Iran Story: The Movie, The President, and the "Hidden Imam"

The "End Times" film about the Hidden Imam --- translation is by Reza Kahlili, a US-based critic of the Iranian regime

We begin this morning with a look at a curious, tangled story which has run for several weeks --- it includes a movie, President Ahmadinejad, and the "Hidden Imam", the 12th Imam of Shi'a who will return at some point.

This weekend Ali Asghar Sijani, the producer of a film about the Hidden Imam which has widely circulated on CD in Iran, declared that the epiphany of the 12th Imam is near. He added that the Supreme Leader led the movement welcoming the imminent return, and Ahmadinejad was the prophet Shoaib (a rough parallel in Christianity would be of John the Baptist paving the way for Jesus the Messiah). Sijani said that part of the $15 million cost of the film was funded by the Revolutionary Guards.

All this is controversial because the official leadership of the Islamic Republic has always taken a firm line against movements proclaiming the imminent return of the Hidden Imam, since this could distract from immediate matters on Earth. Ayatollah Khomeini ordered the dissolution of the Hojjatieh, a semi-secret organisation seeking to hasten the return of the 12th Imam, in 1983.

There have been persistent reports, however, not only of the continued influence of the Hojjatieh within the Iranian establishment, and the most provocative of those is that President Ahmadinejad is a supporter.

Thus, the Hidden Imam becomes a leading character in a most Earthly political and religious battle. Senior clerics and conservative Government critics have accused Ahmadinejad and his right-hand man, Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai, of a connection with the Sijani film. The movie, they claim, is being sent out in millions of copies to bolster not only the current Government but Rahim-Mashai's ambitions for the Presidency in 2013.

So far, both the Supreme Leader and the President have maintained silence on the controversy.