The Followers of the Line of the Imam

In the early days of the Islamic Republic, the faction known as the Followers of the Line of the Imam, or the Maktabis (Radicals), dominated nearly every aspect of the regime.

It included all those who have deceptively rebranded themselves as reformists and also Hojat-al Islam Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and, Hojat al-Islam Ali Hosseini Khamenei.

And others, such as Mohammad Beheshti, Morteza Motahhari, Hossein Ali Montazeri Najafabadi, Ayatollah Mohammad Mofatteh, Mohammad Javad Bahonar, Sadegh Khalkhali, Asadollah Lajaverdi, Mohammad Montazeri (son of Hossein Ali), and Mehdi Hashemi.

The undisputed leader of the Followers of the Line of the Imam at the time was Ahmad Moussavi Khomeini, son of the Grand Ayatollah and his chief-of-staff.

Their rivals in the Revolution, and later in the Majlis and government, were usually referred to as the Hojjattiyeh, after a conservative society later dissolved in 1983.

The early years

The earliest important Revolution-era association was the Jame'e-e Rowhaniyat-e Mobarez (Combatant Clergy Association), established in late fall 1978.

Founding included: Beheshti, Motahhari, Mohammad Reza Madavi Kani, Abdolkarim Moussavi Ardebili, Montazeri Najafabadi, Mofatteh, Javad Bahonar, Hosseini Khamenei, Hashemi Rafsanjani, Mohammad Khatami, and Mehdi Karroubi.

An older and covert organization was the Fedayan-e Islam. That group’s founder had been executed in 1955, but Moussavi Khomeini instructed his followers Sadegh Khalkhali (later known as the “Hanging Judge”) and Asadollah Lajaverdi (later known as the “Butcher of Evin”) to revive the group.

Both now deceased, Khalkhali and Lajaverdi remained staunch Followers of the Line of the Imam for the rest of their lives and were charter members of the later “reform movement”.

The real organ of Khomeinist doctrine that was not exclusively clerical was the Islamic Republic Party, founded 18 February 1979 by the following men:

Mohammad Beheshti

Mir Hossein Moussavi Khamenei

Ali Hosseini Khamenei

Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani

Mohammad Javad Bohanar

Abdolkarim Moussavi Ardebili

Hojat al-Islam Hassan Ayat

Mohammad Ali Rajai

Hassan Habibi

Of course, the Party grew and its Central Committee soon numbered many more men. In time, it obtained a monopolistic chokehold on the country of Iran similar to what the Bolshevik Party had in the early Soviet Union.

Almost immediately after its organization, its Central Committee charged later reform movement stalwart Hadi Ghaffari with organizing the Hezbollahi (Party of God), its version of the Nazi Party’s Brownshirts.

Six days before, Ruhollah Moussavi Khomeini had tasked Ayatollah Madavi Kani with organizing the Central Revolutionary Komiteh to gain control over the komitehs around the country and purge them of the ideologically unreliable.

Among the later “reformists” who served with the Central Revolutionary Komiteh were Mehdi Karroubi, Mohammad Khatami, Dr. Saeed Hajjarian, Dr. Behzad Nabavi, and Hojat al-Islam Hadi Ghaffari.

When Rahbar-e Enghelab (Leader of the Revolution) Moussavi Khomeini announced the organization of the Sepah-e Pasdaran-e Enghelab-e Eslami (Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution), it was the Mohammad Beheshti and Mohammad Montazeri who oversaw it for the shadow government.

In the first round of the first Majlis elections under the Islamic Republic, the Party was surprised by the showing of candidates supported by it enemies, primarily the Mojahedin-e Khalq. Member Dr. Mostafa Moin suggested ideologically purging universities of elements not sufficiently supportive of their goals.

Holy Councils of Reconstruction were established in each institution, and the Basij-e Mostazafin (Mobilization of the Dispossessed) was established to assist.

The Iranian Cultural Revolution shut universities for two years, purged tens of thousands of liberal and leftist instructors and staff, and replaced of student organizations with “Islamic Student Associations”.

Dr. Moin, by the way, was the candidate for the united reformist front in the 2005 presidential elections, as well as of the reformist Islamic Iran Participation Front and the reformist Association of Combatant Clerics individually.

The Cultural Revolution Headquarters was established 12 June 1980 with the following men in its ranks:

Ali Hosseini Khamenei

Mohammad Javad Bohanar

Ahmad Ahmadi

Abdolkharim Soroush

Jalaleddin Farsi

Mehdi Golshani

Hassan Habibi

Ali Shariatmadari

Mostafa Moin

Hassan Arefi

Mohammad Ali Najafi

Asadollah Lajaverdi

Mir Hossein Moussavi Khamenei

Not long afterward, Saddam Hussein’s forces invaded, beginning the Iran-Iraq War. The Followers of the Line of the Imam, with the connivance of their Imam, the Rahbar-e Enghelab, pushed to extend the war even past the eight times there was a serious chance for a cessation of hostilities. They used it to cement their control domestically.

With the advent of the Reign of Terror, Sadegh Khalkhali was returned to his post as Chief Revolutionary Prosecutor, which he held until 1985. The conductors of this early purge, which lasted from Banisadr’s ouster in June 1981 through December 1982, were either Followers of the Line of the Imam or acting on their orders.

Between 3000 and 5000 individuals were murdered during this time.

The split in the regime

Hashemi Rafsanjani and Ali Khamenei began forming their own faction in the regime after the appointment of Ayatollah Montazeri as Deputy Leader in 1985. Ahmad Moussavi Khomeini soon came over to the Hezbollah (Party of God), not to be confused the loose Iranian militia by the same name.

The Hezbollah soon gained a majority in the Conservative Clergy Association by alliance with the Hojjattiyeh. In the Islamic Republican Party, however, they were vastly outnumbered them. Fearing the party under the control of Prime Minister Moussavi Khamenei, Hashemi Rafsanjani and Ahmad Moussavi Khomeini recommended the Party’s dissolution to the Rahbar-e Enghelab in 1987. He gave his consent.

The Maktabi minority in the Conservative Clergy Association earlier began meeting apart under the overall leadership of Deputy Speaker Mehdi Karroubi.

Still at the head of government, Mir Hossein Moussavi Khamenei was now undisputed leader of the Followers of the Line of the Imam along with Mehdi Karroubi.

That’s right, in 1988 the Followers of the Line of the Imam were now led by the Dynamic Duo of Prime Minister Moussavi Khamenei and Deputy Speaker Karroubi.

Karroubi and his associates made themselves publicly known as the Majma-e Rowhaniyun-e Mobarez (Association of Combatant Clerics) on 16 March 1988. Its founders were:

Mehdi Karroubi, secretary-general 1988-2005

Mohammad Moussavi Khoeiniha, secretary-general 2005-2010

Ali Akbar Mohtashamipur, secretary-general 2010-present

Mohammad Khatami

Sadegh Khalkhali

Hadi Ghaffari

Hadi Hosseini Khamenei (brother of the current Rahbar-e Enghelab)

Abdollah Nuri

Abdolkarim Moussavi Ardebili

Jalali Khomeini

Mohammad Hossein Rahimian

Asadollah Bayat Zanjani

Abdolvahed Moussavi Lari

Mohammad Ali Sadoughi

Ali Asqar Rahmani Khalili

Mohammad Ali Abtahi

Majid Ansari

Mohammad Hashemi

Rasoul Montajab Nia

Mohammad Reza Ashtiani

Mahmoud Doa’i

Mohammad Reyshahri

Several months later, on 18 July 1988, the Rahbar-e Enghelab ordered that the previously issued fatwa ordering the execution of every Monafeqin (Mujahedin-e Khalq) in Iran’s prisons, and another for the execution of the majority of the Mortads (leftists) should be carried out immediately and swiftly.

Sometime before, he had introduced his plan months before, to these six men:

President Ali Hosseini Khamenei

Speaker of the Majlis Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani

Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance Mohammad Khatami

Chief Revolutionary Justice Abdolkarim Moussavi Ardebili

Chief Revolutionary Prosecutor Mohammad Moussavi Khoeiniha

His chief-of-staff, Ahmad Moussavi Khomeini

He personally assigned implementation of the fatwas to Chief Revolutionary Prosecutor Moussavi Khoeiniha, future secretary-general of the reformist flagship Association of Combatant Clerics.

As Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance future reformist President and party leader Khatami was heavily involved with the prison massacres, as was Moussavi Ardebili, who has been retired from political life since Ruhollah Moussavi Khomeini’s death.

Mir Hossein Mousavi Khomeini was Prime Minister at the time.

Mehdi Karroubi was Deputy Speaker of Parliament.

Ali Akbar Mohtashamipur, current Secretary-General of the Association of Combatant Clerics, was Minister of the Interior.

Saeed Hajjarian was Vice Minister of Intelligence and National Security for Political Affairs.

The massacres lasted from 20 July 1988 through 10 April 1989. Between 4500 and 33,700 were murdered.

In 1991, Behzad Nabavi revived the Sazman-e Mojahedin-e Enghelab-e Eslami (Mojahedin of the Islamic Revolution Organization). It had earlier fallen apart due to the same ideological conflicts which had doomed the Islamic Republican Party.

Exile and return

In 1992, then President Hashemi Rafsanjani used the Council of Guardians to disqualify Maktabi candidates from running in elections for the Majlis, which they had controlled since its beginning.

For the next eight years, they were shut out of power.

Soon afterwards, Saeed Hajjarian formed the Center for Strategic Studies to plan for a return to power for the Followers of the Line of the Imam.

In 1997, his ally Mohammad Khatami was elected President. In 2000, control of the Majlis returned to the Maktabis.

The so-called reform movement proved a disappointment and a failure.

Primary organizations of the reformists, or Followers of the Line of the Imam

Daftare Tahkeeme Vahdat (Office for the Consolidation of Unity), founded 10 September 1979

Majma-e Rowhaniyun-e Mobarez (Association of Combatant Clerics), founded 16 March 1988

Sazman-e Mojahedin-e Enghelab-e Eslami (Mojahedin of the Islamic Revolution Organization), founded 1979, dissolved 1985, revived 1991

Center for Strategic Studies, established in 1992

Jebhe-e Mosharekat-e Iran-e Eslami (Islamic Iran Participation Front), founded 23 August 1998

Coordination Council of the Reformist Front, established 2000

Etemad-e Melli (National Trust Party), founded 2005

Rahe Sabz Omid (Green Path of Hope Party), founded 2009

Kaleme News (attached to the office of Mir Hossein Moussavi Khamenei)

Saham News (attached to the office of Medhi Karroubi)

Jaras

Rasa-TV

Tahavol-e Sabz

Leading reformist figures with a brief outline of their careers

Mr. Mir Hossein Moussavi Khamenei:

Council of Islamic Revolution, 1979-1981

Political Secretary of the Islamic Republican Party, 1979-1981

Central Committee member of the Islamic Republican Party, 1979-1987

Editor-in-chief of the Islamic Republic, 1979-1981

Minister of Foreign Affairs, 1981

President of Cultural Revolution Headquarters, 1981

Prime Minister, 1981-1989

Rahbar-e Enghelab’s representative to the Mostazafin Foundation, 1981-1989

President of the Economy Council, 1982-1989

Expediency Discernment Council, 1987-present

Senior advisor to President Hashemi Rafasnjani, 1989-1999

Supreme Council of Cultural Revolution, (1996-present)

Senior advisor to President Khatami, 1997-2005

President of the Iranian Academy of Arts, 2000-2009

Presidential candidate, 2009

Leader, Green Path of Hope Party, 2009-present

Hojat al-Islam Mehdi Karroubi:

Combatant Clerics Association, 1977-1988

Islamic Republican Party, 1979-1987

Central Revolutionary Komiteh, 1979-1980

Chairman, Martyrs’ Foundation, 1979-1992

Chairman, Imam Khomeini Relief Committee

Chairman, Housing Foundation Majlis Deputy, 1980-2005

Deputy Speaker of the Majlis, 1985-1989

Chairman of the Pilgrimage Foundation, 1985-1990

Secretary-General, Association of Combatant Clerics, 1988-2005

Speaker of the Majlis, 1989-1992 & 2000-2004

Presidential candidate, 2005

Secretary-General, National Trust Party, 2005-present

Presidential candidate, 2009

Central Committee, Green Path of Hope Party, 2010-present

Hojat al-Islam Mohammad Khatami:

Combatant Clerics Association (1977-1988)

Central Committee, Islamic Republican Party, 1979-1987

Central Revolutionary Komiteh, 1979-1980

Majlis Deputy, 1980-1982

Islamic Republican Party supervisor of Kayhan, 1981-1982

Cultural Revolution Headquarters, 1980-1983

Minister of Culture and Guidance, 1982-1992

Supreme Council of Cultural Revolution, 1983-1992

Director of Cultural Affairs, Joint Chiefs of Staff, 1982-1988

War Propaganda Headquarters, 1982-1988

Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, 1982-1988

Association of Combatant Clerics, 1988-present

Head, National Library of Iran, 1992-1997

President of the Islamic Republic, 1997-2005

Islamic Iran Participation Front, 1998-present

Chairman, Central Council, Association of Combatant Clerics, current

Chairman, Central Council, Islamic Iran Participation Front, current

Hojat al-Islam Mohammad Moussavi Khoeiniha:

Combatant Clergy Association, 1978-1988

Central Committee, Islamic Republican Party, 1979-1987

Islamic Republican Party representative to hostage-takers, 1979-1981

Deputy Speaker of the Majlis, 1980-1985

Chief Revolutionary Prosecutor, 1981-1982

Chairman of the Pilgrimage Foundation, 1982-1985

Chief Revolutionary Prosecutor, 1985-1989

Association of Combatant Clergy, 1988-present

Secretary-General, Association of Combatant Clergy, 2005-2010

Dr. Saeed Hajjarian:

Central Committee, Islamic Republican Party, 1979-1987

Central Revolutionary Komiteh, 1979-1984

U.S. Embassy hostage taker, 1979-1981

Vice Minister of Intelligence and National Security for Political Affairs, 1984-1989

Chairman, Institute for Strategic Studies, 1992-present

Political advisor to President Khatami, 1997-2005

Central Council, Islamic Iran Participation Front, 1998-present

Hojat al-Islam Ali Akbar Mohtashamipur:

Office of Islamic Liberation Movements, 1979-1984

Bureau of Assistance to the Islamic and Liberation Movements of the World, 1984-1985

Minister of the Interior, 1985-1988

Lebanon desk, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 1988-1989

Association of Combatant Clerics, 1988-present

Majlis Deputy, 1990-present

Secretary-General, Association of Combatant Clerics, 2010-present

Ayatollah Abdolkarim Moussavi Ardebili:

Combatant Clergy Association, 1978-1988

Central Committee, Islamic Republican Party, 1979-1987

Chief Revolutionary Prosecutor, 1981

Chief Justice, 1981-1989

Association of Combatant Clerics, 1988-1989

Expediency Discernment Council, 1987-1989

Hojat al-Islam Sadegh Khalkhali:

Leader, Fedayan al-Islam

Chief Revolutionary Prosecutor, 1979-1980 & 1981-1985

Majlis Deputy, 1985-1992

Association of Combatant Clerics, 1988-2003

Dr. Behzad Nabavi:

Central Revolutionary Komiteh, 1979-1985

Central Committee, Islamic Republican Party, 1979-1987

Founder, Mojahedin of the Islamic Revolution, 1979-1986

Spokesman for the U.S. Embassy hostage takers, 1979-1981

Founder, Intelligence Office of the President, 1980

Economic Council, 1980-1988

Minister of Industry and Mines, 1985-1989

Central Committee, Mojahedin of the Islamic Revolution Organization, 1991-present

Deputy Speaker of the Majlis, 2000-2004

Dr. Mostafa Moin:

Central Committee, Islamic Republican Party, 1979-1987

Cultural Revolution Headquarters, 1980-1983

Majlis Deputy, 1982-1989

Supreme Council of Cultural Revolution, 1983-present

Chancellor, Shiraz University, 1979-1982

Minister of Culture and Higher Education, 1989-1993 & 1997-2000

Minister of Science, Research, and Technology, 2000-2005

Presidential candidate, 2005

Hojat al-Islam Hadi Ghaffari:

Combatative Clergy Association, 1978-1988

Central Revolutionary Komiteh, 1979-1988

Islamic Republican Party, 1979-1987

Supervisor, Hezbollah, 1979-1988

Association of Combatative Clerics, 1988-present

Majlis Deputy, 1988-present

Chair, Al-Hadi Foundation, 1997-2005

Zahra Rahnavard Boroujerdi:

Co-founder, Women’s Society of the Islamic Revolution, June 1981

Chancellor, Al Zahra University, 1998-2006

Central Committee, Green Path of Hope Party, 2009-present

Fatemeh Karroubi:

Deputy Minister for Social Affairs, 1997-2005

Secretary-General, Islamic Association of Women, 1997-present

Green Path of Hope Party, 2010-present