Why Iran鈥檚 protesters look to Iraq
Even the top Muslim cleric in Iraq tries to avoid politics, a separation of religion and politics that Iranians now see as a way to secure democracy and prevent economic mismanagement.
Supporters of a political coalition in Iraq hold up a photo of revered Shiite Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, in Baghdad in 2022.
AP
When Iranians take to the streets in mass protest, as they have once again since Dec. 28, they often cite the soft role that Islam plays in Iraq, a real democracy right next door. A good example happened in Iraq on Jan. 11, or about the time that soldiers and police in Iran reportedly began shooting thousands of protesters to preserve the Islamic Republic 鈥� and its self-presumed mantle as leader of the Muslim world.
On that day, Iraq鈥檚 top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah聽Ali al-Sistani, gave his response to a request from leading politicians in Baghdad to endorse a particular candidate for prime minister. They looked to this revered figure, who lives quietly in the Shiite holy city of Najaf, to end months of political infighting. In the minority branch of Islam called Shiism, Mr. al-Sistani carries even more religious heft than the top religious authority in Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Both Iran and Iraq are majority Shiite.
Here is Mr. al-Sistani鈥檚 response to the squabbling politicians:
The highest religious authority has already made it clear that it refuses to have the names of candidates for the position of Prime Minister presented to it.
So why try again?!
May God protect you.
Mr. al-Sistani does not see clerical rule as feasible for Iraq, a religiously diverse nation. 鈥淎s long as I am alive, the Iranian experience will not be repeated in Iraq,鈥� Mr. al-Sistani has said. It is the people who must live up to their civic and religious ideals, he indicates, expressed through fair elections under a popular constitution.
For decades, Mr. al-Sistani and Mr. Khamenei have differed on this point 鈥� a contest of ideas over 鈥減olitical Islam鈥� that has played out across the Middle East, often violently. The two men also differ over whether the spiritual capital of Shiite Islam should lie solely in Iraq or Iran.
The latest protests, if they eventually provoke regime change in Tehran, might settle such questions. Particularly notable is that large protests erupted in Qom, Iran鈥檚 seat of Shiite learning, where clerics favor national rule by clerics. The protests there signaled 鈥渁 major symbolic breach in a city long seen as politically untouchable,鈥� stated the Iran International news site. In another holy city, Mashhad, a seminary was set on fire. Such protests have made a clear link between clerical misrule and economic mismanagement.
Polls indicate that most Iranians now support a separation of politics and religion. Meanwhile, in Iraq, the top cleric has now dashed the hopes of political leaders that he would endorse their candidate. As Mr. al-Sistani advised, with perhaps a wink toward spiritual reflection: 鈥淢ay God protect you.鈥�