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Background Report on Iran
© 2001 Dianne Durante
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What does a nation have to do to make the U.S. State
Department rank it the leading state sponsor of terrorism? And why does
As with my background report on
3. Statistics: geography, population, etc.
6.3 Status of women
6.6 Environmentalism
6.7 Structure of Iran’s government
7. Human rights
8. Iran as a sponsor of terrorism
Esposito, John L. Islam: The Straight Path. 3rd ed., 1998. College text on Islamic religion and the history of the Muslim world, including recent radical trends; on Iran, see especially pp. 43-45, 109-113, 158-169, 179-186. Noncommital. Moderately easy to read, but if you only need an overview, each chapter has a useful summary.
Miller, Judith.
God
Has Ninety-Nine Names: Reporting from a Militant
Wright, Robin.
The
Last Great Revolution: Turmoil and Transformation in
Naipaul, V.S.
Among
the Believers: An Islamic Journey.
Published in 1981 (i.e., 2 years after
The Ayn Rand Institute’s
On the Muslim mind, listen to Dr. Edwin Locke’s tape “Psycho-Epistemology of the Arab World,” available from the Ayn Rand Bookstore: http://www.aynrandbookstore.com.
My background report on Afghanistan includes further discussion of concepts such as jihad.
ayatollah: title of a high-ranking Shi'ite religious leader (Esposito p. 253)
Basij: militia
of young (mostly teenage) volunteers, originally organized during the
1980-1988 war against
fatwa: written legal opinion or decision of a specialist on Islamic law on a matter of Islamic law (Esposito pp. 84, 253)
imam: prayer leader; in Shii Islam, a successor of the Prophet Mohammed, descendant of Ali, who governs as a divinely inspired religiopolitical leader of the Islamic community (Esposito p. 254)
jihad: “strive, effort, struggle” to follow Islam; can include defense of the faith, armed struggle, holy war (Esposito p. 254). See the section on jihad in my Afghanistan report.
mullah: a
local religious leader (Esposito p. 254); according to Wright (p. 293), there
are about 180,000 of them in
shariah or Shari’a: Islamic law
vilayat-i-faqih:
guardianship or government by an expert in Islamic law (Esposito p. 255); in
Westoxification or Westoxication: indiscriminate borrowing from and dependence on the West; term popularized by the 1970s in the writings of Jalal Al-e Ahmad, leftist son of an Iranian cleric, and much used by Islamic intellectuals (Esposito p. 179, Miller p. 452)
The following are basically synonyms, used according to the personal preference of the journalist or author: Islamic fundamentalists, Islamists, Islamicists, radical Muslims.
3. STATISTICS: Geography, population, economy
Geography: 635,932 sq. miles (1.648 million square km.),
slightly larger than
Population: 66 million (2001 estimate). Life expectancy 69.95 years, but only 4.65% of the population is currently over 65. Literacy either 72.1% (78.4% among men, 65.8% among women), or about 48%, depending on whose statistics you accept. Religion: 89% Shi’a Muslim, 10% Sunni Muslim, 1% combined Christian, Jewish, Zoroastrian and other minorities. Persian (Farsi) is the language of 58% of the population. Persians (who are not the same as Arabs) make up 51% of the population, with 7 other ethnic groups, none of which comprises more than 24% of the population.
Economy: per capita GDP $6,300 (2000 est.), with a very wide disparity in incomes; perhaps as much as half the population lives below the poverty line. Inflation 16% (2000 est.). Main sources of income: petroleum and natural gas, assorted minerals. The largely state-run economy suffers wild swings with fluctuations in oil prices.
4. HISTORY (Ancient, Medieval and early modern, 20th c.)
SUMMARY: I have included a fair amount of information
about what was going on in
If you can remember those points and don’t feel the need to know Iranian history from ca. 1500 BC, you can jump directly to Iran in the 20th century.
Ca. 1500 BC Immigration into
ca. 1000 BC Zoroaster (Zarathustra) created world’s
first monotheistic religion, stressing the duality of good vs. evil, man's
free choice between the two, a messiah, resurrection, final judgment, heaven
and hell. Zoroastrianism worked its way east to
550-334 BC: The Persian Empire, founded by Cyrus the
Great,
334 BC
247 BC-224 AD Rule by the Parthians, famous for shooting backward over their shoulders as they galloped away, hence a “Parthian shot."
247-642 AD Rule by the Sassanians, one of whom captured
the Roman Emperor Valerian in 260. Mani (215/6-274?) founded Manichaeism,
combining elements of Zoroastrianism, Christianity and Buddhism. In 528
Mazdak advocated abolition of private property, division of wealth,
nonviolence and vegetarianism, bringing about a struggle between peasants and
nobility. Under Khosrow I (531-79), many Indian and Greek scientific and
medical texts were translated into Persian; he also gave refuge to
philosophers fleeing the
642 Ten years after the death of Mohammed, the Muslims
conquered the
661 Shi'ites split from the main branch of Muslims
(Sunnis) after a disagreement over who should suceed Mohammed as leader. (See
Shi'ite Muslims.)
820-1220 Rise of local Persian monarchs. Birth of modern
Persian language.
1220 Genghis Khan attacked and conquered
1501-1779 After 9 centuries of foreign rule,
1795-1925 After brief stints of foreign rule, Persia was reunited under the Qajar Dynasty, who lost the Caucasus (present-day Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan) to the Russians by treaties of 1813 and 1828, then lost some central Asian provinces to the Russians, and finally lost Afghanistan to the British.
1901 A Brit was
given the concession to investigate and exploit oil reserves in 480,000
square miles of
1905-1911 Protests against British and Russian
interference led to the Constitutional Revolution by clerics, merchants and
intellectuals. The Qajar rulers were forced to accept a Constitution and
establishment of
1921 Soon after World War I Reza Khan, an army colonel,
gained control of
1932 The Anglo-Iranian Oil Company’s concession to drill
for oil was cancelled, but a new 60-year concession was granted in the
following year. Output of crude oil was 7,200,000 metric tons, rising to
27,247,933 metric tons by 1949. Thousands of foreign tourists, contractors
and military advisors moved to
1941 The Allies invaded
1951-1953 The
Majlis (Parliament) nationalized oil production, transferring the AIOC’s
concession to the National Iranian Oil Company. All British AIOC employees
left
1953 The Shah was nearly overthrown, but was restored to
power by riots funded by British and American intelligence. (I have not seen
details on this.) The involvement of
the
1961 After 22 years on the throne, the Shah introduced the White Revolution, which included land reform (including some distribution of large tracts of land owned by the clergy), profit sharing for industrial workers, privatization of state-owned factories, women's suffrage, a literacy campaign, and equal legal rights for non-Muslims (Christians, Jews, Baha’is, Zoroastrians). Ayatollah Khomeini denounced these reforms as “a serious threat” to Islam; he was arrested in 1963 and exiled in 1964. "Khomeini combined vigorous nationalism with an impassioned eloquence, an absolutist's sense of righteousness and a mystic's superior airs" (Wright p. 50).
1963-1973 Relative prosperity, with rapid economic
growth and political stability. Infrastructure was further developed and the
military expanded. The shah became more autocratic, suppressing political
parties, silencing critics (partly by the notorious secret police, Savak),
and packing Parliament with his favorites. In 1971 he invited world leaders
to a party celebrating the 2,500th anniversary of the
1967 Six-Day War:
1973 In the October War against
1973-1979 the Arab Oil Embargo made the West seem
dependent on the Muslim world for the first time ever.
1979 The Shah's opponents united behind Khomeini, and
the Shah was exiled. Khomeini, returning triumphantly from
1979-1981 After the shah arrived in the
1979 In the fall of 1979 controversy raged over
proposals for
1980 Universities were closed down for 2 years so the curriculum could be revamped to produce an Iranian “cultural revolution.”
1980 The Shah, after having been requested to leave the
1980-1988 Iran invaded by
1981 Elected government of Abolhassan Bani-Sadr
overthrown; purges, political arrests, torture and executions as clerics
turned against their liberal and leftist partners. The Mujahedin-e Khalq
(MEK), a socialist Islamic group based in
1982
1983 Bombing of American Embassy and the U.S. Marine
barracks in
1984 Pro-Iranian militias blamed for bombing of second
American Embassy in
1986 Reagan Administration officials Robert McFarlane
and Oliver North manage to have 3 American hostages freed from
1988 After a series of resounding defeats,
1989 Khomeini condemned Salman Rushdie to death for The Satanic Verses. Not
coincidentally, the condemnation occurred just after the end of the war with
1995 The
1997 Relative unknown Mohammad Khatami was elected
president by a landslide, and reelected in 2001 for a second 4-year term. In
speeches on CNN and to the U.N., Khatami urged the
SOURCES:
Wright, The Last Great
Revolution, Appendix I:
Online: http://www.mage.com/TLbody.html (“Timeline of Iranian history”). Use with caution, as some of the facts are incorrect.
Miller, God Has Ninety-Nine Names, pp. 429-464.
SUMMARY: For historical reasons, the Shi’ite Muslims who
dominate in
The Shi'ites split from the main branch of Islam (the
Sunnis) in the 7th century, when the Umayyad Dynasty gained control of the
Muslim world. The Umayyads claimed that the leader of the Muslim world should
be chosen from the among all Mohammed's followers. Shi'ites contended that a
leader should have been chosen from the family of the Prophet Mohammed,
specifically descendants of his son-in-law and first convert, Ali. (A
"Shi'ite" is literally a "follower” of Ali.) Hussein, Mohammed's
grandson, took it upon himself to fight the Umayyads, and he and his 70 or so
followers, including women and children, were massacred in 680 at Karbala
(now in southern Iraq).
Shi'ite Islam was made
Today Shi'ites constitute about 15% of Muslims
worldwide. Within the Shi’ites there are two other sects besides the Twelvers
(a.k.a. Ithna Asharis), who predominate in
Notable differences of Shi'ites vs. Sunni Muslims:
1. Because of its historical foundation, Shi'ite Islam demands that the faithful fight injustice and tyranny, even if death is certain. Hussein is regarded as having died fighting for justice, and revolt against tyranny is an essential part of the Shi'ite tradition. “For the Shii, history was the theater for the struggle of an oppressed and disinherited minority community to restore God’s rule on earth over the entire community under the Imam.” (Esposito p. 44) An example of the practical application of this: in the Iraqi-Iran War, teenage Shi'ites signed up by tens of thousands to act as human mine-sweepers in order to become martyrs.
2. Shi'ite clerics have a mandate not just to advise their flocks, but to lead them in action: hence Ayatollah Khomeini's acceptance as both a political and religious leader. “For the Shii, leadership of the Muslim community is vested in the Imam (leader), who, though not a prophet, is the divinely inspired, sinless, infallible, religiopolitical leader of the community. He must be a direct descendant of the Prophet Muhammad and Ali, the first Imam. He is both political leader and religious guide, the final authoritative interpreter of God’s will as formulated in Islamic law.” (Esposito p. 43) Khomeini argued that rather than waiting for the return of the Twelfth Imam, Shi’ites should be led by a vice regent, an outstanding religious figure who would rule until the Mahdi’s return. In the Iranian Constitution this authority is vested in the Supreme Religious Leader.
SUMMARY: You’d perhaps expect
Side note: This is less surprising than it might seem,
because until the Shah's overthrow in 1979, a significant portion of
One of the most notable examples of the influence of Western intellectuals is Ali Shariati (1933-77), a French-educated Iranian intellectual whose writings laid much of the intellectual groundwork for the Iranian Revolution. As a young man he belonged to the Movement of God-Worshipping Socialists. Influenced by the revolutions in Algeria and Cuba, by sociologists such as Max Weber, and by Che Guevara, among others, Shariati in his later writings blended Marxism’s “suffering and exploitation” with the Shi’ite emphasis on martyrdom to produce the rough equivalent of Catholic “liberation theology.” (Esposito p. 181, Miller p. 452, Wright p. 194)
When the Iranian Constitution mentions legitimate political rights such as freedom of the press and freedom of assembly, such rights are always immediately followed by a phrase beginning “except,” “provided that it doesn’t,” or “but”, which negates them. Examples:
Art. 22: “The dignity, life, property rights, residence and occupation of the individual are inviolate, except in cases sanctioned by law.”
Art. 24: “Publications and the press have freedom of expression except when it is detrimental to the fundamental principles of Islam or the rights of the public.”
The Iranian Constitution is filled with Marxist and socialist rhetoric. On the socialist / communist connection with Islamic fundamentalism, see Esposito ch. 5 (pp. 158-222) and the second paragraph of Iran's Constitution.
According to Wright (p. 283), Islam has an inherent duality. The Sharia rigidly protects the rights of private property and free enterprise, hence property rights are nominally protected in the Iranian Constitution. On the other hand, Islam emphasizes the need for charity. Besides the state tax, devout Muslims are expected to pay two hefty religious taxes, one an annual tax of 20% on forms of wealth such as business profits, precious minerals, treasure, war booty, etc., and another tax paid at the end of Ramadan on gold and silver, agricultural surplus, livestock, etc.
According to the Constitution, the goals of the Islamic Republic of Iran include “the complete elimination of imperialism and the prevention of foreign influence” and “the elimination of all forms of despotism and autocracy” (Art. 3, sections 5, 6). Another aim is “The planning of a correct and just economic system, in accordance with Islamic criteria, in order to create welfare, eliminate poverty, and abolish all forms of deprivation with respect to food, housing, work, health care, and the provision of social insurance for all” (section 12).
Article 43 (Principles of the Economy and Financial Affairs) includes:
Section 1. “the provision of basic necessities for all citizens: housing, food, clothing, hygiene, medical treatment, education, and the necessary facilities for the establishment of a family;"
Section 2. “ensuring conditions and opportunities of employment for everyone, with a view to attaining full employment;”
Section 3. “the plan for the national economy must be structured in such a manner that the form, content, and hours of work of every individual will allow him sufficient leisure and energy to engage, beyond his professional endeavor, in intellectual, political, and social activities leading to all-round development of his self, to take active part in leading the affairs of the country, improve his skills, and to make full use of his creativity;”
Section 4. “ . . . preventing the exploitation of another's labor;”
Section 5. “the prohibition of infliction of harm and loss upon others, monopoly, hoarding, usury, and other illegitimate and evil practices;” (NOTE: “usury” means collecting interest on loans)
Section 6. “the prohibition of extravagance and wastefulness in all matters related to the economy, including consumption, investment, production, distribution, and services.”
In a similar vein, see Articles 28, 29 and 31.
Article 44 specifies that the state sector will own and
administer “all large-scale and mother industries, foreign trade, major
minerals, banking, insurance, power generation, dams, and large-scale
irrigation networks, radio and television, post, telegraph and telephone
services, aviation, shipping, roads, railroads and the like." A
“cooperative” sector [15 foundations or bunyods]
is to control “enterprises concerned with production and distribution, in
urban and rural areas, in accordance with Islamic criteria.” Managing the
confiscated assets of the shah and his supporters, the bunyods now
control as much as 30-40% of
What’s left is for the private sector? Still in Article 44: “Those activities concerned with agriculture, animal husbandry, industry, trade, and services that supplement the economic activities of the state and cooperative sectors.” Ownership (private property rights) is mentioned with the usual exception that negates the whole concept: “in so far as this ownership is in conformity with the other articles of this chapter, does not go beyond the bounds of Islamic law, contributes to the economic growth and progress of the country and does not harm society.”
Article 21 of the Constitution (Women’s Rights) states,
“The government must ensure the rights of women in all respects, in
conformity with Islamic criteria.” Since the Islamic view of woman stresses
her role as wife and mother, it seemed odd to read in the NYTimes, “As for Saudi women, unlike
their Iranian sisters who are allowed to drive, vote, practice law and hold
political office, those rights are denied” (“Who Hates the U.S.? Who Loves
It?”,
As usual, further research shows that the Times has simply turned a blind eye to
fundamentals. The State Department’s Human Rights Practices report on
1. In a court of law, a woman’s testimony is worth only half that of a man’s. (1e)
2. Women who do not observe dress codes, including covering the hair and all the body except the hands and face, or who wear makeup or nail polish, are subject to harassment by the Ansar-e Hezbollah, a paramilitary movement that acts as vigilantes. (1e) They are also subject to legal action, including flogging (74 lashes) and imprisonment. (3)
3. Private gatherings where men and women socialize and where alcohol and mixed dancing take place are forbidden. The Ansar-e Hezbollah randomly attacks such gatherings. (1e)
4. The penalty for adultery in Islamic law is death by stoning. It is still occasionally enforced. (1a)
5. Under Islamic law, the “blood money” paid to the family of a murdered woman is half that paid to the family of a murdered man. (2a)
6. Women must obtain the permission of a husband, father or other living male relative in order to get a passport. Married women must have written, notarized permission from their husbands before traveling abroad. (2d)
7. Gender segregation is enforced in most public spaces. (3)
8. The minimum legal age of marriage for women is 9 (nine) years old. (3)
9. A divorced woman is allowed to keep a female child until age 7 and a boy until age 2; after that, full custody reverts to the father, and a mother has virtually no visitation rights unless granted by the ex-husband. This law was somewhat modified in 1998, so that obviously unfit fathers would not get custody. (Wright p. 186)
10. Muslim women may not marry non-Muslim men. (3)
The only woman currently holding a cabinet-level
position in
Many of the freedoms women now enjoy in
Religions specified in the Constitution – Christians, Zoroastrians, and Jews – are officially tolerated in the Islamic Republic, and members of those religions have a total of 5 representatives in the 290-member Islamic Consultative Assembly (Art. 64). Religions NOT specified in the Constitution have no rights. The Baha’i faith, an offshoot of the Shi’ite Muslims, is not recognized, and its hundreds of thousands of followers are subject to harassment and imprisonment. See the U.S. Dept. of State’s Human Rights Practices report on the Baha’i (sect. 5).
Article 24 of the Constitution provides, “Publications and the press have freedom of expression except when it is detrimental to the fundamental principles of Islam or the rights of the public.” The State Department’s Human Rights Practices Report notes:
1. The government lifted the death sentence on Salman Rushdie for his Satanic Verses in 1998, but several deputies to the Iranian congress immediately repudiated the action, and one of the foundations (bunyods) promptly increased the bounty for his death. (section 1c)
2. Satellite dishes have been illegal since 1995, since
they allow unsupervised access to foreign broadcasts. The owners of most of
the nearly quarter-million dishes in
3. All radio and TV stations are owned by the Iranian government. (2a) The number of books published has increased since 1979, but all are strictly censored for anti-Islamic thoughts, and 25% are religious texts. (Miller p. 451)
4. Periodicals that disagree with the official government line are routinely closed down. Ansar-e Hezbollah mobs attacking the offices of liberal publications and bookstores are left unpunished by police and the courts. (2a)
Article 50 of the Iranian Constitution states, “The
preservation of the environment, in which the present as well as the future
generations have a right to flourishing social existence, is regarded as a
public duty in the Islamic Republic. Economic and other activities that
inevitably involve pollution of the environment or cause irreparable damage
to it are therefore forbidden.” The woman currently in charge of this
ministry is M. Ebkatar, who rose to fame as the spokeswoman for the students
who held American hostages in the Embassy in
6.7 Structure of
SUMMARY:
Supreme Religious Leader (walayat al-faqih), the top-ranking position in the Islamic Republic, a lifetime position held since the death of the Ayatollah Khomeini in 1989 by Ayatollah Ali Hoseini Khamenei. The SRL is chosen by the Council of Experts (Art. 107) based on the qualifications of scholarship, justice, piety, and leadership capacity (Art. 109). The SRL's powers and duties include:
1. Veto power over all legislation and over the President’s actions.
2. Supreme command of the armed forces and the Islamic Revolutionary Guards
3. Appointment and dismissal of the religious men on the Guardian Council
4. Appointment and dismissal of the head of the judicial branch
5. Approves first-time candidates for President
Guardian Council: 6 religious men selected by the Supreme Religious Leader, plus 6 jurists elected by the Majlis (legislature) from a list nominated by the Head of the Judicial Power. Members of the GC serve 6-year terms. They must approve all legislation passed by the Majlis, and supervise the elections of the Assembly of Experts which selects the Supreme Religious Leader.
The Assembly of
Experts (Leadership Council) is responsible for choosing a Supreme
Religious Leader. It consists of the President, the head of the judiciary,
and the religious men of the Guardian Council.
The President (currently Mohammad Khatami, elected in 2001 to his second 4-year term) is head of the executive branch. He is elected by popular vote from a slate of candidates approved by the Guardian Council. His actions are subject to approval by the SRL and the GC (Art. 57). In effect, this means his power is very limited, so while he may make statements that sound almost American, his power to act on them is negligible. Here’s a statement he made soon after his election in 1997, which has no connection to the reality of Iranian politics: “A government’s authority is not realized by coercion or arbitrariness, but by legal acts, by respect for rights and by encouraging people’s participation in decision making. People must believe that they have the right to determine their own destiny and that there are limits to government.” (Wright p. 64)
The Majlis (a.k.a. Islamic Consultative Assembly) is the legislative branch, with 290 members serving 4-year terms. Laws are subject to veto by the Guardian Council (Arts. 72, 94, 96).
Head of the Judicial Power is appointed by the Supreme Religious Leader for a 5-year term (Art. 157). All courts are run in accordance with Islamic law (Art. 61).
The military and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, “organized in the early days of the triumph of the Revolution, is to be maintained so that it may continue in its role of guarding the Revolution and its achievements” (Art. 150). Methods of recruitment and training, as well as specific aims, are not stated in the Constitution.
Provision is made in the Constitution for amendment and revision, but (that ever-recurring “but”!) a few parts of the Constitution are "unalterable": "The contents of the articles of the Constitution related to the Islamic character of the political system; the basis of all the rules and regulations according to Islamic criteria; the religious footing; the objectives of the Islamic Republic of Iran; the democratic character of the government; the holy principle; the Imamate of Ummah; and the administration of the affairs of the country based on national referenda, official religion of Iran and the religious school." (Art. 177, sect. 5)
SOURCES
The Iranian government argues that human rights are not universal, but must be viewed in the context of a country’s “culture and beliefs” (sect. 4 of the U.S. State Department's Human Rights Practices Report, 2/00). That's one of the defining characteristics of multiculturalism: the idea that there are no universal standards by which you can judge any other culture's activities. In an interview ca. 1998-99, Ataollah Mohajerani, President Khatami's Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance, one of the most notable reformers in the President's ministry, said, "The point is that the rapporteurs of human rights must be familiar with our religious instruction and beliefs. Since they're not, they may consider certain things we believe to be in violations of human rights." (Wright p. 102.)
More moral relativism comes from Abdul Karim Soroush, a popular and acclaimed Islamic scholar who is one of the leading figures in the "Islamic Reformation.” His attitude is described thus by an admirer: Soroush “says Islam can be interpreted in a way that’s compatible with democracy. And he shows how. He proclaims that the understanding of religion is all relative. Put another way, he says no one interpretation is absolute. It’s not fixed for all time and place. Who can say what God meant?” (Wright p. 36).
SOURCES
The U.S. Department of State’s 1999 Country Report on
Human Rights Practices, released by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and
Labor on
8. IRAN AS A SPONSOR OF TERRORISM, a.k.a. "Spreading Islam abroad"
SUMMARY: The
THEORY
In the early days of the Iranian Revolution Ayatollah Khomeini pronounced, "We shall export our revolution to the whole world. Until the cry 'There is no God but God' resounds over the whole world, there will be struggle." (Wright, p. 66) Khomeini's aims are clearly reflected in the Iranian Constitution, written while he was still alive.
One of the aims of the government of
From the section “The Form of Government in Islam”: The government “represents the fulfillment of the political ideal of a people who bear a common faith and common outlook, taking an organized form in order to initiate the process of intellectual and ideological evolution towards the final goal, i.e., movement towards Allah. . . . [T]he Constitution provides the necessary basis for ensuring the continuation of the Revolution at home and abroad. In particular, in the development of international relations, the Constitution will strive with other Islamic and popular movements to prepare the way for the formation of a single world community (in accordance with the Koranic verse ‘This your community is a single community, and I am your Lord, so worship Me’ [21:92]), and to assure the continuation of the struggle for the liberation of all deprived and oppressed peoples in the world.”
The idea is reiterated in the section of the Constitution headed “An Ideological Army”: “The Army of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps . . . will be responsible not only for guarding and preserving the frontiers of the country, but also for fulfilling the ideological mission of jihad in God's way; that is, extending the sovereignty of God's law throughout the world (this is in accordance with the Koranic verse ‘Prepare against them whatever force you are able to muster, and strings of horses, striking fear into the enemy of God and your enemy, and others besides them’ [8:60])."
See also Article 3, section 16 of the Constitution (Statement of Goals), which mandates “unsparing support to the freedom fighters of the world,” as well as Aricles 11 and 154.
How much of this sponsorship of terrorism is purely Iranian or Shi’ite, and how much is part of Islam in general? Esposito lists the major points of Islamic revivalism, which even “moderates” would agree on: 1) Islamic religion is integral to politics, law and society; 2) Muslim societies have failed because they emulated Western, secular values, and can only succeed by returning to Islam, including a return to Islamic law (Sharia) rather than Western-inspired civil codes; 3) modernization, science and technology are only acceptable if subordinated to Islamic beliefs; 4) a return to Islam requires dedicated organizations who are willing to struggle against corruption and social injustice. (p. 165)
Esposito then lists the beliefs of the more radical Islamicists, who insist that a violent revolution is required to restore Islam. These beliefs include 1) It’s the West vs. the Islamic world, and all Christians and Jews are enemies because of their associations with Israel; 2) establishing an Islamic government is not just an option, it’s an imperative, and all Muslims must aid in the struggle; 3) Islamic governments that do not follow the Sharia are not legitimate, and should be fought, along with the mosques, mullahs, etc. who are supported by such governments; 4) jihad against infidels is a religious duty (p. 166).
PRACTICE
In July 2001, when Congress was debating whether to
renew economic sanctions against
1.
2. The Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Ministry of
Intelligence and Security seem to be in charge of terrorist acts within
In October 2001 the Revolutionary Guard sponsored the
"First Universal Exhibition of Sacred Culture and Defense" in
3.
The Revolutionary Guards are believed to be in charge of
SOURCES:
United States State Department. "Patterns of Global
Terrorism: 1999. Overview of State-Sponsored Terrorism." Covers Cuba,
Eisenstadt, Michael. "
Sancton, Thomas. “Terrorism: The
“Punishing
One of the oddities of
1. Regarding the popularity of Iranian films within
2. Regarding the popularity of Iranian films abroad: Most
Iranian films make little reference to Islam, so in the sense of promoting a
religion, they're not Islamic films. The plots seem to be thoroughly
naturalistic and rather depressing, i.e., exactly the sort of fare Western
film critics favor. Children of Heaven,
for example, was nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Film in 1999, losing
to Life Is Beautiful. "The
heartrending tale centers on a nine-year-old boy named Ali who accidentally lost
his seven-year-old sister Zahra's only shoes, a tattered pair with pink bows.
To hide the loss from their poor and occasionally employed father, Ali and
Zahra swapped the only pair of shoes between them . . . Sharing a single pair
repeatedly got both children in trouble. To solve their problems, Ali entered
a long distance race - in which, of course, shoes were a prize. The catch was
that it was third prize. The subtle ending did not include Ali's winning the
shoes." (Wright pp. 121-2) Filmmaking was revived in
The same sort of naturalistic film appeals even to some Iranians who can watch pirated videos or movies on satellite TV. One young Iranian described the film Forrest Gump this way: “It’s about faith in God, country, and family – typical Iranian Islamic values!” Miller added, “I suppressed the impulse to tell Ali that the film was also about stupidity" (p. 449).
Ever since 1979, scholars
and journalists have been predicting radical changes that would result in a
more moderate
BRANCHES OF GOVERNMENT
Executive: President Khatami was elected by a wide popular
margin, with heavy support from voters under 25 years of age. Khatami is a
reformer but he's also a cleric, and the clergy (the Supreme Religious Leader
and the Guardian Council) has veto power over his actions. Khatami's been in
power now for over 4 years, and little appears to have changed in
Legislative: Many reform-minded deputies have been elected in the last few years, but again, the clergy has veto power over their actions.
Judiciary: This branch is securely in the hands of the conservatives, which is unlikely to change given that the country is ruled by religious law (Sharia).
Religious "branch": the Supreme Religious Leader and Guardian Council are self-perpetuating and very conservative. They are also pragmatic enough to shift position slightly in order to make a coalition with the least reform-minded of their opponents.
Military, Revolutionary Guard Corps, Basij militia and Ansar-e Hezbollah vigilantes: All the men with weapons support the clergy and religious conservatives.
OTHER KEY FACTORS
The foundations (bunyods)
in
Many intellectuals have been advocating greater freedom, but the religious conservatives have the power to shut down dissenting publications and to arrest their publishers and writers.
The youth of
On the other hand, there is no rallying point for action
against religious conservatives. Young Iranians see American clothes and
movies. They log onto the Internet and call friends on cell phones. They
watch pirated American videos and listen to American music. None of this
gives them any idea of what the founding principles of the
The only likely choice for a rallying point is
nationalism, based on
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350 JPGs of New York City
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