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Iran cleric explains he's not opposed to 'filtered' 3G phones

Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi has clarified his position on mobile Internet access after his ruling that 3g phones were un-Islamic made international news.
TO GO WITH AFP STORY BY MOHAMMAD DAVARI
An Iranian couple inpect the box of an IPhone they just bought at a computer shop selling Apple products in northern Tehran on June 1, 2013.  The United States lifted a ban on sales of communications equipment to Iranians and opened access to Internet services and social media, in a bid to help the Iranian people avoid government controls. The US State Department said the action will allow Iranians to skirt "attempts to silence its people by cutting off their communic
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Iranian cleric Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi made international news last week when he ruled that 3G phones and high speed Internet on mobile devices should not be allowed until the proper tools are created to prevent corruption. On Aug. 31, he tried to clarify that he was not against technology, but that Western technology was like “muddy water” that needs to be “filtered.”

The official website of Makarem Shirazi responded Aug. 25 to a question by a group of “cyber activists” that in consideration of possible corruption and the lack of filtering tools, “3G mobile communication services and higher are against Sharia and moral and human norms.”

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