Islamic Revolution Research
Year:2012 | Volume:1 | Issue:1|Papers Count:10

Charismatic domination means loyalty of the masses to the leader’s person. Charisma disrupts the continuity of political life, legitimate or illegitimate, destroys the institutions censures the current order and normal social pressures and calls to a new understanding of the relations among humans. The main inquiry of this article is as follows: is it possible to understand and analyze Imam Khomeini’s charismatic power by the theory of charismatic authority or not? Imam Khomeini’s personality made him charismatically prominent in the course of Islamic revolution of Iran. In fact, one of the primary factors in the victory of Islamic revolution of Iran has been having Imam Khomeini as its leader. Imam Khomeini applied all his resources and powers to mobilize people putting them vigorously before Shah to disrupt his domination and establish an Islamic government. Imam Khomeini’s personality manifests as a religious, political and revolutionary leader who carries the agony of the oppressed who is in fact the realization of people’s aspirations leading them on a clear and right path. Analyzing the theory of charismatic authority (Weber) this article also analyzes sources and aspects of Imam Khomeini’s charismatic power and studies these two analyses in a comparative format at the end.

Twelve years of history after Reza shah’s collapse (1941-1953) was a field of dispute between political claimants from different classes and strata and quarrel over power sources in a new atmosphere. For the first time in contemporary Iran, middle class activists in the form of 1949-1953 charismatic movement took power in the polity from other claimants mostly from upper classes or noble class and made it exclusively for themselves. Activists of this class had some primary and main sources to exert power which was mobilization of the masses and collective action in cities in the form of strikes, demonstrations and street riots. In July 21st collective action, they could finally drive their rivals in shah’s court and upper classes aside and gain exclusive power of the polity. Victory of July 21stcharismatic movement in an anomic period, was the consequence of a social rift which challenged the definition of claimants’ “social status” while putting the middle class into power. This way elite-oriented game rules in political arena were lost and replaced by “leader’s charisma” and “public will” in the absence of strong civil institutions. In this article, applying the Charles Tilly’s “resource mobilization theory” and “grounded theory” research method social and political roots of July 21st collective action will be studied.

The introduction of Islamic Ruling theory based on welayate faqih [ruling of jurisprudents] indicates Imam Khomeini’s profound understanding of historical lineage of his ideas on one hand and perfect knowledge about circumstances of his time and location on the other. Introduction of welayate faqih in the face of serious challenges first; challenge of welayate faqih with necessities of the modern age which Imam Khomeini designed the Islamic republic and the other one the historical challenge of restricted jurisprudents’ authority for “hasbe” [social and legal affairs] during the twelfth Imam’s (PBUH) occultation as the internal challenge of Islamic ruling which Imam Khomeini makes a fresh start in Islam’s and Shiite’s political thought by presenting the absolute authority for welayate faqih. Transition from reform-oriented political thought in the past to revolutionary thought is among the unique characteristics in Imam Khomeini’s political thought. Another level of novelty in Imam Khomeini’s thought in welayate faqih theory is inclined toward the quality of ijtihad [deduction of Islamic laws from Quran and traditions] and basics of reasoning for the issue of faqih’s welayat during the occultation of infallibles, the method to enter the discussion, the process of how Imam reasons is outstanding and innovative and suitable for contemplation and concentration. It can be surely confessed that in the history of Shiite it is the most native political thought to form a political system which has been presented in the form of an Islamic ruling based on welayate faqih principle.

In Imam Khomeini’s theoretical views and his practical lifestyle, public supervision is completely corresponding with the important faridha [compulsory act by Islamic law] of commanding the good and forbidding the bad. Referring to Islamic sources, he considers public supervision and this faridha as a public responsibility and tremendously emphasizes on it. The reason why Imam Khomeini paid special attention to public supervision can be the complete relation between the supervision and the fundamental faridha of commanding the good and forbidding the bad. Another outstanding reason was the importance he believed for people’s role and participation in all affairs including participation in the administration of the country and the necessity of people’s cooperation in and supervision of these affairs. He did not even exclude himself and the highest ranking person in the Islamic ruling from this supervision. He asked for people’s supervision on him and all the country’s officials. From early days of the victory of the revolution he insisted on the establishment of an independent and supra governmental organization for commanding the good and forbidding the bad all over the country. His overall opinion in this field implies that commanding the good and forbidding the bad and the development of the sense of responsibility and the expansion of public supervision, plays a pivotal role in the implementation of the shari’a (Islamic law), the progress of the Islamic society and the increase of efficiency of religious democracy model. Having in mind the complete relation between public supervision and public responsibility and the faridha of commanding the good and forbidding the bad we can optimize, consolidate and accelerate the process of social and political reforms of the Islamic society and system according to Islamic teachings and Imam Khomeini’s ideas and remove possible barriers and pitfalls presenting a successful and democratic model for social and political system with maximum civil and political participation.

It has been more than a year now that strategic and important region of middle-east and North Africa have undergone a powerful and expanding wave of political and social changes and developments by Muslims’ public uprising and it is going to totally change the political geography and change the balance of power for the benefit of Muslims in the region and defense front in the face of colonization front of western civilization–led by the US with the help and cooperation of powerful European governments under the supervision and control of global freemasons and Zionists. It is obvious that an uprising with this magnitude, depth and expansion duly called and defined as “Islamic awaking” will face many barriers and challenges to change the current state and reach a desired condition. The primary question of this article is what barriers and challenges would the Islamic awakening in Muslim countries in the region face to reach its final goal i.e. the establishment of religious democracies. Our answer is that Muslims in the region face at least four main challenges and barriers: the presence and long term permeation of the west and Zionism in the region, domestic conflict and rift, domination of tribal structure and economic inefficiency.

Purple revolution in Tunisia started at the end of 2010 becoming the origin of profound developments in 2011 and 2012 first result of which was the toppling of dictators in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen. Public protests were still unabated after the collapse of dictators and are continued by putting forth new requests. This article tries to answer this question that what are the common grounds and reasons of the formation of recent public uprisings in the Arab world (2011-2012)? The hypothesis put forth to answer this question is this: protests and current developments in the Arab world depend on common factors such as the closed political atmosphere, despotism of political systems, dependence of these rulers to supra regional powers, economic difficulties and challenges like poverty, unemployment and inflation caused by these inefficient ruling systems, their fight against Islam and their reconciliation process with Zionist regime.

With a redefinition of a set of religious and Islamic values and teachings, Islamic revolution of Iran has created a wave of tendency toward religion and Islam in the region whose spiritual achievements and perceptive transformation can be witnessed with recent uprisings and protests of people in middle-east and North Africa three decades after the revolution. Uprisings that created a new wave of Islamic awakening is emanated from and inspired by Islamic revolution of Iran. Therefore this article studies the impacts of Islamic revolution of Iran on Islamic awakening in Yemen with an emphasis on alhouthi movement as a major anti-government movement. This paper believes that the victory of Islamic revolution of Iran has made Zeidi Shiites in northern Yemen wake up and establish a group called Houthes and rise against domestic and foreign arrogance dominant in the country and finally with the company of all anti-Salih groups displace him from power and pave the way for the implementation of their other legitimate requests primarily the permeation of Quran and Islamic rules in the context of the society, improvement and progress of economy and cutting the hand of western and regional powers from the country’s resources.

This article reviews the impact of Islamic revolution of Iran on Islamic resistance in Lebanon from the perspective of clarifying indexes of religious sense of duty in Islamic revolution. Having studied Islamic revolution leaders’ opinions and Hezbullah of Lebanon’s opinions, this hypothesis is proved that the element of religious sense of duty has exerted serious influence on the formation and continuatoin of Hezbullah Islamic Resistance in Lebanon which indicates this reality that both in the start and victory of Islamic revolution and the emergence of Hezbullah in Lebanon and its victories, the only factor emphasized by leaders of these two movements is to act upon divine assignment. Hezbullah has accepted the principle of welayate faqih [jurisprudent ruler] from Islamic teachings perspective and considers obeying wali faqih, jihad and resistance against Israel and preserving the Islamic republic of Iran as its duty and religious obligatoin on one hand and in the ruling based on welayate faqih in Iran acting upon divine assignments is the basis of the ruling on the other hand. Therefore Iranian leaders consider comprehensive defence of Hezbullah Islamic resistance in Lebanon as their religious duty.

Every great revolution that occurs in a country soon decides to promote its values in other parts of the world. Suitable and appropriate means should be used to make maximum benefits with minimum costs. Therefore Islamic revolution of Iran, considered as a “great revolution”, tries to export its values and aspirations to all parts of the world since its “Islamic universality” is the most powerful and inspiring factor for such a purpose. Obviously it uses tools and means endorsed and emphasized by its leaders as its policies in exportation of the revolution. Supposing that Islamic republic of Iran has used various tools and means with Imam Khomeini’s leadership and guidance to export the Islamic revolution of Iran and has managed to successfully implement these policies, this article tries to answer this question: What means Islamic republic of Iran have used to promote Islamic revolution’s values in the middle-east. Descriptive analysis has been applied for thi purpose and due to the nature of the subject information has been collected using library method.

To clarify the changes occurred in political Islam in Iran this article briefly studies the background of political Islam in Iran while explaining how these changes happened through transition from monarchic system to a democratic system. This transition as thought by the author has paved the way for the establishment of a kind of democratic relations in post-revolutionary Iran. Understanding the experience of Iran following the Islamic revolution and its impact on the nature of political Islam forms the main subject of this article.