According to the above report from Tehran, as
well as the protests of the Iranian people in the past few weeks, the threats
and harassment against Boroujerdi and his students had been increasing
drastically by late August 2022. Furthermore, via phone calls, the agents of
the Ministry of Intelligence and Iran's Special Clerical Court have recently
been threatening and prohibiting Boroujerdi from advocating, releasing any
statements, and associating or sympathizing with the brave Iranian movement.
They have imposed even more strict security on this well-known critical
thinker, scholar, and religious critic. His house is still under 24-hour surveillance,
and numerous disguised agents have been roaming all around since January 2017.
After enduring 11 years of torture and abuse in prison, he was released from
prison on temporary medical leave, and has been effectively placed under house
arrest. Please note that October 8th was the 16th
anniversary of the attack on his house where Boroujerdi, along with his family
and thousands of his followers, were arrested and transferred to Evin prison.
On this account, the government precautions have increased significantly around
his house.
In addition, using double pressure on
Boroujerdi's house arrest, stationing a huge number of security forces around
his house, as well as maintaining strict control and surveillance during his
daily commute, are for the purpose of officially banning Boroujerdi from
supporting this recent movement. Moreover, the agents of the Ministry of
Intelligence have continued to disconnect his phone calls, send death threat
text messages against him, and perform suspicious telephone calls. In this
respect, these frequent threats have caused a lot of emotional pressure on his
family and make it harder to carry out activities of daily living and essential
routine tasks to prepare the basic needs of the family. In addition to that,
the report inside Iran indicates that Mr. Boroujerdi's students have been
threatened by hostile action, and gravely controlled!
It is obvious that in an Islamic country that
has a religious government, Boroujerdi has been a public defender for over four
decades, keeping company with disenfranchised people in order to advocate for
the rights of Iranians. He was arrested, imprisoned, and tortured many times in
the 70s and early 80s due to advocating for the separation of religion from
politics, fighting religious superstitions, and rejecting any violation and
punishment under the Islamic rulings. In October of 2006, Boroujerdi, along
with his family and thousands of his followers, were arrested and transferred
to Evin prison. Boroujerdi has been staying deeply away from prejudice when
commencing extensive research and study of religious documents and historical
sources of Islam. He has found gross religious inconsistencies in both Shia and
Sunni sources. All these discovered contradictions have been gathered in his book.
A set of thousands of documents have been
discovered that express religious internal contradictions and incompatibilities
that demonstrate the unreliability of revelation, scribes, the holy book Quran
and the prophet's mission. Therefore, the secondary rulings such as hijab,
individual freedoms, and social justice are questioned too. Therefore, the
system of punishment including arrest, penalty, threat, a prison sentence,
flogging or a fine, and death that are imposed for breaking a law of not
wearing hijab or even just standing up for your rights, are inaccurate. It is
far away from the principles of knowledge, logic, conscience, humanity, and
wisdom.
Despite the fact that he had a chance to leave
the country after being released from prison, Boroujerdi preferred to stay in
Iran alongside the Iranian nation and to continue his tireless movement in the
field of research, studies, and teachings to enlighten the society.
It is very important to remember that
Boroujerdi's purpose is a fundamental and essential movement to reveal the
truth of religion and the nature of religious laws in the name of Allah, which
have caused countless crimes against humanity and the oppressed nation of Iran!
Today, we are witnessing a new movement that has
begun from the depths of the hearts of Iranian children, along with students
and sympathetic people. These people have experienced a bitter life in a
religious society with a religious government that is full of suffocation and
oppression, beyond the theories of religious intellectuals who try to give
justification for religious crimes. In fact, in the best possible way, they
have been demonstrating the invalidity of justification of the practice of
religious law in the public sphere. Iranians are rising to demand their fundamental
human rights, including justice, life, freedom and civic rights, as well as
women's rights. Therefore, their demands should be given serious international
attention.
October 2022