Association of Combatant Clerics

Association of Combatant Clerics مجمع روحانیون مبارز
General Secretary	Mohammad Mousavi Khoeiniha
Spokesperson	Majid Ansari
Head of Council	Mohammad Khatami
Founded	March 16, 1988
Legalized	February 7, 1989[1]
Split from	Combatant Clergy Association[2]
Headquarters	Tehran, Iran
Newspaper	Salam[2]
Political position	Left-wing[3]
National affiliation	Council for Coordinating the Reforms Front
Other affiliation	Coalition For Iran (2004)
Website
rouhanioon.com
Politics of Iran Political parties Elections

The Association of Combatant Clerics^{[lower-alpha 1]} (Persian: مجمع روحانیون مبارز‎‎) is an Iranian reformist clerical political party.

History

The Association of Combatant Clerics was founded in 1987 after abolition of the Islamic Republic Party, the last political party of that time. The association was originally radical, populist,^[4] rather than reformist in orientation, and favored a focus "on exporting the revolution and calling for the state's monopoly over the economy,"^[5] rather than democracy and freedom of expression. As of 2007 it advocated limits on clerical power in Iranian politics and extending individual freedoms—though not to the extent that might "lead to secularism or liberalism."^[6]

After the resignation of Mehdi Karroubi from the post of secretary general, the party had no secretary general until late August 2005, when Mohammad Mousavi Khoeiniha was elected as the new secretary general. Former President of Iran Mohammad Khatami is the Chairman of the association's Central Council.

Members

Central council members

29 members of the party's central council are:

Mohammad Mousavi Khoeiniha (Secretary-General) Majid Ansari (Speaker) Mohammad Khatami (Head of Council) Ali Akbar Mohtashamipur Mohammad Hashemi Hadi Khamenei Ali Ajam Mohammad-Ali Abtahi Mohammad-Ali Ansari

Jalal Jalalizadeh Mohammad Mousavi-Bojnourdi Issa Velayi Mohammad Razavi Seyyed Mohammad Hashemi Ali-Akbar Ashtiani Mohammad-Ali Khosravi Taqi Daricheyi Serajeddin Mousavi Ali Mohammad Dastgheib Shirazi

Fazel Ferdosi Ali-Asghar Rahmani Khalili Assadollah Kian-Ersi Mohammad Moghaddam Mojtaba Nourmofidi Mohammad-Ali Nezamzadeh Mehdi Emam-Jamarani Abdolvahed Mousavi-Lari Mohammad-Ali Sadoughi Asadollah Bayat-Zanjani

Other members

• Mehdi Karroubi (former member)
• Sadegh Khalkhali (deceased)
• Hadi Ghaffari
• Rasoul Montajabnia
• Abdollah Nouri
• Mohammad-Reza Tavassoli
• Hassan Sane'i
• Mahmoud Doayi

See also

• Political parties in Iran
• Clericalism in Iran

Notes

1. Transliterated majma'-e rowhāniyūn-e mobārez. The party's name has been alternately translated Association of Militant Clergy, Assembly of Combatant Clerics, and Combatant Clerics League

References

1. "List of Legally Registerred Parties in Iran". Khorasan Newspaper. Pars Times. July 30, 2000. p. 4. Retrieved 21 August 2015.
2. Bashiriyeh, Hossein (Spring–Summer 2001). "Civil Society and Democratisation during Khatami's First Term". Global Dialogue (Centre for World Dialogue) 3 (2–3): 19–26. ISSN 1986-2601.
3. Asayesh, Hossein; Halim, Adlina Ab.; Jawan, Jayum A.; Shojaei, Seyedeh Nosrat (March 2011). "Political Party in Islamic Republic of Iran: A Review". Journal of Politics and Law (Canadian Center of Science and Education) 4 (1): 221–230. ISSN 1913-9047.
4. Brumberg, Daniel, Reinventing Khomeini: The Struggle for Reform in Iran, University of Chicago Press, 2001, p.162
5. Mneisi, Ahmad. "The power shift within Iran's right wing". Archived from the original on 10 February 2006. Retrieved 19 April 2006. At the Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies.
6. [Wright, Robin, Dreams and Shadows: The Future of the Middle East, Penguin Press, 2008, p.300]

External links

• Mr Khatami, the Chairman of the Central Council of Militant Clerics Society, from Mohammad Ali Abtahi's weblog (in Persian)
• Mousavi Khoiniha became the secretary general of the Militant Clerics Society, from BBC Persian
• First meeting notes of Militant Clerics Society, from Mohammad Ali Abtahi's Persian weblog