Iran Officials Concerned About “Poverty Leading to Apostasy”

The interim head of the Expediency Discernment Council has stated that some people have abandoned their religion due to severe economic hardships. An expert, citing official statistics, also speaks of thirty percent of the population falling below the poverty line.

Ayatollah Mohammad Ali Mohammadi Kermani, interim head of the Expediency Discernment Council, has said that the country is engaged in a war with “economic issues.” According to him, “the enemy is determined to weaken us economically and put us under pressure so that people turn away from the revolution.”

According to the Iran Student News Agency (ISNA), the secretary-general of the “Militant Clergy Society” on Wednesday evening (27 Bahman) in the first joint conference of the “National Headquarters for Empowering the Deprived” stated: “If people are in need, have no bread for the evening, cannot send their children to school, and have no home to live in, it means the hadith of Imam Ali, who said: poverty is close to leading to apostasy. Just as we hear now that some people have abandoned their religion due to their severe economic hardships.”

The Reality of “Dangerous Poverty”

Abbas Abdi, political analyst, writes: “Reports that have even been published by official institutions reveal the situation of dangerous poverty.”

In an analysis published on the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) website, Mr. Abdi mentions two main factors for the intensification of poverty: increased inflation and declining foreign reserves.

Regarding inflation, he writes: “The inflation index since the payment of subsidies has at least tripled, meaning we have experienced 200 percent inflation. In other words, 45 thousand tomans of subsidy today has about 15 thousand tomans of purchasing power from that time. So the purchasing power of subsidies has become one-third.”

By presenting statistics and figures, he shows that a large group of Iranians in cities and villages, up to more than 30 percent of the population, have fallen below the poverty line.

He reminds: “The more important cause is the halt in economic growth and employment, which fuels poverty,” and then states: “To eliminate poverty, serious investment must be made to increase the capabilities of the poor. These investments have the greatest economic and social returns. Providing the necessary infrastructure for education, communications, and transportation for deprived areas is very beneficial for both the poor and society.”

The Inappropriate Remedy of His Eminence the Ayatollah

One cannot, of course, expect an Ayatollah sitting in the chair of the head of the “Expediency Discernment Council” to provide a solution to complex economic problems. He is undoubtedly an expert in jurisprudential and religious matters, but in the face of “dangerous poverty” and the terrifying dimensions of the class gap that experts attribute to Iran’s flawed economic system, widespread systemic corruption, and the consequences of sanctions, he says nothing but repetitive words and moral advice.

Mohammadi Kermani links the problem to “astronomical salaries,” which somewhat reminds of factional disputes in Iran: “Those whose salaries are unconventional and who have accumulated large amounts of money have in fact taken amounts for themselves that others needed. So these amounts must be extracted from their throats.”

This is while various discussions about the dimensions and roots of poverty and corruption in Iran in past years have been raised, and from experts’ perspective, astronomical salaries do not constitute a significant figure, but rather thefts and embezzlements in the thousands of billions, from bank embezzlements and theft of massive oil derricks to giant tankers that suddenly disappeared, are considered more significant signs of Iran’s economic disorder.

Source: DW