Things are heating up in Qom.
The former “moderate” Iranian President Mohammad Khatami is being investigated for his “impure” naked handshake with two women in Italy.
The hardliners are threatening to take away his cleric status after he shook a woman’s impure naked hand like a “political prostitute.”
ADN Kronos reported on the latest developments:
Judicial authorities in the Iranian city of Qom have placed the country’s former president Mohammad Khatami under investigation for allegedly shaking hands with women – a taboo gesture for Islamists – during a visit to Italy in May.
The Tribunal of the Clergy in Qom, a holy city for Shiite Muslims, took the decision after several talabeh, or religious students pressed charges related to the incident against Khatami.
Video footage showing Khatami, himself a cleric, shaking hands with several women including two Italian grappa heiresses, has provoked controversy in Iran since it appeared on the Internet.
The footage was allegedly shot when the former president on 12 May visited Udine, in northeastern Italy to participate in a seminar on dialogue between cultures.
Khatami’s office has since said that the footage had either been edited to give a false impression, or else Khatami had shaken the hands of people in a crowd without realising they were female.
Under Iranian law, the impure handshake violates the sacred principles of Islam.
The Former Iranian President Khatami says the video was altered.
Pathetic.
Earlier the Iranian hardlines described the filthy act this way:
In a statement distributed to the press Wednesday, the clerics ask for Khatami’s conviction for shaking “impure hands, contradicting the sacred principles of Islam” and compare the former president, who ruled from 1997 until 2005, to a “political prostitute.”
Previously:
KHATAMI INDICTED!… Vows Tape Showing “Impure Touching” Was Altered!
