Hojjatieh Society in Iran

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onepence
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Hojjatieh Society in Iran

Postby onepence » Wed Mar 01, 2006 7:15 pm

Scott Ritter: The Insurgency: Advantage Ba'athists

By Scott Ritter, AlterNet

March 1, 2006

Thinking back on my time as a weapons inspector in Iraq, I often compare and contrast the memories of what I saw and experienced during my nearly seven-year experience in the Iraq of Saddam Hussein, and that which I see through the lens of the media since the U.S.-led invasion and occupation of Iraq.

The experience has ranged from ...


http://mparent7777.livejournal.com/6699215.html

The Ba'athist insurgents are only too aware of the fact that Iran's conservative president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is an admirer, if not adherent, of the Hojjatieh Society in Iran, founded by the former Shah of Iran in 1953 as a vehicle to eradicate the followers of the Baha'i faith.

Banned in the early 1980s by the Iranian theocracy, the Hojjatieh Society expands on the notion of the return of the 12th Imam, or Mahdi, believing that his return will be hastened by the creation of chaos on earth. The Hojjatieh Society was founded at the Haqqani theological school in the Iranian holy city of Qom. President Ahmadinejad, who is himself not a cleric, has made clear his respect for the Ayatollah Mohammad Taghi Mesbah-Yazdi, an extremely conservative religious leader with close ties to the Haqqani theological school in Qom and the banned Hojjatieh Society

... ... ...

The American people seem to be addicted to war and violence every bit as much as they are addicted to Middle Eastern oil.

The Iraqi insurgents are only too happy to help feed that addiction by creating the conditions that continually wave a red flag in the face of the American war machine, making us lash out blindly much like a bull in the arena, exhausting ourselves until we reach the point of being utterly powerless to prevent our opponents from slipping in behind and driving a blade through our heart.

Scott Ritter served as chief U.N. weapons inspector in Iraq from 1991 until his resignation in 1998. He is the author of, most recently, Iraq Confidential: The Untold Story of the Intelligence Conspiracy to Undermine the U.N. and Overthrow Saddam Hussein (Nation Books, 2005).


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wow ... lenghty article but very articulate and thought out point of view ...

oneness
dh

onepence
Posts: 473
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"chaos on Earth"

Postby onepence » Wed Mar 01, 2006 7:25 pm

Sensitivity And Apocalypse

Ibd
Mon Feb 6, 7:00 PM ET

Diplomacy: As the worldwide cartoon war ended its first violent week, the State Department sought ...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ibd/20060207/bs ... 26issues01

The chilling news, reported in The Washington Times by Arnaud de Borchgrave, is that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad "is close to the messianic Hojjatieh Society," which anticipates an apocalypse within two years. Ahmadinejad's circle actually believes it can produce the "chaos on Earth" that will hasten paradise.

Somehow, sending cartoonists to sensitivity training doesn't seem to matter any more.

onepence
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Martyrdom will save us

Postby onepence » Wed Mar 01, 2006 7:31 pm

Martyrdom will save us

by Donald Sensing

Iran’s Islamic Republic News Agency reports of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s claim that, “martyrdom-seeking is the only way to save mankind.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said here on Wednesday that selflessness and martyrdom-seeking is the only way to save mankind, adding, “We are all obliged to keep alive the culture of martyrdom-seeking in the society.”

http://www.donaldsensing.com/index.php/ ... l-save-us/

According to IRNA correspondent in Bushehr, Ahmadinejad made the remarks in a meeting with families of martyrs and war-disabled veteran of the province on Wednesday night at a religious center, adding, Culture of martyrdom-seeking is our most effective weapon and best guarantee for our national security.”

The President reiterated, “Ruthless enemies who have a chronic enmity against our country and our nation have not succeeded in achieving their objectives so far thanks to the existence of this culture of martyrdom-seeking among our nation.”

Further stressing that the attitude and culture of martyrdom-seeking is the best guarantee for a nation’s survival, he said, “He who is ready for martyrdom is always victorious.” Ahmadinejad reiterated, “Martyrdom is the peak of mankind’s perfection and the martyrs enjoy the highest status of humanity in this world and the Hereafter.”
He added, “People spend tough years of strenuous work in a bid to achieve the peaks of grandeur and pride, while our dear martyrs achieved those high peaks in shortest possible time.”

This is a man with some serious religious issues – he has an apocalyptic fixation. And he’s about to get nukes. The two don’t go together well. Arnaud de Borchgrave reported three days ago,

The man in charge of hoodwinking the Western powers about Iran’s now 18-year-old secret nuclear program believes the apocalypse will happen in his own lifetime. He’ll be 50 in October.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s Shi’ite creed has convinced him lesser mortals can not only influence but hasten the awaited return of the 12th Imam, known as the Mahdi. Iran’s dominant “Twelver” sect holds this will be Muhammad ibn Hasan, the righteous descendant of the Prophet Muhammad. He is said to have gone into “occlusion” in the 9th century, at age 5. His return will be preceded by cosmic chaos, war, bloodshed and pestilence. After this cataclysmic confrontation between the forces of good and evil, the Mahdi will lead the world to an era of universal peace.

“The ultimate promise of all Divine religions,” says Ahmadinejad, “will be fulfilled with the emergence of a perfect human being [the 12th Imam], who is heir to all prophets. He will lead the world to justice and absolute peace. Oh mighty Lord, I pray to you to hasten the emergence of your last repository, the promised one.” He reckons the return of the Imam, AWOL for 11 centuries, is only two years away.

Mr. Ahmadinejad is close to the messianic Hojjatieh Society, which is governed by the conviction the 12th Imam’s return will be hastened by “the creation of chaos on Earth.” He has fired Iran’s most experienced diplomats and scores of other officials, presumably those who don’t share his belief in apocalyptic conflagration.


Arnaud asks whether the doctrine of Mutual Assured Destruction can work against a nuclear-armed Iran. I’ll try to explore that question in a later post, but I’m not hopeful.

onepence
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seeks to return to the 7th century

Postby onepence » Wed Mar 01, 2006 7:36 pm

And lest you misunderstood:

http://www.penraker.com/archives/003269.html

A top Ahmadinejad officer, Brig. Gen. Mohammad Kossari, who heads the political watchdog, or Security Bureau, of Iran's armed forces, recently taunted the U.S. when he bragged "we have identified all the weak points of our enemies" and have sufficient cannon fodder -- i.e., suicide operation volunteers -- "ready to strike at these sensitive locations." Iranian television recently broadcast an animated film for Iranian children glorifying suicide bombers.

The weak point is oil. If the world's oil supply is seriously battered, there will be a lot of trouble. It is very difficult to fight an enemy that seeks to return to the 7th century.

Posted by penraker at February 6, 2006 08:56 PM

onepence
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HOJJATIEH SOCIETY MAKING A COMEBACK?

Postby onepence » Wed Mar 01, 2006 7:46 pm

IS THE HOJJATIEH SOCIETY MAKING A COMEBACK?

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-new ... plies?c=25

Friday Prayer leaders throughout Iran warned their congregations in early July of renewed activities on the part of the Hojjatieh Society -- a strongly anti-Baha'i movement that has long been regarded as a potent, if secretive threat to the ruling elites (both imperial and clerical) that have run Iran since the Hojjatieh Society was created in the middle of the last century. In Shahrud, Ayatollah Abbas Amini said that Hojjatieh activists are recruiting new members in the city's mosques, Radio Farda reported on 11 July.

The Hojjatieh Mahdavieh Society was established in 1953 by a preacher from Mashhad, Sheikh Mahmud Halabi, who supported Prime Minister Mohammad Mussadiq. Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi allowed the society to pursue its anti-Baha'i activities after Mussadiq's August 1953 ouster, in exchange for the clerical community's support for his renewed reign. Society member Mohammad Taqi Falsafi's anti-Baha'i sermons were broadcast by state radio, for example, and Tehran's Military-Governor Teimour Bakhtiar took a pick-ax to the Baha'i temple in Tehran in May 1955. Around that time, Halabi persuaded the Marja-yi Taqlid (source of emulation) Ayatollah Mohammad Hussein Tabatabai Borujerdi to issue a fatwa banning transactions with Baha'is, according to Baqer Moin's "Khomeini: Life of the Ayatollah" (1999).

After that, the Hojjatieh Society entered a period of relative inactivity, although the same cannot be said of Falsafi. The shah's court minister, Assadollah Alam, wrote in his diaries that in 1963 Falsafi preached against the shah's reform program and, after a June 1963 riot, Alam had Falsafi imprisoned (Assadollah Alam, "The Shah and I," Alinaghi Alikhani, ed. [1991]).

There is more to the Hojjatieh Society than its anti-Baha'i beliefs, however, although the depths of those beliefs say a great deal about the society. While Baha'i leader Mirza Hussein Ali Nuri (1817-1892) -- who declared himself a prophet known as Bahaullah (most Muslims view Muhammad as the final prophet in Islam) -- disputed the existence of a hidden imam, Hojjatieh members believe that true Islamic government must await the return of the hidden imam, or Mahdi, who is currently in occultation. For much the same reasons, the Hojjatieh Society opposed Ayatollah Khomeini's theory of Islamic government and Vilayat-i Faqih (rule of the supreme jurisconsult). It favors collective leadership of the religious community, and opposes religious involvement in political affairs.

The Hojjatieh Society enjoyed a revival after the 1978-1979 Islamic revolution; fearing a communist takeover, Sheikh Mahmud Halabi urged his followers to vote in favor of Vilayat-i Faqih in the December 1979 referendum on the country's form of government. Moin writes that the society was well organized at the time and its members had "impeccable religious credentials," so they were able to fill administrative gaps left by revolutionary purges, as was particularly the case in the educational sector. Some cabinet members allegedly had Hojjatieh links as well.

Prominent clerics of the revolutionary era who were Hojjatieh members or sympathizers included Ahmad Azari-Qomi, Ali-Akbar Parvaresh, Mohammad Reza Mahdavi-Kani, Abolqasem Khazali, and Ali Akbar Nateq-Nuri, according to Mehdi Moslem's "Factional Politics in Post-Khomeini Iran" (2002). None of them acknowledged their relationship with the society, however, maintaining more open ties with the Islamic Coalition Association (now the Islamic Coalition Party) and with the bazaar sector.

Within a few years this situation changed. Concern arose about the society's secretiveness, as did resentment of its members' success. An increasingly intolerant Khomeini, Moin writes, attacked the society and what it stood for. He said in a 12 July 1983 speech: "Those who believe we should allow sins to increase until the Twelfth Imam reappears should modify and reconsider their position.... If you believe in your country [then] get rid of this factionalism and join the wave that is carrying the nation forward, otherwise it will break you." The Hojjatieh Society announced its dissolution on the same day, according to Moin.

The formal end of the Hojjatieh Society did not necessarily mean the end to its role in politics. Ali Akbar Nateq-Nuri, for example, became the speaker of the fifth parliament and currently serves on the Expediency Council and as an adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Ali-Akbar Parvaresh served as deputy speaker of parliament and education minister. Ayatollah Ahmad Azari-Qomi-Bigdeli served as public prosecutor, represented Khomeini during a parliamentary review of the constitution, represented Qom in the legislature, served on the Assembly of Experts, and headed the Resalat Foundation (the regime eventually put him under house arrest for questioning the system of Vilayat-i Faqih and questioning the qualifications of Supreme Leader Khamenei; he died in 1999).

Warnings of renewed Hojjatieh Society activism appeared again in 2002. Minister of Intelligence and Security Hojatoleslam Ali Yunesi told a press conference that a group of people in Qom was arrested on charges of supporting the society and trying to fuel religious discord, and their books and pamphlets were confiscated, "Toseh" reported on 27 August 2002. Rudsar and Amlash parliamentary representative Davud Hasanzadegan-Rudsari said a little later that the revived Hojjatieh Society is "exacerbating the Shi'a-Sunni conflict," "Aftab-i Yazd" reported on 1 September 2002. Hasanzadegan described the society as "the embodiment of obscurantism." An editorial in the 1 September 2002 issue of the conservative "Kayhan" newspaper took a very different tack when discussing reports of renewed political activity by the Hojjatieh Society. It claimed there are many similarities between the reformist 2nd of Khordad grouping and the Hojjatieh Society. Both advocate the separation of politics and religion; just as the society opposes creation of an Islamic government, the reformists are "trying to separate the Islamic from the republic and then gradually turn the Islamic system into a secular system of government." Society members and reformists enjoy luxury and wealth, according to the editorial, and they both opposed Vilayat-i Faqih.

25 posted on 09/25/2004 11:40:07 AM PDT by AdmSmith
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The editorial went on to claim that both groups accept all sorts of sin and social corruption. "The only difference is that association members say we should not fight vice so that it spreads and the Mahdi will emerge, while certain reformers say that the democratic principle demands that the people be left alone to do as they please, even if it means loose morals and social corruption." The Hojjatieh Society, mainly because it opposes Marxism, is pro-Western, according to the editorial, as is the 2nd of Khordad grouping.

The Hojjatieh Society was also mentioned occasionally in 2003. Government spokesman Abdullah Ramezanzadeh said on 8 January that Hojjatieh Society members who infiltrate the government would be dealt with in the same way as other citizens, "Iran Daily" reported the next day. Assembly of Experts member Hojatoleslam Hashem Hashemzadeh-Harisi said in the same newspaper that the infiltration of the government by such "radicals" threatens the Islamic system and undermines national solidarity. On the sidelines of the 9 March legislative session, Tehran representative Ali Shakuri-Rad allegedly said that the Hojjatieh Society should be licensed as a political party, "Resalat" reported on 10 March ("Towseh" put this into context on 10 March, when it reported that Shakuri-Rad was comparing his political opponents to the Hojjatieh Society).

"Aftab-i Yazd" on 7 October 2003 criticized an unnamed cleric for defending the Hojjatieh Society. This cleric reportedly claimed that Ayatollah Khomeini was deceived into criticizing the Hojjatieh Society. Sectarian conflicts reemerged in spring 2004 (see "RFE/RL Iran Report," 6 September 2004), which some sources linked to the Hojjatieh Society. Rasul Montajabnia wrote in a commentary for "Nasim-i Saba" on 4 May that members or supporters of the society have stopped their fight against the Baha'i faith and have turned their attention to creating divisions between Shi'a and Sunni Muslims. Montajabnia repeated this concern in the 12 May "Hambastegi."

Hussein Shariatmadari, director of the "Kayhan" newspaper, said, "The Hojjatieh Society has always been active as a creeping current," "Aftab-i Yazd" reported on 31 May 2004. Turning to its renewed activism, Shariatmadari warned, "In these days all the currents that suggest a secular establishment are the supporters of this society."

Ayatollah Abolqasem Khazali, who served on the Guardians Council, defended the Hojjatieh Society in the 18 May 2004 "Aftab-i Yazd." He said that stories of its renewed activism are "completely a lie." "I know these people [society members] very well. They are not working. They would have worked if they had known it was good for Islam. Therefore it is a complete lie when they say they have become active again." It is difficult to verify if the Hojjatieh Society really has become more active as an organization or if recent warnings about it relate to something completely different and this is another case of governmental scapegoating.

Members of the Hojjatieh Society, according to Radio Farda, are followers of the Iranian-born but Al-Najaf-based Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani http://www.radiofarda.com/en_news.aspx? ... y=2004#top. Such a claim has not been reported elsewhere, but it is not impossible and goes some way in explaining official Iranian concern. The Iranian regime bases much of its legitimacy on its religious credentials and connection with Qom. The Qom howzeh would fear the transfer of prominence to the Al-Najaf howzeh. As suggested by an editorial in the 8 June "Farhang-i Ashti," Al-Najaf is the "new Islamic Vatican" and it rivals Qom. Mashhad -- birthplace of the Hojjatieh Society -- also rivals Qom, especially because, according to the editorial, it views Islamic rule with "deep suspicion." The editorial explains: "Qom looks to merge religion and politics, while Mashhad thinks of separating the two."

A potential link to the Hojjatieh Society is not the only cause of concern on the part of the Iranian government about Ayatollah al-Sistani. Like the Hojjatieh Society, al-Sistani does not advocate Vilayat-i Faqih. The government's concern about a religio-political organization that questions the basis of its theocratic system is therefore understandable. The society's anti-Baha'i message may not find much of an audience in modern Iran, and the right-wing tendencies of prominent members may not jibe with overall public sentiment. Its opposition to the system, however, may very well strike a chord with an unhappy public. (Bill Samii)

26 posted on 09/25/2004 11:40:59 AM PDT by AdmSmith
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onepence
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Postby onepence » Mon Mar 06, 2006 8:57 am

http://bahai-library.com/essays/falsafi.html

...


On 9 May 1955 the press carried reports of the destruction of the dome of
the Bahai Center in Tehran (Hazhir'e al-Qods) and its occupation by
troops, and on 17 May it was announced that the Bahai Center in Shiraz had been closed and occupied by the military.9 The Chief of Staff
(Batmanghelidj) and the Military Governor of Tehran (Bakhtiar) led the
attackers.10 Behbehani congratulated the Shah for these acts. At the
same time, the Shah's personal physician, Abdol Karim Ayadi, a Bahai, was told to leave the country for a while. For this reason he went to Italy
for about nine months. The Bahais fought back by withdrawing their cash
from the bazaar, a move which led to the collapse of several businesses.11

In purely religious terms, Bahai refusal to accept Mohammad as the final
prophet was the ulama's major concern. More practical reasons, such as an attempt to counter the Bahais' increasing political and economic influence and reform-orientation, and an effort by the ulama to regain its
influence, probably carried more weight. More conservative elements ...


...

8. State Department telegram 2225, 788.00/8MAY55. Falsafi was a member
of an anti-Bahai group which eventually became the Hojjatieh Society, and
the leading ulama approved of the group's work; see 'The Hojjatieh
Society - Its History, Advocates, and Opponents,' Iran Press Digest,
(28SEP82), p. 20, and ibid., (5OCT82), p. 15.

9. Akhavi, Religion and Politics in Contemporary Iran, p. 77, 80.

onepence
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Postby onepence » Fri Mar 10, 2006 3:10 am

In the USA the tv cable history channel ran a program on
Atayyola Khomani {spelling whatever}

wild wild show ... pretty good ... talked about the Shah
and how he had secert police and how America and Britian had installed him in power

didn't not specifically mention the Hojjatieh Society or the Baha'i Faith
did mention how many people had started calling Khomani Inman ... and how the word Inman had certain conetations within Shite Islam ...

sad how a person can be so easily manipulated.

you should have seen the rioting in the streets ... the masses of people wanting answers ... seeking jusice ... death to America chanted every day after friday's prayer

O the Land of TA
do thou teach us from afar

oneness
dh


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