By: Reza Shafa
Mullahs do not hesitate in spending oil dollars to expand their ideology around the world. Not long ago there was a notion that they might be limited to Islamic world. But soon it was proven that it is not the case and the Islamic nations are not their only target. Recently, according to information received from inside sources, more than 2.8 billion dollars has been allocated to various entities specialized in pursuing and expanding Islamic fundamentalism. The bulk of these organizations, as it might be expected, are located in the holy city of Qom where most of high ranking mullahs live.
Following are a few of such entities having astronomical budgets:
– High Council on theological Studies, it receives a 33 billion 190 million Tomons (approximately 37 million dollars) per year for coordinating the Friday prayer leaders in the nation.
– Administration Office for Qom School of Theology (QST) which has an annual budget of 3 billion 800 million Tomons (approximately 3.4 million dollars). The center just publishes illustration brochures for Friday prayer leaders;
– Center to render services for QST with 35 billion Tomons (approximately 39 million dollars). The center runs some intelligence gathering training sessions as well as political and ideological briefings for new foreign recruits;
– Cultural and information Office for QST with 52 billion 120 million Tomons (approximately 57.8 million dollars) annual budget. This amount is only covering the cost for the head office in Qom and the total budget is not known;
– A front organization which is supposed to have promoted Islamic art, in practice it is active in promoting fundamentalism abroad. The organization is receiving more than 10 billion 400 million Tomons (approximately 1.2 million dollars);
– Culture and Communications Organization (CCO) with 35 billion 700 million Tomons (approximately 39 million dollars) just to finance its terrorist activities in the country. A separate budget is allocated in hard currency for CCO to run its show outside the country;
– International Community for Friendship among Religions spent 3 billion Tomons (approximately 3.4 million dollars) for holding two conferences in Iran. It actual budget is not known;
– International Community of Alah-Albeat receives 5 billion 400 million (approximately 5.6 million dollars) to train the new terrorist recruits from other countries. One can image what might the real annual intake be;
– International Center for Islamic Science gets 19 billion 800 million Tomons (approximately 21 million dollars) just to train non-Iranian recruits;
– Aside from what has been said above, 42 billion 350 million (approximately 46.7 million dollars) is pocketed by various officials in the mullahs’ regime under different pretexts. Something they have not been questioned where or how it was spent.
It is worthy of note that the 2.8 billion dollars mentioned above is just a portion of the budget allocated to those entities and organizations. Their budget is approved by the Office of the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and a foundation called Astan Quds Razavi.
What is more interesting is that Quds Force or the Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS), for their international operations, have unlimited and highly secret budgets which very few people in the mullahs’ hierarchy know about.
Budget allocated to fundamentalist organs in Qom
| Name of orgaination | Budget allocated in bn tomans | Notes |
| Supreme Council of Qom Seminary | 33.19 | |
| Qom Seminary Center for Services | 35 | |
| Qom Seminary Center for Management | 3.8 | |
| Qom Seminary Islamic Propagation Office | 52.12 | |
| Coordination Council for Islamic Propagation | 2.6 | |
| Arts Center for Islamic Propagation Organization | 10.4 | |
| Other Budgets allocated to Organization of Islamic Culture and Communications | 35.7 | A huge budget is allocated to the Organization of Islamic Culture and Communications for export of fundamentalism and terrorism. A major part of the budget is in dollars but this is other than that |
| World Assembly of Taqrib Al-Mazaheb | 3 | A huge budget in dollars is allocated to this assembly |
| World Assembly of Ahl Al-Beit | 5.4 | Spent on recruiting fundamentalist Shi’ites from Muslim countries on their visits to Iran. A large budget in dollars is allocated to this body |
| International Center for Islamic Science | 19.8 | This is for Islamic fundamentalist teachings of non-Iranian theologians |
| Education and Research Institute of Imam Khomeini | 3.3 | This belongs to Mesbah Yazdi and in addition to this budget which is endorsed by Khamenei and Ahmadinejad, other large sums are also paid to it. |
| Miscellaneous – Helping individuals with actual identities | 42.35 | It is probably spent on special agents of the regime operating abroad |
| Total | 254.66 | Budget approved |
255 bn tomans is a budget approved which is a small part of the money spent on spread of fundamentalism. In addition to this:
– A major part of the money spent by these organizations comes from Khamenei’s office and Astan-e Qods Razavi. Large sums of money spent by Khamenei’s representatives come from his office.
– The money spent by numerous agents of the Intelligence Ministry operating within fundamentalist groups in various countries and the Qods Force which is responsible for training and arming of fundamentalists come from a special budget which has nothing to do with the above allocation.
– The above organizations are only part of a larger number of fundamentalist organizations and there are more of them which are operating officially.
