Word: nouri
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...Abdollah Nouri does not look like a dangerous counterrevolutionary. In a nation run by clerics, he ranks among the most senior, not quite an ayatullah but a hojatolislam, or "proof of Islam." Over dates and tea in his office, the diminutive religious scholar turned newspaper publisher spoke with tones of bureaucractic conformity. But his words were far from blather. "Transferring power to the people was an objective of our revolution 20 years ago," he told TIME in a rare interview. But, he added candidly, "power has a tendency to create authoritarianism...
This week Nouri will be called before a court to answer a 44-page indictment. He stands accused of dishonoring the Ayatullah Khomeini, undermining the authority of Iran's ruling clergy and promoting relations with the U.S. If he is convicted, he faces a hefty fine, lashes of the whip or a dozen years in prison. Much more critically, Nouri will then be disqualified from heading the reform ticket in next February's elections, thus ending any chance of his becoming the powerful speaker of Iran's 270-seat parliament, the Majlis-e-Shura. A victory by Nouri is crucial...
This is not Nouri's first scuffle with hard-liners: in an impeachment trial last year, parliament ousted him as Minister of the Interior for permitting student demonstrations. Since then, his main vehicle of dissent has been the national daily Khordad. The newspaper has published defiant antiregime opinions by prominent clerics, notably Grand Ayatullah Hossein Ali Montazeri, who has been under house arrest since 1997 for questioning velayat-e-faqih, the absolute authority of the clergy. In an explosive article, a young cleric, Mohsen Kadivar, even criticized the royalist tendencies of the clerics and their treatment of Supreme Leader Ayatullah...
Being the patron and publisher of such notions has made Nouri one of the most popular politicians in Iran--and has led to expectations that the reformists may wrest control of the Majlis from hard-line conservatives allied with Ayatullah Khamenei. The prospect of getting shut out of power, maybe for good, frightens the conservatives. Lawmakers have ignored Khatami's proposals to make elections fairer by eliminating a candidate-screening procedure, and are pushing to tighten press restrictions. Besides shutting down newspapers and jailing editors, the courts have imprisoned Khatami supporters on corruption charges...
...trigger a repeat of last summer's student riots, which in turn could prompt a military crackdown. However, Khatami may still be able to pull off a victory. His strategy is to send a flood of loyalist candidates to the election board, so that even if political stars like Nouri are barred, a solid number will survive the vetting process and get elected. Some analysts are predicting that the regime's heavy-handed tactics could wind up mobilizing the sort of strong voter turnout that propelled Khatami to his unexpected victory in 1997. "There could be a backlash," says Tehran...