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The Modern Mullah
Hello, Mr. Mousavi Khoeiniha
Clerics court convicts reformist publisher
TIME EUROPE
July 17,
2000 VOL. 156 NO. 3
The Modern
Mullah
One of the
architects of Khomeini's revolution has become the guru of Islamic reform in
Iran
By AZADEH MOAVENI Tehran
When radical iranian students took over the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979, a
shadowy figure of revolutionary authority stood in the wings as gun-toting
militants chanted "Death to America." Not even the 50 American diplomats seized
as hostages knew his name, but Mohammed Mousavi Khoeiniha, a fiery mullah in
dark robes, passed messages to the students from his boss, Ayatullah Ruhollah
Khomeini. And as the crisis dragged on for 444 days, Khoeiniha's handiwork
helped entrench radical Islamic rule.
Two decades later, however, it is Iran's religious establishment that is
frightened by the likes of Khoeiniha. Aged 55, with a bushy gray beard, he has
become one of the key strategists in the movement to democratize Iran, led by
moderate President Mohammed Khatami. He can be found musing — without a trace of
irony — on "removing tensions" with foreign countries and "establishing the
required atmosphere for investment." If he delivers diatribes, they are directed
at hard-liners who have shut liberal newspapers — including his own daily, Salam,
in 1999 — and burned bookshops, attacked cinemas and even tried to assassinate
one of Khatami's chief advisers.
What scares Iran's conservatives is the way Khoeiniha questions their
authoritarian interpretation of Khomeini's doctrine of supreme clerical rule,
known as velayat-e faqih — literally "governance of the religious jurisprudent."
Part of an outspoken movement of dissident clerics who are putting their lives
and religious reputations on the line, Khoeiniha charges that the conservatives
have used the late Ayatullah's ideas to turn the Islamic Republic into a
dictatorship of mullahs. "The methods of the conservatives are wrong," Khoeiniha
says in a rare interview at his office in Tehran. "They do not respond to the
needs of the modern world."
Three years ago, Khoeiniha says, he went to Khatami to propose that the former
philosophy professor, famous for detesting political fights, stand as the
budding reform movement's candidate for President. Khatami became "angry,
actually furious," that civic duty demanded his entry into power politics,
according to Khoeiniha. He says Khatami later calmed down and agreed to run.
Khoeiniha says he then turned his newspaper Salam's offices into a headquarters
for Khatami's victorious campaign. Since winning, the President has promoted the
republican side of the Islamic Republic, but his priorities may not be shared by
Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei: "There is a serious difference of opinion between
them [on issues such as freedom]," Khoeiniha says.
Like Khatami himself, Khoeiniha has no intention of dismantling the Islamic
Republic. Rather, he believes that the Islamic Revolution's goals of freedom
have been thwarted by authoritarian conservatives hiding behind Khomeini's
teachings. Clerical rule is not incompatible with democracy, he explains, so
long as voters have the power to select and remove the leader invested with
ruling powers. "The conservatives," he says, "advocate a system which has no
compatibility with democracy: God chooses a person — and people must obey that
person — who does not have to be accountable to the people, any institution, or
anyone in general."
Conservatives feel threatened by this challenge to their long-standing grip over
instruments of power, from the security forces and state-owned media to the
Islamic courts. A behind-the-scenes debate has been simmering in the holy city
of Qom ever since Khomeini came up with velayat-e faqih, with many traditional
clerics arguing that divine right to govern makes public accountability
unnecessary.
The dissident clerics' demand for an accountable, democratic velayat-e faqih is
so taboo that conservatives have imprisoned or placed under house arrest 500 of
them. Khoeiniha has escaped detention so far, but has been barred from newspaper
work for five years, despite the fact that when authorities closed down his
paper a year ago it triggered student protests that degenerated into nationwide
riots.
As he maneuvers behind the scenes today, just as he did during the hostage
crisis 20 years ago, Khoeiniha sees no contradictions in his work. He recalls
how he rebuffed the students when they asked to see Khomeini, advising them to
just "go ahead and capture the Nest of Spies." Afterward, he says, he rushed to
the U.S. compound to lend their action the moral and symbolic support of an
established Islamic revolutionary. But, as Khoeiniha tells it, the taking of the
embassy was just part of the work of reforming Iran.
Skeptics might call him an opportunist, a latecomer to democracy. But his
political reincarnation is stunning enough to give even cynical Iranians hope:
if the new Iran can produce a mellower, more liberal Khoeiniha, then there is no
limit to the possibilities.
— With reporting by Scott MacLeod/Tehran
Hamshahri (Monthly)
December 2001, Vol. 1, No. 9
Pages: 11 - 13
Word Count: 5486
Summary:
Mohammad Mousavi Khoeiniha, the only cleric participating in the takeover of the
American embassy in Tehran, is one of the famous political figures in Iran. He
has kept mum since his newspaper 'Salaam' was closed down. There are efforts
underway by certain people to find out the reasons behind his silence. The
following article is a study on Mousavi Khoeiniha's status and personality.
Text:
1- Breaking Silence
In the morning of Saturday, October 27, 2001, Seyyed Mohammad Mousavi
Khoeiniha broke his silence by speaking about excesses over the past 20 years in
Iran, in his meeting with members of the central council of Islamic associations
of Tehran University students. For the first time in the past decade, Khoeiniha
revealed a part of his thoughts to the public. Referring to the political
struggles against the former monarchical regime of Iran, he said, "During the
reign of the Shah (Mohammad Reza Pahlavi) there was a predominant idea in the
country that one could make progress by rejecting religion... What dealt a blow
to the Shah was this very idea (rejection of religion) and not separation of
religion from politics." After the victory of the Islamic Revolution there were
some people who insisted that every thing should be found in the religion.
They even spoke of Islamic physics and Islamic mathematics at that time. Of
course this way of thinking prevailed in some managerial sections of the
country, thus forcing us to go to extremes.
Khoeiniha added: "We should determine the extent of the religion's
involvement in political and social domains ... while preserving the sanctity of
the religion, we should not let it go into the fields where it has no answers.
This is not considered a religious defect rather the religion itself has allowed
man to find those answers through his wisdom."
Of course, what Mr. Khoeiniha said in the meeting was the main theme of the
lessons he had taught to postgraduate students of political science at Tarbiat
Modarres University many years ago.
But such novel and innovative ideas raised by Khoeiniha never found their
ways out of the university. Perhaps, Khoeiniha was worried that his opponents
would accuse him of being secular as some of the newspapers belonging to the
opposition groups denounced his statements after they had been published. The
Conservative camp follows with keen interest even short remarks of Khoeiniha
because it considers him as the spiritual father of the Islamic Iran
Participation Front, a political party which now holds the majority of seats at
the Iranian parliament as well as ministerial posts. In fact, Khoeiniha's
ideological stands somehow demonstrate the political ideology of the Islamic
Iran Participation Front. Nonetheless, it seems that Khoeiniha will continue its
silence despite the criticism of the opposition group. Over the past decade, he
stepped down from power silently and rejected all proposals made to him. At
present, he is only a member of the Expediency Council (consisting of leaders
and representatives of various political parties in the Islamic Republic of Iran
responsible for arbitration between the parliament and oversight Guardian
Council) despite the fact that in the 1980s, he was among the top political
figures in the Islamic Republic. He attained his prominent political position in
the 1980s due to his past records as a militant clergyman struggling against the
Shah's regime and drastic changes in his political life which turned him into a
radical politician in the Islamic Republic of Iran.
2- Political Prisoner
In 1961, when he was 23 years old, Khoeiniha left his hometown, Qazvin for
Qom where he began to study theology at a theological school. He had the honor
to be a pupil of such famous scholars as Ayatollah Mohaqeq Damad, Ayatollah
Araki, Ayatollah Montazeri and Ayatollah Soltani. Despite this, he went to Najaf,
Iraq, in 1966 to attend classes of a more prominent scholar, namely the great
leader of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini who was living in exile in Iraq
at that time. Khoeiniha could attend the Imam's classes only for one year and in
1967 he was deported from Iraq and returned to Qom. A major part of his
anti-regime activities at that period of time as an anti-Shah political activist
and orators at Tehran mosques has been registered at the documents of SAVAK (the
Security and Intelligence Organization of the former regime). After monitoring
his activities for years, SAVAK at last detained Khoeiniha in 1976.
On May 10, 1977, interrogation of a civilian named 'Seyyed Mohammad Khoeiniha,
son of Seyyed Hussein' began. During his interrogation, Khoeiniha tried to
introduce a group of clerics gathering around Imam Khomeini at that time in such
a way that the Security and Intelligence Organization of the Pahlavi regime
would not feel any danger from them. For example, he wrote about Martyr
Motahhari and Martyr Beheshti: "I know Seyyed Mohammad Beheshti and Motahhari
though I do not associate with them. But in their books such as Motahhari's 'A
Review of Nahj ul-Balagheh' (treatises of Imam Ali) or Seyyed Mohammad
Beheshti's 'God from the Point of View of Quran', there is nothing to show that
they harbor any revolutionary ideas and thought. On the contrary I think these
two intellectual scholars are even opposed to the anti-regime struggle. Their
friend Mohammad Mofatteh, does not seem to pursue a pre-planned policy rather he
is influenced by Motahhari's thoughts and to some extent by Beheshti's. As for
Mr. Taleqani and Mr. Montazeri, the organization (SAVAK) may be more familiar
with them and their thoughts than I am."
On Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, Khoeiniha wrote in his interrogation papers:
"When I was living in Qom, I was informed that he (Rafsanjani) had been
imprisoned. However, I thought because he was a rich man, his interest in Imam
Khomeini was the only thing from his past."
Although Mr. Khoeiniha tried to deceive SAVAK by offering insufficient and
misleading information, the persons named by him during his interrogation
(Messrs Taleqani, Montazeri, Motahhari, Beheshti, Mofatteh and Hashemi) as well
as Ayatollah Khamenei founded a movement in the 1960s and 1970s known as
'Association of Combatant Clerics' which took political and social power in Iran
simultaneous with the victory of the Islamic Revolution in 1979. Khoeiniha who
had been sentenced by the Shah's regime to 15 years in prison as a member of the
central bureau of the association, came in the spotlight again following the
triumph of the Islamic Revolution. Khoeiniha in fact owes a part of his
political progress to Imam Khomeini's attention to him. Khoeiniha's relationship
with the Imam dated back to pre-revolution era. One of the SAVAK documents
reads: "(Imam) Khomeini's son made a phone call to Mohammad Mousavi Khoeiniha
and then to Emam Jamarani to inform them of the death of Mostafa Khomeini (the
elder son of Imam Khomeini). All instructions of (Imam) Khomeini are given to
these two persons." In fact, the late Haj Seyyed Ahmad Khomeini was a liaison
between the Imam and Khoeiniha. Many years later, he and several other clerics
founded the Assembly of Militant Ulama (religious scholars). They were like a
small link in a chain which along with the larger link (Association of Combatant
Clerics) were helping Imam Khomeini and the Imam viewed them as their most
faithful aides. The first or larger link contained such personalities as Martyr
Morteza Motahhari, Martyr Mohammad Beheshti, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Ayatollah
Hashemi Rafsanjani, Ayatollah Mousavi Ardebili, Martyr Mohammad Javad Bahonar
and Martyr Mohammad Mofatteh (known as Combatant Clerics) while the second link
was connected to Imam Khomeini through the late Seyyed Ahmad Khomeini and
included such figures as Mousavi Khoeiniha, Seyyed Mohammad Khatami, Mahdi
Karroubi and Emam Jamarani (who later founded the Assembly of Militant Ulama).
3- Imam's Representative
Mousavi Khoeiniha was in contact with both groups. With the victory of the Islamic Revolution when new political organs had not been established, two unprecedented political positions were offered to Khoeiniha. He was assigned to represent Imam Khomeini at the radio and television organization and to a commission in charge of supervising campaigns for the first ever presidential election in the country. In his second position, Khoeiniha was given authorities which had no precedence before which were later dubbed as the most important duties of the oversight Guardian Council. In a pre-sermon speech to Friday prayer worshippers on Tehran University campus on January 11, 1980, Khoeiniha spoke of a plot underway against the Islamic Revolution. He said: "We have been witness to various plots hatched against the Islamic Revolution since its victory. One of these plots is the nomination of over 100 people for presidential election. In what other place in the world you can witness such a thing. Such a large number of contenders for presidential election can in no way be a sign of freedom and democracy in Iran but on the contrary means chaos, anarchy and disorder and as the Imam has remarked this is the first conspiracy in the history of the presidential elections in Iran."
Khoeiniha then offered a report on the nomination procedure for presidential
election, saying: "In order to choose qualified nominees, the Interior Ministry
submitted a list of 106 nominees to Imam Khomeini, but for some considerations,
the Imam preferred that the nation itself should choose the qualified persons. I
was appointed as the Imam's representative to supervise investigation into the
competency of the nominees. Given the fact that confirming the competency of
nominees is a great task which should be done by the nation itself, I decided to
omit the names of those candidates who were not completely qualified to run for
president." So, of the list of 106 nominees only eight hopefuls participated in
the race. However, as Mousavi Khoeiniha said confirming the competency of these
eight people did not mean that there were one hundred percent qualified as the
nomination of 106 persons for presidential election was regarded as the first
plot in the history of presidential election in Iran. The second plot was Bani
Sadr's presidency. At that time Mousavi Khoeiniha was a representative of Tehran
to the Islamic Consultative Assembly (parliament) and one of the signatories to
a petition calling for impeachment of Abol Hassan Bani Sadr. He delivered a
fiery speech against the deposed president of the Islamic Republic on the floor
of the parliament and accordingly Bani Sadr was recognized as being incompetent
to serve as the president.
4- Spiritual Father
Both before and after presidential election, Khoeiniha always felt that he
must correct people's mistake. Khoeiniha's position in the parliament as a
deputy to Parliament Speaker Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and his appointment by the
Imam as his representative to important supervisory posts at the radio and
television organization and election headquarters were in fact a reflection of
his role in the takeover of the American embassy in Tehran. Regarding
Khoeiniha's role, Engineer Mahdi Bazargan, the prime minister of the provisional
government, who was among the opponents of the takeover of the American embassy
dubbed as 'the den of spies' wrote: "Khoeiniha was the only influential person
who acted as a go-between and who might have had advance knowledge (of the move)
from the very beginning." As a matter of fact the reason why Khoeiniha joined
the student movement known as the Muslim students following the Imam's line' is
still shrouded with ambiguity. In their diaries, the students following the
Imam's path have revealed more or less that they had called for Khoeiniha's
presence in the embassy after its occupation but none of them has said the
reason for their choice. In an article published but the 'Kayhan of the Year',
Abbas Abdi, one of the students following the Imam's path wrote: "Because of the
students' close familiarity with Mr. Khoeiniha's way of thinking, during joint
meetings between the council of Imam's representatives to the student grouping
known as the Office to Foster Unity, and its coordination council, a decision
was taken to approach Mr. Khoeiniha and urge him to remove possible obstacles to
the students' occupation of the US embassy in Tehran (the possibility of the
Imam opposing the occupation of the embassy and of the provisional government
driving the students out of the embassy). The council of Imam Khomeini's
representatives was formed at the Office to Foster Unity in September of 1979.
In that month, a group of students who were members of Islamic associations
decided to establish a union. They called at the Imam and submitted him a list
to choose his representatives to the union."
One of the members of the central council of the Office to Foster Unity said
in 1991: "one of the lists which was more credible than the others contained the
names of Messrs Khamenei, Mousavi Khoeiniha, Mohammad Mojtahed Shabestari and
Bani Sadr. In fact, the gentlemen were more linked to Mr. Mousavi Khoeiniha and
Ayatollah Khamenei."
Mousavi Khoeiniha was the only non-student person involved in the takeover of
the American embassy in Tehran. He even managed cleverly to change the role
allocated to him by the students as a liaison between them and the Imam.
To this end, Abbas Abdi says: "He (Mr. Khoeiniha) was opposed to the idea of
inquiring about the Imam's view (on the occupation of the American embassy),
arguing that his eminence agrees to this action, but if he is informed of such a
decision in advance, the Imam, despite his consent, may not express his views
openly. As a matter of fact the Imam does not issue permissions in certain
cases..."
Perhaps, Mousavi Khoeiniha did not want the leadership of the Islamic
Revolution to pay the price for the students' action because the action might
otherwise be considered an action by the state if the Imam confirmed it in
advance. Therefore, Khoeiniha strongly opposed the students' proposal to inform
the Imam of their plan in advance. However, when the students heard Imam
Khomeini telling pupils as well theological and college students on the
anniversary of his exile (to Turkey) that they should encounter the United
States, they interpreted the message as a sign of the Imam's consent. It was
only after the embassy takeover that the students realized that Mousavi
Khoeiniha had not conveyed their message to the Imam. However, at that moment,
Imam Khomeini supported the students and as a token of his agreement, the late
Haj Seyyed Ahmad Khomeini, the son of the leader of the Islamic Revolution and a
close friend of Mousavi Khoeiniha went to the embassy.
The takeover of the American embassy by the students following the Imam's
path brought fame for a person along with this student movement. This person was
no one but Seyyed Mohammad Mousavi Khoeiniha, who knew in advance the students'
intention, who joined them immediately after the embassy occupation and who
represented the students' spiritual father in their intra-organization training.
From that time onwards, Mousavi Khoeiniha always enjoyed the emotional
affiliation and support of the students who later became among the reliable
cadre of the Islamic Republic of Iran. This was while, the American mass media
accused him of being a communist and even spread a rumor that the Red Clergy
(the title used by them for Mousavi Khoeiniha) had been educated in the Soviet
Union. Despite all these propaganda, the Islamic Republic Party and the Office
to Foster Unity introduced Mousavi Khoeiniha as one of their favorite nominees
for the Islamic Consultative Assembly, and he by obtaining 1,248,391 votes was
elected to the parliament. In the parliament dominated by the Islamic Republic
Party, Mousavi Khoeiniha was practically placed at the helm of the Islamic
radical and left-winged faction. For this reason, the left-winged parliamentary
faction of the Islamic Republic Party (despite their marginal majority) elected
Khoeiniha as their leader and then as the vice speaker of the parliament. Though
the left-winged MPs lost their majority in the second year of the parliament and
Khoeiniha lost his seat to Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi, the leader of the
right-winged faction of the Islamic Republic Party, he did not lose his
influence in the parliament. Mr. Hashemi Rafsanjani who was the speaker of the
Islamic Consultative Assembly, also served as the leader of a parliamentary
faction of the Islamic Republic Party known as Hizbollah (versus the minority
Liberals of the Parliament). Rafsanjani was flanked by Mohammad Yazdi, leader of
the right winged faction and Mohammad Mousavi Khoeiniha, the leader of the left
winged faction.
5- Religious Dignitary
After a while, Khoeiniha got a more serious opportunity which would establish
his position not only as a religious but also as a religious political
dignitary. However, because the political features of this revolutionary cleric
outnumbered his other traits, he came under fire by some traditionalists. Such
criticism reached its climax when Khoeiniha defended the younger members of the
students following the Imam's path who belonged to the left-wing. He performed
his prayers along with the students following the Imam's path, on the ground
(the den of spies) which a traditionalist described as a usurped land and in the
parliament he defended Islamic left-winged MPs such as Mir Hussein Mousavi and
Behzad Nabavi who were calling for corresponding jurisprudential traditions with
social justice.
Khoeiniha voiced opposition to another phenomenon at the parliament. The
great coalition forces advocating the Imam's line at that time revolved around a
pivot called the Islamic Republic Party in which the right wing wielded more
influence than the left wing because the (right-winged) Islamic Coalition
Society who had stopped its activities embarked on a kind of merger with the
party and as a result other groups and personalities advocating the Imam's path
who were not members of the party (like Behzad Nabavi, Mohammad Gharazi ...etc.)
or were members of the Islamic Revolution Mujahedin Organization, were accused
of being eclectic by the majority. The latter was supported by Mousavi Khoeiniha
as a clergyman. Though this support seemed normal for students or intellectuals,
for clerics such as Mousavi Khoeiniha it was quite an unexpected and strange
move. However, the Imam Khomeini gradually entrusted Mousavi Khoeiniha with some
responsibilities which required religious competency and their acceptance by him
kept him safe from the criticism of the traditionalists. First of all, Imam
Khomeini appointed Hojatoleslam Mousavi Khoeiniha as his representative for the
Hajj affairs. According to the Islamic traditions, such a position as the
representative of the supreme jurisprudent for the Hajj affairs is of great
importance, but in the Hajj affairs, Khoeiniha acted like a radical man. In
pursuant of a new policy being in the offing in the Islamic Republic of Iran
(Imam Khomeini was the architect of that policy) and like many other radical
Muslims, Mousavi Khoeiniha, while in Saudi Arabia, began to criticize the
conservative Arab rulers. On September 24, 1982, Khoeiniha and some other people
participating in a demonstation, were detained and the Imam's representative for
Hajj affairs was deported from Saudi Arabia on October 9, 1982. Despite this
event, Khoeiniha maintained his post for some other years. In the following
year, after consulting the Imam, he appointed Mehdi Karroubi as his deputy so
that in the event of his deportation, Iranian pilgrims will not remain without
any caretaker. Mousavi Khoeiniha gave his place to Karroubi after being
appointed as the prosecutor general. Karroubi, like Mousavi Khoeiniha was a
member of the Assembly of Militant Ulama. In 1987, Karroubi was practically
deported from Saudi Arabia because of his participation in the 'Deliverance from
the Pagans' rally and the Tehran-Riyadh relations soured for the next few years
during which Iran did not send any pilgrims to Saudi Arabia. However, Mousavi
Khoeiniha insisted on holding the 'Deliverance from the Pagans' rally until 1991
when Mohammad Mohammadi Reyshahri was appointed to this post by the Leader of
the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Like Mousavi Khoeiniha, Reyshahri
was serving as the prosecutor general before his new appointment. The post of
prosecutor general or in other words 'the man number two' of the Judiciary was
the second religious position entrusted to Mousavi Khoeiniha. Ayatollah Mousavi
Ardebili was the chief justice of the Islamic Republic of Iran at that time.
In his new post, Ayatollah Seyyed Mohammad Mousavi Khoeiniha drew the
criticism of the conservatives and their supporters -- the traditionalists. He
says: "At that time due to lack of coordination in the management of the
Judiciary, resistance and opposition within the body increased to an extent that
they finally managed to impose their views and dictates. There was speculation
that if he (Khoeiniha) continued its present code of conduct the Judiciary would
certainly collapse and judges would not longer be ready to cooperate with him.
This gradually led to the complete blackout of my news in the press. I do not
know whether the press had been ordered or recommended to boycott me or not?
However, I realized that they are not supposed to reflect my statements any
longer. Within the Judiciary, a hostile atmosphere was created against me by
those who have always tried, as are still trying, to lead the Judiciary in a
direction opposite the direction of the revolution."
Nevertheless, Mousavi Khoeiniha maintained the Imam's trust in him. With the
establishment of the Expediency Council in 1987, he was among a few persons
appointed as a member of the council. The state Expediency Council was
established to bring about changes in the administration of the country and to
maintain the balance between the jurisprudential ideology and the Islamic
Republic of Iran. Its establishment followed serious arguments between the
conservative and traditionalist faction of the ruling political system and the
radical and moderate factions in the 1980s. A part of these challenges
originated from disputes between the oversight Guardian Council and the Islamic
Consultative Assembly and a part from existence of different interpretation of
the Constitution. At that period of time, the Imam's concerns were the purity of
the jurisprudential ideology and the efficiency of the political system. Having
generalized the relationship between the preliminary and secondary rulings in
the Islamic jurisprudence to the politics and having compiled a new political
jurisprudence, the Imam called safeguarding the Islamic system of government as
the most important religious duty (even more important than certain preliminary
rulings). As a result, on February 6, 1987, besides the six jurist members of
the Guardian Council, six other persons chosen among political and religious
personalities were appointed to the council by a decree issued by Imam Khomeini.
So, besides Messrs Khamenei, Hashmei Rafsanjani, Mousavi Ardebili, Tavassoli and
Mir Hussein Mousavi, Hojatoleslam Mousavi Khoeiniha became a member of the
council.
6- Political Personality
After stepping down from power gradually, Mousavi Khoeiniha transferred parts
of his activities to the Strategic Research Center affiliated to the
Presidential Office where he, in cooperation with such figures as Behzad Nabavi
and Saeed Hajjarian established a platform for brining about changes in the
Islamic left-winged movement. At the beginning of the 1990s, he resigned from
this post and relinquished other government positions except membership in the
State Expediency Council and his post as an advisor to the Leader of the Islamic
Revolution. Khoeiniha's resignation coincided with the Islamic left-winged
faction stepping down from power. The most important grouping of the time-- the
Assembly of Militant Ulama-- founded in 1987 by Messrs Khoeiniha, Karroubi,
Khatami, Tavassoli, Emam Jamarani ...etc. did not have any official organ or
podium at that time. In a letter to Imam Khomeini on March 1989, the Assembly of
Militant Ulama explained reasons for its break-away from the Association of
Combatant Clerics. The letter read: "Extensive efforts were made by some of our
brethren to bring closer our views within the framework of principles acceptable
both to us and other respectable clerics with whom we have had joint cooperation
for years. But unfortunately, those efforts got nowhere due to the insistence of
those gentlemen on the issues and points which we regarded as not being in our
interests."
The members of the Assembly of the Militant Ulama belonged to the second
link, as mentioned before, who got closer to Imam Khomeini through Haj Seyyed
Ahmad particularly after the martyrdom of some members of the first link
(Association of Combatant Clerics) and then with the support of the Imam turned
into one of the two main factions in the Islamic Republic of Iran in the 1980s.
Now this faction had no official podium to express their views. 'Kayhan'
newspaper, which had earlier been managed by Seyyed Mohammad Khatami, distanced
itself from the Islamic left and got closer to the right winged faction. With
the approval of the central council of the Assembly of the Militant Ulama,
Mousavi Khoeiniha was assigned to obtain a license of a newspaper that could
reflect the views of the assembly. The name of the newspaper, Salaam (Hello) was
chosen by the late Seyyed Ahmad Khomeini.
7- Journalist
Salaam started its work by recruiting the students following the Imam's path,
the most prominent of whom were Mohammad Ebrahim Asghari, Abbas Abdi and Mohsen
Mirdamadi. In choosing its cadre from among the Islamic left-winged force,
Salaam was so successful that after the passage of one decade, the majority of
the central council of the Islamic Iran Participation Party had the experience
of working for Salaam. Mousavi Khoeiniha and the students following the Imam's
path had gathered together once again and this time they did not intend to climb
over the walls of the American embassy, but rather publish a political and
critical newspaper which in the course of time shifted its position from a
radical left to center left. In fact Salaam turned into a public platform for
reviewing the history of the Islamic left-wing, understanding the new theories
and corresponding them to that history. The first issue of Salaam appeared on
newsstands on February 9, 1990. An editorial appearing on the second issue of
the daily wrote: "We hope the God Almighty will assign you to help us so that we
can stage a war together on the enemies of nations, as wished by people, launch
attack on the White House blackened with tyranny and crimes, as favored by our
God, on the capitalists, on the indifferent well-to-do, on the reactionaries, on
the stupid people disguised as religious ones, on those who are sleeping at
their luxurious villas without caring for the sufferings and pains of the
deprived masses and in short assault pro-American elements with the weapons we
have in our hands, as recommended by our Imam.
Therefore Salaam which seemed to be a radical and even fundamentalist
newspaper at the beginning of its work, rapidly turned into a moderate and even
liberal daily in the course of time and following the defeat of the left wing in
the fourth parliamentary elections and its failure to enter the fifth
parliament. Although the goal behind publishing Salaam was to follow the social
justice line, after a while the defense of law became its most important
objective. At the beginning, Salaam, was a newspaper helping the left wing with
its election campaigns in early 1990s. The first election held in the aftermath
of the Imam's demise, was related to the third Assembly of Expert (a body in
charge of electing the Leader of the Islamic Revolution). Of the list of
nominees offered by the Assembly of Militant Ulama, the names of Karroubi,
Khalkhali, Bayat, Mousavi Tabrizi, Ehsan Bakhsh, Dastgheib, Jami, Mohtashami,
Montajab-nia and Hadi Khamenei were omitted. The competency of some of these
persons had been rejected after they failed in an examination set by the
Guardian Council. Nonetheless, the competency of Hojatoleslam Mousavi Khoeiniha
(along with Messrs Abaei Khorasani and Mohammad Reza Tavassoli) was confirmed.
However, those who had already forecast the defeat of the 'imperfect' list
withdrew their candidacy. This incident happened again in another form during
the fourth election of the Islamic Consultative Assembly. This time, the
Assembly of the Militant Ulama and all other Islamic left-winged groups kept mum
with Salaam acting as their only mouthpiece. Of course, Khoeiniha and those
sharing common views with him preferred to remain silent, but the professional
readers of the daily Salaam could however detect his traces in some radical
criticism published in the newspaper. During its life span, the daily stood
trial twice, one in the middle of the 1990s which led it to take more moderate
stance and second in 1999 which ended in a five year ban on its publication.
Salaam was the first newspaper criticizing the performance of the system within
the framework of the laws of the Islamic Republic of Iran and this feature
caused it to be viewed as a political reference source by some segments of the
public opinion. The closure of the daily on June 8, 1999 triggered widespread
protests by students which soon turned into streets riots. This provided an
opportunity for many political personalities and parties to join student
gatherings, calling on them to show patience and self-restraint and maintain
their commitment to peaceful goals of reform programs. However, Khoeiniha never
seized that opportunity to express himself, nor did he ever step in places where
students were holding protest gatherings. During the court hearing held for
Salaam daily, the accused, Mousavi Khoeiniha did not make even the least efforts
to save his newspaper and gently received the ruling issued against the daily.
The Special Court for Clerics (a court charged with dealing with accusations
leveled against clerics) preferred, instead of sentencing the mighty managing
editor of the daily (Mousavi Khoeiniha) to three years in prison on charges of
publishing a confidential document (concerning the role of Saeed Emami in
getting the Press Law amended), to impose a five year ban on the newspaper. This
was Khoeiniha's code of conduct not only in 1999 but also in the whole past
decade.
8- Platform of Reforms
Despite the fact that election of Seyyed Mohammad Khatami provided an
extraordinary opportunity for Mousavi Khoeiniha to return to the political
scene, he did not show much enthusiasm for doing so. His name was raised time
and again as a proposed minister of the interior or the information minister but
such rumors were never confirmed. He did not show up in any election either for
the Islamic Consultative Assembly, Assembly of Experts or city councils, nor did
he try to publish another newspaper to take the place of Salaam. He avoided
giving any interview and rarely spoke about his memories. Last year when his
name was registered as the head of the coordination council of the Second of
Khordad Front (grouping all pro-reform factions and parties), the opposition
faction showed reaction in protest. In October 1990, Asr-e Ma (Our Age)
publication, the organ of the Islamic Revolution Mujahedin Organization wrote:
"In our opinion, all political parties and guilds loyal to the mottoes of the
Second of Khordad Front can form the most competent center for advancing the
country's reform programs..."
Following parliamentary elections (for the sixth term of the Majlis) the
Second of Khordad groups made up the largest pro-reform group at the parliament
... at the same time, a center consisting of all pro-reform parties and
representatives of the Second of Khordad parliamentary group, has been recently
established under management of Mr. Mousavi Khoeiniha, which is now busy
reviewing strategies and ways of utilizing idle capacities of pro-reform force
... this is the best driving force for advancing and leading reforms in the
country.
Asr-e Ma openly called him as the platform of reforms. His name 'Ayatollah
Mousavi Khoeiniha' was on top of a list signed by leaders of the Second of
Khordad Front (consisting of Islamic Iran Participation Party, Workers Party,
Solidarity Party, Labor Party, the Office to Foster Unity, the Assembly of
Militant Ulama and so on). Despite this, the platform of reforms finished his
work quickly. Signing a petition in protest at a death verdict issued on Hassan
Yousefi Eshkevari was the only controversial statement involving this platform
of reforms. Afterwards, Mahdi Karroubi took over the chairmanship of the council
but he as the speaker of the Islamic Consultative Assembly was too busy to keep
up the center. The five year ban on Salaam daily will expire in 2004, a year
before the 9th presidential election to choose a president to replace Mohammad
Khatami.
Mousavi Khoeiniha has shown that he does not think much about returning to the scene of politics. His outlook towards power structure has totally changed. What he said on October 27, 2001 indicate such a great change in him. Presently, we are facing a different Khoeiniha, a once radical cleric whose silence can be interpreted as a sign of his tranquillity or his deep-rooted criticism. It is now hard to find out reasons behind his silence and estrangement from power. Perhaps, we should wait and see whether upon expiry of the five year ban on Salaam, Khoeiniha will apply for publishing Salaam again and if so then we can greets him by saying "Hello Mr. Khoeiniha ...."
1997
News & views
Clerics court convicts reformist publisher
By Jonathan Lyons
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's special clerical court Sunday found the publisher of the leading pro-reform newspaper Salam guilty of printing classified material and defamation, the official IRNA news agency said, raising the prospects the influential daily will be silenced for good. (Related photo below on on link)
Mohammad Musavi Khoiniha, right, the director of the moderate Salam newspaper, defends the banned daily newspaper before the "Special Religious Court" in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, July 25, 1999, Judge Mohammad Salimi is at left and Public Prosecutor Nekonam is at center. On July 8, hard-liners closed Salam, triggering six days of student protests during which at least three people died and 1,200 people were arrested.
AP photo
The agency said Mohammad Mousavi-Khoeiniha, a powerful leftist cleric, had also been found guilty of publishing insulting language and misleading the public.
``The majority of jurymen did not consider the publisher of the daily deserving a commutation of sentence,'' IRNA said.
A final judgement, which could include the permanent closure of Salam, exclusion from press activities for Mousavi-Khoeiniha or even his imprisonment, was due later.
The conviction of the publisher, one of the driving forces behind the 1997 election of moderate President Mohammad Khatami, follows six days of pro-democracy protests set in motion by the hardline clerical court's original ban against Salam, issued on July 7.
The protests culminated in street riots in central Tehran and demonstrations in many other cities, all part of the worst unrest since the aftermath of the 1979 Islamic revolution.
Earlier in the day, a jury of eight clerics heard charges that Salam had published a classified document, slandered provincial officials and accused MPs of complicity in an anti-press campaign with a rogue secret agent charged with masterminding last year's serial murders of secular dissidents.
``Salam is trying to create turmoil and instability in the basic pillars of the system and the revolution,'' charged parliamentary deputy Hamid Reza Taraqi, one of the plaintiffs.
He said the newspaper was playing into the hands of ``global arrogance and the Zionists'' -- political vernacular for Iran's arch-foes the United States and Israel.
Behind the fight over the fate of the newspaper lies the broader struggle between Khatami and his reformist allies against the entrenched interests of the conservative establishment.
``I say from the bottom of my heart and soul that our Islamic republic system can only carry on if it guarantees the maximum of legitimate freedoms within the framework of the constitution,'' publisher Mousavi-Khoeiniha, a cleric with impeccable revolutionary credentials, told the court.
He denied the document in question had been classified and said Salam deserved praise, not vilification, for issuing a public warning of a threat to the entire system by a rogue agent who later died in custody, reportedly by deliberately swallowing depilatory powder.
Still, he appeared resigned to the likelihood the court would close down Salam, which had almost single-handedly championed Khatami's maverick campaign.
``From the very beginning I had no intention of complaining or appealing the court's decision or even the court's jurisdiction. These people are chosen by the supreme leader and I am not protesting anything,'' said Mousavi-Khoeiniha, a former prosecutor-general.
In fact, the publisher only appeared in person after the direct intercession of the judge, who asked him to attend the hearing rather than submit a written defense. In court, he kept his answers short and ignored repeated political attacks by his accusers.
The passive defense offered by Salam, say analysts, reflects widespread anticipation the hardline clerical court would rule against the newspaper.
Among the eight-member clerical jury are two prominent hard-liners, including the head of the Islamic Propagation Organization.
Supporters of Salam also argue the case belongs in front of the Press Court, not the Special Court for Clergy which operates outside the judicial system.
As such, they say, it is more a partisan forum for political and ideological control of the clergy than a court of law.
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