Ali Khamenei
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Image:Khamenei.jpg Ayatollah Template:Audio (Persian: آیتالله سید علی حسینی خامنهای; born July 15, 1939) in Mashhad, is the current Supreme Leader of Iran and was the president of Iran from 1981 to 1989. He is an ethnic Azeri.<ref>[1]</ref> <ref>[2]</ref> <ref>[3]</ref>
Early life
He was a key figure in the Islamic revolution and a close confidant of Ayatollah Khomeini. Khamenei was appointed to the powerful post of Tehran's Friday Prayer Leader by Ayatollah Khomeini in the autumn of 1979, after the resignation of Grand Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri from the post. In June 1981, Ayatollah Khamenei narrowly escaped an assassination attempt when a bomb, concealed in a tape recorder at a press conference, exploded just beside him. He was permanently injured, losing his right hand, but the event helped affirm his reputation as a "living martyr" among his followers.
Education and Clerical ranking
Ali Khamenei began religious studies before completing the elementary education. He attended the classes of masters of "Sath" (seminary lectures based on reading textbooks) and "Kharej" (seminary lectures not based on reading textbooks) in Mashhad, such as Haj Sheikh Hashem Qazvini, and Ayatollah Milani, and then went to Najaf in 1957.[4]
After a short stay he left Najaf to Mashhad, and later he settled in Qom in 1958. Khamenei attended the classes of Ayatollah Boroojerdi and Ayatollah Khomeini. Later He was involved in the Islamic activities of 1963 which led to his arrest in the city of Birjand (Southern Khorasan Province). After a short period he was released and continued his life by teaching in religious schools of Mashhad and holding Nahaj-ul-Balagheh lesson session in different Mosques.[5]
Ali Khamenei was a mid-ranking cleric before he was selected as the Supreme leader of Iran.[6] The choice of Khamenei, who was soon after addressed as ayatollah but whose ijtihad (jurisprudence) credentials are disputed, was a political one.[7] The IRI leadership's attempt to promote Khamenei as the new marja' failed when faced with the Shia traditions of Marja'iyat. The failure probably became known when unofficial feedback obtained by polling major Shi'i centers suggested that the attempt was unacceptable. To remedy the situation and try to exert some kind of influence, the IRI leadership took three steps. First, to arrange a retreat for Khamenei, by having him refuse the offer of marja'iyat for Iran (as he explained, due to other heavy responsibilities), but agreeing to be the marja' for the Shi'as outside of Iran. His acceptance of marja'iyat for Shi'as outside Iran has neither traditional nor theological precedence in Shi'ism. Marja'iyat can be, and in modern times it increasingly is, transitional. A marja' in Iran can have muqalids in Lebanon or Pakistan. The problem of national borders was not an issue in the crisis of marja'iyat and his eligibility for the position. [8]
Theoretically, the Islamic republic system (vilayat-i faqih, leadership of the supreme jurisprudent) is legitimate when a grand ayatollah who is recognized as a source of emulation (marja-yi taqlid) serves as the faqih (jurisprudent). Grand Ayatollah Mohammad Shirazi, like many others, did not accept Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as a source of emulation. According to "Human Rights in Iran" (2001) by Pace University's Reza Afshari, Shirazi was "indignant" over Khamenei's efforts to be recognized as the supreme leader and as a source of emulation. Shirazi (who died in late 2001) apparently favored a committee of grand ayatollahs to lead the country. Shirazi was not the only senior cleric to suffer for questioning the legitimacy of Iran's political set-up and its leading figure. One of the best-known dissident clerics is Grand Ayatollah Hussein Ali Montazeri-Najafabadi. Others are Grand Ayatollah Hassan Tabatabai-Qomi and Grand Ayatollah Yasubedin Rastegari.[9]
In his view "human rights, are a weapon in the hands of our enemies to fight Islam." [10]
Presidency
Template:Politics of Iran In 1981, after the assassination of Mohammad Ali Rajai, Ayatollah Khamenei was elected President of Iran by a landslide vote in the Iranian presidential election, October 1981 and became the first cleric to serve in the office. Ayatollah Khomeini had originally wanted to keep clerics out of the presidency, but this view was compromised. Many saw Khamenei's presidency as a sign that Iran was abandoning secularism policy, and becoming more religious.
Of the total 16,841,800 total votes, the following numbers were won by each candidate:
| Candidate | Votes | % |
|---|---|---|
| Ali Khamenei | 16,003,242 | 95.02 % |
| Ali Akbar Parvaresh | 342,600 | 2.034 % |
| Hassan Ghafourifard | 78,559 | 0.467 % |
| Reza Zavare'i | 62,133 | 0.369 % |
| Blank or invalid votes | 356,266 | 2.12 % |
He was re-elected to a second term in 1985. As a close ally of Khomeini, his term in office rarely clashed with the Supreme Leader, unlike Iran's first president, Abolhassan Banisadr. When Khomeini died, Khamenei was elected as the new Supreme Leader by the Assembly of Experts on June 4, 1989. Since Khamenei was originally not considered to be as high-ranking a cleric as needed to assume the office, and the new amendment to the constitution that allowed a cleric of his then status to be elected as the Supreme Leader had not been put to a referendum yet, the Assembly internally titled him a temporary office holder until the new constitution became effective.
Supreme Leader (Velāyat-e faqih)
Template:Main Ayatollah Khamenei was appointed as Supreme leader of Iran in 1989. Khamenei wields the greatest religious and political power of anyone in Iran. Under Iran's constitution, Khamenei has the authority to override every other member of the government. He can confirm and dismiss a sitting president, and Khamenei is said to preside over what effectively amounts to a parallel government. He has the last word on many issues as foreign policies.[11]
Domestic policy
Ayatollah Khamenei is widely regarded as the figurehead of the country's conservative establishment.[12] Ayatollah Khamenei has consistently backed the supervisory role of the conservative Guardian Council. In August 2000, he sided with the Guardian Council in rejecting a Majlis (parliament) bill reforming the country's press law. A letter he wrote to parliament, quoted by the state news agency, said the current law had prevented the "enemies of Islam" from taking over the press. "Thus any re-interpretation of the law is not in the interests of the country," the letter argued. The letter led to scuffles in the Majlis and to a debate on the powers of the Majlis and the Guardian Council. The press bill was withdrawn. [13]
Khamenei has shown intolerance toward anyone questioning his strident anti-West and fundamentalist Islamic policies.[14] For instance, in 1997, Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, a high-ranking cleric and scholar once designated successor of Ayatollah Khomeini, criticized Khamenei's rule, calling the supreme leader incompetent. Khamenei immediately placed the cleric under house arrest for five years.[15]
Montazeri was not alone in his call for greater democratic changes in the Islamic state. Kenneth Timmerman, executive director of the non-profit human rights organization Foundation for Democracy in Iran, told the NewsHour on Dec. 15, 1997: "There’s an incredible fight going on inside the traditional clergy between Khamenei, the supreme leader, who represents this radical anti-Western, anti-American faction, which has a certain popularity, and another faction which says, enough is enough ... let’s have a regime and a government which is more democratic and more open to the West. The arrest of Ayatollah Montazeri ... is extremely important ... I think you could have an explosion inside Iran."[16]
When pro-reform students rioted in June 2003, Ayatollah Khamenei was quick to warn that such actions would not be tolerated. And he blamed the US for stirring up the trouble. "Leaders do not have the right to have any pity whatsoever for the mercenaries of the enemy," he said in a broadcast speech. [17]
Ayatollah Khamenei strongly supports Ayatollah Mohammad Taghi Mesbah Yazdi and his ideas. He considers Ayatollah Mesbah as today's main theoretician of Islamic revolution after Morteza Motahhari. Motahhari was widely known as main theoretician of Islamic revolution. He was assassinated shortly after revolution.
Foreign policy
Ayatollah Khamenei is known for his radical anti-Western policies. He has repeatedly denounced the idea of talks with the United States. During and after the US-led war on Iraq, he was sharply critical of Washington's policies.[18] On the 2000 al-Quds Day Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called for the destruction of Israel.Template:Ref
Family Life and Children
Khamenei has four sons and 2 daughters, Mojtaba, Mostafa, Massoud,Maysam,Boshra and Hoda and according to Gholam Ali Haddad-Adel leads a small household [19]
Support for computerisation and the internet
Iranian blogger Hossein Derakhshan says that encouraging computerisation and the internet has long been a Shia tradition in Iran, and that it was Ayatollah Ali Khamenei who imported PCs, databases and the internet into the clerical schools in the city of Qum.[20]
Fatwa Against Production, Stockpiling and use of Nuclear Weapons
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has issued a fatwa forbidding the production, stockpiling and use of nuclear weapons. The fatwa was cited in an official statement by the Iranian government at an August 2005 meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna. [21] [22]
Books and Articles
See also
Notes and references
<references/> Template:Note CNN report, January 1 2000
External links
Template:Wikiquote- The office of the Supreme Leader
- The official website of Ayatollah Khamenei
- Statement about a Fatwa Against the Production, Stockpiling and use of Nuclear Weapons
- BBC News' profile on Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
- PARADE Magazine's 2006 Annual List Of The World’s 10 Worst Dictators
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