Criticism of Alcohol Article; Iran Newspaper: Mr. Ahmad Khatami Should Read the Note Personally

Ahmad Khatami strongly criticized the conclusion of an article regarding the fight against deaths caused by contaminated alcoholic beverages in the Iran newspaper during his Friday prayers in Tehran, calling for the supervisory board to take action against this newspaper. According to ISNA, Ahmad Khatami said on Friday, December 3rd: "In a newspaper that feeds off public funds, they write that since these fake alcoholic beverages have become a scourge for the people, you should allow alcoholic beverages like in the time of the Shah; this means crossing Islam." Khatami referred to an article published by Abbas Abdi on Thursday, November 17th, in the Iran newspaper titled "Cultural U-turn," which discussed the instrumental use of the law in Iran and presented the viewpoint of a person "familiar with jurisprudence" who suggested that to prevent deaths among consumers, centers for testing "non-standard" alcoholic beverages should be established. Abbas Abdi noted the number of people who have died in recent months due to alcoholic beverages and wrote: to address this issue, recently, one of those familiar with jurisprudence proposed an idea: "To protect against dangerous diseases and deaths caused by non-standard alcoholic beverages, we must dedicate centers to test these types of beverages. Producers or consumers should be able to anonymously and without fear of prosecution test their desired beverages." Abbas Abdi criticized this viewpoint, stating: "Unfortunately, some individuals try to take shortcuts in society. Instead of striving to penetrate the conscience and minds of the people, they have abandoned it and want to fix everything relying on the law." Khatami, during his Friday prayers in Tehran, called for the supervisory board to take action against the Iran newspaper. The temporary Friday prayer leader of Tehran said: "This morning I asked if the supervisory board has dealt with this newspaper? They said not yet!" He added: "Today they say to allow alcoholic beverages; tomorrow they will say to allow hijab, and the day after they will say to put Islam to a referendum; I tell you, you will take that wish to your grave; these people voted for Islam and will resist for Islam until the last drop of blood." Ahmad Khatami accused the state-run Iran newspaper of attempting to "theorize Islamophobia." The temporary Friday prayer leader of Tehran emphasized: "Our people revolted so that drinking would not exist; therefore, we will strongly oppose any action to normalize this situation." According to ISNA, prior to the temporary Friday prayer leader of Tehran, the Kayhan newspaper had criticized this article. Abbas Abdi responded to Kayhan, stating: "The headline of the note reflects its content, and that part of the article is a direct quote from one of those familiar with religious matters, and it was an attempt to provide a religious justification for ignoring the mere existence of alcoholic beverages, and my writing is a critique of that entry, but these individuals have attributed it to me without paying attention to the direct quote." According to ISNA, the Iran newspaper also responded to Ahmad Khatami's remarks on its Telegram channel, stating that he should have read the article himself. The Iran newspaper wrote: "Mr. Khatami, if you had personally read the note, given your religious and philosophical education, you would have understood the difference between 'expressing an opinion' and 'criticizing an opinion.' He would certainly have realized the critique mentioned in the note, which is even implicit in the title of the note 'Cultural U-turn.'"