Here is an article in the New York Review of Books entitled Divided Iran on the Eve by Malise Ruthven who is the author of Islam: A Very Short Introduction, Islam in the World: The Divine Supermarket (a study of Christian fundamentalism), A Fury for God: The Islamist Attack on America, and A Satanic Affair: Salman Rushdie and the Wrath of Islam. The article is, in part, a review of
Apocalyptic Islam and Iranian Shi'ism
by Abbas Amanat
Sexual Politics in Modern Iran
by Janet Afary
Guardians of the Revolution: Iran and the World in the Age of the Ayatollahs
by Ray Takeyh
Though not a very long article, it reveals some of the nature of the struggle for power in Iran and, in particular, the religious aspects. I hope it is not a big surprise that religious infighting, a bit like that in Iraq, is deeply involved. Please read on below the break to learn more.
Given what I read in the press, the idea that a parallel messianic prophecy to that in Christianity has anything to do with Iran was a bit of a shock. Here is a taste of that from the article:
During the past decade the Jamkaran mosque near Qom in Iran has become one of the most visited Shiite shrines, rivaling Karbala and Kufa in Iraq as pilgrim destinations. Here thousands of believers pray for intercessions to their messiah—the Mahdi or Twelfth Imam—whose return they believe to be imminent. Written petitions are placed in the "well of the Lord of the Age," from which many believe the imam will emerge to bring about universal justice and peace. Six months after his surprise election to the Iranian presidency in June 2005, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad predicted that this momentous eschatological event would occur within two years. With the turmoil in neighboring Iraq, where Shiites continue to be attacked by Sunni extremists, expectations for the return retain their appeal.
While the Shiite faithful (along with their Jewish and Christian counterparts) are still awaiting their messiah, the Islamic Republic is investing heavily in the Jamkaran shrine, spending more than half a billion dollars on enlargements that rival those of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, with vast interior courtyards and facilities—including offices, research centers, cultural departments, slaughterhouses, and soup kitchens—not to mention the farms where Jamkaran raises its meat. In a country where the religious establishment dominates state institutions, Jamkaran's burgeoning bureaucracy seems set to outstrip that of the longer- established shrine complexes of Mashhad and Qom.
All this and we now have the turmoil we read about. How does it all fit together?
While external observers perceive the struggle in Iran between conservatives and moderates in political terms, the Islamic Republic's conflicting ideological currents also find expression in the age-old rhetoric of the apocalypse, which originated in the region more than two thousand years ago. As Abbas Amanat explains in Apocalyptic Islam and Iranian Shi'ism, the Jamkaran makeover was part of the campaign orchestrated by conservative clerics in Qom against the government of former President Mohammad Khatami and his reformist allies.
Given that this is one author's perspective, it still raises a burning question in my mind. Are we again getting deeply embroiled in a struggle we don't really understand? Excuse me if I sound cynical, but in my 73 years on this planet I have found our understanding of other countries, their cultures and religions shallow at best. Having lived for a year or more in each of Israel, France, and Germany and for shorter periods in other countries, I have little respect for how how press feeds us propaganda about the world. I strongly recommend that everyone read this glimpse of Iran before getting too deeply into judging our foreign policy or its failings. At best I see caution on the part of our President as refreshing. Let us hope that the clamor dies down and some of us do our homework and then begin to inform the rest.