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Copyright © 1999, by the Middle East DataProject, Inc. All rights reserved.
Iran Brief publisher Kenneth R. Timmerman spoke recently in Londonand Paris with two influential Iranian clerics, who represent thetraditionalist current of Shiite Islam in Iran.
(Excerpts from interview with Ayatollah Mehdi Rouhani)
IB: After seventeen years of so-called Islamic rule, does theclergy still have any relevance to ordinary Iranians?
Rouhani: There are two institutions that will always remainspecial in Iran: the clergy, and the King.
Iranian Shiites believe that the supreme religious leader of theircommunity represents the invisible Imam, the occulted Imam. So it ispart of their duty as Shiites to respect him.
This was the case with Ayatollah Khomeini. Despite his errors, hisfaults, Khomeini had a role to play, because he was a mujtahed. Theday he died, seven million Iranians beat their breasts in mourning.And so did the regime. Because with Khomeini, the regime itself died.It lost any legitimacy it once had.
Khamene'i is not a supreme religious leader. He is not a mujtahed.Iranians do not believe in this regime. But they do believe in theirreligious leaders and in their religion. And they believe thatreligion should remain in its place as a moral force in thenation.
Everyone knows that this regime has failed. But no civilian hasthe power to unseat clerics who are unjustly running the government.Only the clergy can do that. What is needed today is to empower theclergy to overthrow the regime. It is the clergy that must rise andsay to these other so-called clerics who have devastated our country:you are lying, and you are debasing Islam. Only the clergy has thepower and the prestige to do so.
IB: You were a candidate in the 1989 presidential elections.Will you run for President next year?
Rouhani: Even if this regime were overthrown, I would notaccept a post in a new government. I believe the clergy has lost itslegitimacy to rule. The clergy must return to the mosque.
I absolutely do not accept that the spiritual leader of Iran'sShiites should be the political leader of Iran. How can a religiousman be commander in chief of the army? How can he command the Statetreasury, or prepare the budget, or conduct international affairs?Yes, the religious leader has responsibilities: to build mosques, tohelp children, and the poor. But I believe this is a falsedistinction.
There is no war in Iran between the turban and the tie. Competenceshould reign in each area. We need the best engineers to build ourbridges, the best legal experts to craft our laws, and the mostexperienced jurists to interpret the Koran. When someone is gravelyill, they want the best specialist. Iranians deserve as much.
IB: Abdolkarim Soroush has attracted a wide following inside Iran,where his speeches are attended by thousands of people. Do youfeel he represents a potential for change in Iran?
Rouhani: Soroush is an agent of the regime, and differswith them only slightly.
When Soroush says there are 100 'sources of imitation,' what he isreally doing is seeking to split the clergy, to keep them fromuniting around a single, pre-eminent figure, such as happened withAyatollah Khomeini. Whenever you say there are 100 sources ofimitation, you are saying there cannot be one leader who is respectedby all, and who could challenge the regime.
This was the argument Khamene'i used when he tried[unsuccessfully] to assume the mantle as leader of the Shiitecommunity after the death of Ayatollah Golpeygani two years ago.Soroush is following the same line.
Even Youssof Sanai, a former Islamic Prosecutor, is claiming to beamong the "one hundred" sources of imitation. He was my student whenI was still in Iran.
Recently Mohammad Khoiniha [Ed. note: former ProsecutorGeneral and publisher of Salam daily newspaper] made the sameargument, calling for several sources of imitation. This is theregime's attempt to confuse and disperse people, nothing more.
Why else has the regime locked up the Grand Ayatollahs in theirhouses, and prevented them from seeing their followers? To keep thepeople from uniting around them.
IB: What role do you feel the clergy has in theopposition
Rouhani: In any opposition there must be a center. And theonly center for the opposition in Iran is religion. This is not apersonal ambition. It is simply a statement of fact.
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