President Rohani’s statements about curbing overt government interference in people’s lives have drawn more fire from the establishment, this time from Iran’s Prosecutor General and spokesman for the judiciary, Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei.
The Entekhab website reports that Mohseni Ejei said: “We hear these days: do not interfere with people’s heaven and hell prospects; this kind of statement is a mockery of the efforts of the clergy, senior religious leaders and seminaries.”
President Rohani had said: “Let us allow people to live in spiritual health…. let them find their own path to heaven, we cannot force people into heaven under lashes.”
These statements directly refer to the activities of Iran’s morality police, who detain and arrest people for wearing unacceptable outfits, listening to loud music or mingling with the opposite sex and other similar matters; therefore, they triggered fierce opposition from the Friday Mass Imams of Tehran and Mashhad and other hardliners in the Islamic Republic.
Mohseni Ejei also challenged Rohani’s statements about the relationship between politics and religion, saying they smell of the philosophy that would separate politics and religion, only they’re dressed in a different outfit.