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Iranian cleric rules 3G phones un-Islamic

Grand Ayatollah Nasser Makarem Shirazi declared 3G phones un-Islamic as Iran's minister of communication information technology was summoned before a parliamentary committee on the issue.

Grand Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi (2nd R) casts his vote in Qom, 120 km (75 miles) south of Tehran, June 17, 2005. Iranians began voting for a new president on Friday, with wily pragmatist cleric Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani the front-runner in an unusually tight election denounced by the United States as unfair. REUTERS/Morteza Nikoubazl  MN/TZ - RTREOCM
Grand Ayatollah Nasser Makarem Shirazi (2nd R) casts his vote in Qom, 120 km (75 miles) south of Tehran, June 17, 2005. — REUTERS/Morteza Nikoubazl

An influential Iranian cleric said that high-speed internet on mobile phones was “un-Islamic” because devices necessary to prevent corruption are not yet available. At the same time, Iran’s minister of communication information technology, Mahmoud Vaezi, was summoned by a parliamentary committee to respond to questions about high-speed internet.

The issue of high-speed internet was raised on the website of Grand Ayatollah Nasser Makarem Shirazi, a source of emulation and a senior conservative cleric in the Islamic Republic, by a group who introduced themselves as a “group of cyber-activists.” All sources of emulation have sections on their websites where followers can ask for religious rulings on issues, a process called “estefta.” The question and response was published on the website Aug 25.

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