Iran’s Friday Prayers: PMD, Elections, Nigeria

(Young cleric takes picture of his son before the prayers. Photo: Soheil Sahranavard/Fars)

On top of the Friday prayers’ agenda this week was the news of PMD closure; the decision by the Board of Governors of the IAEA, the UN nuclear watchdog, to close the file on possible military dimensions of Iran’s nuclear program and move to the next level of the nuclear deal.

Sermonizers across Iran were unanimous in congratulating the milestone, thanking the nuclear negotiating team and of course, criticizing the IAEA and Western countries. In Tehran, prayers’ leader Ahmad Khatami thanked President Rouhani and the negotiating team, while calling Amano’s claims about Iran’s activities regarding nuclear weapons “baseless”. The 55-year old cleric also asked for officials to sue the P5+1 for their “12-year lie” that Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons. In Semnan, in northern Iran, Ayatollah Abdous also called the milestone evidence of Iran’s truthfulness, against 14 years of “global imperialism trumpeting Iran as a rogue nation.” In Yazd, in central Iran, a social base of former president Mohammad Khatami, the Friday prayers’ sermonizer Ayatollah Moezzoddini was more enthusiastic with the PMD closure, calling it a “showpiece” of Iranian nuclear negotiators.

The developments in Nigeria, where the army attacked a Shi’a gathering in the north of the country, leading to the death of hundreds in unverified reports and the arrest of the community’s domestic leader Sheikh Ebrahim Zakzaky, did not go off the radar. In Tehran, Ahmad Khatami called the massacre a “Zionist crime”, warning the Nigerian government that it is pouring fuel on the fire of “takfiri Wahhabis and ISIS”. In Ghazvin, in northern Iran, Friday prayers’ leader Abdulkarim Abedini also condemned the killings, calling Nigeria a “foothold for the Shia community” in Africa. In Qom, hub of the Shia seminaries and theological schools, Ayatollah Hossein Boushehri denounced the silence of the international media over the death of scores of Nigerian Shias and called the massacre “a calculated move by Zionists and some Arab states that also enjoyed their strong financial and media support.”

“Every vote cast in the ballot box is another vote [of confidence] for the Islamic Republic” said Tehran’s Friday prayers’ leader Ahmad Khatami, referring to upcoming elections for the parliament and the Council of Experts in February. Khatami called the audience to vote for candidates who adhere to religious values. In Semnan, Ayatollah Abdous laid out the three basic criteria for a candidate to be considered khodi, ‘insider’: belief in Islam, velayat-e faqih, and the Constitution. “In the Islamic establishment, elections are an advantage, an honor; and those who feel qualified should step in,” said prayers’ leader in Qom Ayatollah Hosseini Boushehri.