The Clergy and the Modern Middle East: Shi'i Political Activism in Iran, Iraq and Lebanon PDF
Preview The Clergy and the Modern Middle East: Shi'i Political Activism in Iran, Iraq and Lebanon
The Clergy and the Modern Middle East ii The Clergy and the Modern Middle East Shi’i Political Activism in Iran, Iraq and Lebanon Mohammad R. Kalantari I.B. TAURIS Bloomsbury Publishing Plc 50 Bedford Square, London, WC1B 3DP, UK 1385 Broadway, New York, NY 10018, USA 29 Earlsfort Terrace, Dublin 2, Ireland BLOOMSBURY, I.B. TAURIS and the I.B. Tauris logo are trademarks of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc First published in Great Britain 2022 Copyright © Mohammad R. Kalantari, 2022 Mohammad R. Kalantari has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as Author of this work. Series design by Adriana Brioso Cover image © Jasmin Merdan/Getty Images All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers. Bloomsbury Publishing Plc does not have any control over, or responsibility for, any third-party websites referred to or in this book. All internet addresses given in this book were correct at the time of going to press. The author and publisher regret any inconvenience caused if addresses have changed or sites have ceased to exist, but can accept no responsibility for any such changes. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. ISBN: HB: 978-1-8386-0556-8 ePDF: 978-1-8386-0559-9 eBook: 978-1-8386-0558-2 Typeset by Deanta Global Publishing Services, Chennai, India To find out more about our authors and books visit www .bloomsbury .com and sign up for our newsletters. To my parents, Sharbanoo and Mohammad Ali for teaching me how to love challenges. vi Content List of figures viii Preface ix 1 Introduction 1 2 Shiʿi clerical authority: Structures and functions 17 3 Shiʿi clergy political activism: A modern history 29 4 Iran 1979: The birth of the mujtahid statesmen 57 5 Iraq 2003: The pragmatic Shiʿi mujtahids 85 6 Lebanon 2006: The networked Shiʿi mujtahids 113 7 The power of Shiʿi clergy’s solidarity and the future of the Middle East 151 Glossary 165 Notes 167 Bibliography 211 Index 231 Figures 1.1 The context for Shiʿi clerical elites political activism and quietism 11 4.1 Political activism of mujtahids in modern Iran 84 5.1 Political activism of mujtahids in modern Iraq 109 6.1 Political activism of mujtahids in modern Lebanon 149 Preface I was doing a PhD in Business at Lancaster University when demonstrations broke out in Iran in 2009 to protest the outcome of the presidential election being held that year. Like many of my peers who had been raised in conservative Iranian families, I would have been expected to remain committed to the political orientation of the Islamic Republic and to seek advice about these events from the Ayatollahs and their families in Iran and throughout the Shiʿi world with whom, through my family, I had previously been in contact. In my religious practice, I was considered to be a follower of Grand Ayatollah Sistani in Iraq. Perhaps it was because of this that many of my friends approached me to ask why the Ayatollah was not supporting the demonstrators in the streets of Tehran who, eventually, began to chant against Grand Ayatollah Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran. At that time, Sistani had become popular in Iran. But I had been a follower well before 2009, at a time when not many ordinary Iranians knew him. I vividly remember when, as a devout young follower of the Ayatollah in 1998, my father surprised me with a trip to Sistani’s house in Najaf, Iraq. In order that we would not attract suspicion, he asked my younger brother and I to put on the Arab garments, dishdasha, which we had bought in Najaf one afternoon. We approached the Ayatollah’s house, only yards away from the holy shrine of Imam Ali, knocked at the door and asked the houseboy if the Ayatollah would meet with us. My father had some money – ‘religious alms’ paid by a few Iranian followers of Ayatollah Sistani – and wanted to pass it to him and get receipts for it. I still can feel how my heart was beating during this meeting of less than 5 minutes I had with him. It is a memory that I will cherish for the rest of my life. Almost a decade later, the number of Ayatollah Sistani’s followers in Iran has grown exponentially; and, in post-Saddam Iraq, he is widely considered to be an important and influential figure. A large number of his followers admired his so-called quietest approach to politics, which represented a contrast to his ‘activist’ colleagues in Iran. Nevertheless, the 2009 events in Iran was a watershed moment for me in my understanding of the political posture of the Ayatollah and, for that matter, of the Shiʿi clerical milieu. It soon became a personal quest. Is there any strategic difference between the so-called activist and ‘quietist’ camps within the Shiʿi clergy? When it comes to politics and political participation, is there any doctrinal differences between, say Ayatollah Sistani and Ayatollah Khamenei? In quest of an answer to this question, I gave up my PhD research at the business school at Lancaster, against the will of my Bazaari family, in order to visit libraries across the UK. I started reading about the Shiʿi clerical elites, their history and politics in the Middle East. In this, I was more interested in exploring what outsiders have to say about them. Since the 1950s, dozens of academics and observers, working from different perspectives and across many disciplines, have tried to explain the
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