FEDA˒IYAN-E ISLAM

Feda˒iyan-e Islam was a Shi˓ite fundamentalist group that was founded in Iran in 1945 by Sayyed Mujtaba Mir Lauhi (known as Navvab-e Safavi), a man then in his early twenties, with little or no formal Islamic education. Unsettled by the writings of the controversial essayist and historian Ahmad Kasravi, Safavi masterminded his assassination in March 1946. This was followed by the assassination in November 1949 of ˓Abd al-Husayn Hazhir, the influential minister of court, and in March 1951 of prime minister Hajji ˓Ali Razmara, who opposed the nationalization of the British-owned oil industry. The Feda˒iyan had enlisted the support of the activist ayatollah Abu 'l-Qasem Kashani, but failed to win over the highest-ranking religious authority in the country, Grand Ayatollah Borujerdi.

The Feda˒iyan's relations with Kashani became strained due to the latter's support for prime minister Mohammad Mosaddeq, who assumed power in late April 1951. Refusing to give in to the Feda˒iyan's demands for the establishment of shari˓a regulations, Mosaddeq detained Safavi in June 1951. In February 1952, the Feda˒iyan's attempted assassination of Mosaddeq's key colleague, Husayn Fatimi, left Fatimi severely injured. By mid-1952 the Feda˒iyan had resumed its ties with Kashani, who had begun to oppose Mosaddeq. In the months preceding the coup of August 1953, which toppled Mosaddeq, the Feda˒iyan's antigovernment position led the American and British secret services to count on the group to help oust Mosaddeq. In November 1954 the group's failed attempt on the life of prime minister Husayn ˓Ala resulted in the execution of Safavi and three of his colleagues. Despite this crippling blow, affiliates of the group were able to assassinate another prime minister, Hasan ˓Ali Mansur, in January 1965.

Based mainly in Tehran, the Feda˒iyan largely consisted of young men of limited education, lower class origins, and traditional occupations. The group appealed to the resentments of the lower and underclass urban elements; this, together with its challenge to the ruling elite, enabled it to acquire a significance disproportionate to its size. Ideologically resembling the al-Ikhwan al-Muslimun (Muslim Brotherhood) in Egypt, the Feda˒iyan espoused a literal reading of Islamic writings and laws; they abhorred what they considered to be decadence resulting from irreligion; they feared modernity, secularism, communism, and civic-nationalism, and were bent on eliminating those whom they regarded as obstacles in their path or stooges of foreigners. Their primary goal was to establish the shari˓a, giving a crucial sociopolitical role to clerics. Following the revolution of 1978 and 1979, many of the beliefs that had animated the Feda˒iyan became part of the ruling ideology but gradually came to be identified with the proclivities of the Iranian regime's traditionalist and right-wing factions.

See alsoFundamentalism ; Political Islam .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Kazemi, Farhad. "The Fada˒iyan-e Islam: Fanaticism, Politics and Terror." In From Nationalism to Revolutionary Islam. Edited by Said Amir Arjomand. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1984.

Fakhreddin Azimi