Iranian officials admit that people hate the ruling mullahs

 By Mahin Horri

The people of Iran are fed up with four decades of tyrannical rule by the mullahs. And Iranian officials are openly expressing their fear of the public outrage toward the mullahs.

On Friday, in a meeting with regime loyalists, Ahmad Khatami, a senior regime official and member of the Guardian Council, acknowledged that the people hate the mullahs by saying, “Some are trying to separate religion and politics.”

In the same session, Khatami, whose remarks were published by official IRNA news agency, expressed concern about the activities of the supporters of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK). Khatami warned the mullahs and regime loyalists to avoid any actions that would “encourage the MEK.”

Khatami is not the only official who has been warning about the declining reputation of the mullahs. On January 4, in comments to the state-run Hamdeli newspaper, Mohammad Taghi Fazel Meibodi, a member of the Assembly of Teachers in Qom Seminary, said, “The people are blaming clerics for the current situation.”

He also said, “Unfortunately, the people have a bad view toward clerics. Many student clerics who go to the market to buy goods or to go to stores try to do so without wearing clerical robes so that they are not insulted.”

Meibodi added, “Today, clerics wear their religious attire less in public appearances to avoid being uncomfortable. If a cleric sits in a taxi, people will insult him. People blame the clerics for high prices and all problems.”

In another article on January 4, Hamdeli warned about the consequences of luxurious life of the mullahs. “The attention of clerics to material life, the attraction of government and political positions, the tendency of clerics of luxurious life and occupying important positions has resulted in clerics seeking work opportunities in institutions and organizations in industries, oil, sports, recreation, and even the meat market.”

Hamdeli warned, “This situation reflects itself in religious sites becoming less and less popular.”

Mohammad Reza Zaeri, another mullah, wrote on Instagram on January 7, “In the past 10 days, people have spitted on me, I’ve been insulted, and right now, my Snap [Iranian ride-sharing app] driver made me get off the car in the middle of the street! The people who should understand and know, are they even aware of this level of hatred that we’ve been warning about for years? No. Those who come and go with their personal drivers and bodyguards aren’t held accountable. The driver emphasized three times that ‘I don’t give rides to mullahs.’”

These officials and media are barely scratching the surface with their remarks. The hatred of the people toward the ruling mullahs is so intense that the videos of people confronting mullahs have become a common scene on social media.

In one video that has been widely distributed on social media, one person tells a mullah, “You are all filthy… this dog is cleaner than [regime supreme leader Ali] Khamenei.”

Other manifestations of this hatred are the torching of the posters and statues of regime leaders and icons such as the now-dead terrorist commander Qassem Soleimani.

The flipside of the coin of the people’s hatred of the mullahs’ regime is their gravitation toward the Iranian Resistance and the Resistance Units. Every day, people from all ages and walks of life are becoming attracted to the cause of the Iranian Resistance, which has been to overthrow the mullahs’ regime and to replace it with a democratic state.

Therefore, while the remarks made by Khatami and Meibodi, and Zaeri are notable, they are just the tip of the iceberg. The people of Iran will make their feelings toward the mullahs’ regime very clear in their protests and uprisings.

This article was first published by english.mojahedin