Iranian Ayatollah MontazeriIssues Fatwa Against the Regime from MEMRI reports that more cracks in the Iranian power structure are showing as a fatwa published on the Iranian website http://www.khandaniha.eu indicates that Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, a most senior Shi'ite cleric begs to differ with Ayatollah Khamenei's tactics and treatment of the Iranian people.
A portion below:
Query: "Do the great sins listed below, and the [position holders'] insistence on committing them, contravene the 'principle of justice' and lead to the implementation of the 'principle of tyranny?'
"1. Ordering innocent people killed and causing their death;
"2. Ordering and being involved in an armed [campaign] of threats and intimidation, and of beating and wounding innocent people in the streets;
"3. The de facto prevention of senior ayatollahs from fulfilling their religious duty of 'commanding good and prohibiting evil,' by obstructing all reasonable and legal means of non-violent protest;
"4. Denying freedom and imprisoning anyone who acts or advises [others] to act [according to the religious precept of] 'commanding good and prohibiting evil,' and extorting false confessions through pressure;
"5. Censoring media and information…;
"6. Smearing all those who protested [following the elections]... and all those who opposed the position holders, [by calling them] 'mercenaries' and 'spies of foreign [forces]';
"7. [Spreading] lies, false testimony, and false reports on all matters concerning the rights of the public;
"8. Betraying the people's trust;
"9. [Practicing] tyranny, ignoring [the people's] opinion, and disregarding the clerics' counsel and warnings;
"10. Preventing rightful owners [i.e. the people] from taking possession of the common property – [that is,] the nation's destiny;
"11. Insulting Islam and demeaning religion by presenting Islam and the Shi'ia to the world as crude, illogical, aggressive, superstitious, and despotic."
Reply: "Committing the above sins, or insisting on [committing] some of them, is incontrovertible and clear proof of the absence of justice, and is [in fact] an essential characteristic of oppression and injustice… It is obvious that any sin committed in the name of religion, justice, or the law – and especially the [sins] mentioned above – [makes] evil increase, and also causes further distancing from the religion. [These offenses entail] the most severe punishment, in this world and in the world to come, since in addition to the evil sins of fraud and of distancing [people] from the religion, they also corrupt [the very principles of] justice and law.
"In cases where according to the position holders, the acts were just and within the law, while the majority of the people maintains that they were illegal... and [that they constituted] offenses against [the people's] rights, then there is a need to act according to a ruling by honest and impartial arbitrators agreed upon by both sides."
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