Memoirs of Akbar Hashemi - August 28, 2001 - Ongoing Process of Parliamentary Confidence Votes for Presidential Candidates

Meeting with the Officials of the Basij on Promoting Virtue and Preventing Vice and Listening to the Report from Brigadier General Seyyed Mohammad Hossein Zadeh Hejazi

Continuation of Meetings and Follow-ups by Masih Mohajeri Regarding Restrictions and Suspension of Press and Arrests of Political and Cultural Activists While He Himself Was the Social Advisor to the President, Once Again Meeting with Hashemi to Follow Up on the Suggestions Letter He Had Submitted to Ayatollah Khamenei, which Has Been Repeatedly Mentioned in Hashemi’s Daily Notes

Meeting with Akhavan Bagheri Benabi and Invitation to Hashemi for a Trip to Benab and Visit the Seminary of the City

Ongoing Process of Parliamentary Confidence Votes for Presidential Candidates

Full Text of the Daily Memo:

The officials of the Basij on Promoting Virtue and Preventing Vice from across the country came. Mr. [Seyyed Mohammad] Hejazi, the head of the Resistance Force [Basij], reported on the extensive activities of the Basij as a judicial authority and also as an advisor, as well as on the prevalence of immoral phenomena in society.

I delivered a detailed speech about the public duty of promoting virtue and preventing vice, as well as the government’s responsibilities, and introduced manifestations of moral, political, economic, and administrative corruption as part of the consequences of the enemies' conspiracies, comparing it to the opium war in China and moral corruption in Andalusia.

Mr. Masih Mohajeri, [the social advisor to the President and editor-in-chief of the Islamic Republic newspaper], came. He followed up on his previous suggestions and letter regarding actions to rectify the situation and mentioned a group of his like-minded associates who suggested that I should be the focal point of the actions.

In the afternoon, Akhavan [Bagheri] Benabi from Tabriz and Benab came and requested that during my trip to Tabriz, I should visit the newly founded seminary in Benab, and they expressed gratitude for the assistance I have provided to the seminary; it has about 400 students.

I listened to part of the parliament discussions regarding the confidence votes for the new cabinet. The situation in Palestine is heating up day by day, and the audacity of Israel is increasing. If things continue this way, the likelihood of war is not low.