Brief Reflections : Mohammad Nourizad’s Summons to Sweeping Away the Idea of “Untouchable”

Friday, September 27, 2013

Mohammad Nourizad’s Summons to Sweeping Away the Idea of “Untouchable”

Mohammad Nourizad is an Iranian activist and journalist advocating freedom, religious tolerance, and peaceful coexistence.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammad_Nourizad

His summons are reminiscent of declarations by reformers who opposed ecclesiastical malpractice, religious dogmas, and persecution of "heretics" in Europe and advanced transition from medieval mentality to modern thinking and from the Inquisition to free inquiry.

I invite all the people of Iran and the world, in particular the Shi’ites, to accompany me in sweeping away the ideology of the ritual “untouchable” [i.e. Najis نجس *]. This ideology has gone too far with its indirect comments regarding certain groups of human beings, with the consequence that Iran’s reputation is harmed, and such actions are attributed to Iran’s immaturity and unwisdom. These days, the problem we Iranians face is not that we are governed by a group of the ultimate self-interested people, who do not follow any regulations and laws; rather Iranians’ real problem is their incorrect and unwise understanding of Source of Imitation [i.e. Maraji'**], the supreme Shi’ite legal authorities, and Islamic officials’ distribution and promotion of such misunderstandings in governmental fiats.

In this summons, I directly consider the ignobility of the Sources of Immitation**, who with their misunderstanding and misinterpretation of the Qur’an and and Islam via the religious authorities label pagans, communists, Baha’is, and atheists “untouchable” [i.e. Najis نجس]. With this feeble-minded and cowardly fatwa, they take away established citizenship rights from a group of our fellow-countrymen.

Arise and respond to my summons as follows:

As an individual or as a group go on visits to the homes of Baha’is and atheists, and associate with them in love and harmony. Bring them gifts as expressions of repentence and shame for having made them subjects of maltreatment and persecution. Eat food together with them. The next day after your visit, directly or indirectly distribute news about your visit through uncensored media and social networking tools. There is no solution except for the separation of our practices and principles from those misunderstandings of the Sources of Imitation**. We should demonstrate that in our human and religious consciousness, all humans have been created clean, good, and noble, and an inclination towards any particular belief system can never make anyone dirty or unclean.

Accompany me in this great summons to demonstrate the following:
If it is agreed that pagans and atheists are unclean because of an incorrect understanding of the Qur’an, the believers in God and those who say their prayers at night, who with their actions and manner have been taking advantage of the station of scholars, of the Qur’an and of the example of the prophets ˗ no doubt they are far more unclean and dirty.
In this summons, we do not want to cleanse the blessed beauty of our Baha’i, communist, and atheist fellow-countrymen because of such unjust and incorrect understandings and fatwas. Instead, we strive to eliminate the filth of [the idea of] untouchables from the face of humanity, from faith, from Islam and from Shia Islam, and to demonstrate the following:
Our spiritual authorities and Sources of Imitation** do not have permission and are not able on behalf of God to divide the servants of God into bad, good, clean, unclean, and untouchable. They cannot give benefits and privileges to some people whom they consider good, nor can they deprive even bad people of their well-established human rights.
—

<div id=”fb-root”></div> <script>(function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = “//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1″; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }(document, ’script’, ‘facebook-jssdk’));</script>

* The Islamic term is najis, “ritually unclean”: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Najis. This law of Islam, originally referring in the Qur’an to certain animals and bodily fluids, has been extended by many Shi’ite clerics to Baha’is.
** Plural of Marja’ al-Taqlid, or “Source to Imitate”, a designation of certain Shi’ite Grand Ayatollahs. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marja%27

Source:

https://www.facebook.com/m.nourizad

Translation by Iran Press Watch

http://www.iranpresswatch.org/post/9369?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+iranpresswatch+%28Iran+Press+Watch%3A+The+Baha%27i+Community%29