Just when I thought I had heard everything, I saw this.
I know that Iranian politics are not terribly modern, but I never thought I would see actual charges brought against Mr. Ahmadinejad, the President of Iran, or his staff, from the religious side of consorting with djinns, and actual arrests. Literally.
Apparently, the political issue is a growing struggle between Iran's President and the Grand Ayatollah Khamenei and his followers with respect to conduct of government. A short time ago, we read that The President attempted to fire an intelligence chief, and was forced to retain him by the Grand Ayatollah. Now, very shortly thereafter, these charges are apparently brought against the President's Chief of Staff, and reported in a legitimate British paper that the chief of staff sought supernatural aid and the company of djinns in some manner improperly to help do his governmental work. At this point, I know only what the Guardian says about the specifics of the charges, and desperately hope that there are Farsi Kossacks who can read the Iranian papers and give a better explanation. The Guardian does not have any rep of facilitating hoaxes or publishing snarks.
Djinns are a form of supernatural creature in western terms, but a part of creation in Islamic ones, a form of being created not of the earth as humans are but out of fire without smoke, and before us. However, here there is an account of preaching the Koranic truth to Djinns in the Holy Qu'ran itself, which suggests that a djinn is as subject to the teachings of the Holy Qu'ran as an ordinary person. That in religious terms, they are as real as anyone else and created by the same God we usually believe in here on Kos if we are believers at all, for whatever purposes that Creator had. There are Islamic saints whose virtuous deeds consisted in dealing with djinns, whose shrines are visited to this day, the ones I know of being in North Africa. Their general reputation is however that for not all of them did that preaching stick as it should, and most are given to trying to lure believers into error and other naughty things.
According to the Guardian, this event may also be connected to the President's belief in the imminent return of the Shiite Hidden Imam and to the release of a film about that. The return of the Hidden Imam is sort of like the end of the world or the second coming of Christ is for certain Christians, especially those who believe it will happen later this month. This connection, if correct, feels like a matter where the President's belief may not coincide with that of the religious faction, and the religious faction is doing something dramatic to make sure the President does not act on his belief.
What I did not think until now is that they would ever be formally invoked in modern politics. Until now, I am not aware they have been in modern times, and, yes, I am welcoming posts that prove that belief wrong as long as they have evidence attached. The political puzzle this creates, of course, is a sort of nightmare, since one normally assumes that religious folk control the conversation on such matters, and enforce whatever rules about consorting with supernatural creatures including djinns as mentioned in the sura attached above.
The charge is brought against a conventional political operative, in a culture where religious sins can have terrible tangible consequences for far lesser matters, not just the snickering that Christine O'Donnell got over the witch matter in our culture or our own snickers here that certain fundy Rs don't care about the long term effect of their proposals because they don't think there is a long term, and it will be hugely difficult for those charged to defend against such a charge. No, I do not know Iranian law as to whether consorting with a djinn is a capital crime, although I suspect we all will soon. It looks suspiciously like a charge with harsh consequences which is almost designed to be indefensible by the accused and, at teh very least, the end of the political life of all involved. If sustained, it will probably have substantial consequences both for the unfortunate chief of staff and for his boss, as well as the rest of us, when we see what the religious factions do with this and who they propose to replace the current President with if they prevail.
It does raise considerable concern if a head of state of a state with nuclear generators and a warlike attitude may find himself and his staff fighting for their political and perhaps literal lives for consorting with djinns, and that others outside that culture may also at some point be so accused, not for being an infidel but for this which may be much worse when being thought about by people with rockets and the possibility of nuclear weapons. Unless someone produces a djinn who is a registered voter, which I seriously doubt, but you never know. The prosecutors have to bring forth evidence for this, so we will know soon.
My real concern is whether now, in the politics of that place, we are now going to have to come to terms with the fact that that culture carries its beliefs in this particular matter into national or international politics, as we thought we knew them. And what that means if they are prepared to act on that belief. The Holy Qu'ran is also a universal document, so there is at least a theoretical possibility that such charges may have credibility in other nations. The irrationality and cultural conflict boggles my mind, no matter what else I think about Iran and those residing therein.
UPDATE: Thank you all for making this my first diary every on the Recommended list.