Moin: Shariati's Remains to Be Transferred to Iran
October 16, 2000 - 0:0
TEHRAN -- Minister of Science, Research and Technology, Mostafa Moin, announced he has submitted the request of the Mazinan people to President Mohammad Khatami to ask the officials to arrange the transfer of the remains of late Ali Shariati from Damascus to Iran, according to ISNA.
In a letter to President Khatami, the minister requested him to ask the officials to make arrangements for the transfer of Shariati's remains to Iran.
The TEHRAN TIMES published the story of the minister's request to transfer Shariati's remains to Iran, but IRNA quoting the Public Relations Office of the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology, said, the ministry is not informed about the request.
IRNA did not even ask the TEHRAN TIMES' about the authenticity of the news. Now after more than two weeks, the minister himself confirms our story.
Shariati in his last will and testament had expressed his desire to be buried in his birthplace, Mazinan, Khorasan Province.
But his body was buried in Damascus in the shrine of Hazrat Zeinab (SA), the daughter of Imam Ali (As) because the Shah's regime did not allow the transfer of his body, fearing that his funerals may turn into an anti-regime occasion.
A Sorbonne-educated sociologist, Shariati launched an intellectual campaign against the Shah's regime in the 1970s. Termed as a Muslim revivalist by many thinkers, Shariati tried to formulate Islamic teachings into a systematic ideology to mobilize the downtrodden against the Shah's dictatorial regime.
He was often imprisoned, but did not give up his struggle.
The regime resorted to the carrot and stick policy to "buy" him and offered him top official positions, but Shariati was an uncompromising activist.
Being a modernist and a revivalist, he irked the Shah, the Marxists and some of the reactionary forces.
Many analysts believe he prepared the intellectual ground for the Islamic Revolution. His books were widely read by the university students and his lectures were taped and distributed secretly across Iran.
Shariati went to London in 1977 to continue his campaign against the regime, but was found dead in his apartment in London just a few days after he arrived there.
The suspicious death of Shariati and also that of Imam Khomeini's son, Mostafa Khomeini, sparked anti-regime demonstrations in Iran which shook the foundations of the Pahlavi regime, leading to the collapse of monarchy in February 1979.
In a letter to President Khatami, the minister requested him to ask the officials to make arrangements for the transfer of Shariati's remains to Iran.
The TEHRAN TIMES published the story of the minister's request to transfer Shariati's remains to Iran, but IRNA quoting the Public Relations Office of the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology, said, the ministry is not informed about the request.
IRNA did not even ask the TEHRAN TIMES' about the authenticity of the news. Now after more than two weeks, the minister himself confirms our story.
Shariati in his last will and testament had expressed his desire to be buried in his birthplace, Mazinan, Khorasan Province.
But his body was buried in Damascus in the shrine of Hazrat Zeinab (SA), the daughter of Imam Ali (As) because the Shah's regime did not allow the transfer of his body, fearing that his funerals may turn into an anti-regime occasion.
A Sorbonne-educated sociologist, Shariati launched an intellectual campaign against the Shah's regime in the 1970s. Termed as a Muslim revivalist by many thinkers, Shariati tried to formulate Islamic teachings into a systematic ideology to mobilize the downtrodden against the Shah's dictatorial regime.
He was often imprisoned, but did not give up his struggle.
The regime resorted to the carrot and stick policy to "buy" him and offered him top official positions, but Shariati was an uncompromising activist.
Being a modernist and a revivalist, he irked the Shah, the Marxists and some of the reactionary forces.
Many analysts believe he prepared the intellectual ground for the Islamic Revolution. His books were widely read by the university students and his lectures were taped and distributed secretly across Iran.
Shariati went to London in 1977 to continue his campaign against the regime, but was found dead in his apartment in London just a few days after he arrived there.
The suspicious death of Shariati and also that of Imam Khomeini's son, Mostafa Khomeini, sparked anti-regime demonstrations in Iran which shook the foundations of the Pahlavi regime, leading to the collapse of monarchy in February 1979.