Kazem Seddiqi
20th and 21st-century Iranian cleric
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Kazem Rajabi Seddiqi (Persian: کاظم رجبی 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 on 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]
Kazem Seddighi | |
|---|---|
کاظم صدیقی | |
| |
| Tehran's Ephemeral Friday Prayer Imam | |
| In office 1 August 2009 – 3 August 2025 | |
| Appointed by | Ali Khamenei |
| Personal details | |
| Born | March 4, 1951 |
| Academic background | |
| Influences | Mohammad-Taqi Bahjat Foumani, Ruhollah Khomeini, Hussein-Ali Montazeri, Abdollah Javadi-Amoli, Muhammad Taqi Misbah Yazdi |
| Academic work | |
Main interests | Fiqh, Kalam and philosophy |
Notable ideas | Political Spiritualism |
| Influenced | Hamed Kashanian, Hamed Hosseinain |
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.[citation needed]
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]
Education
Kazem Seddiqi went to Qom in 1963, at the same time as Seyyed Ruhollah Khomeini's movement, and began his religious education at the Haqqani Seminary. He completed his introductory courses with professors such as Khazali, Jannati, Hassanzadeh Amoli, Haeri Tehrani, Shahid Mofateh, Mohammadi Gilani, and Haram Panahi, and completed his advanced courses with Ahmadi Miyanji, Meshkini, and Mohammadi Gilani. This Shiite cleric took courses related to "outside jurisprudence" and principles from professors such as Morteza Haeri Yazdi, Shabbiri Zanjani, and Vahid Khorasani, and studied Islamic philosophy with Javadi Amoli, Misbah Yazdi, and Ansari Shirazi, and learned Western philosophy from Beheshti and Ahmadi.[7]
