ISLAM IN THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC: THE REGIME'S STRUGGLE TO MAINTAIN ITS MONOPOLY OVER RELIGIOUS LIFE

Number 13 ● 19 July 2007

On January 31, 2007, Shi'ites throughout the world marked the martyrdom of the third Imam, Hossein, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, at the battle of Karbala in the year 680. This year, however, in the Islamic Republic of Iran, government oversaw this quintessentially Shi'ite Islamic observance - known as 'Ashura - with unprecedented suspicion.

The authorities ordered strict limitations on the observances. The ceremonies were not to extend beyond midnight; pictures of the Shi'ite Imams and the use of musical instruments not authorized by the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance were forbidden. The head of the Islamic Information Organization, Hojjat ul-Islam Mahdi Khamoushi, explained that these restrictions were intended to prevent the superstitions and innovations which were forbidden in Islam. More ominously, nearly 8,000 members of the Iranian security forces were deployed throughout the capital city of Teheran to keep a close watch on the proceedings.

Viewed in context, these new restrictions on Islamic observances are part of a broader campaign by the regime to increase supervision of religious expression. Over the past few months, the state has suppressed Sufi orders and has imposed limits on religious figures who contest the "official" approach. In February 2006, internal security forces in the city of Qom fought with members of the Ne'matollahi Gonabadi Sufi order, after the Sufis defied an order to evacuate their religious school, Hosseiniya Darvish Ne'matollah. During several days of rioting, hundreds of Sufis were wounded. Approximately fifty members of the Sufi order were arrested and charged with propagating perverse beliefs. Following the event, Ayatollah Nuri Hamadani, an ultra-conservative cleric from Qom, remarked that following the Islamic Revolution there was no longer a need for Sufi orders in Iran. On the other hand, Ayatollah Khomeini's appointed successor, Ayatollah Hossein 'Ali Montazeri, who was stripped of his authority shortly before Khomeini's death, has maintained that oppression of Sufi orders was forbidden by Islamic law.

Sufis were also arrested in other Iranian cities as part of an increasing government crackdown. In May 2006, more than fifty Sufis and their lawyers were sentenced to various prison terms. In October 2006 a Sufi leader in Gonabad was exiled from the city in order to prevent a gathering of his followers during Eid ul-Fitr, which marks the end of the Ramadan fast.

In previous government suppression of religious leaders, in September 2006, Ayatollah Hossein Kazemeyni Boroujerdi was arrested in Tehran following a violent confrontation between security forces and his supporters while they tried to prevent his detention. Ayatollah Boroujerdi is the son of Ayatollah Hossein Boroujerdi, the leading "source of imitation" (marja'-e taqlid) in Iran until his death in 1961. His son has supported the separation of church and state and was considered an energetic opponent of the current regime. Since 1994, Boroujerdi has been arrested on several occasions and has often been summoned to appear in front of the special court for clerics that was established in 1987. During the clashes, his supporters raised the slogan, "freedom of religion is our absolute right." Prior his arrest, Boroujerdi had stated in an interviewthat Iranian citizens are tired of politicized religion and are interested in returning to traditional religion.

The regime has recently attempted to limit expressions of popular Islam and Shi'ite messianism as well. These forms of religion have increased in popularity during the past year and include calls for the reinstatement of the twelfth Imam (the Mahdi), whom mainstream Shi'ites believe went into occultation in the year 874. In December 2006, Iranian media reported that two men claiming to be the thirteenth and fourteenth Imams were arrested in Qom with approximately fifty of their followers. The two men had preached against the state and its clerical authorities, and even called for the death of the regime's leaders. Following the arrests of these men and their followers, the Attorney General of Qom stated that action against any type of deviant beliefs is considered an important mission for all Muslims, and especially for the judicial authority.

The criticism against the expansion of the messianic phenomenon was led by the newspaper Jomhuri-ye Eslami, which largely represents the views of the conservative religious establishment. In October 2006, the newspaper's editors sharply criticized the growing phenomenon of messianism, "We must ask ourselves," the newspaper stated, "how inciting, contaminating and devious trends which involve superstitions develop today in Iran's Islamic and revolutionary society, when ... it is the religious regime which should be inoculating the nation against such phenomena. How does the market of perverse faiths flourish and people like Boroujerdi attract such a great number of supporters?"

Government religious authorities have also recently expressed concern about the expansion of the messianic phenomenon. Ayatollah Safi Golpaygani stated in November 2006 that the media must seriously consider the matter of false faith and confront it as well as Sufi thought, because there are forces interested in promoting these beliefs with the aim of undermining the basis of faith and foundation of reason. 'Ali Khamene'i, the Supreme Leader, discussed the matter during his visit to the Samnan province that same month, where he warned against the spread of superstitions in Iranian society and called upon religious leaders to remain steadfast in confronting such deviant beliefs.

Further complicating the regime's growing struggle against messianism are Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's frequent references to the potential for the return of the Imam. In a conference of religious leaders in November 2005, the President even asserted that the main mission of the Islamic Revolution was to pave the way for the reappearance of the twelfth Imam. However, the critics of messianism over the past few months have not spared Ahmadinejad. Jomhuri-ye Eslami's editorial against messianism referred to the comments Ahmadinejad made to religious figures in Qom, claiming that he felt a heavenly aura was surrounding him during his speech at the United Nations General Assembly in September 2005. According to the paper, disseminating myths regarding heavenly auras by authorities responsible for preventing such behavior has made the situation even more difficult and dangerous.

The struggle against messianism and popular Islam was integrated into the conservative religious establishment's political campaign leading up to the election for the Council of Experts in December 2006, and continues in an effort to maintain the regime clerics' exclusive monopoly on Islam and its interpretation. The trend toward messianism and popular Islam and the appearance of interpretations that undermine the centrality of the regime's religious leaders will remain a challenge to the regime's authority, as well as Khomeini's reigning theory of the "guardianship or vicegerency of the jurisconsult" (velayat-e faqih). The battle over the right to interpret Islam is set to continue. It may worsen should the regime face a crisis, such as the death of the current Supreme Leader, Khamene'i■

* Raz Zimmt is a research fellow at the Center for Iranian Studies and a PhD candidate in the School of History at Tel Aviv University.

The Alliance Center for Iranian Studies (ACIS)

Tel Aviv University, Ramat-Aviv 61390, Tel Aviv P.O.B. 39040, Israel

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Iran Pulse 13 ● July 19, 2007 © All rights reserved.