Kamangir (Archer)

Ayatollah Dies in Tehran and in London, at the same time

Kamangir | June 16, 2007 | Category Iran

Grand Ayatollah Fazel Lankarani, who was hospitalized since a long time ago in Tehran, passed away in his home in Qom, at the age of 76. Or at least that’s what Fars reports at first. According to ISNA, all businesses will be closed in the holy city of Qom for one day and three days of mourning (early pictures) are announced. While no mystery seems to exist in the story, as the state reports it, the fellow citizen journalists have found quite a huge discrepancy in the news, which actually make is interesting.

As a user in the Iranian Digg, Balatarin, has pointed out, through putting together the news broadcast by state-run media outlets, the Ayatollah passed away simultaneously in a hospital in Tehran, in his house in Qom, and in London. The mention of London makes the story quite fascinating when another user in Balatarin finds a list of accommodation prices in the hospital he was looked after. In fact, Ayatollah has spent the amount majority of Iranians live on for six months for every night he has been taken care of there. There is more controversy around the deceased Ayatollah, as Balatarin users manage to surface.

While the state-run news agency introduces the Ayatollah as one of the most passionate students of Khomeini, some people remember his death Fatwa, issued last December. On November 2006, a citizen of the Republic of Azarbaijan faced the wrath of the Ayatollah.

Tagi wrote a piece titled “Europe and Us” in Senet’s weekly edition for November 6, arguing that the Christian values of Europe led to more successful, peaceful, and tolerant societies than the values of Islam. “A person can’t be condemned for their opinions,” editor Sadagatoglu told the court, ironically just after Reporters Without Borders added Azeri president Ilham Aliev to its list of “predators” of press freedom. “Such a person is an apostate in view of his confessions, if he is a Muslim,” Ayatollah Fazel Lankarani said in a fatwa conveniently posted online. “If he had been an unbeliever (Kafir), he is considered as someone who has insulted the Prophet and in any case, given his confessions, it is necessary for every individual who has an access to him to kill him. The person in charge of the said newspaper, who published such thoughts and beliefs consciously and knowingly, should be dealt with in the same manner.” (source of translation, Persian source, Ayatollah’s website)

That leaves no doubt why the state would hesitate to mention that he was in fact being taken care of in London, especially after the recent anti-Britain protest held in Tehran, by people so close to the deceased Ayatollah.