In the Arena

The Latest Iran Outrage

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Apparently, Iran’s military dictatorship is now moving to arrest its opponents–and there are many–among the Mullahs in the holy city of Qum. Word comes that Ayatullah Mohammed Taqi Khalaji has been arrested. His family does not know where he is being held.

Khalaji is a follower of the late reformist Grand Ayatullah Montazeri, whose death touched off violent demonstrations in Iran over the past few weeks. His son Mehdi Khalaji is a fellow at the Washington Institute. Ayatullah Khalaji was also held prisoner by the Shah in the 1970s…and so the brutal sins of the last dictator are being replicated by the current despots.

Readers may have noticed that I’ve stopped using “the Mullahs” as a shorthand term for the government in Iran. That’s because far too many Mullahs are proving their courage by marching, getting beaten up, getting arrested. The “Mullahs” are not the enemy of the people; the religious military–the Revolutionary Guard, the Basij–are at the heart of the evil that has overtaken Iran.