Sayyid Mohammad Mousavi Khoeiniha (born 1945)
[ is an ]Iranian
Iranian may refer to:
* Iran, a sovereign state
* Iranian peoples, the speakers of the Iranian languages. The term Iranic peoples is also used for this term to distinguish the pan ethnic term from Iranian, used for the people of Iran
* Iranian lan ...
cleric and secretary general of the reformist Association of Combatant Clerics
The Association of Combatant Clerics ( fa, مجمع روحانیون مبارز, ''Majma'-e rowhāniyūn-e mobārez'') is an Iranian reformist clerical political party. It is regarded as a left-wing party within the Iranian political spectrum.
H ...
. He was the founder of the now defunct '' Salam'' and was a member of the Expediency Discernment Council
The Expediency Discernment Council of the System ( fa, مجمع تشخیص مصلحت نظام ''Majma'-e Taškhīs-e Maslahat-e Nezām'') is an administrative assembly appointed by the Supreme Leader and was created upon the revision to the Co ...
.
Biography
Khoeiniha was born in Qazvin
Qazvin (; fa, قزوین, , also Romanized as ''Qazvīn'', ''Qazwin'', ''Kazvin'', ''Kasvin'', ''Caspin'', ''Casbin'', ''Casbeen'', or ''Ghazvin'') is the largest city and capital of the Province of Qazvin in Iran. Qazvin was a capital of the ...
, Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
, in 1945. However, Mohammad Sahimi gives his birth year as 1938. He moved to Qom to study religion in 1961.[ There he was educated by Ayatollah Seyyed Mostafa Mohaqiq Damad, and Grand Ayatollahs, including ]Mohammad Ali Araki
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, birth_place = Arak, Iran
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, death_place = Qom, Iran ...
and Hossein Ali Montazeri
Grand Ayatollah Hussein-Ali Montazeri ( fa, حسینعلی منتظری ; 24 September 1922 – 19 December 2009) was an Iranian Shia Islamic theologian, Islamic democracy advocate, writer and human rights activist. He was one of the leade ...
.[ In 1966, he moved to ]Najaf
Najaf ( ar, ٱلنَّجَف) or An-Najaf al-Ashraf ( ar, ٱلنَّجَف ٱلْأَشْرَف), also known as Baniqia ( ar, بَانِيقِيَا), is a city in central Iraq about 160 km (100 mi) south of Baghdad. Its estimated popula ...
, Iraq
Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...
, and continued his studies under the guidance of Ayatollah Khomenei
Ruhollah Khomeini, Ayatollah Khomeini, Imam Khomeini ( , ; ; 17 May 1900 – 3 June 1989) was an Iranian political and religious leader who served as the first supreme leader of Iran from 1979 until his death in 1989. He was the founder of ...
.[ His stay in Najaf lasted brief and he returned to Iran in 1967.][ In 1977, he was arrested by ]SAVAK
SAVAK ( fa, ساواک, abbreviation for ''Sâzemân-e Ettelâ'ât va Amniat-e Kešvar'', ) was the secret police, domestic security and intelligence service in Iran during the reign of the Pahlavi dynasty. SAVAK operated from 1957 until prime ...
.[ Although he was sentenced to fifteen years in jail, he was freed in the fall of 1978 due to unrest in the country.][
Following the 1979 revolution he became one of the aides of Ayatollah Khomenei.][ He was named Khomenei's representative at the Iran's Council of National Radio and TV but lost that post after hostage taking opponent ]Bani Sadr
Seyyed Abolhassan Banisadr ( fa, سید ابوالحسن بنیصدر; 22 March 1933 – 9 October 2021) was an Iranian politician, writer, and political dissident. He was the first president of Iran after the 1979 Iranian Revolution aboli ...
became president and engineered his resignation.[ He was the spiritual leader of the ]Muslim Student Followers of the Imam's Line
The Muslim Student Followers of the Imam's Line ( fa, دانشجویان مسلمان پیرو خط امام ''Dânešjuyân-e Mosalmân-e peyrov-e Xatt-e Emâm''), also called the Muslim Students of the Imam Khomeini Line, was an Iranian student g ...
who led the hostage taking
A hostage is a person seized by an abductor in order to compel another party, one which places a high value on the liberty, well-being and safety of the person seized, such as a relative, employer, law enforcement or government to act, or ref ...
of American embassy staff on 4 November 1979. He is reported to have held the post of deputy speaker of the Majles in the early 1980s. He was appointed by Khomenei prosecutor general of Iran, replacing Ayatollah Yousef Sanei in the post in the mid-1980s.[ Then Khoeiniha was made a member of the Supreme Judicial Council and also, of the Expediency Council.][ In 1989, he was appointed by Khomenei as his representative in the constitution assembly that was formed to review the constitution.][
He is reported to have been "considerably to the left of the conservative mullah establishment" and also have had a less orthodox interpretive take on Koranic doctrine than them.][Bowden, Mark (2006). ''Guests of the Ayatollah'', Atlantic Monthly Press, p. 13] Khoeniha remains a staunch defender of the embassy takeover, and still keeps "a four-drawer metal filing cabinet with a plate saying 'Property of the General Services Administration,`" in his office, a souvenir taken from the embassy.[Bowden, ''Guests of the Ayatollah'', (2006), p. 627]
Khoeiniha and other "left-wing ... veteran revolutionary mullahs" from the Assembly of Militant Clerics founded '' Salam'' in 1991, after the Assembly members were not only banned by the conservative Guardian Council
The Guardian Council, (also called Council of Guardians or Constitutional Council, fa, شورای نگهبان, Shourā-ye Negahbān) is an appointed and constitutionally mandated 12-member council that wields considerable power and influence i ...
from running for the Assembly of Experts
The Assembly of Experts ( fa, مجلس خبرگان رهبری, majles-e khobregân-e rahbari), also translated as the Assembly of Experts of the Leadership or as the Council of Experts, is the deliberative body empowered to appoint the Supreme ...
but could find no newspaper even willing to print that news and their protest. Despite its limited circulation and focus on influencing policy, the paper became very popular and helped elect reformist Muhammad Khatami
Sayyid Mohammad Khatami ( fa, سید محمد خاتمی, ; born 14 October 1943) is an Iranian politician who served as the fifth president of Iran from 3 August 1997 to 3 August 2005. He also served as Iran's Minister of Culture from 1982 to ...
president in 1997.[''Answering Only to God'', Geneive Abdo, Jonathan Lyons](_blank)
/ref>
''Salam'' was banned on 7 July 1999 for releasing "an alleged secret memo by a former intelligence agent, urging authorities to tighten restrictions on the press". This "triggering student demonstrations of a magnitude not seen since the 1979 revolution."
On 25 July 1999 the Special Clerical Court
Special Clerical Court, or Special Court for Clerics ( fa, دادگاه ویژه روحانیت) is a special Iranian court system for prosecuting Islamic clergymen and scholars accused of improper activity and conduct unbecoming of a cleric. The ...
convicted Khoeiniha as ''Salams publisher "of defamation and spreading false information in connection with the alleged memo". He was sentenced to three years in prison and a lashing. However, the court suspended this sentence and reduced his sentence to a fine of 23 million rials (US$13,000),[Attacks on the Press 1999: Iran ](_blank)
CPJ "because of his sterling revolutionary credentials". Less than two weeks later the Clergy court "imposed a five-year ban on ''Salam'' and banned Musavi-Khoeiniha from practicing journalism for three years". The court ruled that the journalist was "guilty of disseminating untruthful and distorted news aimed at harming public opinion."
Until 2006, Khoeiniha was not active. He became the leader of the Association of Combatant Clerics when Mehdi Karroubi
Mehdi Karroubi ( fa, مهدی کروبی, Mehdi Karrubi, born 26 September 1937) is an Iranian Shia cleric and Iranian reform movement, reformist politician leading the National Trust Party (Iran), National Trust Party. Following 2009–2010 Iran ...
left the party to establish another one.[
]
See also
*List of Ayatollahs
This is a partial list of Ayatollahs, a title given to high ranked Twelver Usuli Shi'a Muslim clerics. Its ranking is higher than Hujjat al-Islam, and the next higher clerical rank is Grand Ayatollah also known as Marja'. This list contains only t ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mousavi Khoeiniha, Mohammad
1945 births
Living people
Al-Moussawi family
People from Qazvin
Iranian ayatollahs
Iranian prosecutors
People of the Iranian Revolution
Association of Combatant Clerics politicians
Members of the Expediency Discernment Council
Iran hostage crisis
Members of the 1st Islamic Consultative Assembly
First Deputies of Islamic Consultative Assembly
Second Deputies of Islamic Consultative Assembly
Iranian newspaper publishers (people)
Secretaries-General of political parties in Iran