In the aftermath of the Islamic revolution in Iran, suspected royalists were purged from the civil service and the army with justifications that employed the Quranic notions of fasad and fitna. The clerical leadership attempted to present this campaign as analogous to the actions of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and Ali ibn Abi Talib. Acting as the prayer leader of Tehran, Ayatollah Ali Montazeri commented that Muhammad was sent by God "to salvage [the inhabitants of Mecca] from corrupted moralities [mafasid akhlaq]".