to execute persons who were not engaged in subversive military activities against the state. The estimated 3,000 to 5,000 imprisoned Khalq members had a right to disagree with the Islamic state, argued Montazeri, but execution was a heinous crime and could not even be contemplated. His protests fell on deaf ears. Thousands of Khalq members were executed and Montazeri’s troubles had just begun.
Ayatollah Montazeri’s principled position seems even more admirable when taking into account that the Khalq was likely responsible for the death of his son, Muhammad Montazeri, who was killed during a bombing at the annual conference of the Islamic Republican Party in 1981.
Even though the Khalq had caused Montazeri great personal loss, his grief did not prevent him from offering compassion and justice to his adversaries.
Mr. Ahmadinejad has yet to show a brand of compassion that does not deliver personal political dividends.
Tags: ahmadinejad, ayatolla montazeri, compassion, iran, islam, mohsen kadivar
Every sura of the Qur'an begins with "Bismillah Er-Rahman Er-Rahim" which can be translated as "We/I begin in the Name of Allah who is most merciful and most compassionate." The Qur'an opens with the Fateha which repeatedly uses Er-Rahman and Er-Rahim in various ways that strongly emphasize their significance in Islam. "Islam" means "submission" as in submitting to the will of Allah and following the divine guidance from within one's loving heart. "Islam" also means "peace" as in the peace one realizes through such submission to Allah.
Unfortunately, people such as Mr. Ahmadinejad, Ayatollah Khameni and Ayatollah Khomeini have all fallen into the trap of submitting to their own wills, to their own small egos, to their nafs, and instead follow the guidance of their minds which are focused on fear, greed and power. Such minds are willing to put on the outer garb of piety in order to try to fool others into believing they are following a path of divine guidance but it soon becomes more and more obvious what their real path is. Yet, they have established themselves in positions of power and acquired tools of power and they wield them without mercy or compassion, but only with the intent of staying in power, regardless of what it takes to do so. And it is power that they have acquired illegitimately.
The Qur'an says "There shall be no intercessors" meaning there shall be no one to stand between the individual and Allah. Titles such as Imam and Ayatollah are artificial rather than official within Islam although those who wear them have been empowered to do so by those who have abdicated their own rights and responsibilities on their spiritual paths. And in many cases they have also become titles of political power, again because of people who have abdicated their own political power on their paths in life.
In the face of the powers of greed, lust, hate, fear and violence, the voices of love, mercy and compassion are shot down, both figuratively and literally. It is extremely risky and highly laudable for someone such as Ayatollah Montazeri to speak out in support of the real Islam in the Name of Allah and to act with Mercy and Compassion. May he inspire many others to do the same, and may they realize success in manifesting greater Peace in this world. Amin.
Siraj al-Haqq
I'm sorry that I forgot to also include Dr. Mohsen Kadivar along with Ayatollah Montazeri in lauding their efforts. And of course there are also others, yet we need many, many more to join with them. May they all be well and may they realize success in the face of all the great challenges they encounter. Amin.
Siraj al-Haqq
I find it so funny the criticism placed against Iranian leadership, which has acted no differently than the Bush administration or the Israeli government. There is no uproar when Israeli soldiers maim or kill peaceful protestors in the West Bank and Gaza. I don't agree with the fact that protestors were jailed and harassed and some killed. That's shameful for any country, especially an Islamic one. But this happens in Egypt, Saudi, Israel, the US all the time. So why pick on Iran and not the others. If we are for democracy and human rights, it should be for all people, and not only for those groups we don't like or who we can't exploit.
dear anonymous. your argument is flat and lame. you have never live in iran or israel. i have lived in iran, israel and the us. and can tell you, as an iranian, that there is NO COMPARISON between iran and the other two. while injustice shouhld be condemned anywhere and everywhere, it does not mean it should be condemned in iran now, just because others do it too. just LISTEN to yourself.
Iranian people are very aware and educated people and no matter where in the world they reside, they choose to get involved and stand up for fellow Iranians. They are a population that values their autonomy more so than most countries - even the US (how many in the US today would risk imminent death to protest the results of an election they deem unfair). Their efforts for democracy have gone on for 100s of years and are nothing new.
If anyone has a problem with why media focuses on Iran and not other countries, then instead saying that less attention should be paid to Iran, why don't you actually make yourselves useful and advocate for attention for your country of interest where you think injustice is being done. That is what Iranians have done; they stood up and the media covers this. The media covers what people do, not what you say people should do (ie, "no protests in other countries). If there were no protests in other countries where injustice was and is being done, that's not the problem of Iran (they have their own issues right now). Don't complain; stand up, get organized and put in the effort to raise awareness across the world about the issue. That is what Iranians have done; the result is international attention and support.
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