Iranians yearn for a messiah. The ayatollahs are worried

lack the “hidden imam’s” blinding radiance. His beard is wispy. His favourite pastime is pumping iron. And despite a recruitment drive in the mosques he has admitted (on social media) that he has no followers. But it doesn’t take much to unnerve Iran’s ruling ayatollahs. As soon as the clerical novice from Nishapur in eastern Iran proclaimed himself the mahdi, they had him jailed as a “false messiah”. He could be charged with leading people astray, inciting public animosity and spreading corruption on earth. The last of those crimes carries the death penalty. Of all Iran’s many dissidents, few scare the theocrats more than messianic pretenders. Belief in the advent of the “twelfth imam”, who mainstream Shias believe went into hiding in the ninth century and will return at the end of time, helped them mobilise people to overthrow the shah in 1979. They are loth to see the same happen to themselves.