Iranian court punishes defense attorneys

In an appalling misuse of the legal system, an Iranian court this week first sentenced the defendants (52 Sufi dervishes) to jail, then handed down sentences to the two defense lawyers: five years jail, a 1,000 euro fine, 74 lashes and a five-year ban from exercising their profession.

This is not the first such event: the International Commission of Jurists reported on 24th January 2003 that three lawyers had been "imprisoned for defending persons with divergent views." Attorneys in Iran are not protected by an adequate professional organization, the ICJ said on another occasion, and in 2001 ICJ reported that

The judiciary in Iran is not free from government or religious influence. The judiciary and law enforcement agencies continue to serve as the main tools of oppression in Iran. Although the Constitution of Iran endorses some fair trial rights they are not respected in practice. In the Revolutionary Court the magistrate functions both as prosecutor and judge in the same case. The trials in these courts are therefore not fair and impartial. [Emphasis mine]

Some Background...

The Islamist government arrested a thousand Sufis in mid-February,in the sacred city of Qom, Iran. There were unconfirmed reports of abuse and torture of some arrestees. The Sufi house of worship was demolished by bulldozer following the arrests.

Qom, a city of almost a million people, is an important religious center, with the country's largest religious college (madressa). It is also a place of pilgrimage, with the tombs of 10 kings and 400 Islamic saints, and a golden-domed tomb belonging to Fatima, sister of the Eighth Imam. With the intermingling of politics and religion so characteristic of Islam, it was at Qom, in 1979, that the Islamic revolutionary militia accepted the surrender of the shah's army, ending the rule of the shah; and subsequently the Ayatollah Khomeini came to Qom and made it his center of operations when he returned to Iran from his exile in Paris.

The Sufis, members of mystic Islamic sects, had gathered at their house of worship in Qom for a "peaceful protest," the subject of which doesn't seem to be known. Hundreds of Sufis (of the Nematollahi sect), including women and children, arrived, and the group refused to vacate the building when security forces surrounded it. Official sources claim the mystics were armed with knives, and were working for foreign countries such as Britain. 200 people were treated for wounds. The Sufis reportedly held up pictures of relatives killed in war for the country, or portraits of the late Ayatollah Khomeini, as tokens of their loyalty to the state.

Sufism is an old tradition in Islam, generally accepted. It is "based on the pursuit of mystical truth and Sufis believe that mystical practices involving dance, music, and the recitation of Allah's divine names can give them direct perception of God. Although Sufi Muslims strictly observe Islamic practices and beliefs, some conservative Muslim clerics see it as a danger to Islam. Some even argue that Sufism is a deviation of Islam. In Iran, there have been always some tensions between Sufism and more orthodox traditions of Islam. However, observers say these tensions have worsened since the establishment of an Islamic republic, some 27 years ago, and state tolerance for Sufi groups has diminished.

In every organized religion there seems to be tension between the central authorities and those who practice a mystic approach to the religion. How can "authorities" maintain their power when ordinary individuals are having direct unsupervised contact with the Almighty? The far-gazers often begin to regard the authorities as irrelevant, and they may even come back from God with messages that subvert the structure or dogma of the organization.

However, the crackdown on Sufism--which has included the publication (with government approval) of anti-Sufi books and attack articles in major newspapers, speeches by clerics calling for restrictions on the sects, and charges from the mayor of Qom that the Sufis were working for foreign powers--may have less to do with anything the Sufis have done, and more to do with the current high level of popular dissatisfaction with the harsh and repressive Iranian government. According to Seyed Mostafa Azmayesh, a Paris-based scholar who specializes in Sufism, the government is targeting the Sufis because of their "more open interpretation of Islam" and because "as mosques empty, [Sufi houses of worship] are expanding and being filled." He believes that many Iranians choose Sufism as a refuge from the highly restrictive government. "More than before, people are running away from a totalitarian interpretation of the religion, they are having doubts, and they have lost faith in the work of those who consider themselves custodians of religion," he maintains. "By contrast, they feel very close to the Sufi teachings and its customs, which are based on love."

Photo from Encyclopedia of the Orient .

Comments

[Goldenhelmet]

Classy irony. "In every organized..." paragraphy gave me a fine chuckle. Well, what Edens could you expect from campfires of camel dung?

[Goldenhelmet]

Manumition may seem an ancient word, but it reflects the oldest argument - just who or what has the divine sovereignty of the individual soul; the self, the family, the church, the state, or some omnipresence floating about all hoogy boogy. Of course the answer is 'all of the above'. If those who would speak for God, or interpret his (her's, it's) celestial word were to come face to face with their own mortality and the toxic results of their own decisions, perhaps the fantasy of unageing immortality and the puriety of thought in order to please Him, Her, It, Them, would decrease its coloration of the splendid waters. OPE wasn't a joke. Why can't terminal patients chose LSD as one of their depating understandings? When will the Puritans stop trying to convince us that It is all our problem, and not cop to the doping of the Cioaga and Mississippi, et al. Genocides happen is more ways that machetes, pistols, rifles, gas chambers have yet to demonstrate. The art show of the mosque will not be enhanced by the presence of exploding women. Nor will the flesh spattered tile feed health, providence, longevity and honest dealings amongst the adherents. You could try to hack through A.C.'s facist facade with a diamond ax and never find the gleam of recognition in the eye of the mother to the daughter. And if that is the case among the wobble-heads, and it is, its no wonder the cathedrals of cash are Bauhaus, our art smaltzy, our literature timid, our ethos slivers of lies. All my heart's the world's womb, as is yours, and on the hub of any note we stand in our miracle complexity. Isn't that enough?