Culture Minister: Loyal to Newspaper Keyhan’s Principles

Rooz Online:

With Majlis’s (Parliament) approval, the former editor of Tehran’s ultra-conservative Kayhan daily newspaper, Mohammad Hossein Saffar Harandi, will take the helm of Iran’s press, culture and arts affairs as the new Minister of Culture. Not only is he a known fundamentalist conservative hardliner, but he has also held high commander positions in the Iranian Passdaran Revolutionary Guards.

Using Kayhan, he has accused the Iranian reform-minded press as a "tribune for the evil West", calling activists and supporters of the reform movement "cultural warriors of West". He has advocated violent means to suppress reformist activists and media, and is known to have rejoiced at the closure of many newspapers during former president Khatami’s terms. READ MORE

In his confirmation speech, Harandi reiterated that as the new cabinet Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance, he would drastically shift the department’s policies and its directors to his own thinking and that of the new president. Where he would take it? Read on.

Saffar Harandi has roots in Iran’s religious fundamentalist history. His close relatives were involved in the assassination of Hassan Ali Mansur, a secular Prime Minister during the days of the shah’s monarchy, and event that he says opened his eyes to politics. He attended Alavi high school that was also attended by other religious activists and which has produced many of the prominent faces of the Islamic regime. He has held membership positions in several political groupings that included Hezbe Melal Eslami (Islamic Nations Party), Anjomane Zedde Bahai (Anti Bahai Society) which later turned into Hojatieh Society that still survives. In 1973 he enrolled as an engineering student in the University for Science and Industry, but dropped out before earning a degree. His professional life has included training in the Passdaran, commander positions in the Passdaran military force, membership of the policy planning group of the Islamic Republic News Agency, and editor of Kayhan daily newspaper.

When at Kayhan, he showed himself to be a conservative hardliner supporting anti Western policies, harsh domestic suppressive measures against reform activists, rejecting Khatami’s government and its policies, criticizing Khatami’s rapprochement with the West, liberalization of the economy, etc.

He has been a supporter of China’s model of development, i.e. expansion of the state and private sectors, while maintaining the political status quo. He is staunch critic of the West, believing the in the conspiracy theories that Zionism, Britain and the United States have an agenda to destroy Islam and Muslims. He believes that 80 percent of Muslims hate the countries of this triangle. He considers reform writers to be stooges of the West that propagate poisonous ideas for Muslims. He is a hardline believer of Velayate Faghih, i.e. Islamic jurisprudent, currently manifested in ayatollah Khamenei. He does not believe in the principles of the republic and claims that ayatollah Khomeini too only accepted a republic after the collapse of the monarchy due to historical expediency. He believes democracy and human rights are at odds with the Islamic structures and beliefs of Iranian Muslims. He expounds the idea that the revolution that toppled the shah’s monarchy in 1979 was to establish an Islamic state and values, and that president Ahmadinejad is the voice of that movement that has returned to the government, which he fully supports. It is interesting to note that he correctly predicted Ahmadinejad’s presidential victory in June of 2005, many days before the voting, as he did the number of voters in that election before the counting had even begun.

Saffar Harandi believes that the socio-political atmosphere of the country welcomes those who have been calling for the return of the “original” values of the revolution, and thus Ahmadinejad’s presidential victory. While praising the conservative dominated parliament, he emphasizes that the last eight years were the days of the rule of counter-revolutionaries and their values.