Shi'a Tradition and Iran: Contemporary Global Perspectives

This study guides the reader through the fundamental foundations of the synthesis of Shī`a tradition and the living pulse of the contemporary Islāmic Republic of Iran (here after “IRI”). The essay commences by inviting the reader to examine the larger scope of the contemporary global village of the second decade of twenty first century. Dear Reader, shall we reflect? Can one blame the Iranians and other Muslims for seeking salvation in their own Islāmic traditions? Why should young Iranians and other Muslims follow the Eastern or the Western way of life and give up faith regarding their glorious historical heritage of arts, culture, science, technology, and spirituality? Is the West or the East a promised land for the Muslims? What is the result of the Western or Eastern presumption of the new world order in the twentieth as well as the twentieth first century? What is the political or academic standing of the popular theory of the “end of history” or the doctrine of a “clash of civilizations?” Supposing that human beings envision their happiness not purely in material success but in the new ideal in Western social studies a “well being” that includes some sense of moral order such as family values, healthy food for the body and the preservation of the good earth, can we say that the result of what can be called “Eastern and Western disorders” is a global village threatened by ecological and economic disasters, and a “moral foundation” that does not provide its citizens the 100 Shī‘a Tradition and Iran: Contemporary Global Perspectives “well being” sought by humanity? For example, the “clash theory” alienates humanity into different static civilizations, where Western civilization has allegedly higher moral ideals than the Islāmic or Chinese. This simple view shows ignorance of history inasmuch as much of the so-called Western heritage is in fact based on Islāmic and Chinese sources. In contrast to this post-Enlightenment presupposition, Islām does not alienate human beings into “higher” and “lower” static distinct civilizations. The Shī`a Muslim in particular offers a vision of a united humanity, under God, more suitable to the current global village than the misguided “clash theory”. Next, this thesis aims to better clarify and evaluate the Shī`a vision of rules of conduct. A Brief Account of the Global Arena Did you know that in 1999 the population of the world was about 6 billion and in 12 years –became 7 billion in 2011? This is a change of 1 billion persons in a decade. This statistical facts illustrates that although the world has always been changing, the rate of change at the present time has increased many-fold, especially the dynamics of the rapid social change and repositioning of social, educational, and economic establishments. For example, the present higher education student body in Iran is 60 percent women.1 These changes have been accelerating since the last decades of the twentieth century especially after the faltering of the eastern bloc of Marxism. The dissolution of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was formally finalized on 26 December 1991. The West also had its troubles both in terms of the “clash of civilizations” and in its economic system of secular liberal capitalism during the economic crisis of 2009. Here are some examples. In 2008, 8.8 million people lost jobs, and household value lost $19.2 trillion2; during the years 2007 and 2008, over one hundred financial institutions 101 The Shī`a Laws of Conduct – A Response to the Challenge of the Twenty First Century Global World Order declared bankruptcy. Of those, a number of substantial financial institutions, including but not limited to Wachovia, Citigroup, and Merrill Lynch, either were taken over by the government or failed.3 There is also the continuing economic crisis in the European Union, causing migration: “the number of Greeks and Spaniards migrating to other EU countries has doubled since 2007—to 39,000 and 72,000, respectively. Indeed, Germany witnessed a 73 percent surge of Greek immigrants from 2011 to 2012, nearly a 50 percent increase for Spanish and Portuguese and a 35 percent jump for Italians.” (International Business Time, July 6, 2013). In addition to economic troubles there are also moral crises of alienation, racism, hunger and societal decay. On the 14th of September 2010, the French Senate enacted a prohibition against the wearing of face-concealing articles of clothing in public. This legislation drastically affects the estimated 3.5 million Muslims currently living in France. This figure represents approximately 3.7 percent of the French population.4 Another Prima facie problem of different customs concerns the issue of dress code.5, 6, 7 However, the Muslim population asserts that this law violates their right to religious expression, and suppresses their individual freedoms. Whatever the presumed “world order”—be it a “PAX Americana,” or “the Communist World Revolution”—it has been challenged by the revolution in information technology, the internet and its effects on what is called “globalization” in all fields–economics, higher education and transportation. Even theories such as Fukuyama’s ‘end of history’ and Huntington’s ‘clash of the civilizations’ were short lived. Let us reflect on some of the major social changes that came to pass at the end of the twentieth century and the projections promised for the new century. These rapid modifications are present in every facet of life. For example, consider internet technology. Rapid global communication has made 102 Shī‘a Tradition and Iran: Contemporary Global Perspectives new challenges for private companies and governments as they encounter a large globally literate population outside the power of censorship. New realities are gradually developing, partially affected by the revolution in communication, beginning in the second decade of the twenty-first century: the Islāmic awakening in the Middle East, the social movement of Wall Street in America, and the economic crisis of the European community. Noteworthy is the issue of the true sovereignty in technologically developing nations, in light of the economic, political, and military strength of developed nations. The past century was a century of war and destruction: the number of persons killed during the WWI is about 15,000,000 and during the WW II about 65,000,000 persons. But now in the twenty first century we have fewer ideologies: Marxism and communism disappeared at the end of the last century. Liberalism also faces many problems, both internal and external challenges, and some intellectual dead-ends. In response to these dead ends, the Shī`a ideology and the success of its base IRI offers a viable option—an option that integrates human spirituality with material well-being, as the following arguments show.