Iran Feature: Criticising President Ahmadinejad...with 11th-Century Poetry

Editor's Note: Since this feature was posted, Tabnak has removed the 11th-century poem by Nasir Khusraw from its article on Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

These were the lines that were used and that are now gone:

عیسی به رهی دید یکی کشته فتاده
حیران شده بگرفت به دندان سرانگشت<
گفتا که کرا کشتی تا کشته شدی زار
تا باز که او را بکشد آنکه ترا کشت

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Poet Nasir KhusrawTabnak, close to Presidential candidate and former IRGC chief commander Mohsen Rezaei, tries a different line of attack against Mahmoud Ahmadinejad this morning --- it uses the writing of the 11th-century Persian poet Nasir Khusraw to warn the President that he will receive his comeuppance.

The site writes about the rising tide of criticism of Ahmadinejad, including from his former supporters. It then invokes the poem, a kind of Shi'a karma, in which Jesus sees a dead man and pronounces: "He said that whoever kills will be cruelly killed in turn."

The article then moves from poetry to comments, such as those of those of Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami at Tehran Friday Prayers: "Whoever wants to be president of his country should be at the forefront of ethics."

Tabnak recalls that a week earlier Ayatollah Jannati used the Prayer to criticise Ahmadinejad -- albeit without naming him -- for his funeral message after the death of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, which Ahmadinejad said Chavez would return with Jesus as an advent of the appearance of the Hidden Imam:

I wish the person who wanted to say something would have studied four days, would have gone to the seminary so he would have learned four words, and would have differentiated between rational and traditional issues.

Then there are the politicians who have "spoken out openly" against Ahmadinejad's behavior, such as leading MP Ahmad Tavakoli. Alef, close to Tavakoli, warned in February that Ahmadinejad might try and halt June's Presidential election if his preferred candidate, right-hand man Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai, was not allowed to run.

Tabnak also notes that, in an open letter last year, Tavakoli accused Ahmadinejad of not following the Supreme Leader's directives and showing "open disregard" for Ayatollah Khamenei when he said that the executive branch was the most important part of government in Iran.