Free Republic

Few Western reporters are allowed to visit Iran. In this powerful dispatch Ann Leslie paints a horrifying picture of a violent and corrupt dictatorship run by Muslim fundamentalists. We in the West are rightly outraged about the abuse of Iraqi prisoners in the Abu Graib jail. We publicise it. We print the evidence, as the Mail does today. We interview the victims. But how many newspapers in the Muslim world, living as they do under a variety of dictatorships, would dare to publicise the appalling torture that routinely occurs in their own jails? None. Otherwise they'll suffer the same fate...

Who benefits from Muqtada al-Sadr's anti-American stand? Najaf, Iraq Press, August 3, 2003 – Iraqi Shiite clerics are supposed to be most thankful among Iraqis for help to get rid of their tormentor – the deposed leader Saddam Hussein. And many thought that in the forefront of those expressing their gratitude will be Muqtada al-Sadr. In 1999, Saddam Hussein brutally assassinated his father, one of Iraq's most revered Shiite holy men and two of his sons. The younger Sadr survived because he happened to be away when Saddam's death squads riddled his father and two brothers with bullets. The senior...

Iran based Moqtada Sadr's mentor warns US AFP - World News (via Iranmania) Apr 5, 2004 NAJAF - The mentor of radical Shiite leader Moqtada Sadr has warned US forces against taking what he called "irrational" measures, after fierce battles left 22 Iraqis dead in this central Iraqi city, a statement said on Monday. "We warn the Americans against any irrational action and any attempt to undermine the dignity of the Iraqis and the students of the Hawza (Shiite authority)," said Grand Ayatollah Kazem al-Husseini al-Hairi in the statement received by AFP. He charged that Shiite religious students "have become...

Iranian Censors Limit Cleric's Reach Washington Post - By Karl Vick Nov 18, 2003 /QOM, Iran -- Ayatollah Ali Meshkini stood erect in the pulpit of this holy city's central mosque, delivering the political portion of his Friday sermon by engaging the 3,000 worshippers in a familiar volley of call and response. "The first issue and only issue is Palestine," said Meshkini, a lean figure who wore a white turban. "The Great Satan is supporting Israel unconditionally. That's why they are repressing the Palestinians." "Down with the U.S.A.," chanted the faithful. A few blocks down Riverbank Street, Grand Ayatollah Hossein...

Iran Agents Free Most of Cleric's Aides By ALI AKBAR DAREINI ASSOCIATED PRESS TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iranian security agents freed all but one of the close aides to Iran's most senior dissident cleric - including two of his sons - but sealed off a building that he planned to use as a seminary, one of the cleric's son said Tuesday. Ahmad Montazeri, Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri's son, said that he, his brother Saeed, and several others were freed Monday evening. However, Reza Ziaei, one of Montazeri's close aides, was blindfolded, handcuffed and beaten during interrogation and his whereabouts...

Top Iran Clerical Dissident Calls for More Freedom Reuters - World News Oct 2, 2003 QOM - Iran's leading dissident cleric urged ruling authorities to ease restrictions on a restless population and said President Mohammad Khatami had failed to capitalize on the huge mandate he had won for reform. "If officials really want to solve the crisis and satisfy the people, they should put aside their strictness. People should be free to express their ideas," Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri said in an interview at his home Wednesday. Montazeri, 81, one of a handful of Shi'ite scholars to attain the...

September 21, 2003 BC News Sadeq Saba Iran's leading dissident cleric, Grand Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri, has said the seizure of the American embassy in Tehran after the Islamic Revolution in 1980 was wrong. This is the first time that a prominent leader of the Iranian revolution has made such an admission. Ayatollah Montazeri, who was once designated as Ayatollah Khomeini's successor, called for an immediate resumption of relations with Washington.

Montazeri Calls for Elections in Iran September 17, 2003 The Associated Press Ali Akbar Dareini QOM -- In his first public speech in six years, Iran's leading dissident cleric criticized the country's hard-line Islamic leaders Wednesday, saying they should submit to elections and allow the country's young people to choose their future. Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri addressed his followers after five years of house arrest and several months of illness. About 300 students crowed into a small building in central Qom, a holy city 80 miles southwest of Tehran, to listen to the 81-year-old cleric, who was once the...

Here are some good news: 9 September Associated Press Iranian Dissident Cleric to Teach Again A leading Iranian dissident cleric will resume his religious teaching next week after spending five years under house arrest, his son said Tuesday. Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, 81, will begin teaching advanced religious studies Sept. 17 at a mosque close to his hometown of Qom, Ahmad Montazeri told The Associated Press. Government officials were not available for comment. The senior Montazeri was placed under house arrest in 1997 after telling his students that Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was incompetent to rule. The...

Senior Cleric Targeted in Latest Iraq violence August 24, 2003 The Financial Times Gareth Smyth and Edward Alden A senior Shia cleric was the target of a bombing in the central Iraqi city of Najaf yesterday that killed three guards and wounded 10 people, the latest in a string of attacks at the weekend that underscored the deteriorating security situation in Iraq. Ayatollah Mohammed Said al-Hakim, one of Iraq's most senior Shia clerics, escaped with cuts to the neck. Ayatollah Hakim recently told the Financial Times that the measures taken by US-led occupation forces against supporters of the ousted regime...

Iran's Influence Grows in Iraqi Holy City September 07, 2003 Reuters Suleiman al-Khalidi NAJAF -- Seventy-year-old Badria sits at the steps of the gold-domed Imam Ali mosque, crying in disbelief that she has managed to see one of the most revered sites of Shi'ite Islam. ''I thought I would die without seeing it,'' said Badria, one of thousands of Iranians who can now visit Iraq's holy Shi'ite cities freely thanks to the downfall of Saddam Hussein. Saddam, a Sunni Muslim, waged war against Iran from 1980 to 1988. He imposed strict limits on the number of pilgrims from Shi'ite-dominated Iran...

Why the mullahs need a war with America Aug. 22, 2003 Jerusalem Post Conventional European wisdom holds that Washington's nonconservatives are itching for war against Iran, but little attention is paid to Teheran's hawks, who wish to provoke conflict as an excuse for suppressing democracy at home. Although some mullahs, including President Muhammad Khatami, argue that a clash with the US should be avoided, others, notably Supreme Guide Ali Khamenei, are actively preparing for it. Last April Khamenei convened a meeting of senior military commanders, the largest in almost 10 years, ostensibly to review the consequences of the war in...

‘The Danger is Very Close’ August 31, 2003 Newsweek Babak Dehghanpisheh and Christopher Dickey “Be careful and alert,” warned the Ayatollah, “because the danger is very close to us.” Above him rose the golden dome of the Imam Ali Mosque in the Iraqi city of Najaf, one of the holiest shrines in Islam. The ayatollah, Mohamad Baqir al Hakim, had waited through more than two decades of Iranian exile to return here to worship with his followers and to shape the destiny of his country. The American overthrow of Saddam Hussein gave him that chance. His younger brother now sits...

Ayatollah Mohammed Baqer al-Hakim Reuters - World News Aug 29, 2003 NAJAF - Ayatollah Mohammed Baqer al-Hakim, killed by a car bomb in the Iraqi shrine city of Najaf on Friday, was the long-exiled leader of one of the main Shi'ite Muslim groups jockeying for power in postwar Iraq. Hakim had sought to avoid confrontation with U.S.-led forces occupying Iraq since the invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein, and authorised his brother to serve on the U.S.-appointed 25-member Iraqi Governing Council set up in July. But he said in a interview with Reuters in June that Iraq's Shi'ite majority could turn...

Shiite Clerics Clashing Over How to Reshape Iraq August 26, 2003 The New York Times Neil MacFarquhar NAJAF -- The clerics who hold sway over Iraq's Shiite Muslim majority are locked in a violent power struggle pitting the older, established ayatollahs counseling patience with the occupation against a younger, more militant faction itching to found an Islamic state. The militants are suspected of carrying out a series of attacks, including one over the weekend, engineered to eliminate or at least unsettle Najaf's religious scholars just as Shiites feel their moment has come. The bloodshed started in April with the murder...

Cleric Risks a Backlash With Anti-U.S. Rhetoric July 28, 2003 The Washington Post Anthony Shadid BAGHDAD -- With militant sermons drawing tens of thousands of followers, the young scion of one of Iraq's most revered ayatollahs has laid claim to leadership of the Shiite Muslim opposition to the U.S. occupation. But in seeking to rally the most disenfranchised and alienated of the Shiite majority, Moqtada Sadr has embarked on a strategy that his supporters acknowledge risks creating a dangerous backlash. Residents of the holy city of Najaf have grown angry at the boisterous crowds Sadr's group has shepherded to consecutive...

A Revolution's Lessons By Pejman Yousefzadeh 07/15/2003 AP The July 9th protests against the Islamic regime in Iran started out with the reform movement announcing that it would cancel protests because of concerns that the regime would crack down harshly on the protestors. In reward for the forbearance, leaders of the reform movement were kidnapped by regime enforcers. Protests against the regime ultimately occurred, but it is worth noting these events to point out that the Islamic regime is absolutely devoted to putting a stop to any effort to reform or change it. The mullahs are not only ruthless about...