Islam’s bully-boys

IT WAS was the kind of incident many Iranians like to believe belongs to the past. When two respected intellectuals, Abdolkarim Soroush and Mohsen Kadivar, arrived in Khorramabad, a remote western town, at the end of August to speak to a student convention, they were blocked from leaving the airport by a gang of Islamic vigilantes. The gang, armed with knives and clubs, then broke up the convention, a gathering of the country's biggest pro-democracy group. This led to nearly a week of street clashes between the vigilantes and students, with townspeople joining in. A policeman died and 35 people were taken to hospital.