NPR: Iran's Supreme Leader Seeks To Repair Reputation

[Turborama]

by MIKE SHUSTER

Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is spending the next week or so in the city of Qom, the center of religious learning in Iran.

=snip=

As the demonstrations grew and were met with ever increasing violence, many protesters took to denouncing Khamenei as a dictator. The criticism came not only from political opponents. Many of Iran's senior clerics openly criticized Khamenei's actions, calling into question his legitimacy as a religious leader, too.

That is why Khamenei has traveled to Qom, says Nader Hashemi, an Iran specialist at the University of Denver. "By going to Qom, I think the regime is trying to shore up its own status and its own legitimacy where it feels it's very weak. Because there is a consensus among many of the senior clerics that Khamenei does not have the credentials to be a senior religious leader," Hashemi says.

"But also the policies that have been pursued in Iran over the last 14 months since the election — the human-rights violations — have damaged the reputation of Islam. And many of the clerics, very senior ones, distance themselves from it," he says.

More of this insightful article and link to audio: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130721764

[vonarrow]

1. re: Iran

The U.S. media is virtually 100% unobjective in their reporting on Iran.

Really, it's much more sinister than that.

[Name removed]

2. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Behind the Aegis]

3. So, it is the "Zionist run media" that is the "sinister" problem?

[oberliner]

5. What is going on that is sinister?

There appears to be a deleted message here. Can you clarify your meaning?

[TheWraith]

4. Yeeeeaaaahhhhh... good luck with that. nt