Iran's Fundamentalists Take Up Blogging

The craze for blogging in Iran has reached an unlikely set of adherents - the country's conservative Islamic clerics.

Following the example of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, ayatollahs, seminary students and theologians are receiving training in setting up their own weblogs.

Courses run by the newly-established office of religious weblog expansion have begun in the holy city of Qom, the traditional home of Iran's religious establishment. Students more used to poring over the theological nuances of the Qur'an will receive instruction on practical matters such as blog content and technical support. Some 300 clerics, religious students and writers have been signed up.