[7] On the other hand, a more accurate depiction of their activities by its members as well as by Baha’is who been physically attacked by the group shows the violent nature of Hojjatieh.
[6] The organization was founded in 1953 in Tehran by a member of the Shiʿi clergy, Shaikh Mahmoud Halabi, with permission of Ayatollah Seyyed Hossein Borujerdi.
[4] In March to June 1955, the Ramadan period that year, a widespread systematic program against the Baháʼí was undertaken cooperatively by the government and the clergy.
[19] Halabi is said to have worked with SAVAK security agency under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, offering his full cooperation in fighting "other heathen forces, including the Communists."
[14] According to Muhammad Sahimi writing for the American PBS, after the fall of the Pahlavi Shah to Khomeini's supporters in February 1979, Halabi attempted to "maneuver his association into prominence, counting on its religious credentials".
[2] According to Ronen A. Cohen, a split within the Hojjatiyeh "led to the creation of the "Mahdiviyat movement" that was "terminated by the Iranian regime" and blamed for unsuccessful planned assassinations of Ali Razini, President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Mohammad Khatami and Ayatollah Yazdi.
[24] As a traditionalist Shia organization, Hojjatieh opposes not only the Baha'i, but also Sunniism[25] and Ruhollah Khomeini's heterodox concept of Velayat-e Faqih, which many Shi'a clergy viewed as heretical.
In fact, the unfavorable treatment of Hojjatiya Society by Khomeini's government and supporters was in part because of the group's "quiescent view that the mahdi's arrival could not be hastened.
He was distraught by violence and repeatedly warned his followers: "This is not the way, this is not our way"[29]On the other hand according to Yazdani, some sympathetic scholars and former members such as Sadri have tried to depict the Hojjatieh as a largely non-violent association.
This concept was the basis of Khomeini's statement that "those who believe that we should allow sins to increase until the 12th Imam reappears should modify and reconsider their position".
[4] In an article in Foreign Affairs, Jerry Guo claimed that the Hojjatieh society is "an underground messianic sect ... which hopes to quicken the coming of the apocalypse"[31] in order to hasten the return of the Mahdi, the prophesied future redeemer of Islam.
Another (hostile Israeli) source (Herzliya), also talks of the group's belief that "true Islamic government must await the return of the Hidden Imam" aka Mahdi, which it desires to "hasten".
[22] According to Muhammad Sahimi, writing for PBS, "association members believe that the return will happen only when the Islamic world is in chaos and sin prevails.
)[14] According to Michael M. J. Fischer, a local leader of Halabi's group in Yazd—Sayyid Reza Paknejad—boasted that "he had some 50 double agents who had infiltrated the Baha'is, kept tabs on them and harassed them when feasible.
"[15] Since the 1980s, the accusation has frequently been made that the real power in the Islamic Republic lies in hands of people who are secretly affiliated with Hojjatieh.
[1][34] Asia Times reports that Ahmad Tavassoli, a former chief of staff of Khomeini, claimed in 2005 that "the executive branch of the Iranian government as well as the crack troops of the Revolutionary Guards have been hijacked by the Hojjatieh,[4] which, he implied, now also controls Ahmadinejad."
[27] It is also reported that Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, who was to have been Ahmedinejad's First Vice President, may be a Hojjatieh member, but the source of this information is unclear.
[36] According to an article published by Ali Alfoneh and Reuel Marc Gerecht, the memoirs of Iranian foreign minister Mohammad-Javad Zarif strongly suggest a family upbringing with the Hojjatieh.
[37] According to information compiled from interviews made after the suspension of the association, beginning in the early 1970s the group organized itself to reflect "increasing complexity and division of labor".
The "most salient specialists" in Hojjatieh were known as "polemical activists (mobārez), public speakers (soḵanrān), instructors (modarres), and intelligence operatives (mo-ḥaqqeq)".
[39] According to Hojjatieh, its campaign was so effective that Bahais adopted "a more defensive and reserved posture ... avoiding open debates and confrontations".