Iran’s Grand Ayatollah condemns VP Mashaei’s Israel remarks
Published: Tuesday, August 19, 2008
15:47 GMT—11:47 AM/EST
IRAN – CLERGY – CONDEMN – MASHAEI
Washington, 19 August (IranVNC)—Iran’s Grand Ayatollah Naser Makarem-Shirazi, considered a source of emulation by Shiite Muslims, said yesterday that Israel and its people were opposed to Islam and Muslims.
“There is no doubt that the Israeli regime and its people are both opposed to Islam and Muslims. They have usurped Muslims’ lands and continually built townships and settled on those usurped lands,” Makarem-Shirazi said in a statement posted on the hard-line Tabnak news website.
He was responding to a request from Tabnak, which asked him to analyze comments made by Iran’s Vice President for Cultural Heritage and Tourism, who had said last month that Iran was a friend of the American and Israeli people.
Vice President Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei was quoted last month as saying: “We [Iran] are friends with all people of the world, even the people of America and Israel.”
His comments have drawn sharp criticism from Iran’s Majlis [parliament] Speaker, Ali Larijani and last week 200 Majlis deputies signed a statement calling on Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to dismiss Mashaei.
“The expansionist designs of that regime and the people there [Israel] are not hidden from anyone and so how can one utter a phrase [expressing] friendship with them”, Makarem-Shirazi said.
Referring to the Majlis’ response to Mashaei’s words, he added: “Why is it necessary that those who have such thoughts should be colleagues of the respected President [Ahmadinejad], when 200 representatives of the people object to this, meaning that over two-thirds of the people of this country are against this person and [against] such thoughts?”
Mashaei’s words also drew sharp reactions from Hojjatol-Eslam Mohammad-Javad Fazel Lankarani, one of Iran’s leading religious scholars and a seminary president.
Speaking to an audience of Islamic Revolution Guards Corps on 14 August, Lankrani said: “Given [our] beliefs, common stories and religious tenets that have been provided us, we cannot, under any circumstances, say that brotherhood exists between a Muslim and a Jew,” Fararu news website reports.
In remarks apparently directed at Mashaei, Lankarani criticized him without naming him directly.
“Now if there has been talk of what is the difference between Iran and Israel? [Saying] we love the people of Israel just as we love the people of Iran, this is evidence that the foundations of the speaker’s faith are weak,” he said.
Lankarani further condemned Mashaei’s remarks, saying: “The revolutionary clergy see that the thought of Imam [Khomeini] from fifty or sixty years ago are being changed in such a duplicitous manner. Now they shift positions like this and next year they will say we love the government of Israel. The government, after all, is part of the people.”
Lankarani reminded the audience: “As the Imam [Khomeini] said, those have come to the aid of the government of Israel count among Israel’s soldiers.”
Sources: Tabnak news website in Persian, Fara-ru News website in Persian
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