PHOTO: Imam Ali, the subject of an article which led to this week’s banning of the newspaper Bahar

President Rouhani’s campaign commitment to ease censorship in Iran received a sharp rebuke on Monday when the Press Supervisory Board suspended the reformist newspaper Bahar for two weeks and ordered an investigation into its misconduct.

That misconduct was the publication of an article “Imam Ali: A Political Leader or a Religious Model?” It declared: “He [Ali] is not just the political ruler for a few days of passing power in this world. Ali, more than being the commander of the faithful, is the imam and the role model for humanity.”

That praise for Ali ran foul of the doctrine of velayat-e faqih, established by Ayatollah Khomeini, which declared that Shia clerics should have political as well as religious roles and established the position of the Supreme Leader in the Islamic Republic.

Even though Bahar’s editorial board has apologized, saying the article appeared because of “a technical error”, the regime piled on the pressure on Wednesday. The head of judiciary, Sadegh Larijani, asserted, “In the course of history, our ulama [scholars] have defended Islam and answered misconceptions, but it requires practical, scientific tools. The place for scientific discussion is not in the newspapers.”

Perhaps more significantly, Larijani laid down a warning over the errors of past Governments who did not keep watch over dangerous ideas:

Just as we remember during the reformist era [of President Khatami from 1997 to 2005], some sought to undermine the righteous material of the Islamic religion and religious values. On this basis, they sometimes introduced the matter of martyrdom with mockery and sometimes undermined the Imams. Now it seems that a political current seeks to continue that same work.

We will view anyone who seeks to create a current against the system with historical distortions and weakening of pillars of belief as a deviant political current.

Iran’s senior clerics joined the denuncation of “Bahar newspaper’s insult to the imamate and the velayat”. Grand Ayatollah Nasser Makarem Shirazi said the writer, Ali Asghar Gharavi, “must be pursued according to the law”:

All must know that beliefs are our red line….There is fire and sedition everywhere but security is established in Islamic Iran. If they take beliefs from us, this country and system will also be harmed.

Grand Ayatollah Nouri Hamedani linked the article to the threat of Saudi Arabai, the US, and Israel: “Wahabbism and infidel currents have stood against pure Shia culture with the oil and gas capital of some governments and the support of arrogant countries and the Zionist regime, and we must have the utmost awareness against them.”

The response of the Rouhani Government? The President has not uttered a word about censorship.

Instead, Culture Minister Ali Jannati said Bahar’s suspension is a “legitimate move”: “This article is falsifying the Islamic history, and it has also played a role in creating religious conflict in the country.”