Seyed Mohammad-Ali Abtahi (Persian: محمدعلی ابطحی; born January 28, 1960, in Mashhad)[1] is an Iranian theologian, scholar, pro-democracy activist and chairman of the Institute for Interreligious Dialogue.

His father being from Mashhad and his mother being from Behshahr (Abdolkarim Hashemi Nejad's sister), he pursued his educations in religious studies as a family tradition and in 1976 he accomplished Dars-Kharij-Fiqh.

After a two-year-old residence in Qom dedicated to his studies, he became the chief executive director of Boushehr and Shiraz Broadcasting.

In the 1997 presidential election, he left Beirut and joining Seyyed Mohammad Khatami's campaign, he became the head of the president's office on July 10, 1997.

Together with his wife, Fahimeh Mousavi Nejad, he established the Religions’ Dialogue NGO and has given speeches at dozens of international inter-religion conferences.

A few years after he was released, he had an interview with Hossein Dehbashi in Khesht-e-Kham in which Abtahi explained his reasons for what he had said on the trial session.

After his release, Zahra Rahnoord, Mirhossein Mousavi, Seyed Mohammad Khatami, Mehdi Karroubi and Hassan Khomeini visited him at his home.

On June 20, 2010, after a memorial for Mirza Javad Tehrani, some plainclothesmen attacked him and beat him severely.“I passed there and turned into the side boulevard; I was chased by some motorcycle riders when suddenly the driver of a Pride took his colt out and blocked my way.

Suddenly I noticed another man who had entered my car through the broken window and when I tried to push him out, he sprayed tear gas directly into my eyes.

In a rare event, from November 2003 to June 13, 2009, he wrote in the “Webnevesht” blog series without even a single interval, for six unremitting years.

Dozens of his articles have been published in Iranian and foreign newspapers, and many of his interviews with international broadcasts have been released so far.