Kamangir (Archer)

Bad Muslim/ Good Muslim

Kamangir | February 14, 2006 | Category Iran

After the attacks to the Denmark embassy and according to the hostile situation between the Islamic Republic and the Israel, one might think that the Iranian head of the state is made up of serious Muslims that can not tolerate followers of other religions or infidels. Unfortunately, the story is a bit different.

Mullas in Iran follow an inclusive model of the world in which everything is evil unless they approve of it. Obviously, they approve of everything which helps them to remain in power. Hence, nobody says that all Jewish people are bad, because there are Jewish people who condemn Israel and admire the Islamic Republic (IR) regime. The IR regime has the same attitude towards Muslims, too.

You see “good” Muslims around the world who demonstrate when somebody “insults” Islam. Also, there are many shows in the IRIB (Iranian official television network) showing Muslims who love Iran and Christians and Jewish people who become Muslims. On the other hand, the Islamic Republic has certain problems with Muslims inside Iran, those who are “bad” Muslims.

You may know that Islam separates into two categories, Sunnis (see) and Shias (see). Shias are the minority and mostly live in Iran, Iraq, Indonesia, and a few more countries. Basically, the IR regime is not very friends with Sunnis. But, at the same time, it is not very friends with all Shia groups, too.
There is a category of Muslim people called Suffi (see), sometimes also called Darvish (see). This is how wikipedia defines this category: “Sufism … is a mystic tradition of Islam based on the pursuit of spiritual truth as it is gradually revealed to the heart and mind of the Sufi (one who practices Sufism). It might also be referred to as Islamic mysticism. While other branches of Islam generally focus on exoteric aspects of religion, Sufism is mainly focused on the direct perception of Truth or God through mystic practices based on divine love. Sufism embodies a number of cultures, philosophies, central teachings and bodies of esoteric knowledge. Sufis are active in a diverse range of brotherhoods and sisterhoods, with a wide diversity of thought. Sufi orders (”tariqas”) can be Shi’a Islam, Sunni Islam, both or neither.”
How does the IR regime treat Suffis? Not much better than how they treated Danish people. There was a building in Qom, the holy city of Shias in Iran and a center of power in the IR regime, where Suffis were doing their rituals. Then, the IR guards and the militia attacked it and arrested numerous people. The attack took a couple of hours and is reported to be a serious war between ordinary people with no weapon and the militia gunmen (see see ).

Pictures are from here (see).