Ahmadinejad’s Battle with the Clerics
While the Obama administration and Congress are arguing over how to increase pressures on Iran, the factional battles within the ruling conservatives are pushing the country toward a major showdown between the clerics and anti-clerical technocratic forces who are determined to push out the clerics from the operational and institutional apparatus of the Islamic Republic. Unlike previous parliamentary elections, March 2012 parliamentary elections in Iran will have far reaching impact on the operations of the Islamic Republic, as well as its constitutional structures.
Despite the fact that many experts predicted that the victory of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2005 as an important transition that will finally consolidate the “organized chaos” structure of the Islamic Republic’s political system into a more homogenous system controlled by the conservatives, Ahmadinejad has been anything but a “unifier.” His relationship with his once conservative supporters, including the Supreme Leader who steadfastly supported him during the disputed 2009 elections, has deteriorated to such a point that the Supreme Leader is now calling for the abolishing of the institution of the Presidency. But there is more to this conflict than a battle between two determined and ambitious individuals.
The disillusioning experience of clerical despotism since the revolution of 1979, corruption, gross mismanagement of Iran’s faltering economy, harsh suppression of dissent, and an even harsher version of criminal justice codified as Islamic Penal Code have provoked increasing alienation and anticlericalism in Iran. Ahmadinejad and his supporters, such as chief of staff, Esfandiar Rahim Mashai, have recognized this and are trying to capitalize on it by portraying themselves as nationalists, and directly challenging the clerical authorities by claiming to be in direct contact with the 12th Shia Imam, the Mahdi. In response, clerics have called Mashai the leader of a “current of deviancy ” endangering Islam and the people’s faith in their religious leaders.
The socio-political landscape of Iran today favors anti-clerical expressions, and if voters’ preferences are any indication, the number of clerics in the Iranian parliament has dropped from 148 clerics in 1984 to 42 in the current parliament. There is only one cleric in Ahmadinejad’s government today, the Minister of Intelligence Haydar Moslehi who was imposed on him by Khamenei in April 2011.
News of corrupt sons and relatives of prominent clerics of the regime is now covered regularly by Iranian media. A former speaker of parliament’s son-in-law has been implicated in a $2.8 billion bank embezzlement that has shocked the country. Rafsanjani’s family members have enriched themselves with front companies including a major airline. The Larijani brothers in the parliament and the Judiciary have benefitted from lucrative land deals and overseas business operations.
Although Ahmadinjead has not been able to keep corruption out of his administration, his vocal anti-corruption campaign against prominent clerics has gave him the upper hand in the coming parliamentary elections in March 2012. He has bolstered his position by threatening to reveal the corruption files of more than 300 officials.
It is rumored that during his conflict with Khamenei over the firing of the Intelligence minister in April 2011, Ahmadinejad aids took out volumes of files on corruption by various officials. In his speech in the parliament defending his Finance minister, Ahmadinejad threatened to reveal the files of parliamentarians who were pushing for the impeachment. Not surprisingly, the impeachment efforts were dropped !!
As the Economist put it, “while the Arab spring unfolds all round them, the (mostly Persian) citizens of Iran seem condemned to a lonely purgatory. Their 1979 revolution promised refuge from the Shah’s roller-coaster rule, but the Islamic Republic that replaced it is beset by an equally secular malaise. A soaring murder rate (the country’s top weightlifter was a recent victim), family breakdown and chronic levels of personal debt are standard topics of conversation in homes and on buses that ply the capital. The country’s most accomplished film-maker depicts a society that is built on deception and mired in strife. At a middle-class dinner party, a female guest talks casually of driving her car off a cliff.” But this lonely purgatory strengthens the Persian identity in Iran, driving it more towards an anticlerical perspective that is conditioned by decades of clerical mismanagement and corruption of religious identity. Obviously, Ahmadinejad and Mashai are counting on this to help him place their candidates in the next parliament.
Despite the fact that many experts predicted that the victory of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2005 as an important transition that will finally consolidate the “organized chaos” structure of the Islamic Republic’s political system into a more homogenous system controlled by the conservatives, Ahmadinejad has been anything but a “unifier.” His relationship with his once conservative supporters, including the Supreme Leader who steadfastly supported him during the disputed 2009 elections, has deteriorated to such a point that the Supreme Leader is now calling for the abolishing of the institution of the Presidency. But there is more to this conflict than a battle between two determined and ambitious individuals.
The disillusioning experience of clerical despotism since the revolution of 1979, corruption, gross mismanagement of Iran’s faltering economy, harsh suppression of dissent, and an even harsher version of criminal justice codified as Islamic Penal Code have provoked increasing alienation and anticlericalism in Iran. Ahmadinejad and his supporters, such as chief of staff, Esfandiar Rahim Mashai, have recognized this and are trying to capitalize on it by portraying themselves as nationalists, and directly challenging the clerical authorities by claiming to be in direct contact with the 12th Shia Imam, the Mahdi. In response, clerics have called Mashai the leader of a “current of deviancy ” endangering Islam and the people’s faith in their religious leaders.
The socio-political landscape of Iran today favors anti-clerical expressions, and if voters’ preferences are any indication, the number of clerics in the Iranian parliament has dropped from 148 clerics in 1984 to 42 in the current parliament. There is only one cleric in Ahmadinejad’s government today, the Minister of Intelligence Haydar Moslehi who was imposed on him by Khamenei in April 2011.
News of corrupt sons and relatives of prominent clerics of the regime is now covered regularly by Iranian media. A former speaker of parliament’s son-in-law has been implicated in a $2.8 billion bank embezzlement that has shocked the country. Rafsanjani’s family members have enriched themselves with front companies including a major airline. The Larijani brothers in the parliament and the Judiciary have benefitted from lucrative land deals and overseas business operations.
Although Ahmadinjead has not been able to keep corruption out of his administration, his vocal anti-corruption campaign against prominent clerics has gave him the upper hand in the coming parliamentary elections in March 2012. He has bolstered his position by threatening to reveal the corruption files of more than 300 officials.
It is rumored that during his conflict with Khamenei over the firing of the Intelligence minister in April 2011, Ahmadinejad aids took out volumes of files on corruption by various officials. In his speech in the parliament defending his Finance minister, Ahmadinejad threatened to reveal the files of parliamentarians who were pushing for the impeachment. Not surprisingly, the impeachment efforts were dropped !!
As the Economist put it, “while the Arab spring unfolds all round them, the (mostly Persian) citizens of Iran seem condemned to a lonely purgatory. Their 1979 revolution promised refuge from the Shah’s roller-coaster rule, but the Islamic Republic that replaced it is beset by an equally secular malaise. A soaring murder rate (the country’s top weightlifter was a recent victim), family breakdown and chronic levels of personal debt are standard topics of conversation in homes and on buses that ply the capital. The country’s most accomplished film-maker depicts a society that is built on deception and mired in strife. At a middle-class dinner party, a female guest talks casually of driving her car off a cliff.” But this lonely purgatory strengthens the Persian identity in Iran, driving it more towards an anticlerical perspective that is conditioned by decades of clerical mismanagement and corruption of religious identity. Obviously, Ahmadinejad and Mashai are counting on this to help him place their candidates in the next parliament.
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