The strongly worded statement by Ayatollah Ali-Mohammad Dastgheyb (Major Cleric) in response to the statement allegedly attributed to the majority of the members of the Assembly of Experts.
Ayatollah Ali-Mohammad Dastgheyb, one of the most distinguished Maraje (the highest-ranked religious figures with the ability to interpret the Islamic laws) in Shiraz and one of the members of Dastgheyb religious family, by issuing a strongly worded statement reacted to the letter allegedly attributed to the majority of the members of the Assemble of Experts and asked them to apologize and return to public’s will.
According to “Mowje Sabze Azadi” [news agency] the full text of Ayatollah Dastgheyb’s statement quoted from his official website is as follow:
I saw a statement that a group of members of the Assembly of Experts had issued. I, as one of the members of the Assembly of Experts and the representative of the people of the Fars province, am saying [this]: You say that 40 million people participated in the [presidential] election. But the question is that the majority of these people are asking where their votes went? If you have respected their demand and paid attention to it, which is not too late to do now, if there were any ballot boxes left you would have recounted it and it would have been clear to you that their demand was not irrational.
Some people think that defending Ayatollah Hashemi’s sermons made on the July 24th Friday Prayer is defending Hashemi himself and confronting his opponents; However any intelligent individual will appreciate these sermons and considers them as a turning point for the continuation of the Islamic Republic, because the contents of Mr. Hashemi’s [sermons] are the same as what people demand and Imam Khomeini (God bless him) had respects for them.
You advised Ayatollah Hashemi-Rafsanjani, but apparently have forgotten that after Imam Khomeini (God bless him) had passed away, without wasting any time and despite the presence of Ayatollah Safi-Golpaigani, Ayatollah Ardebili, Ayatollah Meshkini, Ayatollah Amini and other senior scholars, did his best to save the Islamic Republic and with his speech convinced the Assembly of Experts to vote for Ayatollah Khamenei [to become the Supreme Leader], with all the sensitivity of that time which is certainly documented. Then no one said that he was talking and acting contrary to the [Islamic Republic] establishment and was causing division, but now that he is saying the truth which is against your will and it is quite clear for all of you what the truth is, you are objecting. Is this fair? So the intention for this statement [of your] is not to preserve the establishment.
You advise to [abide to] ethics. It would have been good to reject all those illicit actions that happened during the televised debates and would have been good if you had objected to all the illicit tortures in the prisons that every day bodies are being delivered [from them]. Be certain that people are all admirers of truthful scholars and clergymen, if they are treated with genuineness. For God’s sake, it
is not too late; instead of all these accusations, suppression, calling others godless, naming them opposition of the Supreme Leader, linking them to foreign agents, accusing people of getting orders from foreigners and trying to overthrow the government, and pushing back everyone and every group; show kindness to people, release the prisoners, ask for forgiveness, by releasing them accept the
majority’s request. See how pleased you will be from the friendship, the real kindness and the mercy of God.
Also, it is being said that there have been confessions made in the prison which should be stated as the evidence for the crime. It must be said that none of the Maraje can give a Fatwa (the Islamic ruling) for the acceptance of such confessions; therefore from the religious and also legal point of view [these
confessions] are not evidence.
“May God make the consequences of our deeds good.”
Seyyed Ali-Mohammad Dastgheyb
Size: 150.7K bytes Modified: 9 January 2013, 17:26