Review article: Islam and politics in Iranian Kurdistan at a time of revolution. The life of Ahmad Moftizadeh By Martin van Bruinessen

https://www.academia.edu/33342527/Review_article_Islam_and_politics_in_Iranian_Kurdistan_at_a_time_of_revolution_The_life_of_Ahmad_Moftizadeh?email_work_card=title For a brief period in 1979, when the Kurds had begun confronting Iran's new Islamic revolutionary regime and were voicing demands for autonomy and cultural rights, Ahmad Moftizadeh was one of the most powerful men in Iranian Kurdistan. He was the only Kurdish leader who shared the new regime's conviction that a just social and political order could be established on the basis of Islamic principles. The other Kurdish movements were firmly secular, even though many of their supporters were personally pious Muslims. In Mahabad, the secular Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDP-I) had taken control of the city and military garrison and enjoyed broad popular support. In Sanandaj, Moftizadeh's city, the radical left Komala had made an unsuccessful attempt to take over the military base, resulting in some of the earliest clashes with the regime. The urban middle classes threw their weight behind Moftizadeh, who belonged to a highly respected family of religious notables and who claimed that accommodation with the Islamic Republic rather than confrontation would enable him to deliver autonomy for Kurdistan. But the increasingly ...