Book: The Iranian Shia and Islamic Unity 1979-1996

The Iranian Shia and Islamic Unity 1979-1996

Hamburg 1997

German Orient Institute

ISBN 3-89173-046-2



Since the Islamic Republic of Iran was founded as a result of the 1979 revolution, Tehran's government has portrayed itself as a national and international champion of anti-Western pan-Islamic unity representing all Muslims of the world. As part of its propaganda strategy, Iran's government still officially presents itself as a state that does not allow any differentiation between the diverging Islamic branches of the Sunnis and Shiites. But what does the reality look like? Can a state whose constitution and institutions give absolute priority to a single branch, namely the Shia, live up to this claim? And what is Iran looking to accomplish with its pan-Islamic policies? These are the questions Wilfried Buchta’s book is getting to the bottom of. It was first published in 1997 as his doctoral thesis, based on a one-year-field study in Iran.




Content


Introduction

  1. Ayatollah Khomeini and Islamic Unity
  2. The Islamic Idea of Unity: Inner-Political Function, Propaganda Content and Distribution Methods
  3. The Islamic Idea of Unity in Conflict Between Modernist and Traditionalist Shia Groups
  4. The Shiite Identity of the Islamic Republic of Iran
  5. The Islamic Republic of Iran and the Iranian Sunnis
  6. Terrestrial and Extraterrestrial Criticism of the Shiite Domination of the Revolution
  7. Teheran's World Society's Approach to the Islamic Schools of Law
  8. The Shiite Counter-Model: The World Society for the Members of the House of Prophets
  9. Reflections by Iranian System Critics on the Islamic Republic's Concept of Unity
  10. Summary: Iran's Failed Islamic Internationalism

Appendix


Some reviews on the book


May 1999, British Journal of Middle East Studies, volume 26, number 1, 

"This book can be read on three levels: first in terms of the relation of ideology to political calculation, examining the way in which Islamic thinking is moulded by practical concerns; secondly, as a study of ideas in Iranian foreign policy since 1979; thirdly, as a case study of the shifts in international perspective of revolutionary movements and states. On all three levels it scores highly. It manages to perform the difficult task of combining detailed study of ideas and texts with a grip on underlining political realities. There has been several books on Iranian foreign policy since 1979, but none which on such a scholarly base combines the study of foreign policy with that of ideas, and which places the Sunni-Shia question so centrally within the overall analysis."

Fred Halliday, London School of Economics.


June 2000, Orientalische Literaturzeitung, Volume 95, No. 2.

"When it comes to depth and diversity, there isn’t currently any international specialist literature on the topic of contemporary Iranian religious policy out there, that can compete with this book. This analysis - though the research for it in Iran probably came with its own stresses and risks - makes an important contribution to the current state of research."

Werner Ende, University of Freiburg


09. 03. 1998, Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ)

"As a successful compendium of the personalities and tendencies that make up the Iranian leadership class as a whole, the book should be hard to top. It therefore deserves to be recommended to all those who want to learn about the enigmas of the spiritual leadership of Iran, which is essential for an objective assessment . "

Arnold Hottinger


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