Revolutionary Seminary Uprising Against the Purity Seminary

The first critical and protest campaign by Hezbollah and "revolutionary" students in the history of the Islamic Republic against a group of clerics and the Qom seminary, which began on December 25 on social media, continues. This campaign started after Hassan Rahimpour Azghadi made sharp criticisms against a group of clerics at the controversial gathering on August 15 at the "Feyziyeh" school in Qom, which was met with backlash from Naser Makarem Shirazi and Hossein Noori Hamadani. The two clerics launched fierce attacks against Rahimpour Azghadi on August 16, to which Rahimpour reaffirmed his statements from the gathering a few days later, prompting Makarem Shirazi's office to attack him again. On September 7, Makarem Shirazi's office issued a statement declaring that Rahimpour Azghadi had "absolutely no knowledge" of the seminary's situation and that his claim of 700 clerics was "completely false." The statement briefly addressed some of Rahimpour Azghadi's remarks from the August 15 gathering in seven points. In this statement, Makarem Shirazi mentioned that "we did not wish for these bitter issues to be recounted, but the insistence of a group of questioners on our website compelled us to do so." During the August 15 gathering, Rahimpour Azghadi criticized the clerics, stating that "the roots of secularism are in the seminary; instead of all these treatises, address the unresolved issues." He added, "In governmental jurisprudence, the seminary still has no answers to the main issues; after 40 years, the seminary is still debating whether banks are usurious or not." This member of the Supreme Cultural Revolution Council made these sharp remarks in a session reportedly organized by a group called "Professors of Advanced Levels and Outside the Qom Seminary." The newspaper "Iran" introduced this group and its members as individuals who present themselves as executors of the "revolutionary seminary" to "perhaps hide their main project of gaining power within the seminary behind this slogan." According to this newspaper, years ago, the management center of the seminary and some senior figures in the seminary and various seminary and non-seminary institutions played a role in the formation of the "Professors of Advanced Levels and Outside the Qom Seminary" group. This group also issued a statement on Tuesday, declaring that it had no involvement in organizing this gathering. The statement mentioned that "in inviting the speaker of the session, the group had no involvement or participation, and with all due respect for the speaker, we do not consider the seminary to be secular contrary to his opinion." This group held its first assembly in January 2013 at the "Dar al-Shifa" school in Qom, with a speech by Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi and in the absence of Mohammad Yazdi, but with the presence of several members of Ali Khamenei's office and some members of the Assembly of Experts. At that time, media also reported that Naser Makarem Shirazi opposed the formation of such a group, stating that "the existing professors' group was established to strengthen the system and leadership, and there is no need for a group to form a new organization within the seminary." Makarem Shirazi addressed the founders of such a group, saying, "This work is not at all in the interest of the seminary and the system, and creating a new group in opposition to the seminary is not a correct action." Ayatollah Safi Golpayegani, another cleric from the Qom seminary, also expressed that "my opinion regarding the formation of this emerging movement in the seminary is the same as that of Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi." The news of this group's establishment was published at that time in many news agencies and even on the official website of the Guardian Council. At that time, some conservative websites introduced this new group as aligned with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government and wrote that members of this group had plans for participation in the upcoming presidential elections [in 2013]. This group announced its establishment about two months after Ali Khamenei's warning about the increasing secularism in the seminaries. Khamenei, in November 2012, during a speech to a group of clerics from North Khorasan, stated, "The clergy and seminaries are the soldiers of this system and can never imagine themselves separate from the Islamic system." Khamenei added, "The seminaries cannot be secular and indifferent to the Islamic system, and no cleric can consider himself separate from the Islamic system." He further stated, "That someone pulls his cloak over his shoulder in a corner and says I have nothing to do with the country's affairs, I have nothing to do with the system, is not a pride; it is a disgrace." It was after this time that a group of Khamenei's supporters identified the main intent of these words of the Islamic Republic's leader as referring to Mohammad Taqi Bahjat Foomani, one of the clerics of Qom, who passed away a year before these words in 2008. Ayatollah Bahjat is named as one of the most important religious leaders in the seminaries, who throughout his life opposed the involvement of religion and clerics in political affairs and is referred to as a "secular cleric." Two months after Khamenei's remarks, this "revolutionary" group in the seminary announced its establishment, stating in its statement that "the thought of separating religion from politics (secularism) is a foreign idea from Islamic teachings, and the seminaries will remain immune from the infiltration of such deviation through the vigilance of the seminarians." The newspaper "Iran" also reported that after about seven years, without naming the members of this group, it stated that some members have a "significant presence" in the management of the seminary and, despite the "opposition" of the seminary management center to Rahimpour Azghadi's speech at the August 15 gathering, such a gathering was held. The newspaper "Iran" wrote that Rahimpour Azghadi's speech was, in fact, the beginning of the "Trojan Horse operation in Feyziyeh," and this operation "means nothing but the beginning of an onslaught on the seminary from within and the expulsion of the greats of the seminary." The newspaper further assessed that the executors of this operation are "stirring up novice seminarians against the top of the Shia clergy hierarchy, which has shown subsequent reflections in virtual spaces and seminaries, indicating that they are still successful in this matter." This "Trojan Horse operation in Feyziyeh" prompted Naser Makarem Shirazi, a cleric residing in Qom, to react so strongly that he described the holding of this session or gathering as a "catastrophe" in his statement. Without mentioning Rahimpour Azghadi by name, Makarem Shirazi said that "the speaker, who has no knowledge of the situation of Shia seminaries, has made the worst insults to the seminary and Shia clerics." Hossein Noori Hamadani was the second cleric to react to these remarks, stating that "the seminary has never been secular and will not be, and why should someone be brought to the seminary who is unaware of it?" The swift and unprecedented positioning of these clerics led to the formation of a campaign among Hezbollah and "revolutionary" students in defense of Rahimpour Azghadi and an attack on some clerics and the current situation of the Qom seminary. This campaign includes a wide range of Hezbollah forces and students who are recognized in the new discourse of supporters of the regime and close associates of Ali Khamenei as "young revolutionary forces." They have had critical views and positions regarding the current state of seminaries for years, following a warning from the leader of the Islamic Republic about the process of "secularizing" the Qom seminary, and they demand a more prominent presence and maximum role of clerics and the seminary in political and other areas. Previously, a channel named "Fiqh; Transformation in the Seminary" was active on Telegram, which seems to have been launched by this movement and published sharp and harsh content against clerics and seminaries, which was later moved to domestic messaging apps after Telegram was filtered. Recently, this channel published a diagram to prove the secularization of the seminary and their distance from political and important governmental issues, stating that 60% of the subjects taught at this level pertain to "worship and purity." Hassan Rahimpour Azghadi is referred to as one of the theorists of this young and emerging movement, who has profound disagreements with clerics and the Qom seminary in various fields and has become one of the critics of the seminary in recent years. The extent of these disagreements was first publicly and widely manifested on social media after the August 15 gathering, turning into a campaign against the Qom seminary. Jalil Mohibi, the director of the Legal Studies Center of the Research Center of the Parliament, was one of the first seminarians to tweet in support of Rahimpour Azghadi: "For years, I have said that Rahimpour is the theorist of Khomeini's revolution. Someone who knows jurisprudence and principles at a high level. He has absorbed Islamic philosophy and theology and has understood and rightly criticized Western philosophy. His Islam is the Islam of the Quran and Nahj al-Balagha, not the Mafatih and the repetition of the treatises and the books of jurisprudence." Moein Mahdavi, a journalist, also tweeted that "look at where the seminaries have reached that with one criticism from Rahimpour Azghadi; they are mobilizing to attack him... You are not alone, man..." Mehdi Shahizadeh, a seminarian and religious propagandist, wrote that "the government, judiciary, and parliament and some affluent residents of Qom wanted to silence Rahimpour Azghadi, but revolutionaries showed that their voices cannot be silenced." Mohammad Rahimi-Moqaddam wrote that "where has the seminary worked, in urban planning, in the market, in the economy, in elections, in which major event has it played a role? Secularism is not a monster; it is that you cling only to lessons and discussions and do not strive for the pain of the people for their religion, do not theorize, and it becomes secularism." Ali Elyasi also tweeted that "unfortunately, the clergy has not had a proper and correct function, and clerical thinkers should have made Islamic philosophy applicable, which could have been the cornerstone of Islamic civilization and extracted an Islamic lifestyle from it, but they did not." Hossein Kazerooni was among the seminarians who tweeted that "the words that some may not like, but it is the truth. The seminary cannot accompany the system, and until this accompaniment is possible, an Islamic civilization will not be built. The repeated emphasis of the leader of the revolution on the need for transformation in the seminary is for this reason, and who has an ear to hear?" Mohammad Khajasteh also wrote that "what is the leader doing with some of these self-proclaimed gentlemen... They are silencing Rahimpour Azghadi, who is from this revolution, and have no answers to his questions. Woe to the rest... The seminary and clerical authority are ruining the reputation of Islam with dictatorship." Ali Jafari expressed that "if there were no such figures as Rahimpour Azghadi, today the seminarians would be busy holding economic and cultural conferences and pursuing the demands of the people and discussing justice and economy and culture and politics, rather than holding conferences on how to find ways to increase the quantity and quality of the Quran in gilded ships." Mohammad Akbarzadeh, another individual who wrote in support of Rahimpour Azghadi, stated that "Rahimpour Azghadi's point was: it is not an art that the issues of purity and impurity are still the subject of the seminaries; our advanced jurisprudence lessons should address concrete issues and social problems, and should find answers to unresolved issues, Mr. Seminary! Do you not accept this statement? Do you not tolerate Rahimpour Azghadi either?" Mahdieh Farahani wrote, "Rahimpour Azghadi's words hit the seminary like a hammer, which is moving towards secularization and has confined itself within the walls of repeating issues of impurity and purity; instead of being angry at the criticism of a well-wisher, wake up before it is too late." Mohammad Taheri also tweeted that "I wish there were several Rahimpour Azghadis in the seminaries to save them from this stagnation and isolation of ineffectiveness." According to Taheri, "the distance that the seminary has taken from its greats and clerics to the lower seminarians from the people and society is the result of which thought? Is it the seminary that generates the thought of Imam or a secular seminary? Whether they like it or not." Erfan Hosseini, another supporter of the "revolutionary seminary," criticized Makarem Shirazi in a tweet, stating, "This statement by Ayatollah Makarem regarding Rahimpour Azghadi's speech at the gathering of seminarians in Qom is extinguishing the last glimmers of hope I had for reforming the seminary and returning it to its peak period." Mehdi Qiasi also tweeted, "Repeatedly, the danger of secularism in the seminaries has been warned by Imam Khomeini and the Supreme Leader. The esteemed Qom scholars, instead of denying this issue and confronting the critics of the current state of the seminary, should answer how much the populous advanced lessons in Qom have met the needs of the Islamic community." Hossein Hatami advised the "revolutionary seminarians" on Twitter, "Take advantage of the opportunity created in the space of criticism of Rahimpour Azghadi and resolve the issues you see in the seminaries." However, in contrast to the "revolutionary seminarians" who criticize the clerics and the seminary, there is another movement that objects to the actions and views of the "revolutionaries" in criticizing the clerics. Hossein-Din Ashna, a cleric close to Hassan Rouhani, reacted to these attacks by the "revolutionary seminarians" and Rahimpour Azghadi's remarks, tweeting, "The alleged secularism of these individuals and their elders is not the result of the seminary's negligence but rather a product of excessive governmental activity imposed on the seminary." Ashna wrote, "If potential and academically blossoming scholars were not attracted to the highly attractive judicial system, their academic future would not be destroyed in the corridors of the judiciary." He stated, "If the seminary were not pressured by military and security forces to provide ideological political forces; if propaganda organizations did not drag hundreds of thoughtful clerics to the slaughterhouse of bureaucracy and agency; if innovation and reform were not suppressed and the free-thinking sought by the Supreme Leader were not pursued through low-yield and high-cost institutionalizations, perhaps it would not have been necessary for a speaker from a barrack in Tehran to be dispatched to Feyziyeh to give lessons in ijtihad to the clerics and claim to be the issue-teacher of a hundred teachers." This tweet is one of the many responses to the growing divide within the clerical community regarding the future direction of the seminary and its role in Iranian society.