Hojjatieh

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Hojjatieh (in Persian: انجمن حجتیه ) also Hojjatieh Society is a semi-clandestine traditionalist Shia organization founded in Iran in 1954 by the Tehrani mullah, Shaikh Mahmoud Halabi. The organization was founded on the premise that the most immediate threat to Islam was (what Shaikh Halabi believed) was the religion of Bahá'íism, which they viewed as a heresy that must be eliminated. ^[1] The group also opposes Sunniism and the Khomeinist concept of Velayat-e Faqih

Shaikh Mahmoud Halabi is said to have worked with SAVAK security agency under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, offering his full cooperation in fighting "other heathen forces, including the Communists." By doing so he was given freedom to recruit members and raise funds, and by 1977 Hojjatieh is said to have had 12,000 members. However, since the Shah's regime allowed the Baha'is freedom, Halabi supported Khomeini's movement to overthrow the Shah.^[2]

The group flourished during the 1979 revolution that ousted the Shah and installed an Islamic government in his place. However it was banned in 1983 by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

1 Views
2 Rumored members
3 See also
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Views

According to legal scholar Noah Feldman, the "Hojjatiya Society, was banned and persecuted by Khomeini’s government in part for its quiescent view that the mahdi’s arrival could not be hastened." Misinterpretation of the society's position "outside Iran" as the opposite of what it is has led some to think its supporters "want to bring back the imam by violence, rather than ... wait piously and prepare for the imam’s eventual return on his own schedule."^[3] A corollary of this belief is that only with the mahdi’s arrival can a genuine Islamic republic be established, and this earned them their persecution under Khomeini.^{[citation needed]} Those who adhere to this perspective claim Hojjatieh is a millenarian group who put great stock on the return of the Mahdi and the idea of such a return bringing happiness to true believers.^{[citation needed]} Such beliefs are in Iran generally associated with uneducated, superstitious Muslims and so are derided and looked down upon by the traditional Shi'ite hierarchy, whether conservative or reformist.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Rumored members

Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi is reported to be the highest ranking member of the Hojjatieh. He denies this and has said that if anyone finds a connection between him and Hojjatieh, he will denounce everything he stands for.^[4]

The current president of Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is also rumored to be an advocate of Hojjatieh through the influence of his mentor, the Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi. Feldman writing in the New York Times suggests this rumor was spread by Ahmadinejad's enemies.^[5]

Asia Times reports that Ahmad Tavassoli, a former chief of staff of Khomeini, claimed in 2005 that "the executive branch of the Iranian government as well as the crack troops of the Revolutionary Guards have been hijacked by the Hojjatieh, which, he implied, now also controls Ahmadinejad." According to the report, Hojjatieh were endangering Iran by working for Shia supremacy, ^[6]