Another Ayatollah Against Ahmadinejad

Mousavi's Facebook has this post about statements made by Ayatollah Bayat-Zanjani about the legitimacy of Ahmadinejad's election:

“If someone finds confidence that the mentioned individual has come to power by illegitimate means and by forgery, his confirmation by the Supreme Leader as the president and the completion of the inauguration ceremony will not legitimize him as these are not cause for legitimacy and these two are important only when the individual has come to power based on a healthy election.”

Zanjani is responding to questions posed to him about what a devout Muslim should do in the current situation. In Shii Islam, there is a tradition of people asking the Ayatollahs to make religious rulings as to the appropiate action in various situations.

In this post, Zanjani essentially argues that the President does not get legitimacy from the Supreme Leader, but rather from the people. This view supports the idea that a government needs to be elected by the people in order to be legitimate, but what is important is that Zanjani argues that this is a requirement in Islam. These rulings are so powerful because they have the weight of an important scholar of Islam behind them.

Zanjani is giving Islamic sanction to the idea that a devout Muslim has a right (if not a duty) to challenge Ahmadinejad if they believe his election was not legitimate:

"if someone considers the president as well as the administration illegitimate, he should not work with them and in case of cooperation, he will be considered as one of “the cooperators with the injustice"

This ruling is in direct opposition to statements the Supreme Leader has said in favor of Ahmadinejad. It shows you again the decreasing amount of support this regime has among the upper clergy.