This is a guest post by Abu Faris
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Duplicity and deviousness are almost bywords of Islamist organisations. The violent, bigoted and now frighteningly influential Hojjatiyeh Society in Iran is no exception. Gripped by a bloodthirsty and truly bizarre millenarianist theology, the Hojjatiyeh have now achieved influence over the most powerful organs of state power in Iran. In doing so, they have illustrated that Islamism’s commitment to democracy is entirely a matter of convenience. Democracy will be jettisoned when it has served its purposes, to be replaced by all-out and all-out clerical-fascist dictatorship.
The Hojjatiyeh Society was founded in 1954 by Sheikh Mahmoud Halabi, as an Islamist organization hell-bent on persecuting Bahai, Sunni, indeed any and all minority faiths and dissident beliefs in Iran. In the ‘60s and ‘70s, the Hojjatiyeh worked hand-in-mailed-fist with SAVAK, the Shah’s terrifying secret police, a weapon in the Shah’s struggle with the then very powerful Iranian Left.