Word: iranian
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Lost in much of the reporting was the widespread disapproval that exists in the Muslim world over the bloodier rituals of some Shiites. In an era of regime change and growing cultural hostilities, it might have done some westerners good to know that the fundamentalist Iranian government has banned self-mutilation rituals on religious grounds, and that even its terrorist client in southern Lebanon, Hezbollah, reportedly ran a blood drive this year as an alternative for worshipers whose holiday just wouldn’t be complete without a little bloodletting...
...democratize the Middle East. They claim that traditional Shiite Islam, as opposed to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's kind that rules in Iran, has a 'thick wall' between mosque and state." The same officials are quoted as hoping that the Iraqi Shiites based at Najaf become the antidote to the Iranian mullahs. Again, half right: The Najaf leadership headed by Sistani do not maintain the Khomeinist principle of Wilayat al-Faqih (the rule by Islamic jurisprudence). That didn't stop the most influential Shiite leader on the Iraqi Governing Council, Ayatollah Abdul Aziz al-Hakim of the Supreme Council...
...some 58 of the 290 seats in the majlis (parliament) remain to be filled, the Abadgaran have already secured an unprecedented 25 of Tehran's 30 constituencies. Its upbeat campaign and a ticket listing little-known professionals, the Developers? promises to pursue social and economic improvements within the Islamic-Iranian framework appeared to have convinced a majority of those who turned out to vote...
...Appearing surprisingly jolly after having been washed away from Iranian parliamentary politics, Mohammad Reza Khatami, the head of Iran's biggest reformist party - the Participation Front (IIPF) - and brother of the reformist president, believes whoever is in power now, will have to continue reforms. "They might have temporarily paralyzed our movement by barring us from running," he says in the IIPF headquarters that were shut down by the hardline judiciary for a day before elections, "but the process of reform will continue in Iran. It can no longer be stopped...
Citing evidence from a 1992 congressional investigation, Phillips argued that the senior Bush played a role in persuading Iranian hostage-takers to postpone the return of the hostages until after the election of 1980, to avoid the boost their return would give to Democrat incumbent Jimmy Carter...