BEIRUT -- "For God's sake, tell me, is Islam a religion of violence or not?" begged a reader recently in the question-and-answer column of Musharekat, mouthpiece of the reformist forces headed by Iranian President Mohammad Khatami's brother Mohammad-Reza.
Most Iranian clergymen, the reader said, seemed to support the opinions of Ayatollah Taqi Mesbah-Yazdi, a leading ideologue of the rightwing conservative establishment, who says that, to the devout Muslim, divine commands authorizing violence in defense of the faith overrule the laws of the state.
Not so, responded Musharekat. But its defense of the clergy did not spare it the conservatives' wrath. A few days later, it was shut down.