This year’s Muharram mourning ceremonies showed the degree of anger and hatred of Iran’s people toward the regime. It also revealed another important fact: a defection crisis in the Basij and the regime’s most loyal followers. This prompted senior regime officials to admit this fact and express their horror.
On August 1, during a meeting with leaders of Basij bases, IRGC commander Hossein Salami admitted the issue of defection of Basij forces and how the bases are empty, and said, “Concentrate on the bases! Promote the Islamic neighborhoods!… And activate them!”
While trying to motivate and uplift the morale of the forces, he said, “Things happen, and we pass the hardships and reach our comfort zone…”
Also, speakers in the Friday prayers constantly complain about low attendance at the prayers and regime-run mosques becoming empty.
On July 28, Ahmad Alamalhoda, Khamenei’s representative in Mashhad, lamented, “Our prayer stations are full of people, but there is no one at the pulpit.”
On July 23, … Zaker, a member of Majlis (parliament), said, “We have more than 75,000 mosques, with few thousand prayer houses and other sites for prayers to attend… go and see how many of these places are active? Today, more than 50,000 of our mosques are closed or semi-closed.”
Hosseini Hamdani, the Friday prayer leader in Karaj, attributed this lack of prosperity to the efforts of enemies and their influence on the regime’s forces. He said, “They are changing the mindset of loyal forces, with the same infiltrating method of which the supreme leader has warned about for many years and they try by propaganda to advertise against Islam.”
In a Telegram channel belonging to the defected forces of the regime, one user wrote, “I was invited to a conference in Babol on Tasu’a [the day before the Ashura ceremony]. All of them were veterans of the war with scars and injuries that have made their lives miserable.
“Occasionally, when they raise their voice, they complain and say we cannot realize when we came back [from the war] to see thefts, embezzlements and on top of that to be humiliated.”
He adds, “These people are filled with pain, and their voices are not listened to. They complain about this oppressive regime asking us do not mention the pain and dreadful life we are experiencing, and want us just to go along with the regime’s rituals. ”
This is not the only example. In every corner of the country, there are many victims with their families who feel they have lost their lives for nothing, and that thieves and looters are pocketing the result of others’ blood and suffering. And they look at these victims with contempt and if they do raise their voices, they will be punished and prosecuted.
These defected forces can be heard in a song by Kuwaitipour, a religious singer formerly close to Khamenei, who sarcastically told the supreme leader, “your time is over chief.”
The regime’s media widely reacted to this song, and some IRGC and Basij members asked for the punishment of Kuwaitipour. Also, the state-run Barterinha website wrote, ” Kuwaitipour was a symbol of the war era, and now his opposing voice has become like a deadly force against regime. He should be barred from leaving the country.”
This source admitted to this fact that the number of defected forces are increasing and wrote, “The new generation blame leader that he has betrayed them. Eventually, the path that people like Kuwaitipour chose will be followed by others.”