Member of Expediency Discernment Council: Sorcerers Play a Role in Islamic Republic Officials’ Decisions
Ahmad Tavakkoli, a member of the Expediency Discernment Council, has stated that in recent years sorcerers and individuals claiming to have supernatural knowledge have played a role in “mysterious, counterproductive, and discord-sowing decisions made by some officials.”
In a note published on the Alef website, he emphasized that files in this regard are under investigation at the Institute for Transparency and Justice Monitoring.
This institute, which operates in the field of monitoring corruption in the Islamic Republic, is directed by Tavakkoli.
Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic, had previously referred to the role of jinns in politics during a controversial speech in which he accused the U.S. government of “producing the coronavirus,” saying the Islamic Republic has “jinn enemies” that cooperate with other enemies of the government.
In another section of Tavakkoli’s note, he references a quotation by Kazem Sedigheh about Mohammad Taghi Misbah Yazdi, and notes that the person who washed Misbah Yazdi’s body is “Reza Motlabi Kashani, a mega-capitalist with many financial ambiguities surrounding him.”
According to Tavakkoli, this person has “a large and intricate network of connections with high-ranking officials and prominent clerics,” including Alireza Panahian, one of the members associated with the office of the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic.
Another section of the note mentions “Alireza Mohammadi, one of the defendants in the Teachers’ Savings Fund case,” who “fled the country with a debt of hundreds of billions of rials to Bank Sarmayeh,” but has helped “some prominent Tehran preachers” under the title of a charitable person.
Tavakkoli has also written that one person in Iran’s “stagnant market” economy paid 40 billion tomans in khums (Islamic tax) and asked clergymen to be cautious in engaging with such individuals.
Kazem Sedigheh, the Friday prayer leader of Tehran, had previously stated in a television program that “Ayatollah Misbah Yazdi opened his eyes while his body was being washed and smiled at the person washing him,” a claim that received widespread and scathing reactions on social networks and among many activists.
Following this incident, Sedigheh retracted his previous account on December 23 regarding “Misbah Yazdi opening his eyes” after death and attributed it to his washer.
He said “that statement was not very accurate” and “perhaps that washer, because he had affection for him, had an illusion… and we repeated the account. I am ashamed of this before God.”
Islamic Republic officials and Friday prayer leaders occasionally present strange and bizarre religious narratives on various occasions, which usually perplex audiences and often become the subject of extensive ridicule.
Source: Radio Farda
