Corrupt Imam is the Fourth to Lose his Job this Year

October 4, 2018

6 min read

Mohammad Naghi Lotfi was the fourth Friday Imam to resign or be removed after he was accused of corruption and leading an “aristocratic” lifestyle

A Friday prayers leader has resigned after being accused of corruption — the fourth prayers leader to resign or be dismissed in recent months.

Mohammad Naghi Lotfi, the Friday prayers leader of Ilam in western Iran, told the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei in a letter: “I feel it is my duty at this time to return this sensitive position and this great mission to its original owner” — meaning the Supreme Leader. “God willing, another person will perform his duty in this trench.” Lofti also published the resignation on his website on Monday, October 1 [Persian link].

In an interview with Hawzah News Agency, Lotfi explained his reasons for resigning [Persian link]. “I was really tired,” he said. “Some of it is due to the rumors that they have been spreading against me...I resigned to save the exalted office of the Supreme Leader from any doubt cast on it because of rumor-mongering against me.”

Mohammad Naghi Lotfi’s resignation came after he faced accusations of “corruption” and leading an “aristocratic” lifestyle.

Iranian “Hezbollahis” — who regard themselves as upholding a strict moral code in line with the Islamic Republic and the teachings of its founder Ayatollah Khomeini — started the verbal attacks against him after he was seen riding in a high-chassis Toyota Prado car to attend ceremonies celebrating the birth of his grandchild in March this year. The group objected to this on the grounds that it was not appropriate behavior given that Friday prayers leaders are representatives of the Supreme Leader. Following the initial bitter attacks from the group, criticisms against him increased and rapidly spread.

Lotfi returned fire and threatened his critics with legal action during one of his Friday prayers sermons. “Stop behaving like children,” he told them, and reminded them that insulting a Friday Imam was the same as insulting the Supreme Leader and that legal action was an entirely appropriate course of action. Some of his threats took on a dramatic stance, and were peppered with exaggeration. On one occasion he warned his critics not to get too close to his podium because it was protected by mines. “if you get close, the mines will kill you,” he threatened.

Supporters of the Ilam Friday Imam rejected the criticism against him and accused his critics of being deviant in their beliefs.

Luxury for “Security Reasons”

However, the exchange of verbal fire did not subside. On Instagram, Mohammad Naghi Lotfi’s son Hadi Lotfi announced that his father had been in the expensive car for security reasons. He also published pictures of Ayatollah Khamenei and General Ghasem Soleimani, the commander of the expeditionary Quds Force, getting out of expensive cars as justification for his father’s use of a luxury automobile.

Nasrollah Yegani, Lotfi’s chief of staff, stepped in to try to contain the damage. “By law, the car that the Friday Imam uses in town is a [made-in-Iran] Peugeot,” he said, implying that Lotfi uses the Prado on mountainous roads.

Then the conservative website Jahan News reported that the person who had published the photograph of Lotfi in the high-end car had been arrested. “How can some people watch a Friday Imam riding an [expensive] automobile when they have to go to bed at night on a hungry stomach?” the article said. To drive the point home, the site quoted Ayatollah Khamenei:“Some gentlemen go to their [religious] classes in 200-million [-toman] cars. I cannot understand it. A seminary student and a 200-million car? Even if you have the money, it is wasteful and forbidden.”

Lotfi’s resignation follows the removal of Hassan Torabi, the Friday Imam of Borujerd in the province of Lorestan on July 2. The dismissal followed years of controversy and fights with various political and religious groups in the city, who had accused the imam of running a “mafia” operation. According to media reports, in 2018 a group of Borujerd’s clergymen and seminary students set out for Tehran on foot to protest against Torabi and the “widespread corruption by the centers of power and wealth” in Lorestan.

Explain yourself

And prior to this, in May, Asadollah Imani, Ayatollah Khamenei’s representative in Fars province and the Friday Imam of Shiraz, resigned after a group of Hezbollahis accused him of corruption. Opposition against him became public on November 5, 2016 when Shiraz Universities’ Society of Students for Justice published an open letter demanding that he face university audiences to answer certain “doubts” raised in the public mind about his activities, those of his relatives and especially his son’s behavior [Persian link]. The students also demanded that Imani explain extravagant spending by his headquarters during the elections for the Assembly of Experts, his record during the elections and also his management of seminaries in Fars province.

A year later, the society announced that, despite their efforts, Asadollah Imani had not only refused to offer explanations publicly, he had not even bothered to inform them, in writing, that he was refusing to do so [Persian link]. Nevertheless, the society continued to press its demands, leading to Imani eventually filing a legal complaint against four members of the society. In early January 2018, Shahid Ghoddousi Court sentenced the four to three months in prison, two years suspended prison terms and a five-year ban on any political activity [Persian link].

The court’s verdict, however, led to protests from many Hezbollahi student organizations, including Basiji students, who criticized the judiciary for sentencing members of the Society of Students for Justice [Persian link]. The protests became so widespread that on January 1, Imani’s office denied the news that he had resigned. It was only in May that the office announced his official resignation [Persian link].

In his letter to Ayatollah Khamenei, Imani wrote that he was resigning because of illness. He died soon after.

Illness was also the reason cited by Zayn al-Abidin Ghorbani, Khamenei’s representative in Gilan province and Rasht’s Friday Imam. Ghorbani was removed by the Supreme Leader in April after a scandal over the building of a commercial complex, the Adineh Project, in the city of Rasht. The project was left unfinished and in 2017, a group of people who had bought units in the complex organized a rally to protest. It then turned out that Khamenei’s representative was at the helm of the project.

Ghorbani promised to compensate buyers for all their losses. In his letter, he said that the credit for all the “good works” that he had done went to the Supreme Leader and the blame for “shortcomings” and “negligence” rested with him.