Leader of Iran's Dervishes Appeals for Calm After Deadly Clashes

(Bloomberg) -- A spiritual leader of Iran’s Sufi Muslim Dervishes appealed for calm in an effort to defuse tensions that claimed the lives of three policemen and two members of a civilian militia over the weekend.

In a letter published Wednesday via the Telegram messaging application, Nour Ali Tabandeh expressed regret over the deaths.

‘‘It’s possible that some in the order may violate Dervish guidelines and spiritual beliefs, or get emotional, lose control and act unacceptably,” he said. “They needed to be ministered to so they realize the error of their ways. Hopefully now, conflicts in our society will end.”

The clashes indicate that frustrations continue to fester in Iran weeks after anti-government protests spread through a string of cities, leaving about two dozen people dead in confrontations with security forces. Iran’s Gonabadi Dervishes follow the mystical Sufi interpretation of Islam, considered by some as antithetical to the the state’s religious rules. They say they have been subject to discrimination and that some of their mosques have been attacked.

Protesting Arrest

Dozens of Dervishes had gathered Monday outside a police station in northern Tehran to protest the arrest of a community member, the Shargh newspaper reported Wednesday. Clashes erupted after police began breaking up the demonstration, and the violence spread to Tabandeh’s neighborhood, it said.

Iranian police said protesters deliberately mowed down three policemen with a bus, and killed two members of the Basij civilian militia.

Following the nationwide protests, Iranian leaders have responded with an uncharacteristic sensitivity to citizens’ complaints, and on Wednesday, the interior minister sounded a similarly conciliatory note toward the Dervishes.

The Dervishes are “reasonable people” and “we shouldn’t hold their community responsible for the crimes of a limited few,” Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli told reporters on Wednesday, according to the Islamic Republic News Agency. At the same time, he said authorities will not deal lightly with those “who instill terror” and “break the law.”

Tabandeh reassured Dervishes that he was safe and said there was no need for them to travel to the capital in a show of solidarity as some had done.

“I am well and there’s no reason for concern, so do not come at this time to Tehran,” he wrote, counseling the country’s leaders to “try to clear society of the animosity that led to such painful clashes.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Ladane Nasseri in Dubai at lnasseri@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alaa Shahine at asalha@bloomberg.net, Amy Teibel, Kevin Costelloe

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