Political Theory in Iran
While Peter Beaumont's analysis is pretty opaque in the first two-thirds of the op-ed piece (your textbook might do a better job of explaining the politics of Shiism in Iran), the last part of this article is a good update.Unless, of course, Michael Slackman's analysis in the New York Times (see yesterday's entry) is right that the Iranian Revolutionary Guards have taken power behind the scenes.
Iranian Shiism's two faces: Underlying the battle for Iran's political future is a century-old debate within Shia Islam about the rightful place of the clergy
.. [T]he reality is that the core issues at the centre of the present debate in Iran today remain largely similar to those confronted by the secularists and clerics who led – or opposed – Iran's constitutional reform movement at the beginning of the 20th century...
The consequence of this debate was two broad schools of thought that have continued to influence Iranian Shia clerical politics, and the wider politics of Iran. Na'ini's interpretation of the Qur'an and the tradition of the Shia imamate would inspire both political thinkers and religious reformers – including figures who would attempt to synthesise Shia and Marxist thought. Nuri's arguments would ultimately inform Ayatollah Khomeini's concept of velayat i-faqih – the guardianship of Islamic jurists – that, as it developed, would be transformed into the concept of a general right to rule of the clerics, subordinating Iran's parliamentary democracy under a supreme leader...
Labels: concepts, constitution, Iran
posted by Ken Wedding @ 6:47 AM
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