Jannati, has suggested that opposing the country’s supreme leader amounts to a denial of God.
The unusually strong comment appeared to be aimed at silencing internal dissent over the policies of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenehi.
Khamenehi was effectively immune from criticism until after the protests to the 2009 election results erupted and Kha-menehi placed himself unalterably behind President Ahmadi-nejad as the electoral victor and ordered security authorities to suppress the opposition.
The latest comments were made by Jannati, who heads the Guardian Council, which oversees the country’s elections and constitution.
Jannati was quoted by local media as telling a conference in Shiraz that the principle of velayat-e faqih—rule by a senior cleric—is one of “God’s commandments on Earth.”
He said, “Denying the guardianship of the supreme leader [Ayatollah Khamenehi] is the same as denying God.”
The BBC said the unusually strong demand for public loyalty to Iran’s supreme leader “is an attempt by the influential cleric to liken political dissent to religious apostasy—a crime which carries heavy punishment under Iran’s strict Islamic code.” For some reason, the BBC failed to specify that the punishment can be execution.