Hossein Noori Hamedani

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Grand Ayatollah Hossein Noori Hamedani (born in 1926) is an Iranian Twelver Shi'a Marja. Noori Hamedani has been called a "hard-line cleric,"^[1] who has expressed his strong disapproval of Sufis and Dervishes, women's presence in stadiums, Jews, the intellectual Abdolkarim Soroush and the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.

Hossein Noori Hamedani was born in Hamedan, Iran. After finishing elementary studies in Hamedan, at the age of 17, he moved to Qom, Iran to continue his religious studies. He studied in seminaries of Allameh Tabatabai and Grand Ayatollah Borujerdi. He currently resides and teaches in the Seminary of Qom, Iran.^[2]

Among his reported views are that Iran "must purge universities of anti-Islamic and atheist professors". ^[3] In September 2006 he called for a clampdown on dervish groups in Qom. He also issued a fatwa against the attendance of women in stadiums. ^[4] In early 2008 he issued what some see as an implicit death threat against Iranian intellectual Abdolkarim Soroush saying “Soroush’s writings are ‎worse than Salman Rushdie’s,” and “Abdolkarim Soroush’s ‎religious theories have undermined the roots of prophecy, the Koran and holy ‎revelations.” ^[5]

According to Fars news agency, Ayatollah Nouri-Hamedani stated in a discussion of religious texts, that: "One should fight the Jews and vanquish them so that the conditions for the advent of the Hidden Imam be met." He also added: "Crazy Ideas Such as Secularism, Liberalism, and Humanism are Part of Our Enemies' Plans to Sow Disunity".^[6]

In connection with the Iranian legislature's ratification of a bill on Iranian membership in the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the ISNA reported Nuri-Hamedani issued a statement on 2 August 2003 describing "the convention as calamitous and tragic, as well as a Western and U.S. ploy to harm Islam." According to Hamedani, when the convention was brought to Qom all the religious authorities opposed it as contrary to Islam.^[7] Click here for image.