Iranian media was stunned late last month by what was nothing less than an earthquake in the holy city of Qom, home to the leading Shiite seminary in the country. On Oct. 27, hard-line Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi, the secretary of the influential Society of Seminary Teachers of Qom, published an open letter addressed to Grand Ayatollah Musa Shobeiri Zanjani. Adopting a harsh tone, Yazdi lashed out at Shobeiri for meeting with a number of figures "who do not respect the Islamic Republic’s establishment and the Supreme Leader." He then proceeded to "remind" Shobeiri, who holds the highest clerical rank, that the admiration he enjoys is dependent on his respect for the political system. The perhaps most controversial part of the letter was how Yazdi — an ayatollah — was instructing a grand ayatollah not to “repeat” such actions.
The open letter came in the wake of Shobeiri’s meeting with Reformist leader Mohammad Khatami, a former president (1997-2005) who has for years been banned from Iranian media by the authorities. The reason for the ban is that the hard-liners believe that Khatami is no longer loyal to the political system, a conviction that has been repudiated by Reformists and moderates alike.
