Writing in Asharq Alawsat, Saudi columnist Hussein Shobokshi looks at the new ‘wars of religion’ cleaving the Middle East. He focuses particularly at the differences between the Iranian interpretation of Shi’a Islam and that of Grand Ayatollah Ali Al Sistani in Iraq. Sistani, successor to Grand Ayatollah Ali Seyyid Abulqasim Musawi Al-Khoei, who led a quietist form of Shi’ism until his death in 1992. He notes that Iran, making use of its new-found oil wealth, is flooding the media with its revolutionary philosophy/theology, something that Najaf-based Iraqi clerics simply cannot match in volume. Definitely worth reading.

As an example of the articles Shobokshi mentions having found in The Economist, there’s this: The new wars of religion. It’s worth your time to go to The Economist website and read the articles on ‘Religion in Public Life’.

War of Religions
Hussein Shobokshi

On its front cover, the established Economist magazine portrayed an image of the world as it prepares for the “war of religions”. It stated clearly that the world is on the verge of the next stage of the clash of civilizations. It seems that the Middle East region is the testing ground for this theory that is beginning to materialize. Perhaps what is happening in Iraq endorses this argument to a large extent. In addition to what is happening on the surface, there is a hidden conflict that is crucial to the role of religious authority within Shia political authority between the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and the famous Shia authority in Iraq, Grand Ayatollah Ali Al Sistani.

Since Khomeini announced the principle of the Walayet al-Faqih [Guardianship of the Jurists] (that was objected to by one of the world’s most important Shia authorities at the time, Al Sayyed al Khoei), the philosophy of governance in Shia doctrine has entered a new and unprecedented stage. While Sistani refrains from declaring his real opinions regarding many political conflicts in countries with Shia academies, other jurist schools adopt explicit methods and clear practices and exercise pressure for this purpose.
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