Hossein Kazemeyni Boroujerdi
Encyclopedia
Ayatollah
Seyyed Hossein Kazemeyni Boroujerdi (also Hosein Kazemaini Boroujerdi) is an Iran
ian Shia Muslim
cleric who advocates the separation of religion and government
and has been imprisoned several times by the Iranian government.
He reportedly first expressed his opposition to the theocratic nature of the Islamic government of Iran under which Islamic jurists rule or provide "guardianship" in 1994. He has been quoted as saying Iranians "are loyal to the fundamentals of the true religion and the Prophet's mission", but are "tired of the religion of politics and political slogans."
Boroujerdi and many of his followers were arrested in Tehran
on October 8, 2006, following a clash between police and hundreds of his followers. Iranian officials charged him with having claimed to be a representative of the hidden Imam, (a venerated figure in Shia Islam), a charge he denies.
According to mardaninews website, as of 1 June 2008 "judicial authorities have released no information concerning his prosecution" and his medical condition is deteriorating.
He has been quoted as saying that Iranians "believe that they are loyal to the fundamentals of the true religion and the Prophet's mission, but they are opposed to the politicization of religion and its exploitation by a group that has nothing to do with true Islam. Islam is the religion of tolerance, forbearance, and mercy, to the point where [the Qur'an] emphasized to us that 'there is no compulsion in religion."
He wrote to Pope Benedict XVI
and the European Union
to complain about the suspicious circumstances surrounding the death of his father Ayatollah Seyyed Mohammad Ali Kazemeini Boroujerdi in 2002, the subsequent confiscation
of his father's mosque, and his own and his followers' harassment by Iran's theocratic government.
Boroujerdi says that since 1994 he says he has been summoned repeatedly before Iran's Special Clerical Court
. He was imprisoned for several months in 1995 and 2001 and in 2006 he was again summoned by the Special Court for the Clergy.
In 2010, Boroujerdi wrote an open letter to Supreme Leader
Ali Khamenei
, accusing him of responsiblity for the violation of human rights in Iran, and calling for "free referendum" in Iran "directly supervised by UN observers."
On October 7, 2006 a large crowd of over 1,000 people including many women gathered around his house and prevented his arrest by police forces and was able to repel them. The Iranian news service IRNA, posted pictures the demonstration and printed some of the slogans shouted by the crowd: "Freedom, freedom - This is our incontrovertible right," (a counterpoint to the slogan shouted by supporters of the regime during Friday prayers: "Nuclear energy - This is our incontrovertible right,") and, "[We are] ready for martyrdom according to our traditional religion - that is, Islam that is not political". The next day security forces arrested Boroujerdi and several hundred of his followers - "172 women and 225 men" - who had gathered to prevent his arrest.
prosecuted him behind closed doors. The authorities have not provided any official accounting regarding his prosecution and sentencing. According to his associates, he was initially sentenced to death, but upon appeals his sentence was reduced to 11 years in prison, ten of which must be served in exile in city of Yazd. He has been deprived of access to an independent attorney throughout his prosecution and imprisonment."
Amnesty International reports that there are believed to have been 30 charges against him,
"poor prison conditions, and torture and ill-treatment, have reportedly led to a deterioration in Ayatollah Boroujerdi’s pre-existing medical conditions."
International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran
reports Ayatollah Boroujerdi is suffering from "multiple health complications, including heart and respiratory problems and kidney stone complications, as well as loss of 80 percent of his vision due to cataracts. According to his physician, Dr. Hesam Firoozi, Ayatollah Boroujerdi has lost as much as 80 pounds (36kg) during his imprisonment."
Dr. Firoozi wrote to the head of the Judiciary on September 2, 2008:
In April 2009, Boroujerdi wrote a letter to United Nations
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
, urging Ki-Moon to intervene in his case, according to the website Washington TV. On 5 May he began a hunger strike to protest the suspension of his rights to make telephone calls to his family and lawyer and to receive visits from them. Two weeks later he was hospitalized in the medical facility of Yazd Prison. According to Roya Eraghi, a follower of Boroujerdi, as of July 2011 Boroujedri's health has further deteriorated due to severe pressure and torture in jail in prison. Despite a heart condition and lost vision in one eye, he has not been allowed to leave prison to receive medical treatment.
On November 11, 2011 a letter by him, was smuggled out from Evin prison, addressed to Secretary of State Hilary Clinton appealing for her help to deal with the root causes of the problems in Iran.
Ayatollah
Ayatollah is a high ranking title given to Usuli Twelver Shī‘ah clerics. Those who carry the title are experts in Islamic studies such as jurisprudence, ethics, and philosophy and usually teach in Islamic seminaries. The next lower clerical rank is Hojatoleslam wal-muslemin...
Seyyed Hossein Kazemeyni Boroujerdi (also Hosein Kazemaini Boroujerdi) is an Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
ian Shia Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
cleric who advocates the separation of religion and government
Separation of church and state
The concept of the separation of church and state refers to the distance in the relationship between organized religion and the nation state....
and has been imprisoned several times by the Iranian government.
He reportedly first expressed his opposition to the theocratic nature of the Islamic government of Iran under which Islamic jurists rule or provide "guardianship" in 1994. He has been quoted as saying Iranians "are loyal to the fundamentals of the true religion and the Prophet's mission", but are "tired of the religion of politics and political slogans."
Boroujerdi and many of his followers were arrested in Tehran
Tehran
Tehran , sometimes spelled Teheran, is the capital of Iran and Tehran Province. With an estimated population of 8,429,807; it is also Iran's largest urban area and city, one of the largest cities in Western Asia, and is the world's 19th largest city.In the 20th century, Tehran was subject to...
on October 8, 2006, following a clash between police and hundreds of his followers. Iranian officials charged him with having claimed to be a representative of the hidden Imam, (a venerated figure in Shia Islam), a charge he denies.
According to mardaninews website, as of 1 June 2008 "judicial authorities have released no information concerning his prosecution" and his medical condition is deteriorating.
Views
Boroujerdi had been preaching a "traditional interpretation of Islam which separates religion from politics" in a mosque in a "poor neighbourhood in the south of Tehran" for some years.He has been quoted as saying that Iranians "believe that they are loyal to the fundamentals of the true religion and the Prophet's mission, but they are opposed to the politicization of religion and its exploitation by a group that has nothing to do with true Islam. Islam is the religion of tolerance, forbearance, and mercy, to the point where [the Qur'an] emphasized to us that 'there is no compulsion in religion."
He wrote to Pope Benedict XVI
Pope Benedict XVI
Benedict XVI is the 265th and current Pope, by virtue of his office of Bishop of Rome, the Sovereign of the Vatican City State and the leader of the Catholic Church as well as the other 22 sui iuris Eastern Catholic Churches in full communion with the Holy See...
and the European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
to complain about the suspicious circumstances surrounding the death of his father Ayatollah Seyyed Mohammad Ali Kazemeini Boroujerdi in 2002, the subsequent confiscation
Confiscation
Confiscation, from the Latin confiscatio 'joining to the fiscus, i.e. transfer to the treasury' is a legal seizure without compensation by a government or other public authority...
of his father's mosque, and his own and his followers' harassment by Iran's theocratic government.
Boroujerdi says that since 1994 he says he has been summoned repeatedly before Iran's Special Clerical Court
Special Clerical Court
Special Clerical Court, or Special Court for Clerics is an Iranian court system for examining transgressions within the clerical establishment. It tries Shia Muslim clerics, although it has also taken on cases involving lay people. The court functions independently of the regular Iranian judicial...
. He was imprisoned for several months in 1995 and 2001 and in 2006 he was again summoned by the Special Court for the Clergy.
In 2010, Boroujerdi wrote an open letter to Supreme Leader
Supreme leader
A supreme leader typically refers to a figure in the highest leadership position of an entity, group, organization, or state, who exercises strong or all-powerful authority over it. In religion, the supreme leader or supreme leaders is God or Gods...
Ali Khamenei
Ali Khamenei
Ayatollah Seyed Ali Hoseyni Khāmene’i is the Supreme Leader of Iran and the figurative head of the Muslim conservative establishment in Iran and Twelver Shi'a marja...
, accusing him of responsiblity for the violation of human rights in Iran, and calling for "free referendum" in Iran "directly supervised by UN observers."
Demonstration, arrests
He declined to appear for the summons and the Iranian government issued a warrant for his arrest. Supporters and students of the Ayatollah gathered at his home in order to protect him, many of them staying for "more than ten weeks to offer protection."On October 7, 2006 a large crowd of over 1,000 people including many women gathered around his house and prevented his arrest by police forces and was able to repel them. The Iranian news service IRNA, posted pictures the demonstration and printed some of the slogans shouted by the crowd: "Freedom, freedom - This is our incontrovertible right," (a counterpoint to the slogan shouted by supporters of the regime during Friday prayers: "Nuclear energy - This is our incontrovertible right,") and, "[We are] ready for martyrdom according to our traditional religion - that is, Islam that is not political". The next day security forces arrested Boroujerdi and several hundred of his followers - "172 women and 225 men" - who had gathered to prevent his arrest.
Prosecution
According to mardaninews website: "In June 2007, the Special Clerical CourtSpecial Clerical Court
Special Clerical Court, or Special Court for Clerics is an Iranian court system for examining transgressions within the clerical establishment. It tries Shia Muslim clerics, although it has also taken on cases involving lay people. The court functions independently of the regular Iranian judicial...
prosecuted him behind closed doors. The authorities have not provided any official accounting regarding his prosecution and sentencing. According to his associates, he was initially sentenced to death, but upon appeals his sentence was reduced to 11 years in prison, ten of which must be served in exile in city of Yazd. He has been deprived of access to an independent attorney throughout his prosecution and imprisonment."
Amnesty International reports that there are believed to have been 30 charges against him,
These include “waging war against God” (MoharebehMoharebehMoharebeh is the title of a crime in Islamic law. Mohareb refers to the perpetrator of the crime. Moharebeh has been translated in English language media sources variously as "waging war against God," "war against God and the state," "enmity against God." Mohareb has been translated by English...
), for which the punishment is death; acts against national security; publicly calling political leadership by clergy (Velayat-e Faqih) unlawful; having links with anti-revolutionaries and spies; and using the term “religious dictatorship” instead of “Islamic Republic” in public discourse and radio interviews.
Condition in prison
According to Amnesty InternationalAmnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
"poor prison conditions, and torture and ill-treatment, have reportedly led to a deterioration in Ayatollah Boroujerdi’s pre-existing medical conditions."
International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran
International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran
International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran is a non-government organization that works to bring international attention on what it views as the Iranian government’s repression of human rights and civil liberties in Iran. It is based in the United States...
reports Ayatollah Boroujerdi is suffering from "multiple health complications, including heart and respiratory problems and kidney stone complications, as well as loss of 80 percent of his vision due to cataracts. According to his physician, Dr. Hesam Firoozi, Ayatollah Boroujerdi has lost as much as 80 pounds (36kg) during his imprisonment."
Dr. Firoozi wrote to the head of the Judiciary on September 2, 2008:
“As an independent physician, with no political leanings and agenda, and in keeping with my sacred duties as a physician devoted to the goal of saving the lives of humans, I urge your Excellency to order his transfer to a specialist medical facility outside the prison, to save his life,” Dr. Firoozi wrote to the head of the Judiciary on September 2, 2008.
In April 2009, Boroujerdi wrote a letter to United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
Ban Ki-moon
Ban Ki-moon is the eighth and current Secretary-General of the United Nations, after succeeding Kofi Annan in 2007. Before going on to be Secretary-General, Ban was a career diplomat in South Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and in the United Nations. He entered diplomatic service the year he...
, urging Ki-Moon to intervene in his case, according to the website Washington TV. On 5 May he began a hunger strike to protest the suspension of his rights to make telephone calls to his family and lawyer and to receive visits from them. Two weeks later he was hospitalized in the medical facility of Yazd Prison. According to Roya Eraghi, a follower of Boroujerdi, as of July 2011 Boroujedri's health has further deteriorated due to severe pressure and torture in jail in prison. Despite a heart condition and lost vision in one eye, he has not been allowed to leave prison to receive medical treatment.
On November 11, 2011 a letter by him, was smuggled out from Evin prison, addressed to Secretary of State Hilary Clinton appealing for her help to deal with the root causes of the problems in Iran.
External links
- The representative of Ayatollah Boroujedi in Europe
- BameAzadi - Ayatollah Seyed Hosein Kazemeini Boroujerdi's Database
- "Arrest of a High Ranking Cleric is a Return to Revolutionary Times", Iran Press Service 10 October 2006.
- "Dissident Cleric, Followers Arrested In Tehran", Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty 9 October 2006.
- Nazenin Ansari. "An ayatollah under siege ... in Tehran" openDemocracy 8 October 2006.
- "Critical cleric arrested in Iran: reports", Washington Post 8 October 2006.
- Alan Peters. "Ayatollah Revolts in Iran", Anti-Mullah 7 October 2006.