Forqan
FORQAN
A secret religious group responsible for the deaths in early 1979 of a number of prominent figures in the Islamic Republic of Iran.
This group took its name from its journal Forqan (Sacred Book), published intermittently from 1977 until 1979. Describing itself as the "true followers" of the Qurʾan and Ali Shariʿati, Forqan called for an "Islam without mollahs" and denounced the regime of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini as a reactionary and clerical dictatorship that had betrayed the principles of egalitarian Islam. The group's leaders, former seminary students, also denounced liberals, such as Premier Mahdi Bazargan, as "bazaar intellectuals." In addition to being a radical and anticlerical group, Forqan was also highly antileftist, denouncing Marxism as an international atheistic conspiracy that was engaged in scheming to dominate the Muslim world. A series of executions in mid-1979 decimated the group.
Ervand Abrahamian