Iran's ruling clerics and political leaders complain that their country doesn't get the respect it deserves from other countries, particularly in the West.
Maybe one reason is because of stories like this one in the Guardian reporting that key allies of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad "have been accused of using supernatural powers to further his policies."
Moreover, the account went on, "Several people said to be close to the president and his chief of staff, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, have been arrested in recent days and charged with being ‘magicians’ and invoking djinns (spirits)."
Politics is tough enough without its practitioners bringing in the djinns.
Actually, the arrests mask a more serious dispute between Ahmadinejad and the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The president fired the intelligence minister, a close ally of Khamenei, from his Cabinet. Bristling at this challenge to his authority, the supreme leader promptly reinstated him.
Ahmadinejad then boycotted his office and the Cabinet for 10 days. He has since returned, but Khamenei's supporters in the parliament are threatening to impeach the president. One of them said that differing with Khamenei was akin to "apostasy from God."
Ahmadinejad and his backers in the Revolutionary Guard are suspected, probably correctly, of wanting to encroach on the supreme leader's near-total authority over the government. The Guardian says that Mashaei, whom Ahmadinejad is said to be grooming as his successor, is known as an opponent of greater clerical involvement in politics.
Meanwhile, according to the Guardian, "Ayandeh, an Iranian news website, described one of the arrested men, Abbas Ghaffari, as ‘a man with special skills in metaphysics and connections with unknown worlds.’”
Sounds like there's a future for Ghaffari in American politics if he ever decides to make the jump.
The article was published and distributed by Scripps Howard News Service (www.scrippsnews.com).