The End of the Era of the Superstitious Master
The Beginning of the Fall
The end of the era of the superstitious master Raefipour played a role in the parliamentary elections as a political leader and the axis of an emerging movement called the Iran Morning Front, and he openly challenged Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf. The judiciary did not announce whether this indictment was due to Raefipour and his team’s revelations against Ghalibaf, but the comments of known Raefipour team users under Mehdi Keshtdar’s tweet, the CEO of Mizan News Agency, show that at least the supporters of this controversial principlist speaker believe the case is due to those issues and revelations.
The issue of the Masaf Institute, which is currently under judicial investigation, is related to financial matters and money laundering accusations. Of course, Masaf’s financial issues were also raised amid these internal principlist conflicts.
Documents related to suspicious transfers from the accounts of the Masaf Institute and the family of Ali Akbar Raefipour were published by Jalil Mohabi, an employee of the Parliament’s Research Center and a close associate of Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf.
Mohabi played a significant role in defending the Speaker of the Parliament and responding to the accusations of the Masaf team during the conflicts between the supporters of Raefipour and Ghalibaf.
All these pressures and psychological warfare did not work, and Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf became the Speaker of the Twelfth Parliament.
From that time, it was heard that the free fall of the master had begun.
Raefipour’s role in the presidential elections, his support for Jalili, and putting Masaf’s capacity behind the hardliner candidate put him more under the scrutiny of Ghalibaf’s supporters. On the other hand, Ghalibaf’s supporters believe that Raefipour and the Masaf team’s smear campaigns against Ghalibaf during the parliamentary elections were one of the reasons for the drop in his votes during the presidential elections.
Now the presidential elections have also ended, and although it has not been officially announced, Raefipour probably has to answer for those revelations and his words.
The Wave of Dissolution
The presidential elections in the principlist camp are not yet over. They are still looking for someone to blame for their defeat, and the results of both election rounds have disrupted all their analyses.
The most pessimistic election analyses indicated that with a 40% or less participation rate, Jalili would win. If it went above 50%, Ghalibaf’s chances would be higher, and if it reached 60% and above, it would send Pezeshkian to the presidency.
However, a 40% participation in the first round sent Pezeshkian and Jalili to the second round, and with a 50% participation, Pezeshkian won.
Ghalibaf’s faction blames Raefipour for this defeat for various reasons.
Firstly, because his name was mentioned as one of the reasons Jalili did not withdraw.
Secondly, because his cyber team once again attacked Ghalibaf during the presidential elections. Despite all this, Ghalibaf, who had already become the Speaker of the Parliament, remained in his position, and Saeed Jalili did not become president.
Shortly after the election results were announced, a wave of Masaf’s dissolution was launched on social media.
Once again, the issue of the financial documents of Raefipour’s institute, his background, and expenses became a hot topic on social media.
The involvement of the Mashregh website, affiliated with a specific institution, in this political dispute was interpreted as showing that at least part of the power structure is at odds with these organizational actions.
With the formalization of Ali Akbar Raefipour’s judicial case and the continuation of investigations into the potential violations of the Masaf Institute, dealing with this organization has entered a new phase.
Masaf’s Financial Issues
Raefipour began his activities in the field of Mahdism, fighting against false mysticism, Freemasonry, and Zionism, but ultimately reached politics.
The name of the Masaf Institute is actually an abbreviation for Fighting Zionism, Humanism, and Freemasonry.
The establishment of a school by Masaf, the invention of weapons, ventilators, medical equipment, and the existence of various units like architecture and urban planning, economics, candy and honey, children’s unit, family unit, food security, always raised the question of where the funding for this organization comes from.
The expenses for cyber activities and their related matters have also been separately questioned.
This institute claims that its expenses are funded by public donations and offerings.
Considering the documents published by Ghalibaf’s team, the accusation of money laundering is currently being discussed in public opinion, not in the judicial courts, which Raefipour responded to by releasing a video.
Soleimani’s Criticisms
Various factions of the principlist spectrum have ideological differences with the Masaf movement and Raefipour and openly express their criticisms of him.
Yesterday, after the issuance of an indictment for Raefipour was discussed, a video of comments by Abbas Soleimani, a principlist political activist and a traditional supporter of Ghalibaf, was published on social media.
In this interview, Soleimani said about the defeat of the principlists in the elections that they turned some unreliable people into references, and those who were against the list came and gave a list and performed worse.
In party rules, we must act according to the party’s charter. Sitting cross-legged in front of a young person whose past and present we do not know and swearing is not part of the party system.
We suffered serious damage in the last parliamentary elections in this regard, and this damage fully manifested itself in this presidential election.
Soleimani had previously defended Ghalibaf in the parliamentary elections when the issue of Ghalibaf’s children’s trips abroad and other controversies against the Speaker of the Parliament were raised, and he was attacked by hardliners and Masaf.
Before the helicopter carrying the president crashed and early elections were discussed, Soleimani said about the impact of the smears against Ghalibaf and removing him from the Speakership that it should be noted that the person resorting to smear tactics knows he cannot take the Speakership position. On the other hand, such a person has no dignity and will not be accepted, even by those who supported him in the smears, as the Speaker of the Parliament.
Because these individuals also want to have dignity, and at the same time, one of the factors that enhances the dignity of the Parliament is the Speakership.
Genealogy of Reactions
The mentions on Mehdi Keshtdar’s post on X Twitter clearly showed the intellectual separation of Twitter users and their relation to the Raefipour movement.
We can divide the responders into three categories.
The first category were Raefipour’s supporters, who, by reposting Ejei’s comments about not tarnishing the reputation of the accused, were sarcastic towards the CEO of the judiciary’s news agency.
Another part of this group were those supporters who approached the issue with jokes and laughter.
Another section of the supporter group were those who compared the prolonged duration of other cases with the quick handling of Raefipour’s case by the judiciary.
The second category were Ghalibaf’s supporters, who thanked the judiciary and announced that they would wait for the announcement of the judicial review results.
The third category were the indifferent and skeptics who believed nothing would happen. Considering the connection of this issue with the accusations that this movement and its leader made against Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, we tried to contact the Speaker of the Parliament’s close associates and advisors, who either did not respond to calls or, after being informed of the topic and questions, did not provide an answer to HamMihan.
The Source of Money Must Be Clarified
Mansour Haqiqi Pur, a former parliament member, said about this issue, ‘I am not aware of the subject related to the dissemination of false information, so I will not comment on it. A justice-based judiciary exists in the Islamic Republic of Iran and will address these issues and accusations.’
However, the financial sources of this institute must be clarified. Where do their financial resources come from, and how can they incur these expenses? We have a Hosseiniyah and cannot afford to pay a salary of 3 to 4 million for an imam for it.
The financial resource providers certainly have interests.
Therefore, the source of the money must be identified, just as the source of the money spent by the Stability Front and Mr. Jalili during the presidential elections and the costs of buses for transporting people must be determined.
