Iran’s Friday Prayers: Elections and criticism of Hashemi Rafsanjani

In his Friday prayers’ sermon, Ayatollah Emami Kashani called on the nation to participate in the elections, arguing that a massive turnout could be a support for the establishment. “The enemy has focused on Iran” Emami said. “That is why the Supreme Leader stresses that everybody take part in the elections.”

In Isfahan, Ayatollah Mahdavi called for the people to turn elections “an opportunity to demonstrate Islamic democracy and authority of the establishment,” not a chance for the ‘enemy’ to divide the people and spread rumors of vote rigging. Mahdavi slammed critics of the Guardian Council, the group of 6 senior clerics and 6 legal experts who are in charge of approving nominees, adding that undermining the council will seriously inflict the establishment and the Revolution.

In Qazvin, northwest of Tehran, the Friday prayers leader Ayatollah Abdulkarim Abedini warned about the “enemies’ new ploy of ‘infiltration’ in the elections.” Implicitly, yet strongly, he attacked Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani for his recent criticism of the Guardian Council. “They attack the Guardian Council … the backbone of the establishment, and they claim to be defending Imam [Khomeini]” Abedini said, referring to Hashemi’s angry remarks against barring Ayatollah Khomeini’s grandson Hassan Khomeini from the Assembly of Experts’ elections. Abedini accused Hashemi of planning to return plutocracy and discrimination, and creating safe guard for the connected families.

In Mashhad, the conservative ayatollah, Ahmad Alamolhoda asked his congregation to take the elections seriously and ‘strengthen their vigilance’. Speaking of the enemies’ “evil goals”, Alamolhoda took an apocalyptical tone to warn about the threat of penetration through abuse of the divide among senior officials and secular forces’ likely admission into the parliament. Alamolhoda also attacked Hashemi Rafsanjani indirectly, accusing him of insulting Ayatollah Khomeini through his criticism of the Guardian Council.