[New York Times] Nazila Fathi - Iranian President Ahmadinejad is increasingly drawing fire from Shiite clerics who accuse him of using religion to distract attention from his government's failure to deliver on promises of prosperity and political freedoms. Ahmadinejad said in a speech broadcast nationally this month that Imam Mahdi - the 12th imam who Shiite faithful believe will one day emerge from 1,000 years in hiding to save mankind - supported the day-to-day workings of his government. That was too much for senior clerics, who contend that they alone are qualified to speak on the topic. A senior conservative cleric, Ayatollah Muhammad Reza Mahdavi Kani, warned him weeks ago not to talk about Imam Mahdi and said that even the founder of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, did not claim any links with the imam.
2008-05-20 01:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive