Ardsgaine
Active Member
Thursday November 7, 2002 2:40 PM
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - A prominent reformist scholar was sentenced to death on charges of insulting Islam's prophet and questioning the hard-line clergy's interpretation of Islam, his lawyer said Thursday.
A court in Hamedan, in western Iran, issued the sentence against university professor Hashem Aghajari, Saleh Nikbakht told The Associated Press.
Nikbakht said Aghajari, a close ally of President Mohammad Khatami and a leading member of the reformist political party Islamic Revolution Mujahedeen Organization, also was sentenced to 74 lashes, banned from teaching for 10 years and exiled to three remote Iranian cities for eight years.
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Aghajari is a socialist who has been speaking out against the power of the clerics in Iran. His specific crime was saying that "the clerics' teachings on Islam were considered sacred simply because they were part of history, and he questioned why clerics were the only ones authorized to interpret Islam." (Quoted from the article.)
Here is an interview with him from last May. It was a rather difficult read for me, possibly due in part to being poorly translated, but also due to the need for more background for me to understand what they're talking about. Still, it was apparent from what he said that in the particular form of theocratic socialism ruling Iran, Aghajari leans more towards socialism than theocracy.
Two more articles I found give a little more background on Aghajari's battle with the courts. He first resisted their order to appear because he claimed that he might be assassinated by radicals on the way to court. When he did appear, he was detained immediately after the interrogation by the court.
It's an interesting story, and indicative of the nature of the Iranian government. Khatami is simply a figurehead. The real power is held by the mullahs. They really do need to be next.