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Hojjatieh
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Hojjatieh (in Persian: انجمن حجتیه ) — also called Hojjatieh Society — is a semi-clandestine traditionalist Shia organization founded in Iran in 1953 (in Tehran) by Shaikh Mahmoud Halabi (a Tehrani mullah of Arab ancestry from Mashhad; 1900-1998). The organization was founded on the premise that the most immediate threat to Islam was (what Shaikh Halabi believed) was the Bahá'í religion, which they viewed as a heresy that must be eliminated. [1] The group also opposes both Sunniism and the Khomeinist concept of Velayat-e Faqih.

Halabi is said to have worked with SAVAK security agency under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, offering his full cooperation in fighting "other heathen forces, including the Communists." By doing so he was given freedom to recruit members and raise funds, and by 1977 Hojjatieh is said to have had 12,000 members. However, since the Shah's regime, in Halabi's view, allowed the Baha'is too much freedom, he then supported Khomeini's movement to overthrow the Shah.[2]

The group flourished during the 1979 revolution that ousted the Shah and installed an Islamic government in his place. However it was forced to dissolve after Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini speech on 12 August 1983 .

Contents [hide]
1 Doctrine
2 Rumored members
3 See also
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Doctrine
The Mahdi is the prophesied future redeemer of Islam. According to legal scholar Noah Feldman, the "Hojjatiya Society, was banned and persecuted by Khomeini’s government in part for its quiescent view that the mahdi’s arrival could not be hastened." Misinterpretation of the society's position "outside Iran" as the opposite of what it is has led some to think its supporters "want to bring back the imam by violence, rather than ... wait piously and prepare for the imam’s eventual return on his own schedule."[3] A corollary of this belief is that only with the mahdi’s arrival can a genuine Islamic republic be established, and this earned them their persecution under Khomeini.[citation needed] Those who adhere to this perspective claim Hojjatieh is a millenarian group who put great stock on the return of the Mahdi and the idea of such a return bringing happiness to true believers.[citation needed]

[edit] Rumored members
Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi is reported to be the highest ranking member of the Hojjatieh. He denies this and has said that if anyone finds a connection between him and Hojjatieh, he will denounce everything he stands for.[4] The current president of Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is also rumored to be an advocate of Hojjatieh through the influence of Ayatollah Yazdi, who was his mentor. Feldman writing in the New York Times suggests this rumor was spread by Ahmadinejad's enemies.[5]

Asia Times reports that Ahmad Tavassoli, a former chief of staff of Khomeini, claimed in 2005 that "the executive branch of the Iranian government as well as the crack troops of the Revolutionary Guards have been hijacked by the Hojjatieh, which, he implied, now also controls Ahmadinejad." According to the report, Hojjatieh were endangering Iran by working for Shia supremacy, [6]

[edit] See also
Haghani Circle
Persecution of Bahá'ís

[edit] References
1.^ Taheri, Amir, The Spirit of Allah, (1985), p.189-90
2.^ Taheri, The Spirit of Allah, (1985), p.189-90
3.^ Islam, Terror and the Second Nuclear Age By NOAH FELDMAN. October 29, 2006 New York Times
4.^ : SharifNews.ir:: آیت*الله مصباح: احمدی*نژاد اشتباه كرده است
5.^ Islam, Terror and the Second Nuclear Age - By NOAH FELDMAN. October 29, 2006 New York Times
6.^ Shi'ite supremacists emerge from Iran's shadows, Sep 9, 2005 Asia Times