The Peace on The Horizon - 75 Years after The World War 2 in the Middle East (107)

 

(Japanese Version)

(Arabic Version)

 

(contents)

 

Chapter 4: War and Peace in The Middle East (21)

 

107 Islamic revolution in Iran (2/3)

 Merchants of the bazaar (market) and the Islamic clergy were the victims of the White Revolution. It was worthy to mention that Prophet Muhammad was a merchant as the leader of caravan. Therefore, the relation between merchant and religious people was not bad in Islamic society. And power of merchant could not be underestimated in the Middle East. Merchants and clergies cooperated each other and resisted the Shah regime. Shah was merciless for the resistance movement, and imprisoned them or exiled them abroad. Ayatollah Khomeini, a top religious leader, was expelled abroad. He manipulated the resistance movement in Iran from Paris.

 

In 1978, a slander article against Ayatollah Khomeini triggered a riot in the sacred City Qom. People protested against the government and demonstrators shouted the establishment of Islamic state. The riot spread throughout Iran like the wildfire. In January 1979, Rezah Pahlavi finally retired and exiled abroad. In exchange Ayatollah Khomeini returned home from Paris. In 1979, the Islamic Revolution achieved at last.

 

In April of the same year, referendum approved the establishment of Islamic Republic of Iran. Ayatollah Khomeini declared “velayat-e faqih”. Velayat-e faqih meant Guardianship by Islamic jurist. It formed the basic theory of the national sovereignty. Religious state was established in Islamic modern society for the first time. Velayat-e faqih is the ingenious legal theory of the Twelver Shiism. In Iran the majority of Muslims is Twelver Shiism. It preaches as follows; Imam, religious leader, took over the leadership after Muhammad's death. But the Imam of twelfth successor suddenly hid out (Hidden Imam). Thereafter the Islamic religious leader ruled the world on behalf of Imam until he appears as Mahdi. Their theory justifies the control by religious clerics. Iran became a religious state which was very rare in the modern world.

 

(To be continued ----)

 

 

Areha Kazuya

(From an ordinary citizen in the cloud)