Iran’s Top Sunni Cleric Says Hanging Protesters Is Un-Islamic
Iran’s top Sunni religious leader slammed executions of protesters as violations of Sharia law and warned the authorities that this will not stop the antigovernment movement.
Iran’s top Sunni religious leader slammed executions of protesters as violations of Sharia law and warned the authorities that this will not stop the antigovernment movement.
He specifically raised the issue of death sentences against five protesters charged with the murder of a government security agent and said, “Where is it written in Sharia that for killing one Basij member five people should receive the death sentence, and in such a short time?”
Abdolhamid also criticized the December 8 execution of the first protester, Mohsen Shekari, saying that for wounding a government security agent and closing a street, he should not have been hanged. The Sunni cleric said that Sharia foresees many lesser punishments, even if a person is convicted of “fighting against God,” the charge made against Shekari.
Abdolhamid also said that government agents have killed many innocent people since September and there has been no accountability and no justice.
The Islamic Republic considers many acts of opposition or defiance against the regime as “Moharebeh”, an Islamic-Arabic term meaning war against God, with the maximum punishment of death, which the regime readily applies.
Abdolhamid had warned last week against issuing death sentences for protesters. Relations between Abdolhamid and the government became tense after security forces opened fire on demonstrators in Zahedan September 30, killing more than 80 people.
A secret file revealed by hackers in November showed that Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei ordered his security people not to arrest Abdolhamid but to disgrace him, after the Sunni cleric directly criticized the autocratic ruler. If true, this shows that Khamenei plays a major role in decisions that lead to violations of human rights and the operations of intelligence agencies against dissidents.
Abdolhamid defended his own record on the issue of freedom and equal rights for women, which critics have recently raised. He said that the Baluch populated region was a traditional area, where women did not historically enjoy much freedom, “But a lot of work has been done.”
Condemning excessive punishment and executions, Abdolhamid said, “Governments of the world should know that killing their own people is wrong.”
He maintained that Shekari’s execution was not right according to Quran and Sharia. “Executions in Iran had no precedent in Islam in any period. [Similar executions] did not take place during Prophet [Mohammed] or during the four senior Caliphs who succeeded him, including Imam Ali.”
In Islamic jurisprudence, the decisions and actions of Prophet Mohammed are taken as a guide in Sharia and judicial or political decisions. The Sunni cleric particularly mentioned the fourth Caliph Ali, because he is the most important source of emulation after the prophet.
Abdolhamid also criticized the regime’s foreign policy, saying its international conduct brough poverty and hunger to the nation. “The nuclear issue has gone on for so long and you were not able to solve it, which brought pressure on the people and led to their protests.”
A video posted on Twitter shows a few people quietly standing at his grave at Tehran’s Behesht Zahra Cemetery. Shekari, 23, was hanged Thursday morning after a hasty and unfair trial, which has sparked deep anger among Iranians.
Many believe he was hanged to instill fear among other protesters as his sentence for blocking a street and inflicting a minor injury on a paramilitary Basij member, was harsher than anyone could imagine.
Some people took to the street in his neighborhood Thursday evening and chanted “We will kill the one who killed our brother” and “Death to the Dictator.” People were indiscriminately tear-gassed and shot at with pellet guns whether they were on foot or in their cars, and even inside shopping arcades.
Anti-government protesters have planned further rallies on Saturday and Sunday in Iran and abroad in the memory of Shekari and other protesters killed by the security forces.
For the fear of funerary events turning into protests, authorities have “snatched” the bodies of several protesters from the morgue or hospital and buried them secretly in nearly three months since protests began following the death in custody of Mahsa Amini. In some cases, families have taken the bodies home for fear of being deprived of a proper burial at their preferred cemeteries.
In November, the mother of ten-year-old Kian Pirfalak who was shot by security forces in the family car in Izeh, a small city in Khuzestan Province, had to take her son’s body to a relative’s home from the hospital with the help of her relatives and cover it with ice until the next day when she could give him a proper burial. The event turned into a massive anti-government protest with the mother, Zaynab Molaei-Rad, making a fiery speech and accusing the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei of being responsible for her son’s death.
For decades the Islamic Republic has “stolen bodies” or buried people in unknown graves to deny families a proper burial or conceal atrocities.
In 1988 in what came to be known as the massacre of political prisoners, thousands were tried summarily and executed within a few months. The bodies were buried in unmarked graves at Tehran’s Khavaran cemetery and elsewhere. Thousands of families are still searching for their loved ones’ graves including many minors.
The extent of “body snatching” has gone beyond those executed or killed in protests. In October, Sara Haghighatnejad had to go through massive paperwork to bring the body of her dissident journalist brother, Reza Haghighatnejad, home from Germany where he died of cancer only to see the body snatched by security forces at Shiraz Airport. The family were then left in the dark for four days before they found out the body had been secretly buried, not at their family cemetery in his hometown, but in a remote village in their absence.
In a short statement on its Twitter account, the regime’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs claimed that the government has "exercised the utmost restraint in dealing with the riots".
“In countering riots, the Islamic Republic has shown utmost restraint and -- unlike many Western regimes who smear and violently crack down even on peaceful protesters -- Iran has employed proportionate and standard anti-riot methods. The same is true for the judicial process: restraint and proportionality,” the statement read.
The ministry then repeated the official rhetoric, blaming other countries for the protests, saying that “Yet, public security is a redline. Armed assault and vandalism aren't tolerable, even to Western regimes... Instead of exposing its mendacity by politicized statements, the West must stop hosting, backing and encouraging terrorists.”
In his first speech after the execution of the first protester, Mohsen Shekari, President Ebrahim Raisi announced that "the trial and punishment of the protesters" will continue. Also, Ahmad Khatami, a hardliner cleric and Friday prayer Imam expressed his gratitude “for the decisiveness of the judiciary, which sent the first rioter to the gallows.”
Judiciary spokesman Masoud Setayeshi had announced Tuesday that five more people indicted in the killing of a Basij militia member, Rouhollah Ajamian, were sentenced to death.
Shekari’s hanging after a hasty and unfair trial has sparked deep anger among Iranians, who believe his killing was meant to instill fear among the people, and world leaders who describe the act as the acme of atrocity and a nadir of humanity.
People across Iran, especially the capital Tehran and Zahedan, the provincial capital of Sistan-Baluchestan province, held rallies in protest to Shekari’s execution and many others who are in danger of imminent execution.
The UN Human Rights council also deplored the hanging of Shekari and expressed concerns for at least 11 other protesters sentenced to death. “We call for an immediate halt to executions. Death penalty is incompatible with human rights and cannot be reconciled with right to life," the body said.
The global outcry over the executions is not limited to politicians and state officials as many celebrities and right activists have also denounced the act with grassroot activists, known as the youth of Tehran's neighborhoods calling for a demonstration on Saturday afternoon.
Canada-based activist Hamed Esmaeilion, whose daughter and wife were killed by the IRGC, have also called for rallies in many cities of the world on Saturday and Sunday in protest to Shekari’s execution and all the others planned to take place in the coming days.
British entrepreneur and business magnate Richard Branson called the execution “unacceptable and cruel.” saying “Iran’s brutal and corrupt regime must be held accountable by the international community.”
British author and philanthropist J. K. Rowling said in a tweet on Friday that “Mohsen Shekari was murdered by the state for wanting freedoms so many of us take for granted.”
Following his death, Shekari came to be known among the Iranian social media users as an avid gamer, which drew a lot of reaction from the gaming community. David Jaffe, a video game designer best known for creating the God of War series, called his execution “Sad, pathetic, and heart breaking.” “ANYONE who stands up against the sort of 'leadership' they have in Iran is a hero in my book. Rest in Peace and Power, Mohsen Shekari. Hoping your bravery, strength, and activism serve as an inspiration for millions,” he tweeted.