Pious Passion: The Emergence of Modern Fundamentalism in the United States and Iran

3. Shi'ite Fundamentalism in Iran, 1961–1979

Shi'ite Fundamentalism in Iran, 1961-1979 Islam is not static, but as in other religionsits dogma and practices have been subject to change in response to transformations in society, politics , and the economy. Islam appears differently in Indonesia than in Morocco, in Sunni countries differently than in Shi'ite, in the countryside differently than in the city. As in Christian countries differences in structural conditions either promote or hinder the rise offundamentalist movements and influence the form fundamentalism takes. Among such structural conditions are the autonomy of religion in relation to the state, the degree of religious legitimacy of the political regime, and the positions of both the clergy and believers in relation to the state. The rise of fundamentalist protest movements is particularly favored in Islam by a lack of religiouslegitimacyon the part of the state. In Sunni Islam, because of the limited significance of the clergy and the dependence of religious institutions on the state, lay persons usually appear as the movement's organizers and spokespersons. Shi'ite Islam, in contrast, is characterized by the institutional autonomy of religion from the state and by a powerful clergy closely connected to their clientele . For that reason the religioustradition is extraordinarily well suited to the formulation of social protest and the clergy to its organization.1 In order not to fall prey to the fundamentalist myth, it is wise to give a brief depiction of the development of these particular structural conditions in Iran since the establishment of Shi'ism. It is necessary to begin before the twentieth century, to ensure the least distorted perspective. For fundamentalism as a protest movement is produced by processes of 100 C H A P T E R 3 Shi'ite Fundamentalism 101 social transformation only when the latter coincide with a tradition of religious and political thought and with a specific institutional structure and operations. IRANIAN SHI'ISM AND POLITICS Contemporary fundamentalism in Iran is not the reestablishment of the original Islamic order under Mohammed or AH, but obviously one of many reactions to twentieth-century social change. In part it stands in the tradition of Shi'ite Islam, as it developed since the Safavids, and in part it breaks with this tradition. In any case, it represents a variation in a long-lasting conflict at the basis of Persian society, which is located in the altercation between political and religious rule, between monarchy and hierocracy. Shi'ite fundamentalism in Iran is distinguished from comparable movements in Sunni Islam primarily by the prominence of the clergy and by its unique association with charismatic elements, which appear to be completely incompatible with its "basic Puritanical pattern."2 These particularities are based on an institutional separation of political and hierocratic rule, as it has developed in Iran since the sixteenth century, solidly establishing itself in the nineteenth century, and on a monopolization of sacred knowledge through the hierocracy. Although in Shi'ite Iran as well a caesaropapist model of rule was first established, the clergy succeeded (in contrast, for example, to the Sunni Ottoman Empire) in gaining, on the one hand, a certain degree of autonomy for religious institutions in relation to the state and,on the other, in bringing popular (magical-ritualistic) religious currents under its control. Although the Safavid and Qajar periods were significant, especially in the formation of the basic structures, the period of rule of the first Pahlavi shah is of primary interest for a specification of the causes of fundamentalist mobilization. Specific factors cited in the literature in the mobilization of fundamentalism in the 1960s and 1970s can be identified in the period 1925—1941, but with different consequences. The Safavid Period (1501-1722) In 1501 the Safavids, a militant order of mystics, proclaimed Twelver Shi'ism the religion of the Persian realm.3 The Shi'ism of the Safavid dynasty was wholly characterized by charismatic-ecstatic features, expressed, for example, in the belief in the divine heritage of the leader, in ecstatic and egalitarian traits in the warrior orders, and anarchic elements among its tribal constituency. To 102 Shi'ite Fundamentalism consolidate their rule, however, the Safavids quickly dispensed with these features and established a caesaropapist system with a consistent religious policy. With great severity, they persecuted, on the one hand, the Sunnis, to prevent them from becoming adherents of the Ottoman Empire, and, on the other, the Sufi orders, whose chiliasticand anarchic features they feared...