Word: qom
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...believes Sadr has been spending most of his time in Iran. So what's he up to? He is likely in the Shi'ite religious center of Qom studying to achieve the higher rank of ayatollah, a position that would allow him to issue fatwas, and garner more respect from the Shi'ite establishment. Such a rank usually requires two decades of study, but Sadr, say aides, wants to complete it within two years. In that time, he'll receive the religious equivalent of a mail-order diploma. "No Shi'ite Iraqi really believes he is going to study...
...importance of preparing for it. He invokes the Mahdi so frequently, is so suggestive of his own divine guidance, that the ordinary, devout Iranian could be easily made to think the two enjoy a special connection. These religious tendencies irritate many clerics in Iran's theological center, Qom, and serious religious scholars, who feel the president is using the Mahdi mythology to expand his own power, and in the process conflating the Mahdi's attributes with those...
IRAN Free at Last Ayatullah Hussein Ali Montazeri, Iran's most prominent dissident cleric, a man once considered the natural successor to Ayatullah Khomeini, was released from house arrest in the city of Qom. Montazeri, who is in his 80s, was confined in November 1997 after he criticized the authority of Iran's conservative Supreme Leader, Ayatullah Ali Khamenei. Montazeri is a rallying point for those disaffected with the slow pace of reform. On his release, he told his supporters he would "continue to talk about issues and to act." See Also: Islamic Republic in Transition...
...things really got ugly when Shirazi suffered a stroke two weeks ago in the holy city of Qom. Despite his stature as one of fewer than 20 Grand Ayatullahs, the highest rank in Shi'a Islam, local authorities refused to let him be taken to Tehran for medical treatment, according to family members. After he succumbed, special police in camouflage gear stormed the funeral procession, beat pallbearers and stole the corpse, which fell from its coffin twice during the scuffle. Reformists privately told TIME that this outrage proves the ruling clerics have zero tolerance for opposition. Power is still...
CLICK HERE Friday, Dec. 21, 2001 The Islamic Republic of Iran routinely harasses political dissidents while they're alive, but until now has refrained from punishing them posthumously. Followers of Grand Ayatollah Mohammad Hosseini Shirazi - who died of a stroke last week in the holy city of Qom - have been arrested and imprisoned over the years for supporting the cleric's opposition to the Islamic regime. With Shirazi's death, the saga of state intimidation and years of house arrest seemed over. But special police in camouflage gear stormed the funeral procession, beat pall-bearers and stole the Ayatollah...