Mohammad-Taqi Mesbah-Yazdi

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Ayatollah Mohammad Taghi Mesbah Yazdi
Born	1934 Yazd, Iran
Religious beliefs	Twelver Shi'a Islam
Website www.mesbahyazdi.org

Not to be confused with Mohammad Yazdi.

Ayatollah Mohammad Taghi Mesbah Yazdi (Persian: محمد تقی مصباح یزدی) (born 1934) is a hardline Iranian Twelver Shi'a cleric and politician who is widely seen as Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's spiritual advisor. He is a member of Iran's Assembly of Experts,^[1]^[2] the body responsible for choosing the Supreme Leader. He has been called "the most conservative" and the most "powerful" and "influential ... clerical oligarch" in Iran's leading center of religious learning, the city of Qom.^[3]

Mesbah Yazdi esposes complete isolation from the West and proclaims non-literal interpretations of the Quran as heretical.^[4]^[5] He believes Iran has strayed from the values of the 1979 Iranian revolution and strongly opposes the Reformist movement in Iran to make Iran more open and democratic.

1 Education
2 Political Group
3 Career
4 Views
5 Nickname
6 Controversy
7 Quotes by Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi
8 See also
9 References
10 External links

[edit] Education

Mohammad Taghi Mesbah Yazdi completed his primary and secondary education in Yazd, and then moved to Qom, where he continued his education in fiqh(Islamic Jurisprudence) and graduated in 1960. His teachers included prominent figures such as Ayatollah Khomeini and Ayatollah Mohammad Taghi Bahjat Foumani. He was also among the students of Ayatollah Allameh Tabatabayi, the author of Tafsir al-Mizan, the influential shi'ite exegesis of Quran. Before Islamic revolution, he was the chief editor of a journal called "Revenge". ^[6]

[edit] Political Group

Mohammad Taghi Mesbah Yazdi is the spiritual adviser of a group of hardline fundamentalists. In 1997, after the election of reformist president, Mohammad Khatami, Mesbah Yazdi encouraged Iran's Revolutionary Guards and Hezbolli to put a stop to the reform agitation by any means, including violence.^[7] After decline of the reform movement in 2003, they made gains in local and parliamentary elections. In 2005, Mesbah Yazdi supported Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's presidential bid. Mesbah later told his supporters to get ready for the Assembly of Experts elections, because: "even though we have captured the presidency, the real power is in the hands of the others". This lead many to believe he is preparing to become the next Supreme Leader.^[5] However, his group failed to succeed in that election, leaving the assembly in the hands of pragmatic-conservatives.^[8]

Further information: Political parties in Iran

He has been named by investigative journalist Akbar Ganji as "having encouraged or issued fatwas, or religious orders" for the 1998 Chain murders of Iran assassinations of five Iranian dissidents.^[9]

[edit] Career

Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi was member of board of directors of Haghani School ^[10] (also Haqqani), a very influential religious school in Iran that has been described as "a kind of Ecole Nationale d'Administration for the Islamic Republic" whose alumni "form the backbone of the clerical management class that runs Iran's key political and security institutions."^[11] He is the author of many books on fiqh, Quran exegesis, divinity and general issues of Islam. He is the director of the Imam Khomeini Education and Research Institute ^[12] in Qom and a member of the Iranian Assembly of Experts. In addition, Mesbah Yazdi sometimes speaks before Khutbah in Tehran's Friday prayers.

After the presidential election of June 1997 in the relatively more open political atmosphere in that time, Mesbah Yazdi's students played an important role as the critics of the former president Mohammad Khatami. As a result, Mesbah Yazdi's name appeared more often in the media and became more well known. He issued a fatwa in support of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's presidential bid, and meets with the president frequently.^[5] In December 2006, he was elected to the Assembly of Experts, the group of Ayatollahs responsible for nominating a replacement for Ayatollah Khamenei, the Supreme Leader should he need to step down.^[2]

[edit] Views

In a lecture posted on his website, Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi speaks of his belief that Islam is under an "all-out attack by the infidels and the arrogant forces," and that believers must be active "in fighting the enemies of religion, taking jihad to unbelievers, foes, and the assailants of Muslims’ rights," and must strive "to establish the Just Islamic System all over the world ..."^[13]

He supports a return to what he sees as the values of the 1979 Iranian revolution,^[5] and is a principal theoretician of Islamic fundamentalism in Iran. President Khatami once called him the theoretician of violence^{[citation needed]}. He is an opponent of the Reformist movement in Iran. Speaking of the reform movement, he has said, "An Islamic government must combat this, because injecting misleading ideas is like injecting the Aids virus!". He also claims that Young Iranians who questioned the regime after studying abroad did so only because they had been trained in 'psychological warfare' by foreign universities.^[5]

In addition to opposing democratic reforms in Iran Mesbah Yazdi believes the current system of democratic elections for parliament, president and other posts called for in Iran's constitution is unnecessary for true Islamic government. He has been quoted as saying, "It doesn't matter what the people think. The people are ignorant sheep."^[14] Following the election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad - whom he supported - Mesbah Yazdi declared that Iran now had its first true Islamic government and there was no need for any more elections, which were incompatible with theocracy. Islamic republic was a contradiction in terms that had been a concession to secular forces and should be replaced with Islamic government.^[15]

Mesbah Yazdi believes that a trial is not needed to convict and execute offenders. "If anyone insults the Islamic sanctity, Islam has permitted for his blood to be spilled, no court needed either".^{[citation needed]} He has called for the execution of Dr Hashem Aghajari for insulting Islam based on the blasphemy laws of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Mesbah Yazdi believes that slavery and aggression are justifiable under Islam.^[16] He supports suicide bombing against Israel. In a lecture that was released in February 15 2006, Mohsen Ghorourian who is a well-known student of Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi said that using atomic bomb has religious legitimacy.^[17] In 2005, Ayatollah Khamenei issued a fatwa forbidding the production, stockpiling and use of nuclear weapons.

Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi is the principal theoretician of Islamic fundamentalism in Iran. President Khatami once called him the theoretician of violence. However, Ayatollah Mesbah is not a Marja and he does not enjoy the support of majority of clerics in Qom seminary.^{[citation needed]}

Ayatollah Mebah-Yazdi opposes bida'a or innovations in religion which he believes includes new interpretations of the Sunna and Qur'an. He has been quoted as saying:

If someone tells you he has a new interpretation of Islam, sock him in the mouth.^[5]

[edit] Nickname

Nikahang Kowsar was arrested for his depiction of "Professor Crocodile", a reptilian academic who was shown strangling a journalist with his tail, interpreted as a reference to Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi. It is written in the cartoon "Isn't any one to free me from this bribed reformist"

The Ayatollah's nickname comes from a cartoon portraying "Professor Crocodile", a "reptilian academic who was shown strangling a journalist with his tail". The cartoon was drawn by Nikahang Kowsar and satirized freedom of expression in Iran, and a speech given by Mesbah Yazdi in the previous day. Mesbah Yazdi was known as Professor Mesbah (Persian: استاد مصباح) among his supporters. "Mesbah" rhymes with the Persian word for crocodile, "Temsah" (Persian: تمساح), and the cartoon labeled the crocodile as "Professor Temsah", who repeats the words used by Mesbah Yazdi in the previous day. The cartoonist was shortly imprisoned for the depiction."^[5]

[edit] Controversy

A rumor widely spread on the Internet claims that Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi is the highest ranking figure in Hojjatieh group. Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi denies this and has denounced the rumor, saying that if anyone finds a connection between him and Hojjatieh, he will renounce everything he stands for.^[18] Ayatollah Khomeini actually frowned on the Hojjatieh and the group was nominally dissolved in 1983, yet they secretly continued to maintain and strengthen their network.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Quotes by Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi

"The real and precious knowledge is the one that culminates in God fearing."
"If it is impossible to uncover the hypocrites faces other than through sacrificing our souls, therefore we are supposed to do so."(In Persian)
The concept ”exam” in the divine order (In Persian)
"We should know that 1,400 years ago the Koran said that the enemies of Islam will always fight while chanting peace-seeking slogans.^[5]"