The day of Ashura was the eighth anniversary of destruction of Gonabadi dervishes worship-place (Hosseiniyeh) in the city of Qom.
An attack on a Gonabadi dervishes’ place of worship “Shariat Hosseiniye”, took place in Qom in February 2006. According to official reports 1,200 followers of the order were arrested during the incident and hundreds were wounded in clashes between the Sufis and vigilantes.

Hundreds of demonstrators, including women and children, were injured when police, and the Hojatieh and Fatemiyon groups (organized pro-government groups), broke up the protest, apparently using excessive force, and as many as 1200 are believed to have been arrested.

The Nematollahi Gonabadi Sufi, who are also known as dervishes or mystics, are Shi’a Muslims, who emphasise the spirituality of their faith. They had gathered to protest against an order, issued a few days earlier, to evacuate their place of worship– known as a Hosseiniye – in the city of Qom, by February 11. The Hosseiniye was located next to the home of the Sufi group’s principal preacher in Qom and was built three years before that, apparently legally and with the permission of the municipal authorities.

The dervishes had reported to have begun their protest on 9 February, with some members inside the place of worship, and others stationed outside, and they held a mourning and prayer ceremony on 10 February, the day of the Shi’a Muslim festival of Ashoura. This was peaceful but the number of protestors swelled as hundreds of Nematollahi Gonabadi dervishes travelled from other parts of the country to attend. The demonstrators included many woman and children offering white flowers and cake to local residents.

Security forces, including anti-riot police, took up positions around the centre, and at around 3:00 pm on 13 February set a deadline for the Sufi to evacuate it. Members of the Fatemiyon and Hojatieh groups, also reportedly surrounded the centre, shouting slogans such as “death to Sufis” and “Sufi-ism is a British plot”, and distributed leaflets alleging that Sufis are enemies of Islam. In response, some of the Sufi held up photographs of the late Ayatollah Khomeini, the founder of Iran’s Islamic Republic, and photographs of relatives who were killed fighting for their country in the Iran-Iraq war, to show that they were not opposing the government and to emphasise that they are an integral part of Iranian society.

The security forces then moved in at around 4:00 pm, supported by the Hojatieh and Fatemiyon groups, attacked the protestors outside the centre and stormed the building, using tear gas and explosives. They beat many protestors, some so badly that they required hospital treatment and, according to some reports, set light to the centre – eyewitnesses later described the Qom sky as polluted with tear gas, smoke and fire. Some 1200 protestors are reported to have been detained and taken away on buses to unknown locations.

With the Sufi place of worship cleared of protestors, the security forces moved in bulldozers and trucks in the early hours of 14 February and demolished this holy building and neighbouring houses, including the home of the main Sufi preacher; Great Shaikh, Hajj Seyd Ahmad Shariat.

Most of those arrested were reported to have been released then, though they were said to have been required to sign papers agreeing that that they will not attend any Sufi gatherings in Qom as a condition of their release. Some are reported to have been bussed to a sports stadium for interrogation, including some with serious injuries, and tortured or ill-treated. Families of these who remain detained – said to number about 200 –reportedly have had been unable to obtain information about their whereabouts, legal status, health or conditions.

On 15 February, Qom Governor Abbas Mohtaj confirmed to Jomhouri-ye Eslami newspaper that 1,000 people had been arrested and 200 injured but he accused the Sufi of participating in a foreign plot against the Iranian stat, claiming “The arrogant powers are exploiting every opportunity to create insecurity in our country and (the Sufi’s) links to foreign countries are evident.” Another Qom official acknowledged that police had used tear gas but claimed this was necessary to disperse the gathering and that some of the protestors were armed with knives and stones. The same official said that the Sufi’s Hosseiniye was demolished because it had been turned illegally from a residential building to a centre of worship!!

The protest and its repression by the authorities came amid concern about what appears to be increasing “demonization” of the Sufi Muslim group. In September, a religious jurist in Qom, Ayatollah Hossein Nouri-Hamedani, called for a crackdown on Sufi groups in Qom, labelling them a “danger to Islam”! After a few weeks had seen hostile articles published in the Jomhouri-ye Eslami newspaper and the Kayhan newspaper, warning of their popularity, and people’s tendency to follow them.

Sufi Muslim spirituality is tolerated under mainly Shi’ite Iran’s strict Islamic laws, although some senior religious figures occasionally call for a clampdown on its rites.

The governor-general of Qom accused the dervishes of being part of a foreign plot, but he did not explain this!

Some said the tensions with dervishes in Qom were due to the increasing popularity of Sufism there.

“Dervishes were becoming popular in Qom and the officials wanted to crackdown on them,” said an employee at one of Qom’s reformist seminaries, as also representatives of the dervishes deny the charges and say they are being targeted. due to an increasing popularity of Sufism.

Watch:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5oLujC2FsA

http://www.majzooban.org/fa/images/stories/videos/qom/qom.wmv