|
Kazem Seddiqi
| |
|---|---|
 | |
| Tehran's Ephemeral Friday Prayer Imam | |
| Assumed office 1 August 2009 | |
| Appointed by | Ali Khamenei |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1951-03-04) March 4, 1951 (age 73) Abhar, Imperial State of Iran |
| |
Kazem Seddiqi (Persian: کاظم صدیقی, born 4 March 1951, sometimes with the honorific Ayatollah, and surname anglicised as Sedighi) is an Iranian Shia scholar and Mujtahid currently serving as Tehran's Friday Prayer Temporary Imam. A rival of President Ahmadinejad, Seddiqi was appointed as interim Friday prayers leader for Tehran by Ayatollah Khamenei in 1 August 2009. The New York Times characterized the appointment as part of an effort to "reinforce [Khamenei's] authority by cultivating divisions between factions" following the controversial June presidential election.[1]
Lately it has come to light that Ayatollah Kazem Sedighi and his sons have unlawfully took over a 4,200-square-meter (45,200 sq feet) garden at a prime location in northern Tehran through a family company, worth $20 million. The documents were leaked by Yashar Soltani, a well-known whistle blower who has exposed numerous high-ranking officials of the Iranian government. Sedighi says someone has forged his signature and "signed" the lands to his name.
Among the targets of criticism in Seddiqi's khutbahs have been "certain regional countries for `supporting` the leader of the Jundallah terrorist group, Abdolmalek Rigi",[2] the United States President Barack Obama for showing his "ugly face" by preparing a new slate of sanctions against Iran,[3] and women who wear immodest clothing and behave promiscuously, which Seddiqi claims causes earthquakes to occur.[4][5] In response to the latter statement, hundreds of thousands of women around the world, organized through social-networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, declared April 26, 2010, to be "Boobquake day", in which they all agreed to wear immodest clothing on the same day.[6]
 | This Iranian biographical article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
