Khomeiny issues rebuke to clergy

Press, 13 February 1981, Page 6

Khomeiny issues rebuke to clergy

NZPA-Reuter Teheran Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeiny, making a fresh appeal for national unity, issued brusque orders to Iran’s Muslim clergy yesterday to stop interfering in areas outside their competence. In one of his sharpest rebukes to clergy involvement in the- political 1 disputes dividing Iran, the 80-year-old revolutionary leader said undue interference in executive affairs would bring disorder to Iran and turn the people against the clergy. ‘ " The Ayatollah’s warning came in a message read for him by his son, Ahmed, to a crowd estimated at half a million people who poured into Teheran’s vast Azadi Square to mark the second anniversary of the Islamic revolution which swept the Shah from power. “This is a serious warning to those clergymen who are serving in courts, komitehs (post-revolutionary security organisations), the reconstruction crusade, and other organs that they should by no means interfere in areas outside their competence .. the message said. Read twice for emphasis, the paragraph containing the warning added that such interference was not legitimate and separated the nation from the clergy “which is a great and unforgivable sin.”

The message carefully refrained from naming the targets of Ayatollah Khomeiny’s criticism but diplomatic analysts interpreted it as evidence that he was shifting away from hard-line fundamentalists in their long-run-ning feud with President Abolhassan Bani-Sadr and his followers. “Interference in executive affairs of the country, giving people positions and taking them away and so on .». is illegal, will result in disorder in the country, and must be avoided,” the message said. It added: “This great nation should work for increasing its unity and its solidarity.” Ayatollah Khomeiny has not appeared at mass rallies since he was briefly treated in hospital for heart problems more than a year ago. His messages are usually delivered by Ahmed. President Bani-Sadr, addressing the crowd after the Ayatollah’s message was read out, launched a stinging attack on his fundamentalist opponents, accusing them of preparing Iran for tyranny. His speech and the Ayatollah’s censure, of unnamed clergymen threw into sharp focus the deep political divisions in a country where the cohesion of two years ago has given way to increasingly acrimonious squabbling.