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Top Iran Official Charges "Cultural War" by U.S. and Israel
TEHRAN, Aug 26 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The head of Iran's elite revolutionary guards Sunday charged that U.S. and Israeli-backed elements inside the country wanted to topple the Islamic regime by waging a "cultural war," the state IRNA news agency said.
"The aim of this cultural war which has been imposed on us is to weaken, change and topple the Islamic regime," Rahim Safavi told leading members of the Basij Islamic militia forces in Tehran.
He said a plan to "overthrow the Islamic republic is backed by America and Israel," and is "supported and followed up on by certain people inside the country."
"These people are trying to weaken the pillars of the constitution and want to change the constitution in their own favor," Safavi said, cited by IRNA.
Safavi's comments come as police forces in the Iranian capital, charged with restoring "Islamic order," last week set out on what they announced to be a campaign against social vices, compiling "evidence" of signs of "depravity" and Western culture in shopping malls, cafes and restaurants.
Shop owners were forced to remove all signs of "indecency" and "depravity," and had to remove dummies sporting lingerie or swimwear, while cafes and restaurants were barred from airing Western music.
The warning even went as far as to ban the sale of monkeys and dogs - considered "najess" or impure by Islam - as well as posters of prominent Western singers and actors.
A fresh wave of public floggings has also sparked concern among many Iranians. Some 200 youth were publicly flogged in Tehran over the past few weeks, the majority on charges of drinking alcohol.
Although numerous top officials including moderate President Mohammad Khatami have criticized the floggings, a prominent conservative cleric on Friday defended the use of floggings and the death penalty, saying both forms of punishment are a "fundamental principle" of Islam.
Ayatollah Mohammad-Taghi Mesbah Yazdi said, "If the Westerners do not like it, that is their problem, but the death penalty and the use of flogging are fundamental principles of our religion."
"The leaders of the regime should show their courage, and state clearly and publicly whether they are for or against Islamic principle," Yazdi said.
Iran has seen a tug of war between conservatives on the one hand and liberals on the other. The victory of the liberals over the long-ruling conservative elite in parliamentary elections in April 2000 has signaled a sea of change in the Islamic republic.
Khatami's support for greater social and political freedom has made him popular with the young - an important factor in electoral terms as over 50% of the population is currently under the age of twenty-five.
His liberal ideas have, however, put him at odds with Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, and other hardliners who are reluctant to lose sight of established Islamic traditions.
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