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| Axis of Evil |
| Reformist accused of insults to Mohamed, risks death |
| 2002-08-01 |
| Iran's reformist writer Hashem Aghajari, accused of offending the ruling Shiite clergy, now faces a new charge of insulting the prophet Mohamed, an offence punishable by death. Aghajari, who is on trial in Hamedan, denied the charge, saying the judge had been unable to show one sentence in the controversial speech which brought him to court that justified it. Yeah, that's what he sez... Aghajari's party, the secular leftist Organization of Mojahedin of the Islamic Revolution (OMIR), protested the "unprecedented and strange" accusation in an open letter to Iran's moderate President Mohammad Khatami and parliament speaker Mehdi Karubi. Even though they're not the ones who're trying to kill him... "You are well aware that this charge against a university professor only for expressing his ideas among a limited number of people will portray an ugly and black image of the system, inside and outside the country". Which is a pretty accurate portrayal... The juridiciary, which is dominated by the conservative clergy, put Aghajari, a Khatami supporter, on trial following anti-clerical remarks more than a month ago. He caused a storm when, speaking in Hamedan, he said Muslims "should not blindly" follow religious leaders and called for a "religious renewal" of Shiite Islam. Well, if you can't blindly follow an ayatollah, who can you blindly follow? A leading cleric compared him to British writer Salman Rushdie, who was condemned to death in February 1989 by an Iranian religious decree for publishing "The Satanic Verses", a book which authorities here deemed blasphemous. Protests and demonstrations were also staged against Aghajari in the holy city of Qom south of the capital and other places, as conservatives accused the OMIR of being "un-Islamic" and illegal. Seems like if there's any blasphemy involved here, it's the ayatollahs who are arrogant enough to put themselves on the same plane as Mohammad and demand the same kind of obedience from the Faithful. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |