.Iran's Turmoil Opens Rift Among Shiites Across Mideast
Unrest in Iran has opened a theological rift within the Shiite sect of Islam, undermining the Iranian regime's founding dogma that is shared by millions of fellow Shiites across the Middle East.
The concept, known as wilayat al-faqih -- literally "guardianship by a jurist" -- holds that, in an Islamic state, a divinely anointed scholar of Islamic law must exercise unquestioned authority over elected officials and the rest of the government.
Iran's current such incumbent, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, isn't just the top arbiter of the country's affairs. He also serves as the marjaa, or spiritual guide, for many Shiites outside Iran. Mr. Khamenei's image graces billboards in south Beirut, mosques in Shiite shantytowns of eastern Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, and the walls of Shiite lawmakers' offices in Kuwait.
But, in recent weeks, this moral authority -- and the wilayat al-faqih ideology that underpins it -- has been shaken by Ayatollah Khamenei's handling of Iran's disputed June 12 presidential elections.
The Shiites, a minority sect of Islam, split from majority Sunnis some 14 centuries ago. Iran has long been the world's leading Shiite power; 90% of its 66 million people follow the Shiite faith.
With his open support of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Ayatollah Khamenei has departed from his traditional role as a neutral arbiter and consensus-builder. While opposition candidates have alleged fraud during the vote, Ayatollah Khamenei has hailed Mr. Ahmadinejad's re-election as a "divine assessment" and ordered an end to protests.
By defying his call, presidential challengers Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi -- and hundreds of thousands of their supporters -- broke a crucial taboo. Some protesters in Tehran have chanted the previously unthinkable slogan "Death to Khamenei." Though much of Iran's ruling establishment remains solidly behind Ayatollah Khamenei, some senior clerics -- within Iran and abroad -- have since sided with the protest campaign.
"The infallible leader is all of a sudden making a lot of mistakes, and this creates a lot of doubt," says Ghazi Youssef, a Shiite member of parliament in Lebanon, the Arab country where Iran exercises tremendous influence through Hezbollah, the powerful pro-Iranian Shiite militia. "The majority of the Shiite clergy in Lebanon do not really believe in wilayat al-faqih. Now, their followers are starting to talk openly about this division."
This jolt from the turmoil in Iran is reverberating in Shiite communities throughout the Middle East, from the Levant to Iraq to Saudi Arabia and others. "For the Shiites in the Gulf, this situation is quite perplexing," says Sami al Faraj, head of the Kuwait Center for Strategic Studies. "The model of wilayat al-faqih has been fractured -- and that's happened because of events in Iran itself."
The theology of wilayat al-faqih was first formulated by the Iranian revolution's leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, in a 1970 book that he wrote as an exile in the Iraqi city of Najaf, the traditional center of Shiite learning. Ayatollah Khomeini's ideas were hotly disputed at the time by other Shiite luminaries in Najaf, such as the late Grand Ayatollah Abu al Qassim Khoei, who feared that placing supreme authority in the hands of one cleric would dangerously taint faith with politics, eventually undermining religion itself.
Such theological qualms are also shared by Iran's Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, who has fallen out with the regime since the late 1980s. Ayatollah Montazeri has recently been increasingly critical of Ayatollah Khamenei's policies, and of the reprisals against protesters. Thursday, he said in a faxed statement: "If Iranians cannot talk about their legitimate rights at peaceful gatherings and are instead suppressed, complexities will build up which could possibly uproot the foundations of the government, no matter how powerful."
The Shiite religious leader with the biggest influence, Najaf-based Grand Ayatollah Ali al Sistani -- who rivals Ayatollah Khamenei as a marjaa for Shiites around the world -- has kept quiet on the Iranian crisis. But a person familiar with the matter said this week that Ayatollah Sistani declined Mr. Ahmadinejad's request for a meeting during the Iranian president's visit to Iraq last year. At the time, Mr. Ahmadinejad said he had canceled a trip to Najaf because of a tight schedule.
A debate around Shiite clergy's role in affairs of the state has erupted in Lebanon, where a Hezbollah-led coalition lost parliamentary elections to a pro-Western bloc days before the Iranian presidential contest.
The Shiites are the biggest of Lebanon's several religious sects, and most of them vote for Hezbollah. Hezbollah's leader, Hassan Nasrallah, in a speech last week warned critics not to question the wilayat al-faqih ideology. "Wilayat al-faqih ... and such issues for us are a part of our religious belief. Insulting it is an insult to our religious belief," Mr. Nasrallah said.
Syed Ali Amine, the Shiite mufti -- or chief religious authority -- of Tyre and Mount Amel in the south of Lebanon, said Mr. Nasrallah is trying to stop the discussion of wilayat al-faqih because challenging this ideology would undermine Hezbollah's own power in Lebanon.
"Despite Nasrallah's statements, this challenge already happened in the streets of Tehran and several Iranian cities," Mr. Amine said, adding that "unfortunately it was a bloody challenge" because of the police attacks on protesters.
"This is the biggest proof that wilayat al-faqih is not part of the religious beliefs, but it is a power and political ideology," he said. "Those who protested in the streets of Tehran did not offend religion or the Shiite sect."
WSJ
The speech that keeps on giving
The concept, known as wilayat al-faqih -- literally "guardianship by a jurist" -- holds that, in an Islamic state, a divinely anointed scholar of Islamic law must exercise unquestioned authority over elected officials and the rest of the government.
Iran's current such incumbent, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, isn't just the top arbiter of the country's affairs. He also serves as the marjaa, or spiritual guide, for many Shiites outside Iran. Mr. Khamenei's image graces billboards in south Beirut, mosques in Shiite shantytowns of eastern Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, and the walls of Shiite lawmakers' offices in Kuwait.
But, in recent weeks, this moral authority -- and the wilayat al-faqih ideology that underpins it -- has been shaken by Ayatollah Khamenei's handling of Iran's disputed June 12 presidential elections.
The Shiites, a minority sect of Islam, split from majority Sunnis some 14 centuries ago. Iran has long been the world's leading Shiite power; 90% of its 66 million people follow the Shiite faith.
With his open support of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Ayatollah Khamenei has departed from his traditional role as a neutral arbiter and consensus-builder. While opposition candidates have alleged fraud during the vote, Ayatollah Khamenei has hailed Mr. Ahmadinejad's re-election as a "divine assessment" and ordered an end to protests.
By defying his call, presidential challengers Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi -- and hundreds of thousands of their supporters -- broke a crucial taboo. Some protesters in Tehran have chanted the previously unthinkable slogan "Death to Khamenei." Though much of Iran's ruling establishment remains solidly behind Ayatollah Khamenei, some senior clerics -- within Iran and abroad -- have since sided with the protest campaign.
"The infallible leader is all of a sudden making a lot of mistakes, and this creates a lot of doubt," says Ghazi Youssef, a Shiite member of parliament in Lebanon, the Arab country where Iran exercises tremendous influence through Hezbollah, the powerful pro-Iranian Shiite militia. "The majority of the Shiite clergy in Lebanon do not really believe in wilayat al-faqih. Now, their followers are starting to talk openly about this division."
This jolt from the turmoil in Iran is reverberating in Shiite communities throughout the Middle East, from the Levant to Iraq to Saudi Arabia and others. "For the Shiites in the Gulf, this situation is quite perplexing," says Sami al Faraj, head of the Kuwait Center for Strategic Studies. "The model of wilayat al-faqih has been fractured -- and that's happened because of events in Iran itself."
The theology of wilayat al-faqih was first formulated by the Iranian revolution's leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, in a 1970 book that he wrote as an exile in the Iraqi city of Najaf, the traditional center of Shiite learning. Ayatollah Khomeini's ideas were hotly disputed at the time by other Shiite luminaries in Najaf, such as the late Grand Ayatollah Abu al Qassim Khoei, who feared that placing supreme authority in the hands of one cleric would dangerously taint faith with politics, eventually undermining religion itself.
Such theological qualms are also shared by Iran's Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, who has fallen out with the regime since the late 1980s. Ayatollah Montazeri has recently been increasingly critical of Ayatollah Khamenei's policies, and of the reprisals against protesters. Thursday, he said in a faxed statement: "If Iranians cannot talk about their legitimate rights at peaceful gatherings and are instead suppressed, complexities will build up which could possibly uproot the foundations of the government, no matter how powerful."
The Shiite religious leader with the biggest influence, Najaf-based Grand Ayatollah Ali al Sistani -- who rivals Ayatollah Khamenei as a marjaa for Shiites around the world -- has kept quiet on the Iranian crisis. But a person familiar with the matter said this week that Ayatollah Sistani declined Mr. Ahmadinejad's request for a meeting during the Iranian president's visit to Iraq last year. At the time, Mr. Ahmadinejad said he had canceled a trip to Najaf because of a tight schedule.
A debate around Shiite clergy's role in affairs of the state has erupted in Lebanon, where a Hezbollah-led coalition lost parliamentary elections to a pro-Western bloc days before the Iranian presidential contest.
The Shiites are the biggest of Lebanon's several religious sects, and most of them vote for Hezbollah. Hezbollah's leader, Hassan Nasrallah, in a speech last week warned critics not to question the wilayat al-faqih ideology. "Wilayat al-faqih ... and such issues for us are a part of our religious belief. Insulting it is an insult to our religious belief," Mr. Nasrallah said.
Syed Ali Amine, the Shiite mufti -- or chief religious authority -- of Tyre and Mount Amel in the south of Lebanon, said Mr. Nasrallah is trying to stop the discussion of wilayat al-faqih because challenging this ideology would undermine Hezbollah's own power in Lebanon.
"Despite Nasrallah's statements, this challenge already happened in the streets of Tehran and several Iranian cities," Mr. Amine said, adding that "unfortunately it was a bloody challenge" because of the police attacks on protesters.
"This is the biggest proof that wilayat al-faqih is not part of the religious beliefs, but it is a power and political ideology," he said. "Those who protested in the streets of Tehran did not offend religion or the Shiite sect."
WSJ
The speech that keeps on giving
posted by madtom at 9:41 PM
1 Comments:
Even1 says... You & that damn speech. Where is Will when you need him?
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