Saturday, June 27, 2009
Iran again
Michael Rubin says: "President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's invocation of folk religion -- his appeals to the messianic Hidden Imam, for example -- is a way to bypass senior religious figures who, according to Shiite theology, will be among the greatest obstacles to the Hidden Imam's return. Nor does the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, pay too much heed to his fellow clerics in Qom. They have always refused to bestow on Khamenei a level of religious legitimacy to match his ambition. Today, the majority of Iran's grand ayatollahs oppose the concept of theological rule. Not by coincidence, the majority are now in prison or under house arrest".
IMO: In the West the idea of "Religion 2.0" is also making a very shaky start. Perhaps it is as well to recall that the origins of the Shia-Sunni split were, historically, of an origin that sounds to the West more like 'secular politics'. Such politics is something that Islam has lived with well - in fact the current secular (or faux-secular) nature of Turkish politics is something which may be very temporary and should be of great concern to the EU. In short current Iranian politics looks a little like Western Catholicism on the face of it, and is thus definitely something to be wary of.
IMO: In the West the idea of "Religion 2.0" is also making a very shaky start. Perhaps it is as well to recall that the origins of the Shia-Sunni split were, historically, of an origin that sounds to the West more like 'secular politics'. Such politics is something that Islam has lived with well - in fact the current secular (or faux-secular) nature of Turkish politics is something which may be very temporary and should be of great concern to the EU. In short current Iranian politics looks a little like Western Catholicism on the face of it, and is thus definitely something to be wary of.
# posted by uv : 6:44 PM
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