Ex-President of Iran Vilifies Reformists

A leading hard-liner criticized reformers as anti-Islamic on Friday, hours after police broke up a violent student protest against the closure of 16 pro-democracy newspapers.

Speaking during Friday prayers at Tehran University, former President Hashemi Rafsanjani accused the reform movement of undermining the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

“The liberals are now initiating reforms against Islam and freedom,” said Rafsanjani, who heads a powerful council that advises the government.

He categorized reformist journalists as “biased and hired writers.”

“They are paving the way for the foreign domination of Iran. We should not let our enemy penetrate into Iran through their agents inside the country,” Rafsanjani told a crowd of thousands.

After the prayers, about 1,000 hard-line demonstrators shouted slogans against Culture Minister Ataollah Mohajerani, whose ministry granted the freedom that spawned a flourishing pro-reform press.

Hard-liners have used their dominance in the judiciary to close 16 reformist newspapers and detain two leading journalists in the past eight days. Their actions are widely seen as a bid to roll back the democratic reforms initiated by President Mohammad Khatami since he took office in 1997.

In protest against the closure of the newspapers, about 200 students threw stones and burned tires at Tehran’s Shahid Beheshti University in the early hours of Friday, a journalist at the scene said.

Police and vigilantes moved in and dispersed the protesters after an hour, said the journalist, who spoke on condition of anonymity.