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1 1 2 The evolution of Islamic political activism in Iran, since the mid-1970s, has demonstrated the elastic influence of Shiite Islam over political thought and behavior. Shiite beliefs, norms, and rituals supplied the vernacular means through which revolutionaries articulated desire for social justice and freedom and mobilized public support. With the consolidation of Islamist rule in the early 1980s, rulers of the Islamic Republic demanded unconditional political obedience from citizens on the basis of their religious faith. However, clerics and lay intellectuals have increasingly criticized the regime’s monopolization of the “religious truth” and have emphatically argued for political pluralism. The late 1990s saw the emergence of a vibrant Muslim reformist movement in Iran. Unlike their counterparts elsewhere, Muslim reformers in Iran did not face a “secular” authoritarian regime that effectively blocked the goal of the Islamic state. They were ex-revolutionaries who were disillusioned with the Islamic state. While they remained loyal to the revolutionary heritage, they became vociferous advocates of moderation, rule of law, democratic governance, civil society, and political competition. Former Islamists have matured into seasoned politicians who believe in the essential reformability of the Islamic Republic . They aimed to create a public sphere free from regime control, and they achieved some success. Most importantly, they channeled their energies into winning elections and using the power of elected office to reform the political system. The electoral strategy failed in the face of stiff resistance from the guardians. In fact, it brought political marginalization and public discrediting of the reformers. This chapter narrates the emergence of the RF from the factional politics of the Islamic Republic, as well as its intellectual basis, electoral victories, and ultimate failure by 2004. It attempts to provide a convincing exC H A P T E R 6 A Moment of Enthusiasm in the Islamic Republic A M O M E N T O F E N T H U S I A S M I N T H E I S L A M I C R E P U B L I C 1 1 3 planation for why public support for the RF was unsustainable and to delineate the organizational factors that severely constrained its public appeal. The Revolutionary Heritage The most serious challenge to political rule in the Middle East throughout the second half of the twentieth century was military coups. From the overthrow of the monarchy in Egypt in 1952 to Muammar Qaddafi’s disposal of the Libyan king Idris in 1969, presidents and kings had been very vulnerable to conspiracies within armed forces. The increasing state power, the emergence of leaders with superior survival skills (e.g., Hafez Assad in Syria and Saddam Hussein in Iraq), and, most important, the flow of revenues from oil exports to state coffers in the early 1970s brought an end to the era of coups.1 The surviving regimes were characterized by deep public apathy and exclusion of citizens from meaningful political participation. The Iranian Revolution was the only instance when street demonstrations and mass disobedience overwhelmed a Middle Eastern regime. From a modern perspective, revolution, which is the ultimate expression of the human capacity to create a brand-new political order, cannot and ought not to have any relationship with religion, which is thought to be the ultimate expression of human limitation and fallibility in the face of an otherworldly and omnipotent force.2 The Iranian Revolution necessitated a serious and wholehearted rethinking of such descriptions of the relationship between religion and revolution. Like his fellow Shiite clerics Musa al-Sadr in Lebanon and Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr in Iraq, Ruhollah Khomeini fundamentally reinterpreted Shiite traditions that often espoused political quietism in the face of tyrannical rule and social injustice. However, only Khomeini was eventually triumphant. Musa al-Sadr organized Shia as a viable political force in confessional Lebanese politics before disappearing on a trip to Libya in 1978.3 Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr was the leading intellectual figure behind the establishment of the Islamist Daʿwa Party in Iraq in the late 1950s. The Baʿth regime, which felt threatened by the Iranian Revolution, executed him in April 1980.4 Has the historical evolution of Shiite Islam been a main cause of the revolution and the establishment of the Islamic Republic? This question has been a subject of lively and intense scholarly debate . It is also greatly pertinent to the emergence of factional competition in the post-Khomeini era. [18.224.39.74] Project MUSE (2024-04...

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