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Khatami Warns Of Social Explosion
WASHINGTON, Feb 12 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Iranian President Mohamed Khatami, in one of his strongest attacks against hardliners opposed to his reform program, warned on Monday of a social explosion in Iran if the "misuse of power" continues and if "dirty hands in the establishment continues to disappoint the Iranian people.
"We should be worried that, God forbid, one day our people will feel the authorities are not meeting their real demands and that dirty hands have succeeded in disappointing them, and thus alienating them," said Khatami in a speech at the Interior Ministry, reported by the official Islamic Republic New Agency.
"Under such circumstances, no military, security or judicial power will be able to save the country," he warned.
Khatami has been engaged in a power struggle with hardliners who have used the judiciary and the military to curb his plans to ease social and political restrictions in Iran's Islamic government.
Khatami thanked the Iranian nation for "tolerating pressures and organized attempts to disappoint" them.
"The biggest danger threatening our society is misuse of power. If the establishment recognizes differences of opinion and establishes the rule of law and values, the judgment of public opinion, then a durable security will be achieved in the society," he said.
Iranian hardliners, after losing control of parliament last February, have been trying to reassert their power, closing down reformist publications and jailing prominent reformist politicians and journalists in a bid to silence them.
In related news, Iranian hardliners on Monday renewed a death sentence on the Indian born writer Salman Rushdie in support of a "fatwa" issued 12 years ago by former Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini against the British author for alleged blasphemy against Islam in his novel "The Satanic Verses".
"We ask world Muslims to carry out this divine edict and cleanse the world of such mercenary Satans," said the Islamic Propagation Organization in a statement quoted by the official news agency IRNA.
"The fatwa against the apostate Rushdie is irrevocable. We ask our government to use diplomatic means to prevent the fatwa from being phased out," IRNA quoted the elite Revolutionary Guards who also issued a statement in support of the fatwa.
The calls come despite the Iranian government's pledge in 1998 not to seek to carry out the fatwa, in an effort to warm ties with Britain.
A hardline Iranian foundation ignored the pledge last year and offered to add interest to its $2.8 million bounty on Rushdie's head.
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