Shia Iranians and Iraqis Religious Background

A little bit history of the Iranian Shia:

Iran’s population became Shia following the establishment of the Safavid state in 1501. Shiism has been the state religion until now except for a brief period when the Sunni Afghan occupied Isfahan in 1722.

Religion held the Iranian society together and the pressures and sanctions to behave in proper Shia Islam fashioned stemmed largely from Iranian public opinion.

On the other hand, Shiism in Iraq was wrapped around the strong Arab tribal value system. Unlike Iran, the Iraqi society was formed with the rise of Najaf and Karbala as the two strongholds of Shiism in the country which was original under the occupation of the Sunni Uthmani.

The majority of Shia Iranians are of Persian ethnic origin. The Iraqi Shias are Arabs (with tribal attributes and moral values). The merchant class in Iran (Bazaris) had close relationship with the Shia Ulamas and was willing to spend their wealth on religious causes. The Iraqi merchant class as a whole was unwilling to channel funds to support religious causes and institution.

The rise of Iranian monarchy in the 19th century (Reza Shah and Muhammad Reza Shah) lessens the power of clergy in Iran but didn’t completely eradicate cleric’s influence.

In Iraq however, the Sunni Iraqi rulers (Iraq was a Sunni state for the most of 19th and 20th century) dealt a severe blow to Shia Islam and eradicated the power of clerics completely.

Reference
Yitzhak Nakash, The Shia of Iraq, 1994, Princeton University Press, ISBN: 13579108642

Occupy Brazil

Brazilians are out in streets demanding end to all corruptions, more transparency and better social services from their government. Brazil, among the fastest developing nations in South America, is set to host the world cup 2014.

This article is a good overview of what’s going on in Brazil.

Wouldn’t you be angry if you are paying 40% of your salary to your government and getting almost nothing in return?


I’ve been noticing for quite a while now, politicians, especially in those developing countries, are always building mega-projects using public money and then awarding contracts (related to the project) to their families, friends and cronies. Same thing is happening in Brazil.

suspicions that the construction companies – a main source of kickbacks for politicians – will be the main beneficiaries of the tournament have grown, particularly in Rio, where the Maracanã stadium has been refurbished for the second time in a decade at a cost of more than 1bn reals (£295m). It was rebuilt with public money, but the concession to run it has been offered to a private firm, covering barely a fifth of the costs

As one banner, held aloft by a football-loving protester – Leandro Ferreir – said on Thursday: "We don't want a country that is beautiful only for gringos (foreigner)."

Reference
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/21/brazil-protests-football-world-cup
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_protests_in_Brazil

Not a good news for women worldwide

Yesterday, WHO (World Health Organization) released a shocking statistic about violence against women.

Imagine that a third of all women in the world have been abused.

Thirty-five percent of women around the world have been raped or physically abused, according to statistics the World Health Organization Thursday. About 80 percent of the time this violence occurs in the home, at the hands of a partner or spouse.

The data is from many countries around the world.

Devries and a team at the WHO analyzed data from 141 studies in 81 countries. Their findings offer the first comprehensive look at domestic violence globally and give insights into how abuse hurts women's overall health.

When women are murdered, a partner or spouse is the killer 38 percent of the time, the study finds. By comparison, men die at the hands of a wife or partner only 6 percent of the time.

It's not healthy for women to be abused.

Abused women are twice as likely to report being depressed and having their own problems with alcohol. They are also 1.5 times more likely than women who haven't been abused to have a sexually transmitted disease including, sometimes, an HIV infection.

The whole cycle of violence just continues

A woman who has experienced violence has a greater chance of having a low-birth-weight baby. And children who were abused, or who witnessed abuse, are more likely to end up in violent relationships themselves,

The only possible way to stop the abuse

What else can be done to stop this global trend? Educate women and give them a chance economically, Garcia-Moreno says.

Reference
http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2013/06/20/193475321/who-finds-violence-against-women-is-shockingly-common

Iraqi Shias vs Iranian Shias

A general misconception people have about Shiism is that it is a byproduct of Iranian culture and social values. The author of the book believes that there’s a tendency for most people to overlook the unique identity and feature of Arab Shia (especially the Iraqi Shias). One of the reasons is because Shia literatures are heavily based (tilted towards) on the Iranian side.

Only after the Iran-Iraq war, has there been more concerted effort at understanding the distinct culture and social values of the Iraqi Shias and the different patterns of ritual and organizational taken in Iraq. The book sets out to correct the widely held assumption that the Iraqi Shias are patterned after the Iranian Shias.

Author mentioned his objectives in the following set of questions:

• How was the modern Iraqi Shia society formed and during which period?
• What was the impact of the rise of the modern state on the status of the Iraqi Shia leadership and classes, and on the socioeconomic and political position of the shrine cities?
• What are the basic political aspirations of the Iraqi Shias?
• What are the fundamental differences between the subjective cultural beliefs and social values of Iraqi and Iranian Shias as evident in their rituals and religious practices?
• In what ways did Iraqi and Iranian Shia Islam differ in their organizational forms?
• What were the consequences of the weakening financial power of the Shia religious establishment, and of the decline of its major source of intellectual strength, the madrasa, on the position of the Shia ulama and their ability to mobilize people for political action in modern Iraq?

Reference
Yitzhak Nakash, The Shia of Iraq, 1994, Princeton University Press, ISBN: 13579108642

The Shia of Iraq

I’ve just finished reading an interesting book about the history of the Iraqi Shia/Shiite. Please see the detail of the book at the end of the post (reference). This book is divided into four sections. Each section contains two or three chapters.

The first section is about the making of the Iraqi Shiite Society. How /when the Iraqi society began to convert or settled in the area and what’s the nature of this conversion. This is followed by events before and after 1920 revolution.

Section two is about social, religion and politics of Iraq including the management of the mujtahids, tribal shaykhs, the foreigners, the shrine cities and 1935 revolution.

Section three is about the commemoration of Ashura, the pilgrimage and the burial.

Section four is about Shia money in the Shrine cities, Shia madressa and also the rise of Baath political party.

I hope I’m able to summarize interesting part from the book here.


Reference
Yitzhak Nakash, The Shia of Iraq, 1994, Princeton University Press, ISBN: 13579108642

Immortality

Here’s an interesting story about a Russian Millionaire Dmitry Itskov who plans to live forever (immortal). In this interview, he said

“when people come up with new ideas they’re called ‘nuts.’ Then everybody starts believing in the idea and nobody can remember a time when it seemed strange.”

“We need to show that we’re actually here to save lives,” he said. “To help the disabled, to cure diseases, to create technology that will allow us in the future to answer some existential questions. Like what is the brain, what is life, what is consciousness and, finally, what is the universe?”

He’s working on this project

His project, called the 2045 Initiative, for the year he hopes it is completed, envisions the mass production of lifelike, low-cost avatars that can be uploaded with the contents of a human brain, complete with all the particulars of consciousness and personality. This would be a digital copy of your mind in a nonbiological carrier, a version of a fully sentient person that could live for hundreds or thousands of years.

Read more and here

My Experience Watching Iran Election News Coverage and Celebration

I’ve been reading and following Iranian’s election news for more than a week now. The pre-election coverage was not very good. There are a number of contributing factors to this; namely

• Uncertainty about the candidates
• short campaign time (this was intentional)
• faulty polls (most of the polls were putting Qalibaf as the front-runner, Rowhani was not even in the list of the top three candidates)
• uncertainty about the voters (Iranians were very much undecided about their candidates.
• Also, many voters said they would be staying at home and not participating in the election) and
• western journalists/news media claiming they were not getting proper authorization to travel to Iran or bared from reporting in some cases (through threats and intimidation).

The Election Day started with Iran’s most famous VIP, the supreme leader (Rahbar) himself, casting his vote early morning. He said that not even his kids know whom he is voting for. This is so unlike four years ago where he specifically endorsed Ahmadinejad for the second term. The plan backfired and Ahmadinejad turned out to be the biggest thorn on his side. So, maybe this time he’s wise to keep quiet about his favorite choice. He urged all Iranians to vote even those who are not very supportive of the system/government (I rephrased what he said). And of course, no interview with Khamenei would ever be perfect without the obligatory condemnation of the west; Khamenei said ‘To Hell With you’ to the western powers who dared question the selection of their candidates and for saying how undemocratic their political system really is.

I was watching interviews with Iranians who were already in lines at the voting centers. A number of Iranians who initially said they were not planning to vote showed up anyway because they were persuaded by their family and friends. Many Iranians who voted for Rowhani said they want to see someone moderate for a change. Others who voted for Rowhani believe while he may not be the best candidate but they are still voting for him because he’s using a slightly different tone from other candidates. A lot of Rowhani’s supporters were among those who were worried about the economy, western backed sanction and personal freedom. Overall, no matter who the Iranians were voting for, they all said that coming out to vote is a social event or showing of the solidary for their country.

Guess who showed up in the late afternoon. The infamous ex-President of Iran, Ahmadinejad. I was expecting him to act like a punk but apparently he was somewhat subdued this time. I guess he’s no more than a toothless tiger now that he’s tenure is almost over and his plan to cling to power via his successor’s failed after it was foiled by the hardliners who saw him as a threat to their way of life. Though I still wonder what’s the future going to hold for him. The political outlook doesn’t look good for him since the reformists are now in the office of Presidency. And he had already burned all the bridges with the conservatives/hardliners.


The voting hours were extended at least four times right up to 11 pm. The result that was supposed to be announced at 3am was postponed until 8am Saturday. A lot of people were surprised at the hold-up. The result from 2009 Presidential election was announced within the two/three hours after the closure of voting centers. I’ve seen some people again expressing doubt and suspicious about the 2009 Presidential election and comparing with the clear victory for the reformists.

I woke up early on Saturday morning and tuned to Press TV (English) hoping to catch some live Iranian election reporting. I was very disappointed after awhile. PressTV was not covering the most important event in Iran! Their own election. They had news about a protest in Jordan. I initially thought the protest was about something very important because well..it had to be important to pre-empt their own election coverage. Nope, it was just a regular protest about Jordanians being unhappy with their economy. Okay, so I waited.

The next news item was a sandcastle competition in a European country. Then the news turned to hot air balloons. I was getting very impatient by then. Come on, where’s the election news. All they had was news ticker showing candidate’s vote count. But no real live TV coverage. I hardly watch Press TV. My last attempt to watch it was a year and half ago. I don’t think it covered anything I was interested in back then. I was hoping that at least this time as the official Iranian news channel, PressTV should have a monopoly on election coverage. But no such thing. For some reason, they were not interested in broadcasting their own election live and I guess I was in no mood to watch anything other than Iranian Presidential Election. The news section ended. A documentary about pig farming (Pig Business) was then aired. Argghh…this was getting hopeless. I turned off the TV and went online.

When the counting began to show a clear lead favoring Rowhani, people were ecstatic and very much in celebratory mode. Soon enough, the announcement came in that Rowhani had a clear victory and a mandate to form the next government. The online newspapers began showing Rowhani’s picture. I was reading news from a popular internet website. As soon as Rowhani’s picture emerged as the next President of Iran, the comments section was flaming with disappointing posts from users who didn’t know much about Iran’s politics. To them it was just a case of “Oh No! The Iranian Mullah won a victory for their regime”. Much later, some folks clarified that although Hassan Rowhani is dressed very much like a Mullah but his ideology is not aligned at all with the hardliners of Iran’s whose candidates are all dressed in western style suits (minus the tie because tie is a symbol of western imperialism :rolleyes: )

The Internet began to buzz with pictures and videos of celebration in Iran. Iranians were singing and dancing in the streets celebrating their victory. Congratulatory messages started coming in from the reformists. I’ve seen some people chanting support for Musavi and displaying sarcastic remarks about the 63% of the population who supposedly voted for Ahmadinejad's second term. Where are those people now? I’ve also seen remarks from people who hope Rowhani’s victory would guarantee a release of their political dissidents. Most of all people were hoping for a better life for the Iranians.

The conservatives/hardliners who had all of their candidates defeated, didn’t focus much on their defeat or say much about Rowhani’s victory or their gloomy outlook/future. Their newspapers on Saturday (and I didn’t read enough of them to form an objective opinion) painted the high voter turnout in the election as a victory against the west.

It’s too early to say how Rowhani’s presidency will look like. People are hopeful. We still have to wait and see.

Just browsing ShiaChat and it went offline.

Based on the message, this is a scheduled maintenance. I hope it doesn't take too long.

ShiaChat.com is currently unavailable - Undergoing maintenance.

Iran's new President is a Reformist

Hassan Rohani is Iran's new President. He defeated five conservatives (hardliners)/semi conservatives-independent convincingly with 51% of the votes. His closest rival, Qalibaf, managed to only get 16% of the votes. Jalili and Mohsen Rezaee are almost tied in the third place with 10-11%. Since one of the candidate have the majority of the votes, he won.

This is a stunning victory for the Reformists of Iran. I'm glad that they came together under a single candidate no matter how imperfect he was. Rohani is probably not the most ideal Reformists leader, but the body that selects Iran's Presidential candidate disqualified a lot of their candidates. After seeing today's result, I bet some members of the Guardian Council would be regretting their decision to eliminate Rafsanjani from the race. If they had only allowed Rafsanjani to run, he would've probably split the reformists vote between them. I don't think people like Rafsanjani can be persuaded to drop from a race or is win-able on a reformist ticket at least not in the current era. Most of his political life seems to be dedicated serving the establishment and he's also very wealthy. So, he has quite a bit of baggage.

Rezaee also did very well in this election. The supposedly front runner, Qalibaf, didn't deliver. The other establishment candidates were rejected by the Iranians.

Hassan Rohani will definitely face challenges from the unelected branch of government like the rest of other Presidents. But I hope he can improve the life of average Iranians and rein in the other side who think they represent the will of God. Hopefully, he can get many of the political prisoners out.

Interesting piece about Ahmadinejad’s Legacy

From Reza Aslan. Author of a couple of Islamic books.

According to him, the outgoing President of Iran will be best remembered not only for his cringe worthy statements but also for cracking the glass ceiling (of not questioning the rule of the Mullahs). I’m quoting him here

The mullahs' conflict with Ahmadinejad goes to the very heart of what constitutes political legitimacy in the Islamic Republic. In Iran's byzantine government, the elected president is supposed to represent the sovereignty of the people while the unelected supreme leader represents the sovereignty of God. In practice, however, nearly all levers of political power rest in the hands of the supreme leader, leaving the president with very little control over policy decisions.

That is just how the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, wanted it. Khomeini's religio-political concept of velayat-e faqih, or "guardianship of the jurist" argued that in the absence of the Muslim messiah (known as the Mahdi), the powers of government should rest with the messiah's representatives on Earth -- that is, the ayatollahs

In his second term, Ahmadinejad steadily chipped away at the clergy's religious, economic, and political control. First, he started questioning the mullahs' self-proclaimed status as the arbiters of Islamic morality -- and especially its obsession with proper Islamic dress.

The president then began repeatedly criticizing the clergy for their enormous wealth, which stood in stark contrast to most Iranians' economic suffering under international sanctions. In a surprise move, Ahmadinejad curtailed the amount of money that the government pays to religious institutions, which have ballooned over the past three decades into a source of tremendous personal enrichment for many in the clerical elite.

But Ahmadinejad's challenge to the clerical regime goes beyond any single skirmish with the supreme leader. Perhaps more important is his very public questioning of the foundation of the Islamic Republic's political and religious authority. "Administering the country should not be left to the [supreme] leader, the religious scholars, and other [clerics]," the president said in 2011.

Consider, for example, Ahmadinejad's much-maligned claims of being in direct communication with the Mahdi. Such statements are not the mad ravings of a religious fanatic -- they are a public repudiation of the entire system upon which the Islamic Republic was built. After all, if a layperson like Ahmadinejad can directly consult with the Mahdi, then what use are the ayatollahs? And if the clerics are not the only ones with a direct line to the Mahdi, why have they been given political powers over the Mahdi's government? As Mashaei put it, "Running a country is like a horse race, but the problem is that [the clerics] are not horse racers."

You should check out the whole piece here.

Iranians are either voting or not tomorrow

We haven’t been having good news coverage about the election in Iran. Most of the sources seem to be repeating the same thing over and over again. Based on an informal poll (don’t really know how reliable it is), the Mayor of Tehran is leading the race followed closely by Khamenei’s puppet Saeed Jalili. Reformists may or may not come together under Rowhani especially since the other Reformists guy who had more support has dropped out from the race. I think he did well, since splitting the vote between the two of them wouldn’t be good for either. Iran’s ex-Presidents, Rafsanjani and Khatami, have both endorsed the only Reformist candidate in the race.

I’ve been reading people’s opinions, inside and outside of Iran. I’m sensing that there’s a strong group of people who are pretty happy with the selection of the candidates. These people who are most likely to vote for Qalibaf or Jalili believe that in this tough time, Iran’s problems can only be resolved if they stick together under the leadership, support the best interests of Iran via strong revolutionary methods, being faithful to Islam and sticking up to western powers.

Mohsen Rezaee, another candidate, is Iran’s Ron Paul or Dennis Kucinich. He seems to be running in every race and not getting more than 2% of the vote. This time around, he may get more supporters (voters) since the biggest problem facing the Iranians is the economy and he seems to have some credibility in this area. It’s hard to say for sure if he’s going to become the lead contender since the odds are heavily stacked against him.

We haven’t seen much of the Reformists in politics, at least not since 2001. In the last election (2009), which was a complete disaster, their candidate Mir Hussain Mossavi, was defeated by the incumbent President, Ahmadinejad. Remembering the past, I think even in the time of Khatami when the reformists won both consequent elections with the highest votes ever; they faced much obstructions and oppositions from the unelected conservatives. And if you can’t change anything when you already have 70% of the country behind you then there’s really something wrong with the political system.

There’s a large group of Iranians who will not be voting in the election. Why bother to vote when the authority has already hand-picked the candidates and there’s no telling if your votes would even be counted. Are any of the candidates even remotely anti-establishment? I was reading an opinion of an Iranian who expressed deep hatred and contempt for Khamenei. To him, Khamenei is nothing but a dictator. When he heard Khamenei’s urging every Iranians to vote in Friday’s election, he adamantly refused to follow the order. He won’t be voting. :)

Since Iran is still situated in the region overrun with dictators, I think voting is a novel experience and so the Iranians should vote, even if to cast a blank vote or vote for everyone in the list. Ideally you should vote for the guy who you think is the best that will represent your interest. And if this is not possible then perhaps look for someone who is less against your interest. If you can’t find anyone to vote, then perhaps next time considering running in the election so you can vote for the most desirable candidate.

Ahmadinejad disappearing soon and for the good of everyone

Iranian Presidential Election is this Friday. In a country where the political system is not fully transparent or seems to be working for most, this election is going to be one of those rare events where the Iranians may feel some hope and excitement at the thought of having their voices/frustrations heard and possibly having their votes counted.

Ahmadinejad has not only been a complete disaster for Iran, but also a huge embarrassment. I’m constantly amazed at all the idiotic statements made by him and his overall immaturity. I didn’t really see much good in him. Seems to me whatever he achieved in his two terms as President of Iran was wiped away at the end of his second term.

Moving on.

Eight candidates were originally competing in this election. Two had dropped out so far. Eventually, we will have the top two candidates squaring off. Most of the candidates are either conservatives or ultra-conservatives (hardliners/very pro Khamenei). Not surprising to see all the conservative candidates lined up as presidential candidates since the body that cleared the pathway for them is also very much conservative. The only reformist candidate in this election is Hassan Rowhani.

It’s too early to say how the election will shape up despite the fact that the election is merely three days away. A possibility is to have the hardliner’s votes split among all the candidates assuming no one candidate is going to drop off from the race. Right now, the Mayor of Tehran, Mohammed Baqir Qalibaf has a slight edge among all the candidates.

Even though the election outlook for Iranians is not looking very good, but I hope that the reformists would come out in drove and vote for Rowhani. It’s a shame that they have abandoned their reform movement/agenda for sometimes now. Iranians have to find a way out of their crippling political system/process, be less discouraged and more persistent.

References

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-06-10/rohani-picks-purple-to-lure-iran-s-disillusioned-voters.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iranian_presidential_election,_2013

http://www.economist.com/news/middle-east-and-africa/21579041-eight-carefully-vetted-candidates-jockey-presidency-under-severe

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2013-06/11/c_132448462.htm

Egypt still in a mess

Egypt’s Supreme Constitutional Court ruled Sunday that

• The laws that governed the election of the country’s only operating house of Parliament is invalid
• the body that drafted the country’s postrevolutionary Constitution is also invalid

The other criticism is from the opposition that stated the Ikhwan’s political party ignores other viewpoints and uses its political muscle to advance an Islamist agenda.

The Supreme Court also stated that Egypt’s President (Morsi) doesn’t have the right to place anyone under detention using the arbitrary emergency law.

I guess the Muslims don’t learn much from their mistakes. Politicians don’t suddenly become pious just because they are constantly talking about Islam. Politicians never keep their promises so you have to always keep them humble and accountable. The Islamists cannot be trusted to govern ever. Islam is just a tool to advance their political agenda so don’t ever give them that tool.

The Use and Misuse of the Word Jihad

I was reading this news article today and found an interesting usage of the word Jihad which doesn’t refer to Islam, Muslims or Terrorism.

Anti-Obamacare Jihad May Kill Immigration Reform

The trouble here, in others words, is that House Republicans' hatred of Obamacare is at such deranged levels that it is leeching into even largely unrelated problems. Obamacare is in a different category in their minds — a law so illegitimate and evil that nothing can be allowed to touch it at all.

Protest in Turkey

I think the Turkish people had enough of their Islamist government interference in their daily life. They are in streets protesting. Today is day seven of the protest.

A decade or so ago, Erdagon backed by the welfare party won a convincing victory. Turkey’s military had some reservation with the Islamists but they were not able to do much because Erdagon was elected democratically.

Over the years, the Islamist began to show their true color. The views and opinions of the highly secularized Turkish society didn’t seem to matter anymore.

Well, what do you do if your government refuses to listen to you and continuously act against your best interests?

A group of people, mostly the environmentalists, started protesting over the proposed demolition of a park in Istanbul.

The police were called in to suppress the protestors. More people joined in the protest from elsewhere once they saw police brutality.

Turkey’s Islamist Prime Minister made a number of moronic statements that did nothing but fueled public’s anger. The government controlled media insulted the Turks by not even covering the protest. In fact they were broadcasting a series of entertainment programs! But thank god we have Internet.

The protest is still ongoing. It’s hard to see where this is going. Will this grow into a full fledge Turkish Spring?

The government of Turkey branded their own people as extremists/hooligans and vowed to do everything to crush their opponents. Sounds like the Turkish government would fit snugly with their Middle Eastern neighbors’ mini kingdoms and despotic rulers.

I bet the Europeans watching events unfolding in Turkey would now be even more determine to deny Turkey EU membership. How do you deal with the Islamists?


Let’s not kid ourselves. You can’t deal or negotiate with Islamists. For them, it’s either all or nothing.