Islam in World Cultures: Comparative Perspectives - Islamic Books ...

Chapter ThreeShi’ite Islam in Contemporary IranFrom Islamic Revolution to Moderating ReformD AV I D BU C H M A NOf the 66 million people in Iran today, in 2004, 98 percent are Muslims andof those 90.5 percent are Twelver Shi’ite (Held 2000, 488). Shi’ite teachingsplay a major role in peoples’ actions and worldviews, but Iran is also a modern,industrialized nation, with an economy, polity, and educational systembased upon Western models. In contemporary Iran, secular values, ideas, institutions,and behaviors mix with religion in sometimes paradoxical manners(Boroujerdi 2001, 13–17). The contentious interplay of these realities in themodern period has brought about increased politicization of religion in Iran.This chapter first presents an overview of basic Twelver Shi’ite beliefs andpractices. Then it outlines the political history of the Shi’ite Muslim clergy inIran, variously called ulama, mullah, ruhani, and akhund. During the modernperiod, the political function of the clergy increased from being merely criticsor legitimizers of the monarchical governments to establishing and runningan institutionally modern (Abrahamian 1994) but ideologically theocratic(Arjomand 2000) nation-state, the Islamic Republic of Iran, following theIranian Revolution of 1979. Religious thinkers reinterpreted Islam in modernterms, giving rise to the clergy’s increased politicization. To d a y, society andculture in the Islamic Republic of Iran is a conglomeration of both religiousand secular ideas and institutions, run by a modern totalitarian state, whichuses a radical political interpretation of Shi’ite Islam to legitimize its rule.However, recently a new generation of Iranian intellectuals is challenging thelegitimacy of the state by reinterpreting Islam in even more modern termsthan before.7 5