Hossein Noori Hamedani

Grand Ayatollah Hosein Nuri-Hamadani (born in 1926) is an Iranian Twelver Shi'a Marja. Nuri-Hamadani has been called a "hard-line cleric,"^[1] who has expressed his strong disapproval of Sufis and dervishes, Jews, the intellectual Abdolkarim Soroush and the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.

Hosein Nuri-Hamadani was born in Hamadan, Iran. After finishing elementary studies in Hamadan, at the age of 17 he moved to Qom, Iran to continue his religious studies. He studied in the seminaries of Allameh Tabatabai and Grand Ayatollah Borujerdi. He currently resides and teaches in the Seminary of Qom, Iran.^[2]

After 2009 Iranian presidential election, Hamedani took side with Ahmadinejad and attacked those who questioned the accuracy of the election.

Views and activities

Among his reported views are that Iran "must purge universities of anti-Islamic and atheist professors."^[3] In September 2006 he called for a clampdown on dervish groups in Qom. He also issued a fatwa against the attendance of women in stadiums.^[4] In early 2008 he issued what some see as an implicit death threat against Iranian intellectual Abdolkarim Soroush, saying “Soroush’s writings are ‎worse than Salman Rushdie’s,” and “Abdolkarim Soroush’s ‎religious theories have undermined the roots of prophecy, the Koran and holy ‎revelations.”^[5]

According to Fars news agency, Ayatollah Nuri-Hamadani stated in a discussion of religious texts: "One should fight the Jews and vanquish them so that the conditions for the advent of the Hidden Imam may be met." He added: "Crazy ideas such as secularism, liberalism, and humanism are part of our enemies' plans to sow disunity".^[6]

In connection with the Iranian legislature's ratification of a bill on Iranian membership in the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), ISNA reported Nuri-Hamadani issued a statement on 2 August 2003 describing the convention as "calamitous and tragic, as well as a Western and U.S. ploy to harm Islam." According to him, when the convention was brought to Qom, all the religious authorities opposed it as contrary to Islam.^[7] Click here for image.

Notes

1. ^ Iran's Hardliners Target Universities as Massive Purge Goes On 19 November 2005
2. ^ official website
3. ^ Iran's Hardliners Target Universities as Massive Purge Goes On 19 November 2005, stated in a meeting with Iran’s Education Minister
4. ^ gooya news :: politics : آيت‌‏الله نوری همدانی، از مراجع تقليد: شركت بانوان در مراكز ورزشی آقايان مخالف موازين اسلامی است، ايلنا
5. ^ Rooz online, english. Soroush awaiting Salman Rushdie’s Fate? accessed 19-MAR-2008
6. ^ Ayatollah Nuri-Hamadani: "Fight the Jews and Vanquish Them so as to Hasten the Coming of the Hidden Imam" 25 April 2005
7. ^ Iran Report 11 August 2003, Volume 6, Number 33

See also

• Grand Ayatollahs
• Marja
• Nouri Hamedani speaks about Wahabbism

External links

• Iran move to defrock dissident ayatollah opens rifts in theocracy CSMonitor

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Name	Noori Hamedani, Hossein
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Date of birth	1926
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