Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei’s controversy sparks

Many Muslim scholars do not recognize Khamenei as the Grand Ayatollah.

When Khomeini died, Khamenei was not Marja and the Ayatollah. The constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran stipulates that the supreme leader must be Marja. Khamenei's identity as Marja has been controversial. After the death of Grand Ayatollah Mohammad Ali Araki in 1994, the Qom Seminary Faculty Association declared Khamenei a Marja, but Iran's four grand ayatollahs refused to recognize Khamenei Identity of Marja. In the end, Khamenei refused to accept Marja who became a Shia Muslim in Iran, citing the heavy responsibility, but accepted Marja who became a Shia Muslim outside Iran.

Grand Ayatollah Mohammad Shirazi, who was under house arrest for opposing Khomeini, did not recognize Khamenei as Marja. Reza Afshari, a professor at Pace University, mentioned in the book "Human Rights in Iran" that Shiraz was "outraged" by Khamenei's recognition as the supreme leader and Marja, who seemed to prefer a group of big ayas. Tula formed a committee to lead the country.

Other clerics who have questioned Khamenei’s status as Marja include Grand Ayatollah Hussein-Ali Montazeri and Grand Ayatollah Hassan Tabata Hassan Tabataba'i-Qomi and Grand Ayatollah Yasubedin Rastegar Jooybari. In 1997, Hussein-Ali Montazeri "questioned the authority of the Supreme Leader," resulting in the closure of his madrasa, an attack on his office in Qom, and a period of house arrest.

Control the media

Khamenei has the power to directly appoint the leaders of Iran’s Islamic State Radio and Television and other organizations. The state controls most radio and television news channels, and these pro-government voices often promote tough official rhetoric. Many people express dissatisfaction with the propaganda and advocacy of state-run media. Khamenei issued a fatwa stating that the production, storage and use of nuclear weapons are strictly prohibited under Islam. This fatwa was stated in an official statement by the Iranian government at the International Atomic Energy Agency meeting in Vienna in August 2005.

The Iranian nuclear issue has been a recurring international issue for decades. The Iranian government insists that the purpose of its nuclear development is to generate electricity, but some Western countries have accused Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons. Khamenei is seen by some as the leader of the country's conservative establishment. He is the commander-in-chief of all armed forces and has the power to appoint the heads of the judiciary and state-run radio and television stations.

Before the 2005 presidential election, Khamenei described cleric Mesbah Yazdi as one of Iran’s most reliable thinkers, but Khamenei is said to have “recently paid attention to Mesbah Yazdi.” The political ambitions of Siba Yazdi”. Mesbah Yazdi is a critic of Iran's reform movement and is considered a spiritual adviser to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

In 2007, Khamenei asked government officials to speed up Iran's shift to economic privatization. The last move on privatization was carried out in 2004, when it overturned Article 44 of the constitution, which stated that Iran's main infrastructure should be state-owned. Khamenei also proposed that private ownership should be guaranteed in courts under the Ministry of Justice to protect and encourage private investment.

In addition, Khamenei expressed his affirmation of nuclear technology for civilian purposes because "oil and natural gas reserves will always be exhausted."

On April 30, 2008, Khamenei supported President Ahmadinejad’s economic policies. He pointed out that the West faced more severe economic problems than Iran, and the economic crisis spread from the United States to Europe. , and inflation is also a widespread problem. Khamenei said that the economic crisis has seriously damaged the global economy, which is unprecedented in the past 60 years. "This crisis has caused the United Nations to issue a warning about global food shortages, but foreign media have implicitly pointed to the current high prices and domestic inflation." It was caused by the negligence of some Iranian officials, which is of course untrue." He also emphasized that no one has the right to blame the Iranian government for Iran's economic problems. He suggested that the people and the government should be contented in order to weather the economic difficulties, and he added, "You should remember that this great nation will never be afraid of economic sanctions."

Science

In a 2002 speech, Khamenei highlighted his dissatisfaction with the performance of Mostafa Moeen, the Minister of Higher Education and Science, for allowing students to work in Kazakhstan Menei considered anti-Islamic behaviors, such as playing and studying music and art; traveling to pagan countries; and non-religious field trips. In the speech, Khamenei called for tighter controls on such practices and urged universities to enforce Islamic values.

Khamenei supports the development of science in Iran. He was one of the first Islamic clerics to allow stem cell research and somatic cell nuclear transfer. In 2004, Khamenei stated that the country's progress relied on investment in the fields of science and technology, and believed that society's emphasis on scholars and scientists would help cultivate talents and ensure the country's progress and development.

Human Rights

Khamenei has said that human rights are fundamental principles, implicit in Islamic teachings, and are centuries ahead of Western concerns about human rights. Human rights in Islam include the rights to life, freedom, fair treatment and the right to receive benefits. He criticized the duplicity of Western forces' criticism of Iran's human rights record. Western forces use economic means to exploit the people of third world countries and support dictators.

However, Khamenei did not extend this to the religious freedom of the Bahá'í Faith. He supported the persecution of the Bahá'í Faith and signed multiple agreements to reduce the influence of the Bahá'í Faith at home and abroad. A plan. According to a letter written by the chairman of the Iranian Armed Forces Command to the Ministry of Intelligence and National Security, the Revolutionary Guards and the police, Khamenei ordered the command to identify believers of the Baha'i Faith, monitor their activities, and collect all personal information of believers. material. As the "guardian" or supreme leader, Khamenei issued a fatwa stating that the "guardian's" decision on "any matters concerning Muslims and Islam" is "the will and decision of the entire nation."

At the end of 1996, Khamenei issued a decree stating that music education corrupted the minds of young people. Many music schools were closed and public institutions were prohibited from teaching music to teenagers under the age of 16 (private institutions were not allowed to teach music to children under the age of 16). Influence). Khamenei also said that "regardless of any age and any educational level, the promotion of music (including traditional and Western music) in schools is not in line with the tenets and ideas of Islam."

By 1999, Khamenei issued a fatwa allowing the use of sperm donation, egg donation and surrogacy for reproduction, which was different from Egypt's fatwa on assisted reproductive technology in the 1980s, which allowed Use of assisted reproductive technology, but not third-party donation.

In 2000, Khamenei stated in a letter to parliament that he prohibited the revision of Iran's media law. He stated that "the current media law effectively prevents disasters, and the currently drafted bill is illegal." Reformists and the opposition often criticized his "absolute legislative power." Some members of parliament expressed outrage and threatened to resign.

In 2002, he ruled that artificial stem cell research was legal and allowed in Iran as long as it only produced partial human organs.

In the same year, Khamenei intervened in the death sentence of university professor Hashem Aghajari. Aghajari pointed out that Muslims should reinterpret Islam and should not blindly follow the leader. Therefore, Sentenced to death. Khamenei asked the court for a retrial, and Ahaghari was later commuted to prison.

In July 2007, Khamenei criticized Iranian women's rights activists and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. "In our country... some radical women and some men are trying to break the rules of Islam," he said two days after women's rights activist Delaram Ali was sentenced to 34 months in prison and 10 lashes. "It is not correct to create articles in order to comply with international conventions related to women."

As for the dress code for women, Khamenei said that women are obliged to wear hijab (the veil and headscarf worn by Muslim women).

Khamenei pointed out that "Homosexuality is the main problem facing the Western world today, but they tend to ignore it. In fact, homosexuality is a major, painful and unsolvable problem for Western intellectuals." .

At Khamenei's instruction, the Iranian police launched the "Public Security Plan" in 2007 and arrested dozens of "villains" to improve public security.

The arrested "villains" were beaten in front of neighbors and cameras, and were forced to hang bathroom water containers around their necks. Khamenei and the Commander of the Armed Forces

In mid-August 2009, a group of unknown former reformist MPs complained to the meeting of experts responsible for the election, supervision and removal of the Supreme Leader, demanding an investigation into Khamenei Iraq’s qualifications to govern. A week later, a group of Iranian clerics sent an anonymous letter "calling Iran's supreme leader a dictator and calling for his removal." The letter shakes Khamenei's "role as a neutral arbiter and figurehead of Islam" and creates "unprecedented difficulties for the country's most powerful figure." The New York Times reported that graffiti reading "End Khamenei" began to appear on the streets of Tehran, a slogan that would have been unimaginable not long ago.

The letter was sent to the leader of the expert meeting, the "powerful former president" Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who himself also questioned the election results. According to the "Associated Press" prediction, this letter will not be recognized by "the parliament, which is composed of 86 members, two-thirds of which are considered to be Khamenei's cronies, and will oppose" any investigation into Khamenei.

The New York Times reported that “a well-known cleric and former congressman spoke with some of the authors of the letter on Sunday and believed that the letter was not a forgery” and that the letter was signed by “dozens of people, most of whom were bankers. the middle class in Al-Muhammad, Isfahan, and Mashhad.” In 2000, Khamenei was listed as "one of the top ten enemies of the media and freedom of expression" by the Committee to Protect Journalists, and in 2007, he was ranked among the top 100 people in the Times. Dissident journalists Ahmad Zeidabadi, Mohsen Sazegara, Mohammad Nourizad and Akbar Ganj Ganji was arrested and investigated for allegedly spreading policies and groups opposed to Khamenei. According to Iran's media law, it is illegal to spread rumors, false reports and distort other people's opinions. It is not allowed to slander domestic officials, institutions, organizations or insult legal persons or real persons protected and respected by the law through images or cartoons. This includes performing the above acts.

Ayatollah Khamenei's most controversial decision was his refusal to pass a bill submitted by parliament to amend the media law in 2000, and the cancellation of the Constitutional Supervision Committee he appointed in the 2004 Iranian parliamentary election. Qualifications of more than 1,000 parliamentary candidates.