| On September 13, 2009, Mamousta Mullah Borhan Ali, who led the Friday prayers in the western city of Sanandaj, was assassinated in a hail of bullets. The assailants were identified as members of the PJAK (the Party for a Free Life in Kurdistan). |
Borhan Ali was born in 1953 into a devout clerical family in Kani Sanan village in Kordestan, near the Iran-Iraq border. Having finished his religious studies, he received the license to teach law and issue legal opinions (ijazat al-Ifta wa l-Tadris) in the Shafi’i school. During the Iraqi imposed war on Iran, his birthplace was repeatedly shelled by Iraqi Baath regime. Mamousta Borhan Ali who have been displaced from his home due to the Iraqi bombardment, eventually resided in Mariwan.
In 2001, he successfully defended his thesis and earned a master’s degree. He was a popular cleric in western Iran and a member at the Islamic Center of Western Iran’s Darul Ifta. He also taught Islamic sciences, Arabic, philosophy, logic, and literature in the high schools across the western city of Mariwan in Kordestan province.
On September 13, 2009, Mamousta Mullah Borhan Ali, who led the Friday prayers in the western city of Sanandaj, was assassinated in a hail of bullets. The assailants were identified as members of the PJAK (the Party for a Free Life in Kurdistan).