Hardliners vs. Reformists

As I point out with the division among the Khamenei brothers, one of the main divisions currently in Iran is between different views of Shii Islam. The so called hardliners in power have a more tyrannical view of Islam while the so called reformists that are leading the opposition view Islam as a source of freedom and democracy. I have outlined the origins of these two schools of thought and their theoretical underpinnings so you can have an idea for the battle of ideas that is currently going on in Iran.

The origins start after the death of the prophet Muhammad. The group of Muslims that would eventually be known as the Shii believed that the prophet’s son-in-law Ali and Ali’s descendents should be the successors to the prophet. These descendents of Ali became known as the Imams of Shii Islam. They had the undisputed right to lead the community in all religious and political matters because they had special knowledge from God. Although their rule was never very strong, there still was at least a theoretical political doctrine for Shii Islam during the Imams’ time on Earth.

These political ideas fell into disarray with the disappearance of the 12^th Imam of Shii Islam more than 200 years after the death of Muhammad. Shiis believe that the so called Hidden Imam entered a state of occultation and that he would one day return to bring peace and justice to the world. However in his absence, there was no clear guidance as to who is the rightful leader of the community. Initially Shiis believed that no temporal authority was legitimate in the absence of the Imam. Thus while Shiis might have to live under the subjugation of an earthly ruler, they must patiently wait for the return of the Hidden Imam who is the only true ruler.

This apathetic political doctrine dominated Shiism for hundreds of years until fairly recent times when new ideas emerged. The most famous doctrine was the idea of Valet-e-Faqih or guardianship of the jurist developed by the leader of the 1979 Revolution Ayatollah Khomeini. He argued that in the absence of the Hidden Imam, those with the greatest knowledge of Islam had the right to rule because they had something resembling the special knowledge of the Imams. In other words, the Islamic jurists were the next best thing to the Imams so they had the same right to rule as the Imams do.

The concept of guardianship is crucial because these jurists would be guardians of the people until the hidden Imam one day returns. The hardliners in Iran such as Ahmadinejad and his religious mentor Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi essentially believe that the people have no right to determine their own government. To the hardliners, the jurists have special knowledge of how God wants the government to be run and so their rule must be undisputed. In essence, the jurists know what is best for the people because they have knowledge that the common people cannot have. That is why the hardliners feel so entitled to rule and take such drastic actions against the people.

In stark contrast to this view, the reformists have presented a completely different view of Shii Islam. They argue that it is heresy to claim to rule in the place of the Hidden Imam with his sort of special knowledge. There is no special right to rule for the clerics because we are all equally ignorant in comparison to Hidden Imam. The concept of justice is very important in Shii Islam and the reformers argue that in the absence of the Hidden Imam, the only legitimate form of government is a just government. Since a democratic form of government that protects freedom is the most just form of government, it is the only legitimate state in the absence of the Hidden Imam. In essence this is a guardianship of the government as opposed to a guardianship of the clerics. The state itself holds the power for the Hidden Imam, but the direction of the state must be determined by democracy. The reformists do not call for the overthrow of the Islamic Republic completely, but argue for a different version of the Islamic state.

That is why this movement is both so promising in its potential to bring democracy to Iran and so dangerous to the hardliners who want to maintain a dictatorship. These reformists are taking the religious high road and arguing that they are the ones who are truly representing Islam. Indeed many of the leading Ayatollahs in Iran such as Montazari and Sanei side with reformist camp and argue that democracy is an Islamic requirement. Moreover every time the regime jails a cleric or breaks up religious ceremonies, it loses legitimacy as a truly Islamic government and further weakens its position. These reformists are not secular Western liberals trying to introduce foreign ideas to Iran as ostensibly it might seem from the outside. They are devout Muslims who are trying to reclaim their Islamic state to a form that is truly Islamic until the return of the Hidden Imam.