The Shiite Pope / Emperor, velayat-e faqih, and many things to think about
Mehdi Khalaji wrote an interesting piece on the Iranian election (HT: Powerline), which led us to his much longer work, “The Last Marja: Sistani and the End of Traditional Religious Authority in Shiism.” You can download the article here.
The article is far too long and complex to summarize its substance in a sentence or two. It examines, among other things, the way that the Iranian revolution has attempted to centralize Islamic theocratic rule under the auspices of, in effect, a Shiite Pope — a Pope who has an army.
Khomeini believed that the velayat-e faqih is the continuity of the velayat of the Prophet and the twelve imams; therefore, the Supreme Leader is meant to be a somewhat serious theological figure. The current Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, is not one of these — but he understands the necessity of controlling the seminaries and the purse strings of Shiite clerics throughout the world. Mehdi Khalaji’s point, among many others, is that while Shiite theology was once a pretty diverse affair, Iran has taken steps to create Shiite orthodoxy under its revolutionary and imperialist banner.
These men appear quite serious and quite dangerous to us. How they must laugh at the American politicians who want to “engage” them. How little we understand, even today, the depth of their motivations and the seriousness of their purpose.