Granfalloon

so i’m writing this in response to a blogger’s post, which was a response to my previous post on questions of Sunni leadership and authority…

(SEE: Response to “Reformation” Post)

I don’t believe Iran = Shia anymore than I believe Saudi or other Arab regimes are legitimate representatives of Sunni Islam. I’m well aware of how far back Shia Islam stretches and how widespread the communities are, but my criticism had to do with Ali’s suggestion that the problem (of ignorance and corruption that is induced by a dysfunctional religious authority) is limited to the Sunni world. Iran physically and symbolically represents Shias all over (I don’t care what California’s Shias believe) and has a majority Shia population. Its government and laws are based on the Jaffari school of thought…the relationship between clergy and government is especially prominent in Iran because they are one and the same. So it’s fair to say that this distinctly Shia part of the world is not immune from corruption that results from political and religious entanglement. It’s just a different sort.

The stagnation I mentioned is in the greater society…in terms of poverty and restrictions on personal freedoms. Regarding the makeup of the Guardian Council, the six religious jurists are chosen by the Supreme Leader and the six secular jurists are chosen by the majlis, whose members in turn are nominated by the head jurist, who in turn is selected by the…

So in the end we have a system that always circles back to one guy…within this narrow space though, there’s def a system of checks and balances that is lacking in Arab countries.

With that being said and keeping Iran aside, religious authority in the Shia world is based on a well developed process that produces a highly qualified clergy. Its spiritual leaders will generally not draw a following unless they have been vetted through this process. The reason the Sunni world has failed on these grounds is because for Shias, the system was developed overtime in response to the disappearance of the final Imam. The clergy are meant to be his representatives in the interim and not just any bearded old man can be entrusted with that responsibility. There is an active scholarship that occurs in the Shia world that is for the most part absent in the Sunni world.

So yes, props to Shias for having an organized and effective religious leadership that is actively engaged in scholarship. But as you noted in your post, Iran too has its problems and the symptoms its society suffers from don’t look altogether different from that of the Arab world minus the gaping spiritual black hole.

Power corrupts…always…

And aint nobody gonna censor your thoughts fool.