Word: faqih
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...confront the occupation, and thereby create pressure on Sistani to adopt stronger positions. While he shares the mainstream Shi'ite goal of ensuring that elections go ahead in January - and indications are that his party plans to participate - Moqtada hews more closely to the Khomeini doctrine of velayat-al-faqih (political rule by clerics), and hopes to eclipse more moderate Shi'ite parties at the polls, and in the streets...
...reign, Kadivar enrolled in the Shi'ite seminary in the holy city of Qum after Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini came to power, spending 17 years there as a student and teacher. To the dismay of hard-line clerics, his most important work presents a devastating critique of velayat-e faqih, the Shi'ite Muslim doctrine expounded by Khomeini that effectively grants the power of dictatorship to a top Shi'ite cleric. Kadivar argues that because the concept was conceived by clerics rather than by Allah, it cannot be considered sacred or infallible. And if clerics have no God-given right...
...Iran, has a 'thick wall' between mosque and state." The same officials are quoted as hoping that the Iraqi Shiites based at Najaf become the antidote to the Iranian mullahs. Again, half right: The Najaf leadership headed by Sistani do not maintain the Khomeinist principle of Wilayat al-Faqih (the rule by Islamic jurisprudence). That didn't stop the most influential Shiite leader on the Iraqi Governing Council, Ayatollah Abdul Aziz al-Hakim of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, praising that doctrine of clerical rule just last month while visiting Tehran. But whatever his beliefs about...
...alms and tithes. Two years later, Saddam placed Sistani under house arrest. In response, Sistani established a base in Qum, in western Iran, and forged relationships with the ruling clergy in Tehran. But Sistani, like many other Shi'ite luminaries, disagrees with the Iranian practice of velayat-e faqih, or rule of the clergy. Aides say he has always discouraged clerics from holding political positions...
...nerve Eshkevari touches is velayat-e faqih, Khomeini's concept that gives the Muslim clergy, in particular its most revered scholar, absolute, God-given authority to govern Iran. Considering that legacy, political reformers avoid challenging it directly. But dissident clerics began questioning the dogma after Khomeini's death, an action that put some 500 mullahs in prison or under house arrest, including the most senior critic, Ayatullah Hossein Ali Montazari, once Khomeini's designated successor. Conservatives are worried that democracy will disembowel velayat-e faqih--and the clerical establishment along with it. "If this debate is not resolved," warns Eshkevari...