OPINION 4 Page 6 The Michigan Daily Vol. XCIII, No. 21-S 93 Years of Editorial Freedom Managed and Edited by students of The University of Michigan Editorials represent a majority opinion of the Daily Editorial Board The Michigan Daily Tuesday, July 12, 1983 Challenge to Khomeini's power rises in Iran 4 Reagan's Will A PHONE conversation overheard in Washington recently: Ron: Hello, George. How's my favorite reporter? George: Mr. President, gee-whiz I wish you'd stop calling me here. Ron: Well, there's no reason to get upset about it, George. George: That's easy for you to say, Mr. President, but I've been taking a lot of flak about this debate business - some of the biggest papers have even decided to stop run- ning my column. Ron: Well George, as I told Nancy last night, this whole debate story is much ado about nothing. You know that Dickens fellow really came up with some great lines. George: I believe that was Shakespeare who said that, sir. Ron: Well, Shakespeare, Dickens, whomever, I guess I have a pretty bad memory when it comes to American literature, George. Say, I've got a dandy idea, George, how about stopping by sometime and giving me a refresher course in it? George: I believe Dickens and Shakespeare were British, Mr. President, and uh, I've been meaning to talk to you about my tutoring and coaching you. Ron: Well, what is it, George? George: I think we'd better postpone our sessions for a while. Ron: Well, what ever you say, George. George: I still think you're a thoroughbred and the best president we've had since Hoover. Ron: Hoover, really? Gee, George, I think you're pretty swell yourself. George: Thanks, sir. Getting back to what I was saying, you see some of the liberal and communist journalists - and I use the term loosely - are out to get George Will. In fact, even some of the guys I thought were real men, like Safire and Kilpatrick, have been bad- mouthing me. Ron: Well, Will, that's terrible. Next time you see those wimps tell 'em the Gipper said they can kiss your kiester. George: Thanks for the encouragement, Commander. Just talking to you makes me feel a lot better. Ron: Well, good, George. You just lay low for a while, but I'm gonna' need your coaching come election time. George: Yes, sir. Ron: And George, tonight before Nancy and I turn in, -we're going to drink a toast to you and all the good, honest, hard-working members of the press. For it is your hard work and pursuit of truth, that prevents evil from prevailing over good; "To the press," George. George: To the press. By William Beeman Iran once again is experiencing change. In the past few months it has purged the pro-communist Tudeh Party, expelled 18 Russian diplomats and cautiously begun to entertain for the first time a United Nations mission to obser- ve damaged areasin the war zone - perhaps the initial step in a settlement of the three-year war with Iraq. In addition, it has patched up a long-standing quarrel with the Japanese Mitsui company over renewed construction of a giant petrochemical complex. And U.S. companies are rumored to have entered talks in Geneva with the Iraniang governmentraimed at repairing the great refinery at Abadan damaged in the Iraqi conflict. The source of all these wonders is not the Ayatollah Khomeini, as speculation has had it. It is rather the rising influence of a political group heretofore little known in the west - "the Hojjatieh" - who stand in opposition to Khomeini's rule. Staunchly anti- communist, ultra-conservative in religious matters and strongly supportive of individual property rights and entrepreneurship, this group is likely to leave a per- manent mark on the course of Middle Eastern political affairs. The Hojjatieh are members of a religious movement whose roots date back 50 years to the teachings of a prominent Shiia scholar, Mirza Mehdi Isfahani. Isfahani preached a doctrine which emphasized the in- fallibility of the 12th leader of Shiia Islam, the Mahdi, who disappeared 12 centuries ago. The Mahdi is a messianic figure who is thought to be hidden but who will, it is believed, return to judge men's sins at the end of the world. This doctrine is important be- cause if forms the religious basis for the rule of Ayatollah Khomeini. Khomeini's major in- novation in Shiia religious law in fact is his own rule, legitimized by the constitution of the Islamic Republic. He maintains that until the Mahdi has returned, men must be ruled by the wisest and most knowledgeable religious leader at hand - at present, him- self. The Hojjatieh oppose Khomeini because they argue that no man can substitute for the Mahdi. This excludes Khomeini's claim to the right to rule. It also sets them directly in opposition to the central leadership of the Islamic Republic - a group frequently identified as belonging to the "Imam's Line." Their conservative doctrine also leads the Hojjatieh to pursue and execute Bahais, since that Wasserman TilRIs No11 YE., 1THESEIS WILL... WE DON'T KNOW 'itS \1Do kc11) PP.1W / 511111T COMS I I / ((, D ?UT 5 CAWNT Do VE', WE CAtI I' 50 GLADY 00 SA\D "WE AtNlNllN& 550U1 1 /IT A " ( (A CI 1 BILL S 4 4 religion's founder, Baha'ullah, claimed to be a legitimate prophet of God. Indeed, in the eyes of the Hojjatieh, Bahais are heretics and must be dealt with accordingly. Naturally, this doc- trine also brands communism as godless. The Hojjatieh have acquired power since the revolution through slow and silent un- derground growth. Their belief in ownership of private property as a sacred right has gained them enormous support among mer- chants, who have watched with dismay as the government has tried to increase its power at the expense of private enterprise. The Hojjatieh has flexed its strength chiefly through its adherents on the "Council of Guardians," a body of clerics who are constitutionally em- powered to veto legislation voted by the parliament. Recent decisions by this body suc- cessfully nullified legislation designed to nationalize trade, revise land reform and seize property of absentee owners. These decisions reveal the in- stitutional base of Hojjatieh sup- port - namely, those clergy whose family origins are in the middle and upper economic classes. By contrast, "Imam's Line" politicians presently ruling the Islamic Republic, such as President Ali Khamenei and parliamentary speaker Ali Am- bar Hashemi-Rafsanjani, have risen from humble origins. It may be for this reason that Khamenei has been supportive of laws, policies and political groups which are seen as "socialistic," or at least unsym- pathetic to merchants and en- trepreneurs. The leader of the Hojjatieh is a man as obscure to the West as Khomeini was before the Iranian Revolution. He is Sheik Mahmud Halabi, a student of the founder of the movement. He gave the organization its present form and is now quietly directing its ac- tivities from his home in Teheran. He never talks to the outside world directly but issues orders to a series of spokesmen, the most prominent of whom is his secretary, a man named Ab- dullahi. U.S. government analysts have taken note since early spring of significant internal conflict in Iran but often don't know whether to attribute it to the movement or not. "At present we can't tell who is and who isn't a member," says one State Depar- tment Iran watcher. Among probable adherents close to the center of power are the Foreign Minister and Minister of Labor. Khomeini's unwillingness to speak for or against the movement is perhaps the most poignant illustration of its strength. He has yet to find a suc- cessful way to approach their leader, who outdoes him several times over in inscrutability. His best course is to draw as little at- tention to the movement as possible. In the end, the Hojjatieh are gaining in strength primarily because they offer the Iranian population a chance to reaffirm the religious ideals of the original revolution of 1978 and 1979 while repudiating the Khomeini regime and its current central leader- ship. Beeman, a professor at Brown University and specialist on Iran, wrote this article for the PacificNews Service. 4 4 4 4 4